packrat1969

Okay, I'm NOT looking to spend $1,000 on a set of headlights. Just looking find out who makes the highest-quality incandescent (halogen/xenon) capsule to upgrade from the factory bulb. It has to be something that will fit into the stock headlight assembly and work with the stock reflector. Preferably without melting anything or setting the truck on fire.

packrat

Thomas Z

This was right from Daniel Stern I have asked him for help in the past with lighting inquiries for multiple diff cars and he is a well respected lighting engineer and has never disappointed. His site is here:

https://www.danielsternlighting.com


This is my email to him and his response:


" Just purchased a brand new 2019 Ford F150 XLT w/ Halogen headlamps & halogen fogs both reflector housings. I am looking at upgrading the stock bulbs in the car but with all the LED Upgrade choices, HIDs and quality halogen bulbs on offer today I am at a loss with what to purchase."






"Let me cut through all the noise and make this very easy:
NONE OF THEM.

The "LED bulbs" now flooding the market are not a
legitimate, safe, effective, or legal product. No matterwhose name is on them or what the vendor claims, these are a fraudulent scam. They are not capable of producing even a fraction of the amount of light produced by the filament bulb they supposedly replace, let alone producing it in the
right pattern for the lamp's optics to work.

Same goes for "HID kits" in halogen-bulb headlamps or fog/auxiliary lamps (any kit, any lamp, any vehicle no matter whether it's a car, truck, motorcycle, etc.). They do not work safely or effectively, which is why they are illegal. See:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html
-- the particulars are different for LED vs. HID, but the
principles and problems are the same overall. Again, halogen lamps can only work right if they're equipped with halogen bulbs.

Nutshell version of what you'll find at that link: halogen lamps need to use halogen bulbs or they don't (can't, won't) work effectively, safely, or legally. This is not like trying out different bulbs in the kitchen or living room or garage, where all it has to do is light up in a way you find adequate and pleasing. Headlamps aren't just flood or spot
lights; they are precision optical instruments (yes, even a cheap and minimal headlamp counts as a precision optical instrument) that have a complex, difficult job to do interms of simultaneously putting light where it's needed, keeping it away from where it's harmful, and controlling the amounts of light at numerous locations within the beam to appropriate levels (too much light in certain areas is just
as dangerous as not enough). Headlamps cannot just spray out a random blob of light, and that's what they do with anything other than the correct kind of light source.


> High beam: 9005 65w

To upgrade the high beams get 9011 HIR1 bulbs. They share identical filament geometry
and base architecture as well as the same power consumption as the original 9005 HB3 bulbs.

Here's the comparison:

stock: 9005, 12.8V, 65W, 1700 lumens
new: 9011, 12.8V, 65W, 2530 lumens

The 9011 bulbs have a double-wide top ear on the plastic bulb base, to comply with the law requiring different bulbs to have different bases. The extra-wide plastic top ear is easily trimmed or filed to make the bulb fit your headlamp's bulb receptacle. Once that's done, they go directly into the headlamp, and the existing sockets snap on. Please see
http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/HIRmod.html for details.


> Low beam: H11 55w

The best H11 on the market right now is
.

phillips xtreme vision +100%.

> Fogs: 9140 55w

No legitimate upgrade; leave 'em alone. The fog lamps should be turned off almost 100% of the time. Please see
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...fog_lamps.html
for thorough information about what fog lamps will/won't and can/can't do.

Lamp aim is by far the main thing that determines how well you can (or can't) see at night with any given set of lamps, and even brand-new vehicles often have poorly-aimed lamps, so this is crucial: you will need to see to it that the lamps are aimed carefully and correctly with an optical aiming machine per the "VOR" instructions (fog lamps per
"fog") at:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html . It can be difficult to find a shop that has (and uses) an optical aiming machine; keep calling around until you get the right answer. "We shine them on a wall/on a screen" is the wrong answer. To get an idea of what a proper lamp aim job looks like, see this VW document:
http://www.torque.net/dastern/techdocs/VW_beamset.pdf .

Cheers DS"



Just to add I have done all the mods listed h11 xtreme visions and 9011 hir conversion for high beams and it is a drastic improvement from stock and for the 40-60$ spent on bulbs its a worthy upgrade.

kennyday

Is the light color of the H11 Extreme and 9011 the same?

TellyDSP

I recently installed the GE Megalight 130 and slid my highs down to the fogs. No trimming required. Made a noticeable difference, and didnt cost much.

artsr2002

Look up the Easy headlight mod thread and forget the H11. Get H9 bulbs in your lowbeams ( google H9 / H11 mod)

Put 9011 in your high beams and put your factory 9005 high beam bulbs in your fog lights. Done.

joemomma

This.

Thomas Z

Yes, the light color is the same these are not like the Phillips crystal vision which have the useless blue coating on the outside of the bulbs.

Thomas Z

This is the plan with my 9005s, Have you had any heat issues with your fog housings getting to hot or?

Dutchmanxtr

Good luck finding that thread, but when you do, this mod is simple, cheap, and it works. Did mine 8 months ago and still working fine.
Swap the low beam H11's to H9. Google search helps, and will show you it's a very tiny little snip you make to one of the metal tabs on the bulb.
High beam...…...remove the stock 9005's and replace with 9011
Fogs...…….remove the stock 9140, and install the 9005's you removed from your high beams. No problem with heat.

Besides snipping off part of the tab, it's plug and play. Hardest part is getting access to the back of the headlight area.

Napalm

If I was doing it I would do something like this. Many a year ago when I tried to match up my high beam and fogs on my HID modified car I bought bulbs from HOEN- USA. They are as far as I know still based on Osram quality bulbs but are custom made to better color match a pure white 4300K color spectrum.

Why this matters. One of the biggest advantages the new HID or newer LED lights have over halogens is the higher color spectrum makes everything look brighter - helping your perception. It's one of the reasons why Many requirements for HID and LED call for 4300K or 5000K color for factory installs. as opposed to color matching relative daylight at 3700K.

anyway the higher color or white/blue color helps make road marking and signs brighter and easier to read - it also helps with distance. Even at the same lux output. Also LUX vs Lumen. Lux is Lumen per meter. Or light output across an area. Lux is a better measurement than straight lumens. Most headlights have a hotspot and if you measure that sure it's a dramatic LUMEN reading. Hey 5000 lumen. But it doesn't translate well into clear sight picture. Photographers measure LUX for a reason.

I used to do light integration so some of these things still bother me. Yes there are **** LED retrofit lamps out there. and **** HID retrofits. BUT - if you will pay some money there are some retrofits that are made right. Yes I know you don't have a projector lense or a . . . . . . Doesn't matter HID's work in reflector based housings too. It's a matter of orientation and focal distance. and FYI focal distance applies to mirrors and to lenses. Meanwhile not all LED lamps are in projector lense either. So yes there are LED retrofits that when dones right take into account the right hotspot and area against the reflector housing throw and focal length. In fact some OEM LED implementation are reflector based on purpose. (2016 and up Ford Explorer for example)

So don't discount doing an LED retrofit it could work well provided it's well made and thought out. I haven't done it yet but I plan on it.otherwise I'd have a few recommendations for you. There was a guy on here I think diode dynamics or something. Had some good examples and did a picutre test with a light meter showing the LUX of each install. It was a decent thread on the subject and one of those kits looked like a good option. It was from last year I think