There are a lot of posts relating to people wanting the LED headlights of the F-150. While I understand that LEDs are currently the most efficient producer of light as they output very little heat, compared to an equivalently bright halogen. In scuba I prefer LED, due to the size of battery required. As Trucks use alternators to keep the battery charged, are LEDs purely aesthetics for the F-150?

 

LEDs are used for people who don't want to do HID retrofits. HIDs require more work than LEDs from what I have seen. I don't think HIDs are plug and play since I see people running cables etc.

I have bought the Anzo projectors and am going the LED route. I am starting to have doubts about how well they will actually perform and if I should have just stuck with halogens.

 

Love my factory LED's. Best headlights I've ever had.

 

This all depends on if you're talking bulbs or OEM LED's.


I thought about going the OEM LED route until I saw them next to my halogens. The light is bright and spreads well, but the light distance is nothing to write home about. The only other big difference is the color, which for some is an aesthetic preference. Some prefer the blue-er color, but this doesn't always work as well in bad weather, or on dark wet roads. A warmer light is best of this. Remember when fog lights used to be yellow?


For LED bulbs, as well as HID, it's a mix of aesthetics and performance. Although LED and HID scatter like crazy in halogen reflectors. I'm actually in the midst of testing out several LED bulb products. There is a new LED chip design called Z-ES which are tiny chips the same width as halogen filaments, which SHOULD keep the reflector focus the same, and minimize scattering. I'm hoping to see all results before the end of the year.

 

I see how people are willing to pay thousands to get the 502a+ LED headlight housing or how many wish it was an option for their XLT, etc. I was wondering the advantages, if any.

I do see people swapping bulbs, though people have always done that, with sometimes annoying results.

 

If you want a reasonably priced retrofit, pick up a pair of the Anzo projector headlights. I upgraded from the stock halogen housings and never looked back.

 

Having halogen and then upgrading led bulbs(2stroke led from TRS) and then to OEM LEDs headlights is night and day. The stock halogens are terrible. Led bulbs in housing is great but scatters light output. Ive had the led headlights over a month now. Seeing them side to side you can't compare them that way. And OEM leds are aesthetically sexy as hell. From 40 ft away it intrigues cause no other truck has that look. And to match it with the OEM tails is just icing on the cake. So the hype is there. It's just an expensive upgrade though. So people go with the anzo route.

 

Yeah, the problem with the bulbs swaps to HID or LED is that (many) people don't care if they're blinding other drivers, as long as they think they can see better and it "looks cool". I can always tell when a driver that did an HID/LED swap is driving in my neighborhood streets because you can see the 2 story homes being lit up as they drive down the road like as if they have their highbeams on.


I've also passed these cars and trucks (with blue lights) on the highway in dark rainy weather, and I can hardly see any of their light shining onto the road. Meanwhile, my halogens are flooding the area. After passing I notice how their bright blue lights are shining everywhere and would be blinding me if not for the auto-dimming mirrors. Waste of money, and not safe.


This is something I'm on the hunt for; a good LED replacement that shines more light without scattering. It's in the works, and I'll be posting reviews on the good ones. As someone who cares about not blinding others, I want to post an honest review. There are tons of bulbs out there that have good reviews, but none go into details about scattering, because they likely don't care.

 

I dont mind the halogen output but the pukey yellow color just offputting to me. Makes the truck seem old IMO. for more light I usually run the fogs most the time if its a dark area. The one thing ive noticed about the halogens compared to my wifes high end BMW headlights is they throw farther. I can see signs way far out which may mean I have them adjusted too high...

 

Human eyes are least sensitive in the red end of the spectrum, incandescent bulbs, halogens etc... are very red-shifted and that is why they appear to be so dim to us... especially when driving under fluorescent or LED street lighting. Our eyes are far more sensitive in the blue/green end of the spectrum, so we can see better under those conditions.

So even if LEDs are not brighter, just due to the full spectrum light of LEDs which provide more illumination in the blue/green end of the spectrum, we can actually see more with the same illumination level.