edwards99

listen to you guys, your all arguing over headlamps my god a headlamp is made to do one thing throw light, some better like hd or led or halogen, well to put it in one word its a HEADLIGHT, I prefer the halogen over hid its just light for Christ sake, yea I have upgraded my headlamps but I remain with halogen I bought the anzo u bar headlamp from stage3 and I think it looks good, I do not need hid because I don't drive at night, I work days and truck gets parked overnight and we use the wifes rav4, so again you all by oem headlamps from ford, you all do know that those lamps are manufactured by a aftermarket company like spyder or anzo and how do I know this I work for a ford dealership and our bodyshop, as well as others use them, they are boxed in a ford box to screw the customer on pricing you are paying for the name on the box FORD, remember the ford name is licensed and ford has to pay fee on that also, so most aftermarket headlamps may not have the quality of factory due to the name on the box ,so spyder,anzo, etc, make there lights to there specs for the public and make the factory light to ford,gm,chrysler,honda,etc,to there there specs, so think about it hid, halogen,led there all good to some point, and for the person who said that led lights are illegal in halogen setups NO THEY ARE NOT check your info before posting......................tm

Scarlet

I bought them in about June of '13 from a vendor on Ebay. They were advertised as a complete OEM set, with OEM Bulbs and Ballasts for $950.00. When I got them they were perfect, not a scratch, nick, anything. So I bought an adapter harness and popped them in. About a year later I started having problems with the passenger side high beam not working. Turned out to be the harness. The vendor did a warranty replacement with an updated harness. Have been trouble free since. First pic. is of stock halogens, then with the updated HID headlights.

RES4CUE

Ok, in your ramblings I got that Ford OEM lights are just like spyder, Anzo, etc but marked up at a higher cost?

I will disagree with this as OEM are manufactured to a way higher standard than the Chinese knock offs. I also believe they are manufactured else where also.

Yes, the generic name is a headlight but there are different levels of performance and results. Just like you can say Truck is a generic term but each truck has different performance. A Toyota Tacoma is a truck by definition but does it perform the same as an F150?

There are right and wrong ways to do things when doing lights. Suing drop in led or HIDs in a reflector housing designed for halogen is the wrong way. Will you get light out of it usable to drive down the road? Yes but the light will not be he best and more importantly you will be causing other drivers to receive the crappy glare they throw off.

Projectors are also different, performance from different projectors will yield different results.

Yes, they can be illegal. This is dependent on state you reside in. Technically any modification of OEM lighting systems is illegal. There are also certain parameters that need to be adhered to when replacing in reflector housing as far as watts go. Is this enforced? Not much I assume hence why you see so many crappy headlight jobs out here blinding other drivers and why many here who took time to research and do it right, will remind the offenders by flashing them with our high beams every time we get blinded. And that is us in larger trucks, can you imagine being in a sedan getting hit with crappy lights?

RES4CUE

These are similar to mine except my turn signals are dark tinted. I had someone do a retro on some new FX heads.

zx12-iowa

Makes me happy I bought a truck with the better headlights from the factory. Far better over the halogen I had on my last truck. Now that I have the better headlights, I'd say getting the better lights will make night driving more enjoyable and even safer out in the sticks bc visibility IS that much improved. It really amazed me.

Alex Kenison

funny you should check your facts because having anything other bulb in your headlight be it LED or HID in your H13 housing is illegal. the reflector is specifically designed to how the way a halogen bulb emits light from the filament. LED and HID do not emit light in the same matter. There is a bulb type molded into the clear lens on the light and according to the FHWA and SAE any bulb other than that bulb is deemed not fit for road use, also known as illegal.

RES4CUE

Hmmm is that why the packages for PnP HIDs and LEDs are marked for off-road uses only?

Some just don't get it.

Scarlet

I did my research and listened to what I read. Soooo glad I did. Good info to have guys, thanks. Not everyone gits it......

RES4CUE

Same here, I went down the PnP path briefly but the output was nothing and I wanted so much more!

Glad I dropped the coin for my retro!

Troponin

Never really intended this thread to be an argument over which was better. Was simply posting so that others can see how the OEM compared to the factory. The LED and HID in reflector housings was discussed in my other thread and how I learned the hard way...

https://www.f150forum.com/f38/headli...nfused-324203/

Thats why I decided to stop messing around with cheap or aftermarket alternatives and just go with the OEM HID set up. I see a few that are happy with their retrofits, and that's great too.

That said, one thing I just noticed is that the bulbs I put in are cheap. They are not Osram like I thought they were. I doubled checked my ebay purchase and see now that they were Stark 6000k bulbs. I got them for $40, but when I check reputable brands of that brightness, they are in the $120+ range for EACH BULB. So if my set up isn't performing like you expected, I am going to assume it was because I ended up with a cheap bulb. REgardless, it still performs much better over the OEM halogens. When I need to finally replace my bulbs, I will go back to Osram, sylvania or Philips, the name brands that are reputable. I am willing to bet they will look much better.

Anyway, i am happy with the set up. If you are happy with yours too, that's all that matters.