I need better headlights....
 

I have stock halogen headlights on my 2012. Traveling back from a football game in the dark really showed me how "bad" my lights are. I kicked on my new 24" led light bar on the long stretches and man the light it produced was amazing. I could see into the barrow ditch along with a decent ways ahead of the truck. It made looking for deer a lot easier.

Is there a headlight bulb that I can install that will help? I know there is a ton of different types of bulbs and light outputs. I really don't want to replace the entire assembly. I would like something that is drop in and easy to install. I don't want to have to splice into anything. Plug and play.

I'm going to try and sift through the other headlight threads but figured I would ask to help speed up the process.

According to my LED light specs its running 6000K~6500K White. That was a nice clear color.

I would suggest getting some OEM HID Headlights. Huge difference! And they look a lot better too. I got lucky and snagged a mint set off Craigslist for 400 bucks. Then you just have to get a 100 dollar adaptor harness. The difference is unbelievable.

OEM HIDs are the best lights for these trucks, really. Love mine, even when dirty, they are brighter than halogens.

But if you don't want to replace everything, you should be able to find 5000k or 6000k halogen H13 bulbs. That whiter light should help a little. I wouldn't go above 6000k, starts really showing blue and road illumination will begin dropping. There are also higher wattage bulbs, but I have no idea if they work well on these trucks. Silverstars seem to get decent reviews, but nothing will seriously increase illumination from the halogen system.

GE Nighthawk Sport bulbs. I swapped to these after reading a bunch of reviews about a month after I bought my truck brand new. The stock lights are total garbage compared to these. Bright white, not blue at all. I highly recommend them. I've got 3 years and counting on mine, drive to work and home in the dark most days and they're still going strong if you're worried about longevity.

Here's the Amazon link to them:

I'm going to echo the sentiment about OEM headlights. They are the highest quality and the easiest setup with the conversion harness sold by The Retrofit Source.

If you want to go a little cheaper, you can always get the Spyder projector OEM style headlights for about $370, and slap very nicer internals into them. If you go this route, I would recommend getting the HID ready version, using quality ballasts and bulbs and the TRS harness to connect them.

I got the halogen model and went with a different HID bulb and ballast kit, but it was slightly more complicated. Great output for around $500 total though.



http://spyderauto.com/product.php?mo...-H7-(Included)

If you want to upgrade your halogen bulbs, take a look thru this link...

https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/for...-halogen-bulbs

Putting in better halogens will help some, but will probably leave you disappointed compared to the LED lightbar you already have. My truck came with the HID’s and they are indeed impressive.

But going the quick and easy route, Silverstars is a bulb that often comes up in these threads. Personally, I’d recommend you avoid them. I’ve put Silverstar and Silverstar Ultra’s in a LOT of trucks and cars over the years, and they are better than stock but really only give you a blueish light that looks brighter, but doesn’t really help you see a whole lot more over the stock bulbs. Plus they burn out quickly, sometimes in less than a year.

Like somebody already posted, go for the GE Nighthawks. They’re cheaper, brighter, and will last longer than Silverstars. I put the Nighthawks in my last truck after getting frustrated paying $40 a set every year for Silverstars. The lights were slightly brighter, and I sold the truck 4 years later with that same set of Nighthawks in them.

Will the projector lights be a "significant" upgrade over stock halogen? Those are in my price range.

To answer the other posts I am looking for OEM HID lights. Nothing local so far.

I see DDM Tuning popping up in a lot of threads. Some good, some bad. I checked out their site and its quite confusing.

Its looking more and more that I am going to have to spend some money and upgrade the entire headlight to HID. I don't want to spend a ton of money on this as I am on a budget.

Got my oem HID's off ebay. back when they 1st came out for $1,300.00. I've seen some with minor damage sell for a lot less, might wanna do a search over there and see what you come up with.
.

I've been looking on ebay. Looking more and more that OEM HID is going to be way out of my price range.

check Craigslist too. I scored my pair for 400

Think about retrofitting your existing lights. Keep an eye out for The Retrofit Source's black friday sale. Last year I got a Mini H1 kit for $215 and did mine and I love them. It took several hours

This is the build I followed to do mine (https://www.f150forum.com/f38/headli...-7-0-a-332210/).

Instead of doing my headlights, I bought another set, retrofitted them and sold mine on craigslist just to get a cleaner lens. It also allowed me to take my time and still drive my truck.

Did you look at what Adam has at 4x4truckleds.com. He has LED setups that are adjustable and work just fine. There are many users with his products, and no issues.

No issues for them. Not so sure about other people on the road.

just aim them up a little, cheap fix

These?
http://www.4x4truckleds.com/crystalu...onversion-kit/

i have this issue myself, want to snag up so oem hids, but way outside my budget. i think i am going to go a different route though. my truck didnt come with fog lights, my last one had them and they make a huge difference. so what i am thinking is adding a light bar, and mounting 2 fogs and 2 driving lights to it. i know it will make a good change. And if that still isnt enough ill just have to get those oem hids.

Leds like these that use a shield on the low beam diodes, have a cutoff and don’t blind other drivers like most of the leds out there.

https://preview.ibb.co/gpt42m/B88_C6...72076_B8_E.jpg

Sure, it’s no HID, but with the cutoff shield, they don’t throw anymore glare than a halogen.

^^^This. Don't buy LED bulbs without the shield. An adjustable base is also required so the LEDs can be positioned correctly in the housing.

What lights are those that you are running in that pic?

Those are H13 XHP from 4x4truckleds in stock reflector headlamps.

DDM is junk. Same league as Opt7.

Okay thanks. How do you like them?

They’re a great alternative. Brighter, don’t blind others, etc. I’ve had them in for almost two years now.

I would like to see those compared to stock halogens. Know of any pictures?

Review I️ did.

https://www.f150forum.com/f83/honest...lights-348000/

I want to order those LEDs but how do I get in contact with that vendor to ask about the forum discount?

Just emailed him. Will let you know ASAP.

You can contact them through their site. 4x4truckleds.com and can use the coupon code F150FORUM

I am about to pull the trigger on those LED lights. Just want to make sure its the right light for me.

I️ can’t say for sure. But I️ can tell you they’re brighter than stock. They’re not going to be as good as the factory HID option, but they will definitely be better than what you have now. You will notice a difference and these are not the common type that blind oncoming traffic.

They have a good deal gonna start for Black Friday on the new LEDs. I love mine.

2008__XL,
Thanks for all the info & review. I've got the eBay projector (Halogen) clones mentioned in another (quite long) thread. Just not happy with their performance although to me they look way better than OEMs. Even with Silverstar Ultra bulbs they are to narrowly focused and although they really reach down the road, they are just not very bright.
These XHPs look worth trying. If there will be a Black Friday special, I'll going to give them a try. I too am one of those who was opposed to LEDs due to on coming glare. Have really gotten spoiled by my 14 Mustang (OEM HID) and wife's new Pilot (OEM LEDs) compared to my 13 F150's OEM Halogens.

If you were willing to open up your housings and do a little work, a set of Morimoto MiniD2S HID projectors are awesome. I had a set of these on my Jeep Liberty with 50W ballasts and they made my OEM F150 HID's looks like children's toys.

The OEM HID's are ok, but they dont hold a candle to the good projectors out there. The beam width and brightness on the Morimotos were much better.

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/pr...C49468%2C47338

I contacted 4x4 LEDS about the lights and aftermarket housings. Guy I talked too wasn't the friendliest guy in the world and came off as pretty arrogant. I asked honest questions and he acted like I was a a retard. He didn't give me a straight answer if I would gain anything from aftermarket projectors along with the LED's. I like the LED light over the halogens but do the projectors make that much more of a difference?

In short, yes projectors will make a huge difference over reflected light.

The longer answer.
You will lose output when light is reflected because it has to travel more distance and is nearly impossible to get it all going back forward or in the dispersion pattern you want. Auto makers have done a good job with this and get minimal scattering with halogen bulbs but still not great as it is a very hard task to get all that light to go where you want it.

The projector light has the ability to just send the light out in a straight line, no mirrors to mess around with and try to angle the light just right. This means that, ideally, 100% of the light is going where you want it to go. You are not losing any of it or very minimal if you are.

If you have ever blinded someone by using your watch glare and the sun, you know how hard it is to get the angle just right for reflected light. Where as if you just use a flashlight it is easy to blind them, and yes I know most flashlights actually use reflected lights too but this works for the comparison.


I actually am confused as to why "american" vehicles are still using non projector style headlights. A lot of "foreign" brands will use projectors even for their halogen lights due to their benefits.

Thanks. That was a what I was looking for.

If I went with a spyder or anzo projector that should work well with those LED lights correct? Just want to make sure I am doing the right thing before dropping 500$.

I bought from them during Black Friday last year and I love my lights. Waaaay beyond better than the stock halogens. You will not be disappointed if you buy the lights. Mine were $105.00 during Black Friday. Mine are amazing.

Thanks

They will work, but the majority of the aftermarket lights use a halogen based projector, meaning its designed for a halogen bulb. So yes, you can use an led bulb or an hid kit, but they wont work optimally since its designed for a halogen bulb. Thats why TRS sells a kit to replace the halogen with hid projectors and is a bolt on kit once you bake open the lights.

I don't want to bake open my headlights. Its not worth my time. Plus I want to smoke them out anyway if I am going to spend the coin.

I’d definitely black them out only by paining any unneeded chrome inside. You want brighter lights, smoking them is only going to make it worse, even if you do get something brighter.

Absolutely leave the lenses clear.

I agree, if your goal is to have better lights then why smoke them out and block some of the light...

Ok fair enough. I should have stated that better. I want to eliminate the chrome.

Let me guess, it was a "night and day" difference?
:rolleyes:

If anyone was planning on the 4x4truckleds lights, I’d wait till Black Friday.

https://preview.ibb.co/cvqmL6/1_FB4_...75_DBA8_B7.jpg

Local guy had anzo projector headlights for a decent price. Should I buy? Only issue I see is I would need different bulbs as the high and low are split.

The projectors with halogen bulbs won't, but if you take a look at one of the several Spyder HID headlight threads we have, for a decent price and a little bit of effort you have a setup that rivals OEM HID headlights.

https://www.f150forum.com/f59/sharp-...-150-a-279231/

OK, so I bit the bullet on the 4x4truckleds.com lights and they are AWESOME. WAY better than any halogen upgrade bulbs I've used before. Money well spent. Thanks for posting about those.

How do the hi-beams look?
I'm still on the fence. As stated earlier, I have the halogen projectors some of us got off eBay. Just not interested in opening them up for a HID projector upgrade. They look great on the truck, but illumination with halogens is poor to me. (tried silverstar ultras, & hi-end GEs). You can see with these, but not as well as I'd like.

I've used Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulbs, and Philips Xtreme Power +80 bulbs in the past and I wasn't blown away. They were a bit of an improvement, but not mind blowing. These on the other hand...wow. Night and day difference, no pun intended.

The low beams fill in an entire swath of light in front of the truck. They're so bright that now it's hard to even tell when the fogs are on. However, they have a sharp cutoff at the top of the beam so that oncoming traffic doesn't get obliterated. They are a bright white light temperature...not blue and not yellow. Pretty much perfect, actually.

The high beams... dear God. They throw light hundreds of yards downstream. :eek:

Installation start to finish was about 9 minutes. I do need to probably double check my aim. Gotta' find a good level parking lot with a flat wall so I can make sure I'm aimed properly. But first impression is that these are a very very nice upgrade for the money.

9 minutes... I was gonna say IMPOSSIBLE then saw you have a 2013 lol... us 2015+ trucks takes a god awful amount of time to swap bulbs

Lol yeah I noticed via YouTube that the 15+ trucks are a PITA.

For those others who have these bulbs...did you have to do any adjustment to the bulb itself as it sits in the housing? Like, adjust the distance that the bulb sits into the reflectors? Or did you just pop 'em in and go?

The better ones have an adjustable collar so that the LEDs can be positioned at the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions with the shield facing up.

Ordered:
(CrystaLux XHP Series LED Headlight Bulbs (H13) for Ford F-150 (2004-2014)
While on holiday sale. Hope they work for me. I know these are supposed to eliminate the oncoming glare/scatter. Hope it's so.
Will advise after install.

Quick clip of me driving last night. I'm really happy with these lights. Just need to get the aiming fine tuned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvG4...ature=youtu.be

Not bad for a combination bulb (high/low, the H13). Not as ideal as separate housings for low/high but pretty good still

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...4/facepalm.jpg

I just installed Putco Silver Lux H13s in my 2011. I have smoked headlights (order snafoo. Anyone want them? LOL) and the light output is way better. I will be adjusting housing and beam pattern on Saturday so I will those up. With 4K lumens from each bulb, I can see a pretty bu difference over the Philips Xtreme Vision these are replacing.

New smoked housings from Spec D
Putco Silver Lux H13

i need to dial it in and clock the bulbs but it gives you an idea

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...e3f8c1c4a.jpegHigh beam
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...6866add53.jpegLow beam.

Best lighting mod I ever did. I just got Evox-R 2.0's projectors and cant wait to see how they do. My phone doesnt take very good pictures at night but it should give you a good idea.

These lights with HID kit. At the time the lights were $215 hid stuff I got for $154 but it was on sale.

HYLUX A2088 HID High Efficiency Xenon Ballast - 35 Watt
Morimoto Single Beam XB HID Bulbs
Color: 5500k
HID Bulb Type: H
Morimoto H13 9008 Hi/Lo Bi-Xenon Wiring Harness
Morimoto Molex 9006 High Beam Pigtail Adapter Male > Female

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Projector-S...!US!-1&vxp=mtr

Attachment 568229

Attachment 568230

Attachment 568231

Attachment 568232

Attachment 568233

Need wall shots... 25' away, flat ground

Nice... I dont care what 4x4led guy says... a proper retrofit outperforms led drop in bulbs.

I never said a proper retrofit was not the best way to do things. On the contrary. If you have the cash, do a proper retrofit with high quality projectors and put in either LED or HID.

HID do throw light a bit further by design. But as you double up the distance you lose a lot of lux. Plus wiring to the battery with a relay and the power on time/life expectansy... all reasons folks decide to go LED.

I personall prefer LED in my own truck over HID, even though HID would give me a bit more light. That instant on/off is just such a nice thing to have. Flashing the high beams and that instant satisfaction and the fact I didn't have to wire (even) more lights to my battery or worry about a relay... it's why a lot of folks like LED.

I find the folks who do projector retrofits tend to go the HID route since they have everything opened up anyway so they are already knee deep in it whereas folks who like LED want something quick and plug and play.

Both are awesome options and if you have the cash to spend, a retrofit is the way to go.

On my list is putting in better projectors in my Anzos.

Ok, so Crysta Lux might sound like a po*n star name, but these lights actually are really great.

However, I have found one thing I don't like about them. In the rain and fog they don't penetrate through to the roadway very well. I'm not sure if that's a characteristic of LED lighting, or if it's because of the color temperature of the lights, or if it's because these things are just so bright. But they are not very good for driving in foul weather. If it's dry outside, I love them. But fog, rain, etc....hmmm.....

Wet roads are a problem even with proper hid's. Problem with LED is they put out so much light right in front of the vehicle, but the distance is not there. It makes it look brighter, which technically it is, but its brighter up close and not farther down the road where you want it.

White light doesn't do well in bad weather. Be it LED/HED/White Halogen bulbs. That's why I have amber lights for crappy weather:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...4307c4c6e5.jpg

Yeah that would explain why stock halogen lights seem to push through the fog and rain better.

I do have LED amber fog lights, but the headlights overpower them. Not a major crisis, just something I noticed. Overall, I still like the LEDs.

Soon as I get a good excuse to buy 'em, I'm picking up a set of CREE LED headlight bulbs for my 2012 XLT. (Amazon ASIN B07218D9NB). They're not the cheapest, but not the most expensive either. But they are much brighter than any Halogen bulb.

Howdy-
I was wondering if someone could tell me what lights I have on my truck (stock F150 Ecoboost King Ranch)? And then what my upgrade options are for under $500? Im just not super happy with the stock light output. I have a mechanic that can probably install them if it is too complicated for me - which it easily could be. Thanks!

There's only two options, so if you aren't happy it's either the halogens or you're crazy to not be happy with the HIDs.

Upgrade your D3S bulbs to CBI's if you want simple. If youre feeling frisky, bake the lights open and replace the projectors with EVOXR's. Direct swap and CBI bulbs.

Thank you. Im sorry but I forgot to add that my truck is a 2013. Does that change your advice? Thanks again.

Heh good luck with those, the details pages are misleading... first they state 100W 10000LM

Then in the photo they write 40W each (40 x 2 = 80)

They wrote 5000 lumen each in the description but the phto says 3921 lumen max each (3921 x 2 = 7,842)

The details page says 3 year warranty, photo says 2 year warranty

They wrote "built in ballast" - LED's don't use a ballast

Nope, we knew that from your sig.

Nope. Saw your truck in your avatar. :thumbsup:

So did you have to adjust them down any?

I ended up dialing them down just a hair, not much. Used a flat wall behind an old grocery store to get them correct. The light output is intense. I drove my MIL's Ford Freestar with halogen lights the other night and I didn't think the headlights were on. Lol. I found myself fumbling around looking for the headlight switch. These LED's will spoil you.

Slight hijack
 

Had a guy in an older f150 pull up behind me on the freeway this weekend, he had swapped out his headlights and fogs with super, super bright white NOT ADJUSTED LED"s.

Please guys, consider the other folks on the road when making this upgrade!

I installed LEDS on my 2011 and despite folks claiming you will blind oncoming drivers, mine do not. I really like the way they illuminate signs and the eyes of Deer. A lot better side of the road coverage too.
I bought mine from F150leds.com. for $200.
One of my favorite upgrades so far with no problems for over two years..

Can't seem to get much out of my high beams. I may need to adjust them down some. My lows are awesome.

I was a big time nay-sayer of LEDs in OEM halogen reflectors. Just took advantage of BF sales & got a set of CrystalLux XHP50s (H13). Changed out Raptor clone halogen projectors. The LEDs totally exceeded my expectations. Used the method in the owners manual to adjust, and did have to bring them down some. Very impressed. Been out in rain two nights in a row. Very good even in the rain (medium - not a downpour). Have not tried in fog yet.
In city and rural traffic on narrow roads with some slight ups/downs no one has flashed me yet. Hi-beams are impressive as well. Signs reflect from quite far.
In looking AT them, there is no more "flare" than my OEM halogens.

Well I finally made it out at night with the truck.

First impressions were the low beams with the fog lights is awesome. Lots of light up front and light off to the side.

I then hit the high beams and I was disappointed. It just didn't seem to throw the light that far. Not sure if my light was getting washed out with houselights or what. I guess I need to get it out on a 100% dark area and check them out there.

I did double check the low/High beams on my garage door and it looks like my DS is a little higher. It also looks like the PS headlight isn't projecting as clean of light as the DS.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...80be35d2c4.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...db8d10cb33.jpg

Yea mine are the same my low is great just can't seem to get much out of the highs. My lows are as bright or brighter than the highs. Gonna try to adjust them down some to see if that will help.

What bulbs are you using?

Welcome to the wonderful world of the dual high/low housing. Light output always sucks in those when you go from low to high. Because it's the same housing you are just changing the bulb brightness or focal pattern. Sucks. I had that problem on my old Nissan Frontier. I upgraded to LED bulbs and they were a big improvement but going from low to high didn't seem to change AS MUCH (i guess you just get used to so much more light on lows you expect double the light on highs but it's not doing that)... was still a huge improvement over stock

Copy. I honestly can use my front light bar for "high beams" when driving. Like you said I was just expecting super bright highs after seeing the lows.

If it makes you feel better the factory HID's are about the same. They don't really shine farther, just a little higher.

This does change though if you are in pitch black forest/woods. Then they really make a difference.

Yeah not much can be done to do that in a high/low style housing like that. Projector retrofits makes a big improvement because it cuts the light output in half for the lows so you REALLY notice it (the shroud moves out of the way) but that comes at an expense...

Interesting.

Any thought as to why there is a difference between the two sides?

Strange, in my 2008, the high beams are definitely noticeable and my low beam pattern is sharp and the same on both sides.

https://preview.ibb.co/ezC8Sw/28_CEA...9_B0_F25_D.jpg
https://preview.ibb.co/nJav7w/F532_D..._FD8819009.jpg

Just out of curiosity are the folks that cant see with factory head lights city folks or old like me? grew up driving 60-70's era cars and trucks and see no need to have aircraft landing lights ,I think the newer are just blinding more folks and when you tail gate your also blinding the 1 in front beats me why we need to make the nite into day :)

Just my 2 cents... I recently bought a used Raptor. The stock halogens were yellow and dim. I had a 1400 mile drive each way, mostly at night, for Thanksgiving. I didn't have the funds for the all out HID conversion so I ordered up a $27 set of Phillips xtreme vision H13 bulbs. I then adjusted the beams up slightly using cut-off points from a couple other vehicles as reference. I am EXTREMELY pleased with the result. The bulbs I removed were Sylvanias high end bulb. I think they were probably just old. I no longer have the desire to drop $400+ for HIDs, I really don't. I came from a Porsche with bixenons that lit the world like day on highbeam. These are not that good, too much scatter but are very good on low and very acceptable on high. Much less incidence of blinding people with incorrect for the housing leds...

After you smack a deer on a dark night and ruin the entire front of your truck, you'll appreciate better lighting. I understand wanting to not blind other drivers, but my main concern is ME and my family. I want to see both sides of the highway in the dark, because it's my wallet that'll be covering deer damage, not the money of other motorists. So there's a fine line to walk there. And the stock lights just don't cut it.

I've used Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulbs and Philips Xtreme Power +80 bulbs, and in my opinion the Silvania was slightly better. Both bulbs are baby food compared to these LEDs, but among the two the Sylvania was slightly better with a better light cutoff.

Are the stock halogen bulbs in the reflector housing H7's or H11's?

This.

The stock Halogens on my Jeep Liberty were horrific so I did a Bi-Xenon retrofit using the Morimoto MiniD2S projectors and some 50 Watt ballasts. I can tell you right now that this setup is awesome, and is a lot better than the OEM HID's that came with my F150. Much more consistent beam pattern and a lot brighter.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...d220f5890a.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...bc9439974b.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...9b8799b759.jpg

I don't want to hit a deer so more light the merrier. Light up the night..