What is the best way for an amateur mechanic to increase my headlight power. I have a 2007 F150 "basic", windup windows, rubber floormats,etc.

 

1) Easiest is to get LED drop in's, 4x4truckleds.com. Nominal increase over stock, but still brighter.


2)Retrofit HID setup into your housings, search for retrofit on here(Night and day difference, greatest output)

 

Well thank you, reaperHWK. I don't know what HID means, but I will find out. "Retrofit" sounds like it might be complicated. I will find out about that too. There is an amazing amount of info on this forum. I am a first time Ford girl. I had an old Chevy first. For me, this F150 is luxury.

 

HID is "high intensity discharge". Many members claim that putting an HID bulb into your stock housing "scatters" the light all over the road and blinds oncoming drivers. I use an LED bulb. It's super bright and is a huge increase over stock. I think I paid $40 for the set. But my bright beams are connected to aftermarket halogen driving lights (Hella FF500's). Works well for me. Lots of guys and gals to chat with about lighting on here. Welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome to the forum! Retrofits really aren't very difficult. The hardest part is resealing them. You can really go mild with just a projector, to wild with projectors, paint, halos, etc. Price is anywhere from $100-$900 depending on options, who does them, etc. I used some projectors from Amazon ($40) on mine, but I also painted and added halos to the ones that were in my '07. There's a large increase in output over just putting HID bulbs in. (I did both)

 

$100 sounds just about "high" enough for me, LOL. Unfortunately I have a pretty basic 2007 2WD. Windup windows, rubber mats, no driving lights in the bumper, etc. None the less, I love it compared to my old Chevy.
LEDs in the stock housing may be the place to start for me. I will get more adventurous as I get to know my Ford better. $900, however, is not my cup of tea, I can tell you that. I can't even pay that much for tires.
Thank you all so much for the kind and helpful replies.

 

I actually did a (what I think) pretty decent write up on my build. Nothing wrong with that at all though! Think of it as a blank canvas. It can be as mild, or as wild as your heart (and your wallet) desires! The F-150 platform is extremely customizable, and pretty straightforward to work with. It does help to have some mechanical aptitude, but at the end of the day everything is (well generally) held together with some bolts. Simply put, you can fix anything you desire as long as you remember how it came apart.

 

If you're interested in light conversions, search on member summers22. He did quite a bit of headlight testing on these 2004 to 2008 models. His threads are a good resource for headlight information.

One other alternative to LED bulbs in your stock, non projector headlight housings would be a brighter bulb. There are some bulbs out there that produce a brighter light than the stock bulb. Price wise they are more expensive than the stock bulb, but could be cheaper than the LED's.

And do yourself and everyone else that shares the road with you a favor; stay away from putting an HID bulb setup in your stock headlight housings. HID's are designed to work in a projector style headlight. Easy to identify a projector housing, as they have that round "center eye" device that looks like a round magnifying glass. This device focuses the HID bulbs beam into a front pattern. Installing an HID bulb setup into your existing stock housing will only splatter a bright light everywhere. It may look cool, but you actually loose light distance with them in your stock housings.

 

Well, Bucko. I like you're advice about arguing with idiots.

I clearly have some more reading to do. That will come later as I have a job to do a few hours away today. Work, work, work. Gotta pay the bills, though.

I am so pleased with the friendly and helpful advice from you all. My first project was to replace my odometer bulb. The local dealer said it would be around a $700 repair. Did he see a girl coming? I followed some advice I found here and spent less than a dollar and less than an hour of work taking the cluster out and replacing the odometer bulb.

Now I have to get the emergency brake indicator light to go out in order to pass inspection. Thanks to you guys I have some ideas to pursue there also.

 

Welcome to the forum. Paging Mr @Summers22 .... He's been busy I think lately but he does have good headlight information.