I have a 2011 F-150 platinum. I am looking to upgrade the headlights. I have researched HIDs and LEDs. I have a general understanding of each but still need some guidance. I have looked at aftermarket housings like Recon to get a projector in order for an HID system to work. With that being said I have read that they will melt the housing. So then I looked into LED bulbs. I am not sure how much I will like the LED bulbs in my stock housing as to it will be almost to bright and not as focused. I am wanting the most light output down the road but I would also like to change up the look at the same time. Does anyone have some pics of their build or advice for this? Or does anyone have the Recon projector headlights with ccfl running HID bulbs?

 

If you want distance, retrofit HID. Recon and the other aftermarket lights that use a halogen projector, use a cheap projector that will perform the same as oem halogen, if not marginally worse. If you get Spyder brand lights, theretrofitsource.com does sell a kit to replace the crappy projector with a an hid projector.

 

Spyder’s! They come with pretty crappy halogen bulbs. I just upgraded mine to Sylvania ZXE’s and I’m happy with them. I get a lot of complements on them.

 

I have an '11 Lariat. The factory halogens were OK, but not fantastic. In about Aug '13 I did the factory Ford '13-'14 HID update. I found a complete set of headlights for around $1,050.00 shipped (I think that's about right, been a few years), and the adapter harness for about $125.00. Huge Improvement over the stock Halogen headlights. They have been trouble free. A few pics of how the truck looked before and after the update. And two shots from inside the truck. The first is the Low beams on, then with the High beams on. Oddly enough, I think the Halogen low beams on the old headlights did a better job. That has a lot to do with the cut off thou I think....