Has anyone tried running led 9007 (like something that auxbeam sells) in our trucks? If so, what were the results? Do they cause other drivers to flash their lights thinking your running on your hi-beams? I like the idea of enhanced visibility, but I also prefer the factory look.

 

They don't work. The stock headlight housings are not ever going to give you satisfactory results with an LED bulb from anybody, and most likely are just going to **** other drivers off. Do the headlight relay setup and get a good set of halogens, or buy proper LED housings.

 

The best headlight option for both looks and functionality is to retrofit projector hids or leds into the factory housing. Not a simple project but not too bad

 

LED bulbs will not work as far as proper light dispersion goes. The position of the actual LED elements in the LED units are off enough to scatter the light just about everywhere but where you need it. It's not worth the effort and the end results. YOu also may not like people flashing you at night because your LED lights are blinding them on low beam.

Get a headlight relay kit and a set of Philips XtremeVision or Vosla +100 or +120 bulbs and enjoy proper, legal lighting. Whatever you do, do not buy Sylvania bulbs- they are junk, all variants. The relay first kit I used came from Bronco Graveyard but it was an older version. When the high beam relay quit and I couldn't find a replacement, I put in a kit from CE Auto Electric Supply. That one uses common Bosch relays and it's built like a tank. The kit comes with everything you need, no trip to the auto parts store needed. If you need new housings, buy them from Ford (OEM) or get the TYC CAPA-certified housings. People will complain the left cutoff on these housings are pretty extreme but the rules governing lighting require this to keep from blinding oncoming drivers.

 

The info I am seeing does not agree with the above statements that LEDs do not work in reflector housings. It seems most people just swap the bulbs and don't bother to check alignment of the diode blade which has to be orientated vertically to work correctly. The videos I'm seeing online show LED light patterns that are exactly the same as the halogen bulbs so it seems it is possible, but some LED bulbs work much better than others in this regard so some research is necessary. I'm about to pull the trigger on some LED headlight bulbs for my 11 E250 so I guess we will see how that works out.

 

I've got some high end Sylvania 9007's in there right now and they don't seem as great as they used to be, so I'm just thinking about where to go next. I have moved to mostly LED lights on the truck with the exceptions of the headlight assembly and the map lights. I have tried to install LED's in the front turn signals and for some reason they blink slow even with LED's on the flatbed and an incandescent relay. My headlight relay works flawlessly though even though that was mentioned above.

 

The headlight relay referenced above is a seperate harness that provides full battery voltage to the bulbs. The stock setup routes through the headlight switch to the bulbs relating in only 9-10 volts getting to the bulbs.

 

Could you let us know what you find with using the LEDs? I'm interested

 

Yes for sure, some of the bulbs arrived today but I'm not going to dig into the swap until everything arrives.

 

Well, I see your problem right there; Sylvania bulbs. Philips XtremeVision, Vosla+100 or Vosla+120 are really the bulbs to use in a Gen 9 ford F series. I have tried all of the Sylvania bulbs and none of them perform well enough for my stamp of approval. the GE Nighthawk was a pretty good contender but the Vosla bulbs are far brighter.

 

I do like lighting upgrades and do feel that the stock headlights on our trucks are a bit lacking especially when they have dim long life halogen bulbs running through small wiring and the headlight switch which reduces voltage to the lights.

The best thing I did besides headlight relays was a pair of Hella fog lights in the bumper.

The best headlights are going to be a nice pair of OEM Ford or TYC replacements with quality clear non blue tinted hyper white gimmick junk and a relay setup. The Sylvania Silverstar is not a high end bulb just an overpriced gimmick. The best bulbs for a 9007 HB5 are either Philips Xtreme Vision or the Vosla bulbs. The GE Nighthawk is also alright. The Sylvania Xtravision in the purple package is acceptable. Make sure they are clear glass and not tinted in some way or only at the very tip. They are some models like GE Nighthawk Sport that are also junk.

Out of curiosity I did try experimenting with a few different LED replacement bulbs of different styles and none work correctly and just do not recreate an appropriate beam pattern. Some provide a bunch of foreground illumination only near the truck and some just scatter light. Regardless of what it may say on the packaging there are not any that are currently DOT approved or legal for road use, because they just do not work correctly. Most of It is all just trendy garbage. There may be something that comes close.

Some LEDs come close to mimicking the light source of a halogen bulb. That area of the filament that is illuminated is very small. The LEDs currently on the market just can not reproduce the same pattern.

Something else to consider is that the warm color of a halogen bulb or the natural color of a factory HID bulb work well in rain, fog, snow, dust etc. The overly cold color of the LED bulbs just scatters and is absorbed by wet roads and sucks for visibility.

The LED headlights including many if not all factory ones just create more than reasonable excessive glare to oncoming traffic. I can't imagine how hard if would be to drive at night if every vehicle had this stuff.

If they every do come up with an LED headlight bulb that is a natural white that actually works correctly, I might change my opinion.

The only other relatively acceptable option for a real headlight upgrade is something like the Tony Rojo projector retrofit with HID bulbs, but those are costly, ugly, and their legality is questionable. They do at least function almost the same as most OEM HID setups.

There is good information here. https://www.danielsternlighting.com/