Probably junkyard/parts recycling place would be the ticket for this.

 

I like it a lot but I hardly ever use the lightbar now that I have the sealed beam LEDs in aero housings.

 

I had the same issue which is why I resorted to cutting up the aero housings to install sealed beam units instead.

 

The stock wiring is tiny and travels miles from the batteries to the dash and back out to the bulbs. People have measured up to a 2v drop at the bulbs. Just adding a relay harness will make the bulbs you have now brighter - but the larger wiring and improved (ceramic) pigtails allow you to run the higher wattage bulbs I recommend.

You WILL see a difference with my recipe and likely won’t ‘need’ additional light.

For the most part, LED ‘bars’ don’t put light further down the road. They are bright AF, but not for very far. The junk you typically see on trucks will likely disappoint you - but there are good LED driving light options available.

I used to run aircraft landing lights on my truck. These 100watt sealed beam halogen bulbs (PAR 34?) would put light MILES down the road and literally left me wanting nothing more. The problem was they were so f’ing bright they caused the reflection from street signs to be uncomfortable....

On the topic of fog/driving lights, I like to put these on a 3-pos switch (ON-OFF-ON). This allows me to turn them on/off or on with high/low beams - so driving lights come on and turn off with high beams and fog lights with low beams.

This is the harness I recommend.

https://www.rallylights.com/hl282-sm...d-systems.html

Select: HL28277 - Two 9007 Lamps

If you’re electrically inclined, you can build these yourself - but you won’t find higher quality components than this and these are assembled in USA by a great company to do business with.

on edit: I buy labeled Carling switches and switch holders from www.otrattw.com (another great place to do business with)

 

As much as i would love to upgrade/replace my Lights i have bigger fish to fry atm.
going to pick up a core transmission and transfer case to have rebuilt, and injectors real soon

 

I have no picture from the front at any appreciable distance. I can tell you though.....you can see a LONG way down a dark road with them. Very happy with the product and the time to install them.

Yes, that is how it works...giving the bulb full system voltage rather than a diminished voltage due to undersized wire the OEM uses.

 

Good info, thanks!

 

FIFY

The relay harness allows more amperage to the bulbs by reducing resistance between the power source (battery) and headlight.


I do like the look of that style housing @Dan V. I'm not asking or suggesting that anyone do this, but I would like to see a side by side comparison between those and the previous style with both using good new housings, the "same" bulbs, and headlight harnesses.

IIRC, @SkySkiJason commented on the short comings of that newer style housing in a previous thread I commented on. I'm not going to try to repeat what he said, but the point was that the earlier housings were better for down road lighting and I recall the reasons made good sense at the time. Even so I can't imagine Ford redesigning a critical safety item like headlights and making them worse.

 

Thanks, I was just using a term that I had heard, voltage drop, say if a person ran some 14 gauge (120v) wire like 200 feet.


Apples to apples? Well, here's what I can tell you. I had not planned on the LED retrofit, but the cheap China housing had such a poor beam pattern that I had to do something. No harness and Hella bulbs were going to fix it and I wasn't going to lay out the coin for OEM 05-07 housings. I previously had the harness and after market 04 clear housings, that was nice.

 

Dammit Josh! He's a machinist, not an electrician.

 

The shortcoming of the ‘05-07 lenses is specifically the 9008/H13 bulbs they chose to use in them. These bulbs use TINY pins to transfer the power from the wiring to the bulb.

All things being equal, with a set of $65 ‘silverstar ultra premium supergood’ halogen bulbs in both the ‘02-04 and ‘05-07 housings - the newer OEM lenses are probably ‘better’. But, choosing expensive bulbs is as far as you can go with the newer stuff. The relay harness and higher wattage bulbs in ‘02-04 clear lenses puts out more light. (And the bulbs I use are $3.64 each)

 

So I think I'm going to heed everyone's advice and go with the 02-04 w relay upgrade. If that isn't enough then I'll swap the oem for lights for spot pod lights.

 

It's all good, I just wanted to clarify for future readers. Voltage drop does occur, but voltage drop in the stock circuit should be negligible. I can't recall all the details behind voltage drop, I'm not an electrician either. The headlight harness is for reducing resistance which impedes current flow, or amperage.


Yes, apples to apples. That's why I said good housings, go with the cheap replacements it's anybody's guess on the quality of what you receive. If you already have a harness and want the 05-07 style lights, couldn't you just swap out the socket on the harness?

 

If the beam pattern is crap without the harness, with the harness it will just be a crap pattern that is brighter. Morimoto solved everything...for $400.

 

I get that. If you had good housings, it would be a simple matter of changing out the plugs on the harness and it would work with the later housings. Actually you're going to need adapters anyway if you are swapping in the later style housing, just plug them into the add-on harness rather than the stock harness. Just saying that if you want 05-07 light, having the harness for earlier lights isn't a reason to not do it.