for my '02 Excursion, the OEM or headlights in it when I bought it 2 years ago, had those finely lined flutes that cause a huge amount of Dispersion of the light beam.
Add to that, the UV rays had caused them to be filmed over badly, for me, they were useless beyond about 250 feet.

I replaced them with a clear non-fluted lens and the standard halogen bulb.
that gave me almost a 1/4 mile of useful light to see a stop sign, and about 250 feet to read a street sign.

the Repair Geek just released a very well done video on a bunch of different halogen and LED bulbs to choose from....
I think he did a good job on this topic.

 

Except……. It doesn’t help the oncoming driver who has to try and see with those LED headlights practically blinding them even when on dim. Especially up higher as with trucks and SUV’s

i have cataracts which I will soon have removed. In the meantime I bought these for night driving. And I’ve bought more for my family…..They Work!! While advertised as sunglasses they also are sold as night driving glasses. Not overly attractive😉 but the large frame even fits over the top of my wife’s prescription glasses.

They also tame down the brights of some oncoming slob who thinks he doesn’t have to dim his lights until he’s 100’ away😡

 

I have the Silvania Silver Star bulbs and do great in both my 95 and 00 but have been tempted to install HID's ever since I installed HID's in my son's future 98 Honda civic, those things light up really good ( I still have to aim them right) and even then they light the whole road, not sure how they blind oncoming traffic since they are not aligned right.

These are the ones I've been eyeballing

 

I also have Cataract lens replacements, I was going blind and quit driving, period until they were installed.

I agree that a lot of folks don't consider how much those blue LEDs can blind oncoming drivers... for me, I have to purposely look to the right edge of the road, to avoid their headlights, and hold my left hand up to block the glare.

I don't dare go out into full sunlight, w/o sunglasses.
to do that, create a halo effect and ruins my acuity.

 

The problem with lights that are too bright, with a sharp cut off to avoid blinding other drivers... is the contrast between what is well illuminated, reflecting back brightly, versus what isn't illuminated at all.

More light does not always equate to more visibility.

I would rather have a softer, dimmer, broader, and more gradually diminishing wash of light... so as to be able to better manage the transitional areas along the perimeter of the beam pattern that spills into the road periphery that is not directly lit. That's where the deer are lurking to jay jump across the lane. That's where the disabled dilapidated jalopy with non reflective red tape improvised over broken tail lights is straddled in the darkness.

Super bright lights that turn black asphalt whiter than the cumulous clouds at the base of the Pearly Gates are certainly brighter... but they do not help me actually see the overall threat picture during night time driving.

 

my son installed Projector lights on his 2004 Dodge Cummins....

he thinks they are great, me? I felt like I was driving down a tunnel, totally blind.

could not see the Berm on either side of the road... Scary

 

So I installed the Morimoto Bi-Led 2.0 in some Chinesium 05-07 housings.

They have a great, in fact nearly perfect, cut-off. They are a bright white light, and cast to the sides quite well. But I will agree with Y2K...the road beyond the cut-off is as dark as the backside of the moon.

I guess I could aim them a bit higher, but I did the research as to how they should be aimed, and with the help of a laser level and some math, I have them legal as far as aiming is concerned.

 

I had HIDs with RF chokes to prevent them from messing with the PCM, but changed to LEDs last year. Less power consumption, and better fitment to headlight buckets so aiming was improved. Fanless medium lumen LEDs not the blue ones. IIRC like 6k color since I was planning to install yellow fogs.

 

I originally had HIDs in my Excursion when it was first purchased and while they were bright, they took a few seconds to achieve that full brightness. I was constantly flashed by other drivers and read afterwards that the factory housings are meant to utilize regular bulbs for the light pattern. I think LEDs are great but they do not have much heat output and this can be a potential problem in winter areas.

Rob

 

Mount one of these for full situational awareness.
Da Full Pictcha

@Y2KW57 & @Dan V The driving-down-a-tunnel-of-light effect is particularly noticeable in the desert. Just about every truck where I now live has ditch lights.

 

I've had LED bulbs in both trucks for many years...probably 10-12 years in the Excursion and 8-10 years in the F350...along with some clear lens headlight lenses...03-04 style in the Excursion and 05-07 in the F350. I have not once had anyone flash me their high beams to signal me the head lights are too bright. I think there are several keys that come into play as I did a bit of research on this before making the decision. First the LED bulb has to mimic the halogen bulb relative to the wire that lights up...meaning the LED pods need to be placed in the horizontal position such that they also are clocked in the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock orientation. Second the LED bulb has to mimic the best natural light...not blue or any other color...being 6k white in color.

My wife was getting really frustrated with the poor light output of the Excursion, and when I installed the new lenses and bulbs it made a huge difference. It not only threw clearer brighter light out in front of the truck, but it also threw light adjacent to the road in the median so you could see what's next to your lane. I am still amazed with how much whiter and brighter the light is to this day even when driving next to the newer cars.

My F350 was getting to the point that I could literally turn off the head lights at night and not tell a bit of difference, but I did have the lenses with the black tint which I'm sure didn't help. So wanting to keep the same look I got the 05-07 Harley style head lights with the clear lenses. Wow, this was a game changer too like the Excursion. I also installed the newer side mirrors with the LED working light, so when I'm down in south Texas running down a country road those things light up the world...I basically have 270* vision being front and each side all the way back to the rear tail gate on the truck.

The Excursion always had a wiring issue on the passenger side right as it came out of the head light assemble as is was weak from getting hot...it's a known issue the head light wiring is bare minimum in these trucks. I installed new pigtails and because the LED bulbs use much less power I've not had anymore issues relative to the wiring in that area.

So given the two different head light lens styles in each of our trucks...and the Excursion being 2wd while the F350 is 4wd with the front end picked up a little to help the factory 4" rake...the 6k LED bulbs word great in both trucks. I had to pull the head light buckets all the way down in the F350 to get the right light path, but I still don't get on coming traffic flashing me because they are blinding. I will say that the older style 03-04 style head light bucket assemblies in the Excursion do put out a little more light...hardly noticeable though...as compared to the 05-07 style units, but I believe this is due to the fact they have a larger reflector.

We also recently bought our youngest daughter a 2014 Audi Q5 with the Prestige package...and it's a 3.0L TDI diesel. I love driving this little car...0-60mph in 4.85 seconds via making over 300hp and almost 500lbs. of torque, but still manages 36mpg on road trips. It has active HID head lights which mean the light source actually turns with the steer of the car. Though the light output is okay it still isn't as bright as our trucks. I will be looking into trying to get a brighter whiter light in them before she heads off to college...she's a junior this year...

 

Are hotter headlight bulbs a concern to anyone? I'm asking because someone who saw my truck a while back told me a story I'll summarize as follows:
- He had a similar truck.
- He installed replacement bulbs of some kind (likely halogen since they probably didn't have LEDs or HIDs back then).
- He was off road somewhere, stopped driving, and turned off the truck.
- The plastic headlight cover started melting and something caught fire somehow.
- I cannot remember why but he couldn't put out the fire.
- No more truck.
Sorry, this was a while back and I don't remember lots of details if any were even shared. When I heard the story, I did believe him, though. I planned to NEVER change my light bulbs. But I'm very interested in either HIDs or LEDs. Anyone have any issues with their conversions?

Thank you.

 

Halogens heat up...the crappy wiring makes things worse. LED bulbs don't produce heat and don't use near the energy as halogens...easier on the wiring. LED bulbs are a direct replacement...no conversion needed. If the wiring coming directly out of the plug for the bulb looks bad/burnt then I would install a new pigtail. HID systems are another can of worms I choose to stay away from given LED bulbs are cheap/easy and produce much better light.

 

Yes, makes sense, thank you. I will look into LED replacements.

Appreciate the follow-up.

 

@FordTruckNoob

If I could tax without representing, I'd have Da Full Pictcha on every vehicle.

But those windshield cowl mounted fixtures are more in my price range.

While the smooth reflector texture in those specific ones pictured above appear to suited for spotlights with more forward throw of the light spill from the SMDs, I have used similarly shaped fixtures with fluted reflectors for flood scattering in truck work lamps.

BAF to look directly at, but not quite bright enough to simulate fire truck scene lighting (those fixtures are four figures each), but still bright enough to be blinding when comparing what is in the illumination path, versus what is contrasted in shadow.

So, yes, as you pointed out, ditch lights are needed to illuminate what is in shadow.

I use LED license plate lights. Same SMD, for less than 1/20th of the price, because it doesn't say the word "Ditch" on the packaging.