My newly acquired F-350XL has hold-school sealed beam head lamps. In a word, they suck. I have HID (real HID, not just aftermarket tinted bulbs) on my other vehicles, and am accustomed to good lighting.

It looks like I can upgrade to a Hella H4 setup (halogen) for about $100. Pro Street Lighting offers a kit to upgrae H4 lights to HID's for $279:
http://www.prostreetlighting.com/pro...ion_3000K.html

Has anyone here tried this setup? From reading the description of the Pro Street kit, it sounds like it uses a movable shutter to change from low to high beam. A 2-lamp system is still a compromise. Would I be better off changing to the XLT's "jeweled" lighting system? I could also convert those with a Pro Street kit, as they have conversions for 9006, and many other OEM lighting systems too.

What have you all here done to upgrade your lighting? How does the stock XLT lighting compare to the sealed beams?

Thanks in advanced!
Jay

 

If you really enjoy great lighting as most of us do I'd spend a little more up front and go with the HID upgrade. Even if you switch over to a newer OEM lighting system it will never be the same as your lighting on your other vehicles even if you go with a better bulb combo. Happy hunting.

 

Correction -- I meant "Old School", not "Hold School" -- to bad you can't go back and edit posts.

 

Be VERY careful with aftermarket HID kits!

Those like the link you posted from Pro Street will NOT work with conventional headlight lenses! The light output in HID bulbs is completely different from that of conventional halogen bulbs. Therefore, if you were to install an HID kit in your conventional housing, it would be awful!

I see someone with a kit such as this about once a week. Completely blinding to everyone else, and nearly useless as far as seeing the road in front of them. Conventional lenses can NOT focus HID bulbs, therefore you have light scattering everywhere, instead of focused on the road where it should be.

If you really want HID, I suggest you look at a package that includes the complete headlight assembly, not just the bulbs!

For a cheaper alternative, you could try better sealed beams. I believe Sylvania offers some higher performance bulbs for a reasonable price.

 

I did conversions of two my cars ('94, and '00 BMW 3-series -- no yuppie comments please), I got full OEM assemblies for the '00, so that's all good, and because HID were not available for the '94, I got european-spec (OEM halogen) projector headlight assemblies and put an HID conversion into them, and the results are great, very bright and even illumination with excellent cut off as to not blind oncoming drivers. I'm wondering if I get can same results with Hella H4 assemblies and an HID conversion kit.

At the very least, I'm going to probably start with the Hella H4's and maybe 65W (instead of 55W) bulbs. I've had Hellas H4's in the past (7" round, on a 1974 BMW 2002) and they were a huge improvement over the sealed beams. I have a Hella H4/H1 conversion on my 1967 Firebird as well, and again, huge improvement.

Thanks,
Jay

 

That makes sense. As long as you aren't one of the myriad drivers out there who think it's a simple plug and play installation with their existing headlights.

Let us know how it goes!

 

Of course, the OEM "jewel" lamps aren't the projector type, and neither are the H4's, so the results won't be as good as the projector lamps on my '94 BMW.

Does anyone know of good replacement head assemblies for the '99-'07 Super Duty that are of the projector type?

Were HID's available on '99-07 Super Duties or Excursions?

Thanks,
Jay

 

No F-series I am aware of has had HID as a factory option as of yet.

There are some projector kits out there just check ebay. They will make your truck look ricey though just beware. I had them on my F150. I am sure there is variations amoung the brands but mine totally sucked. And was printed 'no hid' right on them. Maybe with the much brighter HID's they would be alright, IDK, but 75% of my usefull light was because I also put on some fog lights.

I'd bet you would be pretty well off going with the sealed beam conversion and a good set of H4's. I did that swap on my 78 Bronco and the difference was unbelievable. You just wont get the fancy HID look though. The Jewel light upgrade would help too, but between the two I dont really know which is better. I now the jewel lights in the 09 I am very happy with (except my cuttoff is really low - like they aimed it lower for hauling I guess).

 

I think you should read the tech articles here before you make a decision to pursue this further. There are some upgrade halogen options that will suit your needs nicely.

www.danielsternlighting.com

 

On the topic of headlights for the XL. Where can you get the housing and the clear side lenses for them. I ve searched online and can only find the XLT headlight kits. Can someone point me in the right direction.

 

Several places on the web do sell E-code conversion kits for the standard H6054 headlights that the XL-trim uses. Pair them with the appropriate bulb, and you've got a winner.

http://eurolamps.com/eurolamps/sealedbeams.htm

Alternately, you can buy, from both GE and Philips, an "X-tra Vision" headlight that has a substantially better beam pattern than a "standard" headlight.

Philips H6054HV - apparently Philips has quit making these, but you can still find them in some places (bulbs.com has 'em on closeout); apparently they're getting out of the "sealed beam" market completely. They come in a gold and black box.

GE H6054HO - these come in a red box.

After using both (in the 4656 variant), I much prefer the Philips version, but they're all but impossible to find any more on store shelves.

-blaine