Originally Posted by DoubleWasp
All I can tell you is that with my Rams and Jeep, I could not see the road at all. Went with upgraded halogens, and I couldn't identify any change at all.
With LED bulbs and projectors, I can see everything. I realize that the labs and such would tell me that I now have "bad" lights, but I can actually see stuff now.
I'm not talking about an "improvement". I'm talking about having to use a flashlight out of my window to see people walking their dogs.
I can now see walkers down an entire block.
I did actually try genuine Phillips bulbs in the projectors before going with LED. They had nothing on the LEDs.
I didn't test them on a garage door. I just picked one spot down the block on trash night and checked to see what I could and could not see. There was no ambiguity. There were cans I simply could not see with the halogens.
Glare? Even easier to test. Left the lights on and drove up the block in my lowest car. I could see my lights were on, but beams touched my eyes.
Lab tests are nice, but the real world shows even better how things work out in the real world.
I've seen this with wranglers and even my own F150 new. In my case, and several wranglers, the oem had the light aimed up and spread out, which left the road dark, and with a loose focus couldn't throw any light over a distance. Wranglers are known for having high aim from the factory also. I lowered the beams - significantly (as they actually pointed up above horizontal) and that at least made the vehicle driveable. The glare would have been above oncoming traffic until they got close then it would have been directly in their faces.
In the F150, unfortunately even with the beam lowered, only one hit the pavement as they both pointed to the right. useful light from the passenger side was on the right side curb and to the right. A bulb swap didn't help. And Ford doesn't offer L-R adjustment. And there was no good way to just shim the whole housing.
I wish I would have known about ditching LL bulbs for standard - would have liked to have tried that as a last-ditch effort. I ended up installing D2S projectors into the housings, a massive chore in that complex assembly, but it was a worthwhile effort.
Long story short- some of the oem lamps are poor to begin with, most of the aftermarket stuff is junk, but aiming can certainly help, but in my case, not quite.
All I can tell you is that with my Rams and Jeep, I could not see the road at all. Went with upgraded halogens, and I couldn't identify any change at all.
With LED bulbs and projectors, I can see everything. I realize that the labs and such would tell me that I now have "bad" lights, but I can actually see stuff now.
I'm not talking about an "improvement". I'm talking about having to use a flashlight out of my window to see people walking their dogs.
I can now see walkers down an entire block.
I did actually try genuine Phillips bulbs in the projectors before going with LED. They had nothing on the LEDs.
I didn't test them on a garage door. I just picked one spot down the block on trash night and checked to see what I could and could not see. There was no ambiguity. There were cans I simply could not see with the halogens.
Glare? Even easier to test. Left the lights on and drove up the block in my lowest car. I could see my lights were on, but beams touched my eyes.
Lab tests are nice, but the real world shows even better how things work out in the real world.
I've seen this with wranglers and even my own F150 new. In my case, and several wranglers, the oem had the light aimed up and spread out, which left the road dark, and with a loose focus couldn't throw any light over a distance. Wranglers are known for having high aim from the factory also. I lowered the beams - significantly (as they actually pointed up above horizontal) and that at least made the vehicle driveable. The glare would have been above oncoming traffic until they got close then it would have been directly in their faces.
In the F150, unfortunately even with the beam lowered, only one hit the pavement as they both pointed to the right. useful light from the passenger side was on the right side curb and to the right. A bulb swap didn't help. And Ford doesn't offer L-R adjustment. And there was no good way to just shim the whole housing.
I wish I would have known about ditching LL bulbs for standard - would have liked to have tried that as a last-ditch effort. I ended up installing D2S projectors into the housings, a massive chore in that complex assembly, but it was a worthwhile effort.
Long story short- some of the oem lamps are poor to begin with, most of the aftermarket stuff is junk, but aiming can certainly help, but in my case, not quite.