Best affordable way to upgrade lights on a Ram 1500? "Best" halogens any better?

[Frznrth]

Hi
I'm trying to upgrade the low and highbeam headlights on my wife's truck. It has projector type headlights. I hear that HID bulbs for the lows and LED's for the highs are popular but on a 2014 truck they can cause software issues. Updating the software or ways around the problem plus the cost of the bulbs adds up.

I did put some phillips LEDs in the fog lights and use them more as driving lights - big improvement. No software issue - so far.

I was considering just putting in the best I can find halogens in for the lows and highs but am wondering if they get anywhere close to as bright as the HIDs/LED's

The OEM lights are not great. I would want a noticeable difference.

Thanks for the help.

 

[John_Galt]

What bulbs do your low beams, highs and fogs use from the factory (bulb types), and what are your primary concerns for upgrading?

 

[John_Galt]

Right off the bat, I'm going to make a few tired points that no ones likes to hear, but still ring true...

An HID burner is never a good choice to replace a halogen bulb in a lamp made for a halogen bulb.

An LED bulb is *almost never* a good choice to replace a halogen bulb in a halogen lamp.

*almost never: there are a few LED retrofit bulbs that have come close to the performance of a Standard halogen bulb in Some halogen lamps. I have not seen any test that shows that a retrofit LED is capable of performinf Better than a high performance halogen bulb or a suitable higher output halogen bulb in the same lamp.

Your use case of using an LED bulb in what is intended as a fog lamp "more as a driving light" indicates that you are happy with what you believe to be an upgrade in performance, but is actually just some sort of high output bulb that is not producing anywhere near the beam pattern the lamp was originally intended to produce. This is not an upgrade, and neither you, nor anyone around you in traffic, is benefitting from shoehorning a floodlamp into your foglamps. Please remove these and seek a suitable alternative. There are Many available that will perform 1000x better, especially given the combination of real estate and mounting options available on the front of a pickup.

 

[Frznrth]

Factory bulbs are Sylvania brand - I don't know the model.

I'm hoping to be able to see better/further at night. The OEM lights are not very bright.

Interesting that there are no actually studies showing the benefit or lack of for using LED/HIDs in headlights.

All I know is that the LEDs in the fog lights lit up easily twice amount of road than the old OEM's in a nice clear white light. I drove almost 3 hours at night on a busy highway a couple of nights ago. No one had any issue with them.

 

[John_Galt]

Find out the exact type of Halogen bulb each of your lamps uses. Then we can talk turkey.

Yes, installing floodlamps on your car that "lit up easily twice the amount of road than the old oem's" is a problem, even if "no one had any issue with them."

There *are* studies that show the benefit/lack of for using hid/led in halogen lamps. We're not playing this game. I can link you plenty of testing that will show you the issues, explain them clearly, and you won't care.