Update 1-23-20 I wasn't trying to start a battle here by not respecting other drivers. I am 63 and have good eyesight. I don't get a rush or laughs by blinding oncoming traffic. Just thought of getting well aligned head lights with better lighting for country back roads while driving at night. This 2017 F-350 dually truck does have automatic dimmer sense for high beams and works very well and fast, sensing far down the road, for oncoming traffic to low beam. If I wanted to a inconsiderate fool I would put on my truck Air Craft Landing Lights at 1 million candle watt power. I don't plan on using this truck for The Baja One Thousand off road racing at daytime or at night. I have a Ford 2017 350 dually and the headlights and truck at night are not all that great. I am retired 63 and don't do a lot of long night traveling anymore but would like to have better lighting a night. Some of the older LED head light bulbs like "Life Time LED's" cost a lot $150.00 and really do not put out the greatest patter or down the road light. Bought a set of the above brand several years ago and was very disappointed for my 99 dodge 2500. Think of trying those high output replacement bulb Sylvania Silverstar Ultra at the auto parts store for around $50.00.Heard that they are 100 percent brighter but have a much shorter life span. Just maybe they are making newer LED replacement bulbs much better and low cost now days.

I swapped out the bulbs on my truck with Beamtech H13 LED bulbs a year ago and I have had no issues with them. They run $31/pair on eBay and are fairly easy to swap. There's a certain way they are supposed to go in t get the beam pattern distributed correctly and I had to turn my bucket adjusters down to keep from getting flashed all the time. Great lights and I'd do it again.

LED or HID in a housing made for halogen lights are illegal in all states, and enforcement is sporadic. If you want to put these kind of lights on your truck and stay legal then you would need to spend the coin and buy housing made for these types of bulbs(i.e. projectors) that do not scatter the beam.

I’d have thunk that a 2017 Superduty came with LED headlights from the factory. No?:):)

ShinerBock wrote:LED or HID in a housing made for halogen lights are illegal in all states, and enforcement is sporadic. If you want to put these kind of lights on your truck and stay legal then you would need to spend the coin and buy housing made for these types of bulbs(i.e. projectors) that do not scatter the beam.I'd really like to read this law from a legitimate source, not "the internet said". I work for a police department...it's not enforced at all here. I've also traveled at night in Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Arkansas and passed many police vehicles and I've haven't been pulled over.

NRALIFR wrote:I’d have thunk that a 2017 Superduty came with LED headlights from the factory. No?:):)LED lighting is still an option on many vehicles.

How to improve 2017 Ford 350 head light output? See Update.

ShinerBock
Explorer
Mar 09, 2020
drsteve wrote:
ShinerBock wrote:
drsteve wrote:
ShinerBock wrote:
drsteve wrote:
https://www.xenonpro.com/45-watts-led-headlights-kit

That is just an LED kit. Where does it say that it alters the beam pattern of the halogen housing?

I don't think some of here know how a halogen housing works. The reason why it is scattered the way it is in a halogen housing is due to the low light output of a halogen bulb therefore it is able to reflect upward without blinding people. If you put a brighter bulb ,such as an HID or LED bulb, then the reflector in the housing that are pointing upward will cause the light to scatter upward blinding oncoming drivers. It has nothing to do with the beam pattern of the bulb because it is the beam pattern of the reflectors in the halogen housing that cause this issue. Hence the reason why it is illegal to put a brighter bulb such as an HID or LED bulb in a halogen housing.

You asked for a link to a street legal LED kit. This one says it is street legal.

But that is not street legal to be put in a halogen housing. Maybe in a projector housing made for HID/LED bulbs, but not a halogen housing. In fact, the picture of the different colors shows a projector style housing, not a halogen housing.

Send that link to your local state highway department and tell them you are putting it in a halogen housing and see what they say.

They say it is legal in a halogen housing.

Upgrade your halogen headlight and fog light bulbs to the latest-generation, premium LED headlights bulb kits backed by our lifetime warranty.

Increase the brightness of your headlights and improve visibility on the road so you can see farther, see better and drive safer.

Our premium LED headlight bulbs are manufactured with the highest quality standard, made of premium parts, assembled in the U.S. and Canada, and calibrated to your exact vehicle for the ultimate nighttime driving experience.

Extremely simple and quick Plug & Play installation.

Where does it say it is legal? And did you verify it with your state DPS?
drsteve
Explorer
Mar 09, 2020
ShinerBock wrote:
drsteve wrote:
ShinerBock wrote:
drsteve wrote:
https://www.xenonpro.com/45-watts-led-headlights-kit

That is just an LED kit. Where does it say that it alters the beam pattern of the halogen housing?

I don't think some of here know how a halogen housing works. The reason why it is scattered the way it is in a halogen housing is due to the low light output of a halogen bulb therefore it is able to reflect upward without blinding people. If you put a brighter bulb ,such as an HID or LED bulb, then the reflector in the housing that are pointing upward will cause the light to scatter upward blinding oncoming drivers. It has nothing to do with the beam pattern of the bulb because it is the beam pattern of the reflectors in the halogen housing that cause this issue. Hence the reason why it is illegal to put a brighter bulb such as an HID or LED bulb in a halogen housing.

You asked for a link to a street legal LED kit. This one says it is street legal.

But that is not street legal to be put in a halogen housing. Maybe in a projector housing made for HID/LED bulbs, but not a halogen housing. In fact, the picture of the different colors shows a projector style housing, not a halogen housing.

Send that link to your local state highway department and tell them you are putting it in a halogen housing and see what they say.

They say it is legal in a halogen housing.

Upgrade your halogen headlight and fog light bulbs to the latest-generation, premium LED headlights bulb kits backed by our lifetime warranty.

Increase the brightness of your headlights and improve visibility on the road so you can see farther, see better and drive safer.

Our premium LED headlight bulbs are manufactured with the highest quality standard, made of premium parts, assembled in the U.S. and Canada, and calibrated to your exact vehicle for the ultimate nighttime driving experience.

Extremely simple and quick Plug & Play installation.
Scheinweifferma
Explorer
Mar 08, 2020
mich800 wrote:
dodge guy wrote:
The new LED headlights the OEMs are offering are just as bad for blinding people. I’ve seen it myself. So if you don’t like LED headlights, then you may want to speed to the manuf and thy government for allowing brighter lights!

OEM too bright.

Except that recall isn't about the "headlights" being too bright per se. It's the fact that the Daytime Running Lights on the truck can be enabled at night with the regular low beam headlights.

That's not the low beam headlight being "too bright." That's a programming screw up by Ford.

Daytime Running Lights are, as the name implies, for daytime use, and therefore they can be a little too bright for safe nighttime use. Every other car disables use of the DRLs with low beam headlights. Ford didn't.
mich800
Explorer
Mar 07, 2020
dodge guy wrote:
The new LED headlights the OEMs are offering are just as bad for blinding people. I’ve seen it myself. So if you don’t like LED headlights, then you may want to speed to the manuf and thy government for allowing brighter lights!

OEM too bright.
Scheinweifferma
Explorer
Mar 07, 2020
dodge guy wrote:

Like I said. You have to get the proper bulb. I don’t believe there is a proper HID kit for a halogen housing (I should’ve stayed that). But there are proper LED bulbs for halogen and projector housings! The difference is the way the LEDs are positioned on the bulb housing.

There are no legal LED kits for halogen headlights.

aapexshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/NHTSA-Regulations-HID-LED-Kits.pdf

Doesn't matter if the seller claims it's "street legal" or whatever. What are they going to say, that it's illegal? Plus, "street legal" isn't a term found in the federal law books. It's actually just a made up term to make you feel good about your purchase. No different from the guy on the corner selling some pills and telling you it's "DEA legal." The only difference is that the DEA takes its mission seriously, while the NHTSA seems to be a little uninterested, likely due to a lack of funding and the fact that headlight bulbs aren't as sexy of an issue as DRUGS.

ShinerBock wrote:

I don't think some of here know how a halogen housing works. The reason why it is scattered the way it is in a halogen housing is due to the low light output of a halogen bulb therefore it is able to reflect upward without blinding people. If you put a brighter bulb ,such as an HID or LED bulb, then the reflector in the housing that are pointing upward will cause the light to scatter upward blinding oncoming drivers. It has nothing to do with the beam pattern of the bulb because it is the beam pattern of the reflectors in the halogen housing that cause this issue. Hence the reason why it is illegal to put a brighter bulb such as an HID or LED bulb in a halogen housing.

This is completely off-base.

The reflector and light source work together intimately. A 1 millimeter offset in, say, the position of the filament relative to the reflector can result in a headlamp range loss of 100 feet. This same 1 millimeter offset can result in excessive glare.

You don't put HID in a halogen headlamp because a filament looks totally different than a HID arc. For one, headlamp bulb filaments are straight. HID bulbs have arcs. An arc is not a straight line. And this relates to what I said about a mere 1 millimeter difference making a 100 feet difference.

You don't put LED in a halogen headlamp…yet…because the chips on a LED bulb don't match the characteristics of a filament. The issue with LED chips is they don't emit light very well off-axis, and they require a lot of cooling to match a halogen bulb’s output and sustain it. Fortunately, these are all solvable problems, and one day we'll have legal LEDs to put in halogen lamps.
wnjj
Explorer II
Mar 07, 2020
rickeoni wrote:
Actually they are, but it is the NHTSA's fault , not the manufacturers. The old adage applies here in spades, "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"

https://www.autonews.com/article/20181029/OEM03/181029812/nhtsa-s-proposed-rule-change-should-help-tame-headlights

Clicky for mobile users.
rickeoni
Explorer
Mar 06, 2020
Actually they are, but it is the NHTSA's fault , not the manufacturers. The old adage applies here in spades, "just because you can, doesn't mean you should"

https://www.autonews.com/article/20181029/OEM03/181029812/nhtsa-s-proposed-rule-change-should-help-tame-headlights
ShinerBock
Explorer
Mar 06, 2020
dodge guy wrote:
The new LED headlights the OEMs are offering are just as bad for blinding people. I’ve seen it myself. So if you don’t like LED headlights, then you may want to speed to the manuf and thy government for allowing brighter lights!

Actually they are not just as bad because the beam is focused in a way to cut off and dim and you get closer similar to how a projector with LED/HID bulbs do. The only ones that I see that blind people are the people driving trucks that have had their front height angle altered either by lift/leveling the truck or when they are towing. In the cases of the a lift/level, they need to readjust their beam just like I had to do with my HID projector headlights when I leveled my truck. In the case of towing, the manufacturers should offer a button in the cab that allows you to adjust the headlights down when towing like Nissan and Toyota's have.
wnjj
Explorer II
Mar 06, 2020
dodge guy wrote:
The new LED headlights the OEMs are offering are just as bad for blinding people. I’ve seen it myself. So if you don’t like LED headlights, then you may want to speed to the manuf and thy government for allowing brighter lights!

I agree and it's time they update the decades old wattage-based regulations.
ShinerBock
Explorer
Mar 06, 2020
FishOnOne wrote:

Like I said earlier if your LED headlights are installed and adjusted correctly you're not blinding no one.

An LED or HID bulb cannot alter the reflector plate in a halogen housing. It is the higher light output bouncing off the reflective material in a halogen housing that creates the blinding glare, not the bulb itself so the only way to fix it is to change the housing to one that takes out the glare like a projector housing.

Like i said before, I find it very difficult to understand that some one will pay over $50k for a new vehicle, but cheap out on proper headlights. The amount of money to do it right is chump change compared to the cost of the vehicle.