Have a question for the guys that have the 2008 Rangers. What headlight bulb works better than the shock bulbs? My truck headlights are terrible. I want to replace the bulbs and try to set the headlights up properly with the correct adjustments.

 

I went with LED for headlights and fogs. Check Flea bay (eBay).

 

Keep one thing in mind: LED replacements are, technically, not street legal. Look at the packages they come in and you'll find the words "For off-road use only". This doesn't mean you're going to get 4 blocks from your house and the local constabulary is going to pull you over and impound your vehicle for illegal light bulbs. But if you do get pulled over for some other traffic infraction and the cop wants to start searching for any minor violation that can be found, this would be one.

There are better halogen options than stock. Sylvania's SilverStar Ultra and SilverStar Gold come to mind.

 

Thanks for the reply’s ….I’ll check out the SilverStar and see what they offer…EDIT: I went to their site and it has so many choices 😁 Is there a certain color that works well? I’m not a big fan of the real blue colors that seem to blind everyone when you meet them…thanks

 

The blue-ish lights you see are usually high color temperature LEDs. IE, 6500K or higher. "Daylight" is considered 5000K. Halogens are usually more yellow.... 2700-3500K. The Sylvanias counter this by putting some blue tint in the glass. This reduces the light output somewhat, but creates a whiter, more natural light.

And the reason you're blinded by those blue LEDs is because they're designed to be cheap to make. Yeah, they can pump out the lumens, but the source of light is not where the reflectors are designed to reflect light from. So the cheap / high-lumen LED just toss all that light all over the road.

Well-designed LEDs come as close as possible to putting the LEDs in the same location as the filaments of a halogen lamp. This makes best use of the reflective surfaces of the headlamp assembly and 'throws' the light in a much more controlled manner. Meaning, down towards the road in more of a spot-light fashion as opposed to a floodlight created by the cheap LEDs.

Cheap LED:




All this design does is plaster high-output LED wherever they will fit. The light is tossed out all nilly-*****. The LEDs at the tip never even reach the refelctor... something the halogen lamps are designed to prevent by putting a silver reflector on the tip of the glass. There will be NO visible 'cut-off' of the light pattern. This is what's blinding you.


Good LED:




Notice how close the location of the LEDs are to the filaments of a halogen? And the LEDs themselves are aimed outward so the reflectors in the headlamp assembly can properly 'aim' it towards where it's intended to go. And the LEDs are designed to send all their output towards those reflectors... not directly down the road.

 

Thanks Ken for your time with the detailed description 👍🏻

 

The good ones is what i have. Work great. As far as the local Law, to be honest, most have no clue whether you have off road lights or stock.

 

I installed the SilverStar Ultras ….guess I’ll find out.