Alright, I'm no big expert on headlights but here is my spiel on the matter.

so, about a year ago, my passenger side halogen lamp burnt out (sucks when it burns out while driving at night), but that's besides the point. I went to Pat's Auto the next day to grab some new 6500K halogens, about $100 cad but they look like LED bulbs. as i was looking at the bulbs, one of the salesmen had walked up to me and asked what i was looking for, i had kindly told him that i wanted something bright, something white, and something that lasts long, he directed me to their LED conversion kits. "all you have to do is plug and play, no splicing no nothing" he says, and they were $100 after the 25% off the store discount. so i had gone home, put them in, remembering to put the bulbs in so the diodes are facing vertically. and tried them out, what a bad experience this was and oh how disappointed i was... taking them out and taking them back to the store was the best thing they did, as they sucked at lighting the road ahead, super spotty, yes they were super bright, but the low beam was better than the high beam for Christ sake. the same salesman tells me to turn the bulb 180°. tried that, and made them worse. i now have $100 worth of garbage for lights in my truck, and not a clue as to what to do. so i start researching, and found out that all LED lights are not created equal. turns out, different diodes, different positions, all make the difference as to weather or not your lights suck a**. for those of you about to buy LED lights, i suggest you look at your halogens bulb, and the diodes on your led lights before purchasing, THEY HAVE TO BE IDENTICAL IN TERMS OF LOCATION! measure from the O-ring to the diodes on both the halogen and the LED, if they are not exact, they are not going to look great on the road, unless you have a projector retrofit, but they should have come with HID bulbs (gotta love morimoto kits). anyways, ill leave pictures of what you should buy if your going with LED bulbs, especially for 9007 (hb5) bulbs.

original 9007 (hb5) bulb

this is an h15, they have a different connection, but their beam pattern is best even in a 9007 LED. notice the dome on the low beam, thats the cutoff bowl.

YES! these are winners!

these are the best to buy, PIAA LEDs

these are close, but not quite.

idk wtf this is, but no, unless your putting them in projector housings, but still no.

these are better, but there is no cut-off shield

these look like the PIAA ones, so yes these too

very much identical to the original halogen bulbs, test them if you want but im not so sure

 

LED's cannot produce the proper light pattern in a halogen housing... period.

You will have hot spots, dead spots, flooded foreground (makes your pupils constrict killing your distance vision), and create excessive glare for other motorists, especially in the shallow bowl reflectors used in Rangers.

 

true, i have seen this and agree with your statement, but all LED's are not created equal. some are meant for shallow bowl housings and some arent.

 

do you happen to know a good hid conversion kit for my truck? 04 ford ranger?

 

Nope. I'm new to Rangers other than having driven them as work trucks.

LED headlights have been a topic on car forums for about 15 years rarely does someone find one that works... experimentation and DOT certification for plug-in kits (both by companies and users) is too time consuming and expensive.

 

If you want to upgrade, look into high wattage 9007's or something like an in-stock-housing HID projector retrofit kit from a reputable company like MoriMoto

Do not waste time on the unbranded ebay housings.

 

retrofit housings are very expensive in canada, being at least $450 dollars after taxes with the shipping, but excluding duties. hence why i am trying to look for a cost effective option.

 

That's a very good heads-up. Thank you. I saw a video on YouTube discussing this very thing.

Another heads-up is taillights or and signal lights.

You may have to add a resistor to keep it from flashing a mile-a-minute. They sell harnesses that have this resistor, but it looks like (for me, anyway) too much trouble for a cool-looking add-on where just replacing the incandescent or halogen lights feels the better choice.

The complete LED taillight assemblies should have this resistor installed, but it isn't for me. Saves me 100-300 bux.

Maybe a Christmas in the future

 

LED Headlights have not come up to a good set of HID Projector, even though all the shop are saying they are there... Miromoto has some and they are being touted as the End-All of LEDs but I am not ready for them.

I purchased all the pieces for an HID Projector Conversion, bought a Jig to help, BUT haven't got there yet; maybe in a month or two !

The Ranger housings are shallow and require a bulb designed for that housing, is there an LED that will work, maybe but not for me.
There are LED Projectors out there too BUT are they up to the HID setup, I am really not the one to say but I don't think they are, but the good thing about LED Projectors is the Projector is designed for the LED so that might help... IF you are set on LEDs they might work.

If you want inexpensive, you would be better off buying 100 watt High Beam/65 Watt Low Beam - Halogen Headlight Bulbs, add a High Power Harness that will make sure the Bulbs get all the Current they need to burn long and bright and adjust your lights housings to fit your driving. The Harness will connect a main fused power wire from the battery to the headlights via a relay and you get brighter light lights.
The 100 w bulbs and harness are less expensive and less work than Projectors and you know the output of your headlights, add to that and you have the high powered Halogens.
You will probably need to look in aftermarket store for them because they may be illegal for your area but they do put out a lot of light; some come with 100w H / 55 watt Low Beams, you will need to know what you want.

I tried the 100w bulbs yeas back, I didn't know anything about Projectors so they were the logical route for me, they were bright on highs and the lows were a little brighter, the big thing is they worked in the OEM Housings.

Your call, your ride !

Ltr

 

i found out that you only need to replace the flasher to allow them to run properly. it simply plugs into the original flasher housing (usually underneath the driver side part of the dash). worked for me, about $10 bucks at local auto store.





EP-27 Flasher

 

i found out that you only need to replace the flasher to allow them to run properly. it simply plugs into the original flasher housing (usually underneath the driver side part of the dash). worked for me, about $10 bucks at local auto store.





EP-27 Flasher

 

Very cool.

The resistors cost about 59 cents US each, but you'd have to solder them into the wiring x 4.

This special LED flasher cuts through that BS and you simply plug it in. Worth it!

Any new info is great