Halogen projector bulb review

[A_mod_too_far]

I recently purchased a new set of halogen bulbs for my projector headlights because the stock phillips 9012LL seemed dangerously dim. I wasnt ready to pull the trigger on led or hid until doing a little more research. I decided against any sylvannia products after seeing the overwhelming negative reviews. I went with the Phillip's "night guide platinums" which are claimed to be 130% brighter and supposed to be Phillip's strongest halogen option. Uh no, lol they are only slightly brighter. Here's a before and after picture. Disclaimer the pictures make the lights appear brighter than they actually are. Unless you look really hard you cant even tell the difference.

 

[16WhiteQC]

Not bad, but they will burn out faster being 130%.

You have an early year truck making it easy to do HID's.

I promise you if you use a good kit (morimoto has been good to me) you will be very happy with upgrading to HID in the projectors!

 

[corneileous]

I recently purchased a new set of halogen bulbs for my projector headlights because the stock phillips 9012LL seemed dangerously dim. I wasnt ready to pull the trigger on led or hid until doing a little more research. I decided against any sylvannia products after seeing the overwhelming negative reviews. I went with the Phillip's "night guide platinums" which are claimed to be 130% brighter and supposed to be Phillip's strongest halogen option. Uh no, lol they are only slightly brighter. Here's a before and after picture. Disclaimer the pictures make the lights appear brighter than they actually are. Unless you look really hard you cant even tell the difference.
View attachment 508267View attachment 508268

If you want a good halogen bulb, I recommend looking up Daniel Stern lighting.

I’m not sure how a 9012 compares to a 9005 but Mr Stern sold me a set of custom-made HR19011’s which are probably about the brightest halogens you can find. They’re very similar to a 9005 but he has a machine that trims the tabs on the bulb base so they'll fit. I’m not sure what he would have for a 9012 but I’m sure he has something that’ll probably supersede anything from
Phillips, Hella or Sylvania. A 9005 Silverstar Ultra’s only like 1750 lumen and the 9011’s he sold me were 2350 lumen. Plenty bright for my lowbeam projectors. I'd look him up.

 

[corneileous]

You have an early year truck making it easy to do HID's.

What’s different with the early-year trucks?

 

[A_mod_too_far]

Not bad, but they will burn out faster being 130%.

You have an early year truck making it easy to do HID's.

I promise you if you use a good kit (morimoto has been good to me) you will be very happy with upgrading to HID in the projectors!

Ya the morimoto was the ones I was looking at, good to know

 

[buckley888]

Mod- Here's a thread I used to decide on HID. https://www.ramforum.com/threads/2014-hid-lights.181631/

 

[16WhiteQC]

What’s different with the early-year trucks?

Easier to interface with the canbus system

 

[corneileous]

Easier to interface with the canbus system

I guess I just don’t see how it would be considered easier because my 2018 is on its second set of LED high beams and I didn’t have to do anything even when the first time, I had HIDs in my low beams and LED bulbs in my fog lights. I did however have to get a different set of LED bulbs for my license plate illumination because the ones I had prior weren’t canbus-compatible. Even my 2008 ram I had before was just as much of a pain when I upgraded to LED front turn signals and an all-LED third brake light. I had to wire in load resistors just to prevent the hyper flash and had to install a special resistor on my high mount brake light because after shutting the truck off, the LED cargo lights would stay on so, I don’t see how the older trucks would be any easier. It’s all pretty much the same system.