Headlight upgrade questions

[Srt-cummins]

So, I have been looking at upgrading my headlights and have a few questions I can’t find answers to. I have a 2015 with the factory projectors so all questions will apply to this...

1. I’m looking at TRS website and they show a “retro-quick” projector upgrade. Is this necessary or if I just put a good HID in my factory projector will it still work and be and upgrade?

2. If I go with the retrofit projector will I still be able to adjust the headlights while on the truck through the factory locations or will the adjustments need to be made before sealing the lights back up?

3. What are my options for high beam upgrades? From what I’ve read it’s best to use HID in low beam and the. LED in highs? If this is correct should I just run LED bulbs or is there a retrofit that would work better?

What do y’all think would be the best reasonable upgrades here? I’m not looking to have the brightest lights on the road just something better than current. My wife’s charger with factory HIDs has WAY better headlights than my truck and it annoys me when I drive her car and get back in my truck so I’m looking for something similar. I’m also not afraid of opening the headlights and doing the work my self. Just want a good game plan before I start ordering parts.

 

[OC455]

1. I’m looking at TRS website and they show a “retro-quick” projector upgrade. Is this necessary or if I just put a good HID in my factory projector will it still work and be and upgrade?

From what I understand, the projectors you have are not optimized for the HID. Will an HID work in them, yes, but not perfect.

2. If I go with the retrofit projector will I still be able to adjust the headlights while on the truck through the factory locations or will the adjustments need to be made before sealing the lights back up?

You would have to install them and then make sure when they are set, the rotational alignment is done (before you seal them backup/making sure the cut off is level each side), and they are straight. After that you would seal the headlight back up and still have the ability to adjust them with the OEM adjustments through the fender.

3. What are my options for high beam upgrades? From what I’ve read it’s best to use HID in low beam and the. LED in highs? If this is correct should I just run LED bulbs or is there a retrofit that would work better?

LED bulb in the highs would work good because the highs are instant on where the HIDs would have to warm up, and cycling HIDs like that would burn out the bulbs and ruin the ballasts. The low beam you could utilize the cut off shield of the projector (bi-xenon) to operate them as a high beam too (dual high beams). I did that with my quad/retrofit headlight build.

 

[OC455]

I would try a HID kit without the projector retrofit first and see how you like it, before attempting to open up your headlights.

Find a good quality LED high beam bulb and try it out. Might be just what you need.

 

[Srt-cummins]

Opening the headlights isn’t an issue as I plan on adding angel eyes when I do this. I’ve put angel eyes in other headlights so those I understand, just never done any retrofits. My experience with HIDs has not been well but I am willing to try them again as I haven’t messed with them in over 5 yrs. I’m just looking for the best bang for my buck with no regrets. But thanks for the reply.

 

[JoshR104]

So, I have been looking at upgrading my headlights and have a few questions I can’t find answers to. I have a 2015 with the factory projectors so all questions will apply to this...

1. I’m looking at TRS website and they show a “retro-quick” projector upgrade. Is this necessary or if I just put a good HID in my factory projector will it still work and be and upgrade?

2. If I go with the retrofit projector will I still be able to adjust the headlights while on the truck through the factory locations or will the adjustments need to be made before sealing the lights back up?

3. What are my options for high beam upgrades? From what I’ve read it’s best to use HID in low beam and the. LED in highs? If this is correct should I just run LED bulbs or is there a retrofit that would work better?

What do y’all think would be the best reasonable upgrades here? I’m not looking to have the brightest lights on the road just something better than current. My wife’s charger with factory HIDs has WAY better headlights than my truck and it annoys me when I drive her car and get back in my truck so I’m looking for something similar. I’m also not afraid of opening the headlights and doing the work my self. Just want a good game plan before I start ordering parts.

1. I’m looking at TRS website and they show a “retro-quick” projector upgrade. Is this necessary or if I just put a good HID in my factory projector will it still work and be and upgrade?
If you are opening them up then yes the D2S will out perform the halogen frosted reflectors by a significant amount.

2. If I go with the retrofit projector will I still be able to adjust the headlights while on the truck through the factory locations or will the adjustments need to be made before sealing the lights back up?
If you do the kit they make it has a plate that mounts into the factory holes making it super easy to align the beam on a horizontal level and yes you can still use the factory up and down adjustment through the fender hole without removing the lights. (I did a retrofit on my old 1500 and my 2500 using this kit)

3. What are my options for high beam upgrades? From what I’ve read it’s best to use HID in low beam and the. LED in highs? If this is correct should I just run LED bulbs or is there a retrofit that would work better?
You can fit the morimoto 2 stroke 2.0s in there and you do not need an adapter or resistor for it at least I did not use any in my 2018.

HID bulbs and ballast are needed even without opening up the headlight so if you are opening it its another what $140 for the D2s 5.0 projectors? If your going through the trouble to open them I highly recommend just doing the swap on the projector as well.

 

[JoshR104]

Mine has the older 4.0s with 50w ballast xb55s and xb50 bulbs in 5800.

 

[daveray9]

Are you guys mounting them to the truck to test allignment before sealing them back up, or doing a bench test...

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[Srt-cummins]

Mine has the older 4.0s with 50w ballast xb55s and xb50 bulbs in 5800.

View attachment 174742

I thought I’d read that the 50w was bad for our trucks wiring and it wasn’t that much better than the 35w? Obviously don’t know this personally but I’ve read that multiple times. Any reason why you went with the 50 over the 35?

 

[Sheriff Justice]

I just installed VLEDS micro 5K / 3500lm LED bulbs in my low beams (and matching fog lights). The bulb plus wires fit perfect behind the dust covers. They are a huge improvement over the OEM bulbs (I had Sylvania Silver-star ZX bulbs prior). Going to add 6K / 4800lm high beams next. Love them!

 

[JoshR104]

I thought I’d read that the 50w was bad for our trucks wiring and it wasn’t that much better than the 35w? Obviously don’t know this personally but I’ve read that multiple times. Any reason why you went with the 50 over the 35?

Output is better and been running them since December with no issues. Not sure why it would be any worse than running a 60w halogen bulb.

 

[Srt-cummins]

Output is better and been running them since December with no issues. Not sure why it would be any worse than running a 60w halogen bulb.

Touché...never thought of it that way. Now when you have to adjust the beam to make it level if they are not when done with the retrofit?

 

[JoshR104]

Touché...never thought of it that way. Now when you have to adjust the beam to make it level if they are not when done with the retrofit?

When you say level I assume you mean left to right?

If you use the retroquik kit it has a plate that lines up to factory holes and goes through the projector so you cant really adjust it left or right and should be perfectly flat.

 

[JoshR104]

Circled are the bolts for the bracket that go to factory screws and then also the bolts that go through projector to hold it to the bracket. Might give you a better idea of how it mounts.

 

[Dinky]

https://www.amazon.com/HIKARI-Headl...d=1564194885&s=gateway&sprefix=led+he&sr=8-11

I used these in my stock non projectors. They are bright as **** and compare really close to the top brand in TRS. Now I have a quad projector set up and have these in my high beams as well.

 

[Srt-cummins]

When you say level I assume you mean left to right?

If you use the retroquik kit it has a plate that lines up to factory holes and goes through the projector so you cant really adjust it left or right and should be perfectly flat.[/QUOTE

Ok that’s what I was wondering about. And yeah it makes a bit more sense being able to see a real picture.

 

[Purplert]

Are you guys mounting them to the truck to test allignment before sealing them back up, or doing a bench test...

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Truck, make sure your on leveled ground too


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[OnSale]

Are you guys mounting them to the truck to test allignment before sealing them back up, or doing a bench test...

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When I first started retrofitting headlights I was putting them on the truck to do alignment, but now I have a wall where I have tape, with where the cutoff line should be, so I no longer need to mount them to a truck to test the alignment.

What you can do is before you open up your oem headlights you can use tape a mark a spot on the wall where the cutoff line is and the angle, just make sure you have the headlight on a table or sturdy spot they won’t change over time, and make sure you remember exactly where the headlight was placed and the angle. I have a custom built headlight holder for Ram headlights built onto a workbench so they are always in the same exact spot and angle to match the cut off on my wall, I’ve never had an alignment issue since.


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