Headlights, LED upgrade

[sholtz21]

Reposting, because i'm dumb and origionally posted in the wrong forum.


Hi all, New to the forum, and i did some googling and searching the forum. I didn't want to piggy back an previous thread so I'm starting my own, respectfully.

Just got my 2019 Big Horn, with Reflectors. I'm looking to upgrade the headlights in the truck, both high and low beam, fogs as well. I've used the Sylvania H11 Silverstar zXe Gold bulbs in the past with success on other projector style vehicles in the past, and although i prefer the "whiter" light, they still aren't great. I came across a couple video's recommending LED instead. specifically the GTR Lighting Ultra 2 for a low beam. I know nothing about LED headlights. From what i'm reading on the forum's previous posts, I can use a module of sorts that's plug and play that connects inline with the current harness. Or, I can use something like the AlfaOBD to reprogram the truck to know it's using LED's. I'm not opposed to spending a little more to do it correctly, but I also have limited knowledge on the programing side.

I also read a comment that LED's in reflectors are that great in snow/rain which in Minnesota, can be 7 months of the year, (Snow anyways). I really don't want to a full retrofit as I don't want to spend THAT much. Also saw something about H11 to H9 conversion? I don't know anything about that either. If you wouldn't mind sharing your opinions, or other potential options? bulbs?

Thank you!

 

[theblackduck87]

I bought a set off of Amazon for my 2012 RAM1500 (Marzauto brand) could also be MarSauto. The headlights were kinda plug and play. I had to do a little modification to the mounts to get the focus right but they are low profile (you'll want low profile because of the dust cover clearance) and no reprogramming was necessary. The fog lamps I purchased were plug and play. no issues whatsoever.
Where I did run into a problem was with the signal lamps. I had to install a load resistor so the computer wouldn't keep thinking a bulb was out.
Hope this helps. I tend to ramble.

 

[Johnny_B-Good]

If I may (no authority on this, but learned a ton with trial and error). Reflector housings throw light. Mostly all over the place. But decent reflector housings do function nicely. Projectors, focus light with rather nice cutoffs. These housings are very desirable because of their appearance, and function. I have reflectors in my 2010 Laramie. projectors in my SUV. My SUV LED's get down the road further. And by golly, they look sharp. lol

Led's. Rule of thumb, if you pay close attention to the "finer details" of these LED's (everyone is selling them, with ten tons of claims to them). You will be a happy camper (or at least a happy motorist). Halogen lumens roughly run 1200 to 2300 lumens (these numbers are specifically from Osram and Sylvania bulbs on the market at present). So, if you settle on low beam LED's that run between 2000 and 3000 lumens per bulb, you won't have to deal with every vehicle in your oncoming path flashing you with their high beams. And, if you like that crisp, bright white light. 6000 to 6500K. Anything less gets kind of yellowish. Anything more gets kinda gets bluish.

Now, for the even more finer details. "Plug and play" is as important as "error free". Plug and play means you remove the old bulb, and the new LED will sit in its place perfectly. No clocking, no adjusting, it's in there! Error free, one can only hope they truly are. If you read the finer details of these LED's being sold today. Some of the details include "may require additional hardware" That means they're not exactly error free for all vehicles, and some will need an external driver or resistor to function as described.

Hope this helps someone...

 

[sholtz21]

I bought a set off of Amazon for my 2012 RAM1500 (Marzauto brand) could also be MarSauto. The headlights were kinda plug and play. I had to do a little modification to the mounts to get the focus right but they are low profile (you'll want low profile because of the dust cover clearance) and no reprogramming was necessary. The fog lamps I purchased were plug and play. no issues whatsoever.
Where I did run into a problem was with the signal lamps. I had to install a load resistor so the computer wouldn't keep thinking a bulb was out.
Hope this helps. I tend to ramble.

Thanks! When you talk about load resistor, are you talking about that box that connects to the wiring harness, then into the LED bulb?

If I may (no authority on this, but learned a ton with trial and error). Reflector housings throw light. Mostly all over the place. But decent reflector housings do function nicely. Projectors, focus light with rather nice cutoffs. These housings are very desirable because of their appearance, and function. I have reflectors in my 2010 Laramie. projectors in my SUV. My SUV LED's get down the road further. And by golly, they look sharp. lol

Led's. Rule of thumb, if you pay close attention to the "finer details" of these LED's (everyone is selling them, with ten tons of claims to them). You will be a happy camper (or at least a happy motorist). Halogen lumens roughly run 1200 to 2300 lumens (these numbers are specifically from Osram and Sylvania bulbs on the market at present). So, if you settle on low beam LED's that run between 2000 and 3000 lumens per bulb, you won't have to deal with every vehicle in your oncoming path flashing you with their high beams. And, if you like that crisp, bright white light. 6000 to 6500K. Anything less gets kind of yellowish. Anything more gets kinda gets bluish.

Now, for the even more finer details. "Plug and play" is as important as "error free". Plug and play means you remove the old bulb, and the new LED will sit in its place perfectly. No clocking, no adjusting, it's in there! Error free, one can only hope they truly are. If you read the finer details of these LED's being sold today. Some of the details include "may require additional hardware" That means they're not exactly error free for all vehicles, and some will need an external driver or resistor to function as described.

Hope this helps someone...

thanks for advice, when I referenced plug n play, I was sort of limping error free into that as well, that’s what I was referring to when I want to do it right. If I understand correctly, I can still go with the LEDs in the reflector, may need that resistor box thing, and might need to clock them in order to fine tune it? Without blinding oncoming traffic?

 

[Johnny_B-Good]

Thanks! When you talk about load resistor, are you talking about that box that connects to the wiring harness, then into the LED bulb?

thanks for advice, when I referenced plug n play, I was sort of limping error free into that as well, that’s what I was referring to when I want to do it right. If I understand correctly, I can still go with the LEDs in the reflector, may need that resistor box thing, and might need to clock them in order to fine tune it? Without blinding oncoming traffic?

Load resistors are simply a resistor that runs between the hot and ground. A ballast box, or driver is the one that plugs in line between the supply connector to the bulb, and the bulb. Those two added parts almost completely take care of flicker issues.

They make some bulbs that have an adjustable seat. These, most times, can be a process. And one may even learn a new cuss word, or four going through that process. It's easier to simply buy a direct fit, plug and play LED.

Good luck, you'll get to the point where you smile and say "I am so glad I did this".

 

[sholtz21]

Not sure there’s many cuss words I have yet to learn, but I’m willing to give it a go. As far as that resistor goes, is there a specific size? Would I want to check that with the vendor I get the LED’s from? Or is that usually included in some sort of a kit with the ballast box?

 

[Johnny_B-Good]

Those resistors are very common for this LED situation. Me, personally, I am doing everything in my power to avoid any resistor. Only because I don't wanna add my story to the list of ones I've already read about that modification. Guys having plastic interior panels melted because the resistor laid up against it, or they mounted the resistor to it (ummm, plastic is not a good ground I think). Or the guy who took the time to sand down the interior of a body panel to make sure he got a good ground when he mounted his resistor. And said resistor discolored the exterior paint from the heat. And even some who had fires from the resistor installs (I don't know what actually caught fire, but you could feel their pain having to replace harnesses and such).

As for your headlight LED swap. You have a much newer Ram than I do. I do wish it was just plug 'em in and go for you. Cause LED's are (honestly) a fantastic upgrade. But no matter what you do. While searching for the right bulbs. Just remember, "error free", "canbus ready" are two must haves for your new lights.

 

[Southern Ram]

I recently changed out my low beams and fogs to LED's. I got mine from vleds.com, very simple plug and play. Didn't need any kind of resistors or error cancellers or anything like that. I had gotten the micro evolution series and the 6k lights which is the white with a tint of blue. Very happy so far. Also your low beams and fog lights are both h11 bulb size.

 

[sholtz21]

Those resistors are very common for this LED situation. Me, personally, I am doing everything in my power to avoid any resistor. Only because I don't wanna add my story to the list of ones I've already read about that modification. Guys having plastic interior panels melted because the resistor laid up against it, or they mounted the resistor to it (ummm, plastic is not a good ground I think). Or the guy who took the time to sand down the interior of a body panel to make sure he got a good ground when he mounted his resistor. And said resistor discolored the exterior paint from the heat. And even some who had fires from the resistor installs (I don't know what actually caught fire, but you could feel their pain having to replace harnesses and such).

As for your headlight LED swap. You have a much newer Ram than I do. I do wish it was just plug 'em in and go for you. Cause LED's are (honestly) a fantastic upgrade. But no matter what you do. While searching for the right bulbs. Just remember, "error free", "canbus ready" are two must haves for your new lights.

I would agree, I really don't want to mess with anything like that if I don't know. I was hoping for an "easier" solution, which it seems possible. I just need to make sure I'm doing my research on the bulbs. So here's a maybe dumb question, but I've seen that word "canbus" what exactly is that?

 

[sholtz21]

I recently changed out my low beams and fogs to LED's. I got mine from vleds.com, very simple plug and play. Didn't need any kind of resistors or error cancellers or anything like that. I had gotten the micro evolution series and the 6k lights which is the white with a tint of blue. Very happy so far. Also your low beams and fog lights are both h11 bulb size.

Very helpful, thank you! I'll check those out, did you need the ballast as well? No flicker? Did you need to program with the AlfaOBD? Also, what about the DRL, do they still work? I've heard that you can raise the voltage with programming for DRL as well.

 

[sholtz21]

So, I've been doing a bit of research this afternoon. I'm still unsure if I would need to program the computer for LED's or not. BUT, I found the LED's I want, the GTR Ultra Series 2.0 Then I come to find that they are not street legal. Is this something I should be concerned about?

 

[Southern Ram]

Very helpful, thank you! I'll check those out, did you need the ballast as well? No flicker? Did you need to program with the AlfaOBD? Also, what about the DRL, do they still work? I've heard that you can raise the voltage with programming for DRL as well.

No ballast or any flickering. Tomorrow will make 2 weeks that I've changed them and no problems. I don't have the DRL headlights, just the regular ones. You can also get the 5k lights which is just pure white if you don't want the white with the slight blue color. They give you an option of the 5k or 6K ones.

 

[Southern Ram]

This is the link for headlights: https://www.vleds.com/shop-products/led-headlights/micro-evo-h11-h16-h8-h9.html

 

[Gregdad]

Fahren H11/H9/H8 LED Headlight Bulbs, 60W 10000 Lumens Super Bright LED Headlights Conversion Kit 6500K Cool White IP68 Waterproof, Pack of 2, Headlight Bulbs - Amazon Canada

Fahren H11/H9/H8 LED Headlight Bulbs, 60W 10000 Lumens Super Bright LED Headlights Conversion Kit 6500K Cool White IP68 Waterproof, Pack of 2 in Headlight Bulbs.

www.amazon.ca

I use these bulbs in all my front lights. 100% true plug and play with no need for extra resistors, no flickering, no dash warnings and when clicked to the 9&3 position you will get a perfect light output without blinding anyone.
H11-lows 9005-highs 9006-fogs. $150 Canadian for all three sets and going well over a year now.

 

[sholtz21]

This is the link for headlights: https://www.vleds.com/shop-products/led-headlights/micro-evo-h11-h16-h8-h9.html

I was looking at those. I've got a couple questions into those guys about the DRL setup, so i'm waiting to see.

 

[sholtz21]

Fahren H11/H9/H8 LED Headlight Bulbs, 60W 10000 Lumens Super Bright LED Headlights Conversion Kit 6500K Cool White IP68 Waterproof, Pack of 2, Headlight Bulbs - Amazon Canada

Fahren H11/H9/H8 LED Headlight Bulbs, 60W 10000 Lumens Super Bright LED Headlights Conversion Kit 6500K Cool White IP68 Waterproof, Pack of 2 in Headlight Bulbs.

www.amazon.ca

I use these bulbs in all my front lights. 100% true plug and play with no need for extra resistors, no flickering, no dash warnings and when clicked to the 9&3 position you will get a perfect light output without blinding anyone.
H11-lows 9005-highs 9006-fogs. $150 Canadian for all three sets and going well over a year now.

Those look really good. I saw some very positive information on them as well. The choice for choosing LEDs is getting tougher.

 

[sholtz21]

Ok, so just to keep beating this horse further. I just got off a call with a from Headlight Revolution. This may not be new to you guys, but I'm learning anyway. The PWM module (or the ballast), that connects inline to the with the harness and LED bulb seems to be required, if I don't want to make the ALFAOBD programing changes. the PWM module is CANBUS ready, or at least compatible and will allow the DRL to function as well. From some of the comments I've read and putting my own scenario together, I'm thinking I may only need the PWM module for the low beams. A few of you haven't any problems with flicker without the PWM module, so in the Fogs and High Beams I'm not as concerned as I wont be using them for extended driving.

Now to decide the LED's themselves.

 

[craigsez]

1st off...Led works best in projectors and hid in reflectors....Not all led/hid are the same either..Most times you get what you pay for...
Head over to either yt and watch some vids or go to their site and go same route....
Either way,search headlight revolution's site for reviews and actual trials with video that shows whats crap n not..

 

[sholtz21]

Since I've created the post, I've done quite a bit of research, a couple of the video's i've watched from Headlight Revolution say the opposite, well, opposite might not be realistic, but indicate that HID's may better suited for Projectors.
Here's the video i'm referring to.

https://blog.headlightrevolution.com/hid-vs.-led-headlight-bulbs
Quotes from below the video.

"In the past, we would tell you HID is the only way to go for projector headlights, and that's because the light source, it's omnidirectional."

And,

"You've got lights shining around it, and with LED headlight bulbs, the LED chips are very unidirectional, which means whichever way you've got to LED pointed is the only way the light's going to shine."

Also, in reference to Reflector housings "We've found that even the best HID has a little bit more scatter in the beam pattern and glare to oncoming drivers, but with the right LED bulbs, we see more precise optical alignment that makes the best beam pattern, but it goes both ways."

I'm by no means one way is right and one way is wrong. I'm trying to get a better understanding.

 

[Johnny_B-Good]

Very helpful, thank you! I'll check those out, did you need the ballast as well? No flicker? Did you need to program with the AlfaOBD? Also, what about the DRL, do they still work? I've heard that you can raise the voltage with programming for DRL as well.

No flicker or flash in my 2010 Laramie with the LED's. My fog lights come in today, but I'll most likely not get to that til the weekend (2nd shift sucks). I didn't pull the trigger on the OBDMX+ yet. So all this upgrade to lighting is just the truck taking it, or not. As for DRL's, I don't even know if I have them. lol I just found out I do have the 3rd keyfob press to put the windows down. lol