LEDs not recommended for low beams??

[Garth Schindel]

Hi
I I walked into my local auto parts store to upgrade my wife’s 2014 ram 1500 for better lighting. The sales person didn’t recommend LEDs for low beam because he said they don’t work well with snow and fog. The light just bounces back as if you have your high beams on. He recommends just OEM for low beams. I live in Alberta so having good vision in fog and especially snow is important. What’s your experience?
Thanks for the help.

 

[rule18]

I'm calling BS on that "salesman's" opinion. Seems to me that most auto manufacturers have switched to LED headlights for low and high beams. It's more about the optics on the LED array and how they're aimed. Light will be reflected off of fog and snow, regardless of the source.

I swapped my OEM halogens to LED in my truck years ago, no regrets. All my other vehicles are equipped with factory LED headlights, all good.

 

[Garth Schindel]

Thanks. Salesperson seemed to be talking from experience. Maybe certain leds in certain light setups aren’t the best? He didn’t say what he drives.

I bought a set of Phillips leds from him for the high beams. Pricey. Any recommendations for the lows and fogs?

Any concerns with snow building up around the fogs - no heat from LEDs to melt??

 

[turkeybird56]

BS. I have OEM LED on MY 19. When U change out to LED's from Halogen, type, beam light projecting, needs to be aimed properly, for that U need to talk to someone whom has put in LED's.

 

[CanuckRam1313]

Fahren LED's are great and are CanBus ready with zero issues.
Amazon is your friend when purchasing these LED's.
I've used them on my 19' and now in my new 23' in both the highs and low's, and in the fogs on my 19', too (my 23' Warlock comes with OEM LED's in the fogs).

EDIT - if you are looking for enhanced "fog" lighting coverage, look for "yellow" LED's for your fog lights, or, purchase a separate pair of yellow LED pods for your truck.

in my 19' I went this route and purchased the separate yellow LED fogs from Vivid Lumen in B.C. - lifetime warranty and unparalleled customer service as I didn't want to lose the white LED's in the fogs and the lighting it casts low and out to the sides for more enhanced night driving.

FNG 3 Street Legal Pods

THE NEXT GENERATION OF LIGHTING The FNG series combines power, intensity and style in a redesigned compact build. Level up your driving experience with advanced optics, controlled beam patterns, and intense brightness. Crafted and designed to provide the performance when you need it! FEATURES...

vividlumen.com

 

[mikeru]

I've never been in favor of swapping out halogen for LED's in reflector housings. There's just too much light scatter IMO. But that was years ago, and LED bulb technology has come a long ways since then. Now my vehicles all came with LED or HID headlights from the factory so I don't need to worry about it LOL.

LED headlights are far and away superior to halogen when housed in the proper headlight housings (those which were designed for LED's). My advice to anyone who is shopping for LED bulbs to replace halogens is to not cheap out on Amazon or ebay bulbs. Go with reputable bulbs only.

 

[Garth Schindel]

Thanks. I’ll try some LEDs in the lows and fogs as well as the pricey highs that I bought (nice to keep the local shop in business).
Be
The fogs are definitely horizontal but when I searched for what a 2014 1500 has I read that they should be vertical. It’s a Sport trim. Does that make a difference?

If I drove more in the snow/fog I’d add some yellow pods too.

 

[04fxdwgi]

I put LED's in my '16 Sport. You have to go into the BCM and change the settings from the std laps to the LED's.

They work great, IF:
1. The bulb is clocked correctly at 3 and 9 o'clock
2. Head lights are properly aimed (don't be that guy with improperly aimed LED headlights) . There is a dot on your headlight lens that indicates height center. This is how we did it at the inspection station before the fancy dancy aiming gizzmos. Being a truck, not a car, at 25' the light line projected on the wall should about 2" below that measured height.

 

[RamDiver]

I researched here and elsewhere about which LED bulbs produced the best success and happiest users.

As far as spending more $ for satisfaction, I don't agree. The Fahren LED bulbs I found were inexpensive, produce great light, are clockable to 9&3, have great customer support, and have a 3-year replacement warranty.

Keep in mind that Fahren produce several H11 & 9005/9006 bulbs that are not physically the same size. If you get the longer version, the back cover placement will be problematic.

These are what I used in my projector housings;





And, Amazon.ca often doesn't have the latest version of bulbs, cross-check with Amazon.com before purchasing. If you hunt, you will find 10,000-lumen bulbs or more even though they may still sell 9000-lumen bulbs.

This is my favourite headlight aiming video and what I used for verification.

How to Aim and Align Your Headlights

Shop All HID Lighting Products Here: https://www.headlightrevolution.com/better_lighting_hid/hr_h_series?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=D...

www.youtube.com

You will most likely require AlfaOBD when setting up a 2014. With my '21, I made no changes, they were plug-and-play.

I've read many stories where owners of 2014 & 2015 trucks have had to use AlfaOBD to set the bulb configuration to HID to prevent flickering and intermittent dropout. This seems common for those years, regardless of the type of LED bulb type used.

.

 

[crash68]

The fogs are definitely horizontal but when I searched for what a 2014 1500 has I read that they should be vertical. It’s a Sport trim. Does that make a difference?

The 2013+ trucks have vertical fog lights on the outer edges of the bumper, it's possible someone front end swapped your truck, the +'13 truck grills will have tapered edges where it meets the bumper valance.
If you want an excellent set of fog lights look at the DiodeDynamic SSE3 SAE Pro level fog lights, they make kits for both the vertical and horizontal Gen4 RAM trucks. I've drove in near white out snow conditions along with dense fog conditions and fog lights worked great by themselves (headlights off). The light stays low and curb to curb wide.

I find it interesting that no one has mentioned the legal aspect (FMVSS) of swapping out halogen bulbs with LEDs, If this was a towing thread the armchair lawyers would have responded many times by now. Stateside the headlights can't be changed legally from halogen to LEDs but the fog lights can.

 

[Wild one]

Thanks. I’ll try some LEDs in the lows and fogs as well as the pricey highs that I bought (nice to keep the local shop in business).
Be
The fogs are definitely horizontal but when I searched for what a 2014 1500 has I read that they should be vertical. It’s a Sport trim. Does that make a difference?

If I drove more in the snow/fog I’d add some yellow pods too.

This is a 14 Sport front end,if your fogs don't look like this,somethings been swapped.2nd pic is after i swapped out the grill inserts for the honeycomb inserts

 

[04fxdwgi]

Although the LED's I bought fit in the OEM housings with the OEM rear covers, I added the deep rear covers for nothing else but to give the housing more room for air circulation.

 

[09SilverRam]

LEDs in reflector housings just scatter light and blind other drivers. Don’t be that guy.

Grab some projector housings and get much better lighting for you without blinding other people.

2009-2018 Dodge Ram 1500/2500/3500 Dual/Quad Projector Headlights – ModifyStreet

www.modifystreet.com

 

[Yardbird]

If clocked correctly, and aimed right, the only difference is much brighter light and better visibility.
I've had no one flash lights at me on 2 lane roads.

When leaving home before daylight on the two lane road loaded with deer and other critters, I can see much better with the light beams hitting the same areas.

I parked in the same place after dark with the original bulbs, and then after the LEDs to make sure the main difference was ability to see better without light reaching into others area. I did the same with the LFD fog bulbs.

It's been almost two years since I swapped lights out and am very pleased. Plug and play Amazon bulbs. I only have pictures of before and after fog lights.

Before:

After:

 

[Garth Schindel]

I was wrong about the horizontal fogs - I was going by a picture my wife sent me to veryify that it has projector headlights - I could see the fog at the bottom of the picture and from the angle I would have sworn it was horizontal.

I tried to install the phillips 90005/9006UELEDs that I already bought but they barely squeaked into the hole for the lows and would not tighten. The phillips site says these can be used in my fogs so I threw them in their. Hopefully they help.

I'd look into getting the correct Fahren's for the lows and highs but
messing with the software adds another wrinkle. Are the "good" halogen bulbs any better than OEM? No LED's for a 14 that are Plug and Play?

When I originally walked into the parts store I was looking for a simple replacement bulb for the OEM that burned out - seems like I'm way past that now.

 

[tjfdesmo]

LEDs in reflector housings just scatter light and blind other drivers. Don’t be that guy.

Grab some projector housings and get much better lighting for you without blinding other people.

2009-2018 Dodge Ram 1500/2500/3500 Dual/Quad Projector Headlights – ModifyStreet

www.modifystreet.com

^^^^ 100% ^^^^

 

[rule18]

Years ago I replaced my OEM Projector housings with Alpharex Novas, still happy with the output and cutoff. Both low & high beams are pretty outstanding.

 

[Garth Schindel]

I looked again at how I installed the LEDs into the fogs. They sit either 2 and 8 or 4 and 10. They won’t go 3 and 9. One better than the other? Hopefully they don’t cause any issues with others. I guess I’ll see tonight.

I don’t seem to be having any software issues with the fogs. Does this just happen with highs/lows?

 

[09SilverRam]

Years ago I replaced my OEM Projector housings with Alpharex Novas, still happy with the output and cutoff. Both low & high beams are pretty outstanding.

I’m using the modify street low end switchback projector housings for like a year. $280 and super happy with the improvement.

 

[Dan Topp]

I agree LEDs are bright and no one else should try them.