So we all know the headlights suck

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Bigboy16

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Without any thought of an LED etc upgrade. Do the brighter "whites" ..sylvania ultrabrights fill this gap?
 

rule18

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Without any thought of an LED etc upgrade. Do the brighter "whites" ..sylvania ultrabrights fill this gap?
In my experience they weren't really worth the money, but you could give them a shot. Do you have quads or projectors?
 

Midknight

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I have stock projectors which have terrible output from the factory. Going to the Sylvania Silverstar Ultra bulbs for my low beams made a considerable difference. I'm not saying they are the best and brightest but plenty for my daily usage. They last long and I finally had one burn out so I tossed two new ones in because I was happy with them. If these aren't good enough I would buy complete new LED housings and not screw around with bulbs.
 

HDGoose

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Gee, my 2020 RAM 3500 Tradesman headlight are fine. They are aimed correctly, so as to not blind others. And the beam pattern is proper.

I'm sure there are LED replacements for halogens that work. But findg them out of the junk is difficult.
 

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tron67j

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The stick headlights on my 2018 2500 tradesmen sent the best, but I just don't want to mess with it. I put driving lights lower in the bumper opening and it fills in the gaps nicely. I have tried different brands over the years that say x-percent brighter, but have never really noticed an appreciable difference. I see the comment above about low beam upgrades, did you also don high beams?
 

tron67j

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Wild one

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Without any thought of an LED etc upgrade. Do the brighter "whites" ..sylvania ultrabrights fill this gap?

Another one to look into are the Piaa bulbs,they aren't a bad bulb. It doesn't hurt to nose the truck up against a wall after dark and adjust the lights a wee bit higher,not to the point you're blinding on coming traffic though.

PIAA | Xtreme White Plus
 

Livinalittle

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If you have the quads I think you can upgrade to LED for about the same price as Sylvania's. I bought Sylvania's for my wife's car and they didn't improve at all, the LED's were much better but I had to use my OBD Link to switch her from halogen to LED or they would flicker.

If you have projectors then you pretty much have to go with HID's.
 

misfit77

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I bought some fancy non DOT PIAA from england.

Didnt do crap. Wasted $40

Finally went LED.
 

kurek

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I don't think "we all know the headlights suck"... my truck's got the quad beam (Tradesman trim) lamps and they're very good. That tells us one of three things;

1. I have a magical truck built by Santa Claus himself to be better than everyone else's
2. The headlights are actually fine and people just like playing dress-up with their trucks.
3. The headlights are crap and Ram bribed the department of transportation and me personally to let it slide

If it's the 1st one, sorry man maybe get on the good list and next year Santa will build your truck super nice. If it's one of the other two then yes higher-output bulbs will be an actual upgrade.

Keep in mind that the point of headlights is that you sit inside your vehicle, look forward through the windshield and meanwhile light comes out of the headlamps and travels forward through the air where it eventually intersects with objects or the ground, then light reflects from those solid surfaces and returns to your eyes which provides you with information you need to drive safely.

I spelled that out pedantically for a reason: headlight effectiveness is not determined by how "bright" it looks when you're standing outside of your truck and looking back at it. You don't drive from 20 feet in front of your truck looking at the headlights and from standing height they should appear dim anyway since you're above their focal cutoff.


Here are a couple photos of my regular Tradesman with $23 Wagner ND bulbs in the low beams, taken with a drone while random cars drove by on a nearby road:

DJI_0048.JPG IMG_20201130_194427_192.jpg

I'm not seeing a suck..
 

kurek

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I tried to get to the bottom of the LED thing too, on my Jeep (it's much easier to swap headlight bulbs in 60 seconds with that vehicle than the Ram & I wanted to get this done without moving the drone, or landing/relaunching it)

So in this series of photos (2015 Jeep Patriot, stock headlight assemblies) I started with the 5 year old OEM (Sylvania basic bulbs), then Wagner ND (incandescent) bulbs then with the very best LED headlights I could find based on forum opinion, online reviews and manufacturer marketing - Hikari 2020 (the most expensive series, eye of megatron I think.. ) to help ensure the best possible result. Drone camera was set to manual mode, fixed exposure so the brightness comparison is apples>apples.

BWCOMPARISON_AB.png

The good news is it turns out if you actually spend the money on high end LEDs they can have pretty good pattern. I can tell from everyday sharing the road with other people that a lot of a-holes are NOT buying high quality because their glare cannons look like trash but from this experience with the Hikari lamps, at least it is possible to spend the money and get a good clean pattern.

The even better news is that $23 halogens are still superior once you eliminate the bias people naturally have toward "clean" bluish light. The 6000k LEDs just disappear into wet pavement, wet dark colored vehicles and wet tree bark. I think if somebody made 4000k or 4400k LEDs that problem might be averted but so far nothing anywhere near that color exists for some reason.

End result was I re-sold the LEDs and kept the Wagners. I can actually see in wet conditions with them and even in the best conditions they're just not inferior to the LEDs. Maybe they don't have that "clean white linens" color to them but I'm pretty sure the number of times I get laid isn't going to be affected by headlamp color so I'll be all right.
 
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misfit77

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Im old and more light the better.

I have had a lot of various make/models. Ram is one the worse i have had. In the top 5. Things to consider some the crappiest were a datsun 210 and a 69 chevy c-10. My decline in eyesight is an other issue, so that maybe have some impact on my opinion. For now, i can tell you my cars HID and my wife's VW halogens are far superior than my Ram for my needs.

As for pictures, they can be misleading. I have comparison photos in another post. It took some work messing with the settings on my digital camera to make a fair comparison.
 

Treburkulosis

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I added LED lights to mine and they were a ton brighter. LED lights aren't that expensive IMO.
 

pacofortacos

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Without any thought of an LED etc upgrade. Do the brighter "whites" ..sylvania ultrabrights fill this gap?

Do the H11 to H9 low beam halogen bulb upgrade, you will thank me.
There's also a high beam halogen upgrade if you need to use high beams. 9005 to 9011 bulb for the highs.
This is if you have quad lights, not projector or duals.
 

thestuntboy

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For me it's not the "brightness" but reach. I have a distinct cut off line downroad and do not get a splash effect. On my back roads I need the light to travel a little further to catch the critters and debris in the road. My Jeep has LED and displays downrange really well, my 99 has stock and my 01 has aftermarket projector and both show down the road. When I upgrade the bumper I will probably add driving lights to supplement the mains.
 

Gr8bawana

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Well compared to the headlights on my 2017 the headlights on my '97 are not even on the same playing field. I love them!
 

noodles

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American engineered head lights must have been designed by vampires. One of my biggest gripes with the stock light output and the garlic scarf.
 
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I will be completely honest I don't really have a dog in this fight but I did add a bunch of lights for a reason. The halogen headlights are ok but the white light that comes out of my bar and pods goes so much further then even my high beams go. Not sure if that helps your situation but thought I would give my opinion anyway (kinda)57de9dddf1fe8421171698ed3ad5e0a9.jpg

Sent from my Phone 2 using Tapatalk
 

Midnight Storm

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OP, you have projectors so the best upgrade for you are HID’s.
DDM are good for $100 and GTR are very bright for triple that.
 
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