Stock headlights upgrade

[ArturoL3333]

I have a 2017 ram 1500 with the factory halogen headlights. Would it be possible to upgrade to factory led headlights. If it is hwat would i need.

 

[Kalill Nieto]

Well. You can change the headlamps for a Leds headlamps aftermarket. Is not a 4th gen oem Leds headlamps.

 

[PoMansRam]

It's possible to upgrade to any compatible LED lamp or headlamp assembly.

There is body control module re-programming required to switch from incandescent to LED lamps. The system is that sensitive. It's a matter of changing settings in the BCM and I don't know of a way to do that yourself w/out advanced equipment.

I feel your pain though. I had a 2017 and now a 2019 classic with the standard reflector halogens. The low beams are terrible.

 

[kurek]

Higher quality than stock halogen bulbs are both a bigger and easier upgrade. The only thing LEDs deliver is a fashionable 6000k color that disappears in rain

 

[Rotciv]

You can try the H9 to H11 bulb swap trick or possibly look around for aftermarket headlight assemblies like Morimoto and Alpharex. I've recently bought the Morimoto XB and they're very nice.

 

[David H]

I have the 17 as well and yes, the low beams sucked. Tried the Silverstar Ultra and that made zero difference. I still have the pair if you want them...free.
Some will say you have to spend $150 to get good led lights. It's your money so feel free to do so but there's really no need. Do some research and you'll find a handful of reasonably priced, quality options. Here's one.

I can't find pics from the Ram swap but did the same upgrade on my wife's car with the same results.


This is the light pattern at 20'.


These $30 leds made a big difference in both our vehicles. Fully plug and play. No errors. No reprogramming. Running 3 or 4 years now without issue.

Are there better lights out there? Sure, I don't doubt that. Your choice but this is apples to apples. 2017 Bighorn with quad halogens. I put them in my fogs as well.

Amazon.com

 

[Valkyrie0002]

I installed LED bulbs in my 2017. Hi, Low, Fogs and others. What a difference it made. That was 2 years ago. Stay at 6,000 or lower, blue light is annoying. Only issue was with the Hi beams. I had to get a set with short bodies to fit the housing. Make sure you orient them properly. Check the adjustment/ aim, before hitting the road.

 

[Graygoose]

Heise LEDs with anti- flicker module, plug and play, worked perfect

 

[Tray Burge]

The difference between Halogen and LED is night and day and not just for fashion fwiw.
You'll be upgrading to a bright white light that pushes through the rain and lights up the way like an illuminated football field!

 

[kurek]

Same camera, set to manual mode so no change to shutter speed, same vehicle, same altitude (I changed the bulbs while the drone was hovering in one spot) .

Mirror image (so you're looking at the driver side only, to eliminate bias in the terrain) . Cut to black and white to eliminate human bias about the color temperature. Both bulbs swapped at the same time between photos. This is in a 2015 Jeep Patriot, no way to swap that fast in a Ram

LEDs are Hikari 2020 Megatron (not cheapies) .

Which one's the Hikari 2020 LED and which one's the $23 halogen?

 

[EagleChief]

I just read the thread on here titled "Fehrans LED's" or something like that. Ordered a set for my low beams and fog lights. Looks like they have a really good reputation on here for replacements in the stock housing. I'm replacing some OPT7 LED bulbs that I've had about 2-3 years. They have been good, but are starting to go out, I'm afraid. OPT7 doesn't make them anymore, so maybe there's a reason for that.

 

[Gregdad]

You’ll be hatwith Fahren bulbs. I have them in all my front reflector lights

 

[16RamR/T]

If you have messenger than hit up RPM 956. Awesome priced led bulbs that are plug and play. Thank me later!!!!!

 

[DenCon509]

Halogen, no matter what flavor, is Stone Age tech - you'll get very good at replacing them because they don't live long. I've done overwattage, SilverStar Ultras, etc - big waste of time/money.
Skip HID, that's Bronze Age. LED (Digital Age) is fantastic and you have a lot of options. Definitely try to stay at 6500°K or lower (higher is bluer, lower is yellower). Do not get bulbs with any kind of color filter/tint. If you get snow where you drive, yellow LED foggies are amazing.
It is important to "clock" LED bulbs for best focus; typically, you rotate them so the LED arrays are oriented at 9:00/3:00 in the reflector. Practically all LED kits allow this.
I don't know if this applies to your rig (mine is a 3rd gen), but DRLs are often driven in the high beam side. LEDs don't respond to the reduced voltage of DRL and they will run at full brightness, which is annoying to oncoming traffic. I have LED in all my vehicles and I disable DRLs for that reason.
If you have depth/space concerns, you might want to try https://www.amazon.com/NINEO-9005-H...o+9005+led&qid=1630160367&s=automotive&sr=1-7
Lastly, although there are many attractive aftermarket replacement headlight kits, practically are are garbage, except Morimoto, which are shockingly expensive.

 

[sholtz21]

Halogen, no matter what flavor, is Stone Age tech - you'll get very good at replacing them because they don't live long. I've done overwattage, SilverStar Ultras, etc - big waste of time/money.
Skip HID, that's Bronze Age. LED (Digital Age) is fantastic and you have a lot of options. Definitely try to stay at 6500°K or lower (higher is bluer, lower is yellower). Do not get bulbs with any kind of color filter/tint. If you get snow where you drive, yellow LED foggies are amazing.
It is important to "clock" LED bulbs for best focus; typically, you rotate them so the LED arrays are oriented at 9:00/3:00 in the reflector. Practically all LED kits allow this.
I don't know if this applies to your rig (mine is a 3rd gen), but DRLs are often driven in the high beam side. LEDs don't respond to the reduced voltage of DRL and they will run at full brightness, which is annoying to oncoming traffic. I have LED in all my vehicles and I disable DRLs for that reason.
If you have depth/space concerns, you might want to try https://www.amazon.com/NINEO-9005-H...o+9005+led&qid=1630160367&s=automotive&sr=1-7
Lastly, although there are many attractive aftermarket replacement headlight kits, practically are are garbage, except Morimoto, which are shockingly expensive.

Very good info, thanks for post this.

 

[sholtz21]

Well, I got all mine installed today. I went the Ferhan Forenner LED’s, they are 12,000 Lumen vs the standard 10,000 and only a couple $ more. I don’t know about the other ones, but these had the driver pre-wired in to the LED bulb, so they needed to be installed and just connected to the existing harness. I don’t have pics yet, but will post them later.
The install went pretty smooth, a bigger job then I anticipated. It was easiest to remove the wheel well liner and replace the low beams from underneath. The passenger side I removed the wheel well liner and the air box. The biggest challenge and required the most patience was clocking the LED’s correctly.

I confirmed that the DRL’s work. On mine, the DRL’s are driven by the low beams, but I didn’t check the brightness though. I may end up turning them off, we’ll see.

when all said and done, I did the low beams, high beams and fogs.

 

[Mikebennett1]

Aux beam led bulbs on Amazon. Love them. Use them for low/high and fog lamps

 

[Atcer2018]

Higher quality than stock halogen bulbs are both a bigger and easier upgrade. The only thing LEDs deliver is a fashionable 6000k color that disappears in rain

Kurek, I typically love your posts but could not disagree with you more on the LED issue. I have a 2018 CC BigHorn with the basic quad reflectors. When I purchased the truck I had never driven it at night and I was absolutely disappointed with the halogen quads. I went with LEDs and it is literally a night and day difference. My old eyes don’t see as well at night anymore and the LED bulbs illuminate the roadway in a superior manner compared to halogen bulbs. I’ve not had any issues with glare in both rain and snow. I did take my vehicle behind the local grocery store at night, measured from the ground to the center of the reflector lens that’s marked with the tiny circle, subtracted two inches from that measurement, marked it with masking tape on the store wall and backed my vehicle up 30ft to adjust the low beam cutoff as described in the service manual. In two years of using LED bulbs I have not had one flash from an oncoming vehicle thinking my high beams were on. All the overhead drone pics won’t change what the seat of my pants says from the cab looking out into the night. I respectfully disagree, LED is superior to halogen.

 

[grayme]

I,too, have older eyes. I just purchased a 2017 Ram. Do you remember which led headlight bulbs you used?

 

[tron67j]

Check out @Underground Lighting in the vendor section.