Headlights not very bright

[AngryBird]

I've got to do something to help the lights. They are dim on my 2011. I threw HID's straight in my 2012 F150 and they have a decent cutoff for reflector housings. I've seen this Projector/Reflector HID debate a whole lot on different forums. It gets pretty heated :-/
Retrofitting projectors really sucks IMO. I've done a couple of sets with some friends and ugh........ Hours and hours of my life I'll never get back. I like working on trucks, just not tedious shit like that.

 

[AzteCypher]

How about some fleabay projector headlights?

 

[AngryBird]

Well I've seen a lot of posts on the Raptor Forum from guys that have had those. They seem to be nothing but trouble. Supposedly they don't have a very good cutoff either which is the whole point of going with projectors. Maybe somebody that has the ebay ones can chime in and/or post some light pattern pics. I think for $400 dollars I'd have to man up and just do a retrofit. I do have a Retrofit Source Kit sitting in my garage so I might try to put in in the expedition today. If I do, I'll post pics of the output tonight.

 

[GAINMOB]

How about some fleabay projector headlights?

unless you put HIDs in them...no difference...i had 2 sets...style was great but output was like normal headlights...the halos werent great...but with HIDs it would be good for output

 

[AzteCypher]

Didn't really want/need halos but really wanted the projectors to put HIDs in them.

 

[AngryBird]

So I threw some HID's in the stock headlight housings last night. I used this kit from retrofit source which I had originally bought for the Raptor to replace the HIDs that are in it now. I made the mistake of buying DDM tuning crap which I can assure you is the cheapest Chinese HID set you can buy. I've had problems with bulbs, a ballast, relays, and bad wires. Their customer service is a pain in the ass too. I installed the 50watt 4300k kit from TRS which is much higher quality. The bulbs are actually 4300k (unlike DDM which sent me 6000k and refused to replace them when I had ordered 4300k) so they look like factory HIDs to other drivers and the fuzz. Took me about an hour and a half to install (I'm very OCD about my wiring) and aim the lights. I only had to turn down the left headlight about 3 rotations of the adjustment screw. I went and drove around for about 2 hours after it was completed. I didn't get any headlight flashes from other drivers, passed several cops going the other direction and didn't have any problems. The brights work great and activate very fast. Needless to say I think my wife and I will be much safer driving the Expy at night with all the Deer and Elk we have around here.

 

[rwmorrisonjr]

Angry, how's the light output/pattern with just the stock housing? I'm thinking of doing this but don't really want to retrofit the projectors into my brand new truck.