This is going to be expensive

What would you do to up the light on the F150, want to figure something out for the Raptor?

 

Unfortunately the F150 has very poor headlights, even the upgraded OEM LED headlights are terrible. Both the halogens and OEM LED are given the worst headlight score possible by IIHS. I've not experimented with halogen bulb upgrades on those assemblies but typically if the headlight is rated as awful then bulb upgrades will only get you so much. For bulb upgrades to be most effective, precision optics are needed and the assemblies rated the worst typically lack those precision optics, which is in part why their performance is so poor. The 4runner headlight test vs the Tacoma headlight tests posted in the 3rd Gen headlight thread are an excellent example of this, except the 4runner was rated marginal (not poor) and has an outstanding OEM LED option, unlike the F150.

You can gain a huge boost in output intensity by swapping to the Morimoto XB v2 LED headlight units. However the units lack any uplight in the pattern, making them not really a legitimate headlight pattern. Without uplight you'll end up being blinded by your own beam pattern where you cannot see beyond your low beam cut off, the result is it actually limits your vision more than helps it. The high contrast at the cut off with no uplight will prevent you from seeing further as it will be total blackness above the cut off, which ironically makes the higher output intensity actually more harmful than helpful. With an OEM headlight you have lower intensity light above the cut off to help you see beyond your low beam without being disruptive to oncoming drivers. Every compliant OEM headlight has uplight. All those social media type posts showing razor sharp cut offs are actually demonstrating a lack of headlight understanding, because that is not what you want even though it makes for cool pictures. And in the 3rd Gen Morimoto testing done, quality wasn't great, you can see the full v2.0 review in post #4548 here. Unfortunate, because if Morimoto actually designed a proper headlight and had better QC these could be an outstanding solution to the problem. As they exist today, I would not recommend them.

That leaves retros. I am not a fan of retros, nor do I advocate for retros. There are so many garbage products out there in the retro space, and the quality of the retro can vary greatly from good to total garbage. Retros are also not legal. But in a vehicle with such poor headlights, you might entertain the idea with the caveat of using legitimate OEM grade components. This means real D2S projectors from an OEM application such as the Lexus RX350, so you can run real D2S bulbs from Osram or Philips. Then preferably an OEM ballast, such as those by Hella. Some data below. If you go with aftermarket projector such as those by Morimoto, or an H1 based system, you'll likely again end up with no uplight due to a non-compliant poorly designed projector /and/or be permanently stuck with low quality halogen based HID Chinese bulbs rather than ones from legitimate manufactures in which case you'd have just been better off going with their LED headlights.

Retro post:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ctor-headlights.589465/page-276#post-26704071

 

Here's one for you. It took some digging in my lighting parts stash, but I knew I had a set of these. They're Hella 550 mid-beams. (NLA as far as I know.) I used them on a Mazda 626 that had the world's worst low beam headlights. They did a pretty credible job of replacing the low beams and didn't bother oncoming drivers.

 

Bosch compact 100 Fog and (discintinued) Hella XL fog both offer a wide fog lamp beam with a central high(er) intensity hotspot that makes them useful as an auxiliary lowbeam.

 

Those are a nice find!!! SAE Z or J582 are very rare. J582 (aux low beam) was discontinued. Any chance there is a part number?

 

Looks like the part number is 301-134 622-05. You can see it if you zoom in really close to the upper image on the bottom left, but it's hard to read. I couldn't find much in my searches other than 1 on ebay for $80.

 

From what I can make out on the lens, the part number is: TA 10 301-134 622-03

 

I thought the same thing! But when I looked online the -05 kept coming up and nothing came up for the -03.

The listing on eBay shows that lens and on the back it shows that it is the “Comet 550”. Though I cannot find that lens style for the Comet 550.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HELLA-FOG-...-z-92-Right-Left-BMW-SAAB-VOLVO-/322260419304



EDIT: I just realized you already mentioned they were 550 mid-beams. DOH

 

So if your jeep had lights like the Raptor what would you do? Thoughts on putting some of those low beam snow plow lights in the fog light spot. Figure that's probably still higher position than say the headlights on vet or Camero.