Am i the only one thinking the headlights on these trucks suck?

Maybe its just me but headlights at least on my ranger sucks they are shit brightness wise and how far out and everything they go i put new bulbs in i put silverstars in them and i adjusted my headlights to where there not pointed down like when i got them but now there pointed as far up as they will go and still not helping. Some help would be great it makes me hate driving at night.

I think my headlights are great. I drive alot of other vehicles for work and their headlights are worse than Ranger headlights. The only thing I wish Ranger brights had were more distance... but thats what a set of off-road lights are for.

i think the headlights on my 01 are awesome especially after i put silverstars in them.

While I understand you hating your lights, pointing them up just puts them in other driver's eyes. First, I would just clean the daylights out of your lense, It made all the difference in my second gen.

If you wanna go all out, O'Reilleys (only place I've found 'em - Walmart just had silverstars) had silverstar ULTRA's... I've been using them for about 2 years and love them. I second the aiming thing.... don't want to go too high and I've never been "flashed" by another driver so mine must be aimed correct. Granted, the 98-01 gen has the biggest lights too. Only vehicle I've owned with better lights was my 1999 Cherokee, but still had glass headlamps so its nit like they oxidised or anything... my friend once joked you could X-ray a dear with the highbeams on that thing....

StephenLewis said:

While I understand you hating your lights, pointing them up just puts them in other driver's eyes. First, I would just clean the daylights out of your lense, It made all the difference in my second gen.

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I was going to say this too? Are they oxidized and yellow? You can buff that out

I've got a set of brand new headlights on my '94, with new bulbs. On bright, their about like low on sealed beam headlights.

I've tried aiming them, but when I aim them up, it just seems like the light just feathers out.

The bulbs that are in them came with the headlights, and they came off ebay. I suspected they might have been low-quality, but I don't really see how. Anyone got any ideas?

shitty bulbs, bad ground connection, or you aimed them so far up they just point into the air.

It must just be the bulbs then. I tried aiming them at several different angles, and nothing seemed to help.

What is a good set of bright bulbs for these trucks? No blue shit either, haha.

Ok, I'll just shout out some pretty generic RBV lighting tips...

I have a gen 2 Bronco II, so I don't have the same housings as you, but all of this really applies...

1. Make sure your lenses are not yellowed, and your reflectors are still shiny. I'm talking mirror like shine, not just "Yea they're still silver." If the just the lenses have yellowed, you can buy polish at advance, autozone, etc, that will buff them clear. This helps, but the inside of the lens yellows too, and you can't polish that, so there's only so much good you can do...

2. If your headlight housings are too far gone, buy some new housings. Ebay is your friend here! I picked up a set of headlights for my Bronco II on eBay, and they cost me like 60 bucks shipped.

3. If your truck doesn't already have them (I believe your truck should, because its a later model) convert from 9006 bulbs to 9007 bulbs. You can look it up on the forums, as its a simple conversion. You have to shave one locating pin out of the headlight with a knife, and then swap two wires... I believe I did a writeup for us 2nd gen ranger and BII, and 1st gen explorer people, and you should be able to find that on here...

4. Buy Silverstar Ultras, or a pair of the Phillips ultra white bulbs. Silverstars can be found locally, the Phillips bulbs usually have to be purchased on the internet.

5. Make sure your headlights are aimed properly. Too low, and you'll just illuminate the road directly in front of you. Too high, and you'll be blinding other drivers, and you still won't be illuminating the road properly.

6. If all the above fails to make you happy, its time for auxilarly lighting. If you want to see way out in the distance, get yourself a decent pair of driving lights, such as Hella 500's, 700's, or 700ff's. You can search the forum to find out more about all that stuff if you need more info.

By all means, do NOT install one of those aftermarket HID kits in your lights. They blind the crap out of other drivers (even worse than improperly aimed headlights) and really they aren't going to do that much for you, because the beam won't be focused properly. But really, the above list of things should be enough to make you happy...

I know that by doing #'s 1-5 on my truck, it made a world of difference! I'm about to experience number 6 tonight, when I finally get my driving lights all wired up! I also did all of the above on my dads Dodge Dakota, and its like daytime in front of that thing now! With the driving lights burning, you'll actually blind yourself in oncoming road signs!

what i've noticed on mine (halogen) is that they work great when i'm on a dark highway, but when on a highway in the city with other vehicles around, the headlights seem to somehow lose their efectiveness. for example, everytime i'd see a vehicle pass by me, i'd check their headlight beam on the road. 90% of the vehicles had a nice bright beam of light, while mine loked like the beam wasn't even there. My headlights are aimed lower than factory specs, so you'd think it would be nice and bright in front of my truck, but no. And, i'm using the xtreme power bulbs. Also, the headlight lens is clean and clear. The lights LOOK bright, but don't shine bright on the road.

machine090767 said:

what i've noticed on mine (halogen) is that they work great when i'm on a dark highway, but when on a highway in the city with other vehicles around, the headlights seem to somehow lose their efectiveness. for example, everytime i'd see a vehicle pass by me, i'd check their headlight beam on the road. 90% of the vehicles had a nice bright beam of light, while mine loked like the beam wasn't even there. My headlights are aimed lower than factory specs, so you'd think it would be nice and bright in front of my truck, but no. And, i'm using the xtreme power bulbs. Also, the headlight lens is clean and clear. The lights LOOK bright, but don't shine bright on the road.

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How old are your bulbs? Just wondering, because bulbs do tend to dim gradually over time... If I were you, I'd upgrade to some brighter bulbs, and possibly point them up a hair if they really are lower than factory as you say... To me, it actually sounds like they might be aimed too high already... But thats just me... This might explain why you can see OK out in front of you on a dark highway, but not very well up close in a well lit city street...

Don't take that as pointing fingers or anything, I'm just pointing it out as a possibility!

The bulb's filament will degrade as the bulb get's older. A 2yr old bulb will be 25% less bright than a new bulb. That's why down the road you won't have an option of buying singles. All manufacturers are putting "Replace in pairs" on their packaging now.

Silverstar Ultras have set the standard for lighting currently. Also depending on how much night driving you do the bulbs will degrade faster. Keep the lenses clean, clean the bulb sockets and install contact lube in the socket when installing new bulbs. Make sure EVERY ground on the lighting circuit is good not just at the socket itself.

I got brand new housings on both sides off ebay, that came with the bulbs. I'm thinking the bulbs must be some shitty chinese overstock quality, and that would explain the poor lighting.

Yeah i used to think silverstars were the ish but then I was givin the chance to experience HIDs and let me tell you when I wrecked my 93 and went to a 86 pontiac it was like I had no headlights on... Well I got an 04 ranger and the Lighting got a little better then I got some HIDs for it and they are BRIGHT, I had a ballast Go and went back to Silverstars for a couple weeks and it was unreal how dark they seam..

So if you want Bright Light go with HIDs