My Silverstar Ultras are 4 years old and still going strong. I run them day and night unless I'm just kicking around town.

 

I put in Silverstars in my previous truck, after going thru 4 bulbs in less than 3 years, went back to stock. I do a lot of driving at night. For my '09, I tried the PIAA's and compared to stock were a tad brighter but the higher color tricked my eyes being able to see better. Don't know durability as I ended up going retro's.

 

I've never had any issues with the silver stars or the ultras.....Philips xtremes are good too.....

 

I see H13 led lights online at a lot of places, why would they not be usable for a F-150? not bright enough?

 

Cough cough......unless you retrofit some in.....

 

Those are not meant to be used as primary sources of illumination. They give off 250, maybe 300 lumens. Thats about the same as your turn signals or a handheld flashlight. Most people buy those "bulbs" for fog lamps for purely aesthetic purposes. As far as using them to see anything, you'd be better off getting a candle.

Far from it. There are only a few LED modules out there powerful enough to compete with halogens/HIDs in the thousands of lumens range. I belive the new Audi A8 uses LED headlights, the new Mitsubishi Leaf, Cadillac Escalade, and the Lexus Ls600 series. Not only do they emit INTENSE amounts of heat (the whole housing is a heatsink) they use a combination of reflectors and projectors to get proper beam control, because they are using one MASSIVE LED die instead of many small ones. I believe that single die is rated at maybe 27W. Retrofitting LEDs is a LONG ways away. I'd give it maybe another 6-7 years before they are common place and manufacturers can get the heat down and output up.

Lexus:



Caddy:



How it works:

 

I have been running Philips X-Treme bulbs for 2 years now with no issues what so ever. The benefits are miles over stock. They include shining more light to the curb side of the road, brighter beam further down the road without causing glare onto on comming traffic. There are sharp cut-offs on both beams. I find these to be great when traveling at night on unlit roads and highways making the drive less stressful as the light does travel further down the road. As their site states it's where the hot spot is in relation to the reflector. These seem to cast light where it's needed. I also have a set on my Boxster as well. They do last a long time.

Here is a link to a US seller --->http://store.candlepower.com/bfcopoh1390p.html

 

I have been getting about 4-6 years or 140k miles out of my Silverstar heads and fogs... Good enough for me.

 

Great results guys. When I had halogens, I replaced them every year right before winter (longer nights). After about a year or two, the halogen cycle starts the slow down and deteriorate, and they lose about 20-30% output.

 

Back in the day, if you had a four headlight system, we would replace the 'Hi' beam with Aircraft Landing Lights.

Really, really illegal, even back then (1967-70) but were like having two Police spot-lites in the grill.

 

What did you guys replace them with, exactly? Both of my airplanes have standard 35W landing lights @ ~1000lm each. Not exactly the brightest thing in the world.

 

Dude, this was back in the mid-60's.

Automotive stores in Ann Arbor carried them on the shelves, back then.

All I remember was that they were round and had a clear lens instead of being fluted.

I also remember the low beam headlight had to be removed so one of the blades for the connection could be altered so the low beams wouldn't operate at the same time as the Aircraft Landing Lites because of the amperage draw.

If that wasn't done, the fuse for the headlights would blow, constantly.

Edit:
I did have some problems with melting connectors on my 1961 Dodge Dart 'Pioneer', but they worked really, really well in my 1965 Corvair 'Monza'.

After the 'Monza' I bought my 1969 Dodge Dart 340 'Swinger' with only 2 headlights instead of 4 so I sorta lost interest after that.

I paid 2,400$ for that Swinger, out the door.

 

Raptor,

I think you'll find that the older A-Pillar mounted spot lights used by many police agencies had a sealed beam similar to the aircraft landing lights mentioned. They are indeed pretty bright. The amperage draw was pretty significant if I recall correctly.

I used to have one in the basement. Let me see if I still have it.

 

I've used the PIAA Xtremes in the past, and really like them.

 

If you read the reviews on Amazon a lot of the higher output bulbs tend to burn out faster.