Best LED Headlights for 2004 Dodge Ram 1500

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hezekiahes

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Hey everyone, I tried to find the answer by searching, but to no avail.

Can anyone recommend the best LED headlight for a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500. I read somewhere that the Dodge Ram's electrical systems were sensitive to LED headlights, but was hoping to get some solid feedback from someone who currently has them, or has had experience with them.
 

Alaric Darconville

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Can anyone recommend the best LED headlight for a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500. I read somewhere that the Dodge Ram's electrical systems were sensitive to LED headlights, but was hoping to get some solid feedback from someone who currently has them, or has had experience with them.

The only way to get LED headlamps for that truck is to replace the factory composite headlamps with sealed-beam form factor headlamps. Certain truck families have a "work truck" version which uses sealed beams-- Chevrolet/GMC trucks can be easy to convert to LED headlamps by swapping parts in the front clip so they accept sealed beam headlamps.

However, for the RAM 1500, this might not be the case, but you may check with a competent Dodge body shop. If you can, then there's a wide range of JW Speaker sealed beam form factor headlamps with heated or nonheated lenses, in 5x7 or 7" round sizes, depending on the nature of the sealed beam conversion possible.

Absent an LED sealed beam conversion, there may yet be a means to upgrade your lighting, but at the vehicle's age, and depending on what kind of sunlight and heat those headlamps are exposed to, that might need to start with new factory headlamps. It won't start (or end) with just buying bulb-shaped LED toys to go into your headlamps, whether your original ones or brand new ones.
 
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hezekiahes

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The only way to get LED headlamps for that truck is to replace the factory composite headlamps with sealed-beam form factor headlamps. Certain truck families have a "work truck" version which uses sealed beams-- Chevrolet/GMC trucks can be easy to convert to LED headlamps by swapping parts in the front clip so they accept sealed beam headlamps.

Absent an LED sealed beam conversion, there may yet be a means to upgrade your lighting, but at the vehicle's age, and depending on what kind of sunlight and heat those headlamps are exposed to, that might need to start with new factory headlamps. It won't start (or end) with just buying bulb-shaped LED toys to go into your headlamps, whether your original ones or brand new ones.

Thanks for the reply.

That is what I was afraid of.

What about these: https://www.americаntrucks.com/axial-chrome-dual-led-halo-projector-headlights-0205-RAM.html
 
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Alaric Darconville

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-Virgil-

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Alaric is right. There is practically no legitimate way to have LED headlamps in that truck, without custom-building a fixture to hold something like a 7-inch round "sealed beam" (not an actual sealed beam, but an LED headlamp made in the standard 7-inch sealed beam shape/size). All of the "LED bulbs" and "LED conversions", and all of the aftermarket "LED headlamps" to fit your truck are fraudulent junk -- not effective, not safe, not legal. Same goes for the fog lamps, if your truck has them.
 

idleprocess

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[The lamps also tend to cook reflectors (cutting output) and optics/lenses (MOAR GLARE), resulting in these vehicles reducing useful throw to perhaps 20m with indiscriminate glare inside that envelope. The bad news is this same demo now tends to supplement with LED light bars.

While LED PnP bulbs have surely come a long way since the birth of the genre ~10 years ago with towers of 5050 packages "for car show purposes only" (and other handwavery) that glare as badly as HID "kits" while producing far less light than halogen, I'm not sure they're there yet in terms of photometric testing. There are a few credible-ish claims from certain makers that stress engineering - replicating filament geometry/position as best possible, designing for and managing thermals - over the usual 'bay/'zon reality-bending output and power claims. These makes have the price and apparent warranty support to lend some credence to their claims of meeting or exceeding halogen performance in standard headlamp assemblies while being compliant with regulations. The reading I've been doing suggests that it's at least dropped below the level of subjective perception as well as easy A/B photographic comparison. But to what degree is hard to know - photometric data isn't something these companies are releasing so I'm still skeptical.

Do you know how the dealer checked the aim? I'd assume something better than tape lines on the wall from 25' away, but I'd be surprised if they analyzed the beam pattern much beyond checking vertical/horizontal aim on the hotspot.
 
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idleprocess

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HID kits and light bars are a pox on the roads of DFW; at least the latter tend not to be used terribly often on the roads. I did see a fella that had swapped his headlights for a pair of ~9" LED bars on his beat up old truck the other day - they were angled so courteously I almost didn't notice.

I'm in a similar position to you. OEM LED headlights for my vehicle are almost $2000 and will likely not fully work (no auto-levelling, possible alarms on the display). There are what look to be reasonably well-engineered turnkey aftermarket headlights for my specific vehicle that sell for less than half that (and unlike the OEM assemblies are bi-LED rather than halogen high beam), but buyer beware like almost all aftermarket. A PnP lamp solution that subjectively appears to perform better than halogen without the obvious liabilities of huckster PnP solutions does indeed appeal and I'm not turned off by the $150 price tag since engineering and warranty support isn't free.

But while I mutter about halogen performance my primary gripe is the nuisance of replacing lamps - I need to remove the airbox on one side and the battery on the other to perform a low beam swap which is not a task I relish performing roadside in the dark. This is something I will need to do again soon since the high-performance bulbs I swapped in shortly after purchasing the vehicle have already lasted more than a year.
 
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-Virgil-

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they were examined and deemed acceptable by professionals; and nobody has flashed their lights at us to complain about the new LED bulbs. That's good enough for me.

Headlamps have to work correctly as defined in reality, not according to what you and your girlfriend think you are satisfied with. A dealer aim check does not mean your lamps have been "examined and deemed acceptable by professionals"; the dealer saying the lamps are aimed correctly doesn't mean your hacked headlamps are safe, effective, or legal—in fact, they're none of those things, which is why your post was deleted: the lighting modifications/products you're asking about or recommending are illegal and unsafe. Rule 11 of this board prohibits advocating illegal or dangerous activity. And you already knew that.
 
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