Higher power lighting

Well, I personally want HID, which would be a vast improvement over standard lighting. But also the after-market lights tend to be appellative for their ascetics as well as improved brightness.

Anyone want to "lend" me three bills for Philips 9007 HID conversion? :) LOL

Would it?

There's more to headlamps than brighter or whiter light. You have to consider the beam pattern, too.

The best headlamps I ever drove behind were Hella E-code replacement headlamps. H-4 bulbs with 55 watt low beams and the European beam pattern gave me a solid fill of light in front of the vehicle with a very sharp upper cut-off that kept me from blinding on-coming traffic with a kick-up on the right letting me see signs or pedestrians along the side of the road. Too bad the U.S. DOT and the SAE think this beam pattern is A Bad Thing for automobiles (though it's OK for motorcycles ).

HIDs are a fad and a styling gimmick. Yeah, sure, the light is brighter. But if that light isn't well-controlled, it dazzles and blinds on-coming traffic. Unless the reflectors and lenses in your headlamps are designed for HID, please forget about the conversion. The people who have to face you in traffic will thank you for it.

It's interesting that the beam pattern from my stock '03 Explorer headlamps on low beam is the same as my old Hella E-code headlamps on HIGH beam. What I see when I shine my headlamps on a wall is an X pattern with as much light going above the horizontal center line of the lamps as below. Apparently, Ford's headlamp engineers don't get it.

Anybody know where I can buy E-code replacements for a third gen Explorer? Do they make them for the European market (where U.S. standard headlamps are generally banned)? Now, that would be an improvement.

Bob...