headlights 2014 Edge

[lm700]

Hello Folks.

Have a question and I'm prepared for being slammed but that's ok. I'm tough.

 

I have a 2014 Edge. LOVE this car. .....BUT.....HATE these projector cut off beams. 2 weeks ago d@mn near killed two people walking along a rural road at night because the road was hilly, I would go down the hill and the cutoff would hide the immediate coming up sweep of the road, and then as I went up the other side, there were two people walking along the side of the road and the cutoff was way too much contrast to allow me to see them from otherwise ambient soft light. I would like to know if there are any replacement headlight assemblies, aftermarket probably, that are the reflector type that allows light to slight illuminate down the road further than the cutoff beam does. It's like having a dark curtain above the cutoff and I can't see anything on a dark unlit rural road until it's too late.

Now the other part of this is yeah I'm an old guy, 64, and remembering the lights of old like my Bosses and Shelbys. But there are a lot of us old farts out there and we need to see too. The only time I ever got flashed by anyone for blinding them is when I DID have my brights on. :-) Just recently bought a 06 Dodge Dakota and ...I CAN SEE AT NIGHT AGAIN!!!

 

So thanks for your patience and understanding.

 

All my best.

 

 

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

well, you can adjust the headlights a bit higher, but it may cause issues in other situations.

 

best solution? install quality HID lighting that allows you to see further and more clearly to begin with. You could add an LED bar as well, where it is acceptable to mount it will depend on what your LEOs are ok with. Sonar might help but unlikely, so stick with a lighting solution.

 

I know what you mean tho. I generally do not travel such roads, but even so, many areas are now no longer properly lit. And many people use the shoulders for walking/biking/etc, without using appropriate reflective clothing. The shoulder is meant for vehicles to pull over in emergencies, but has been "misappropriated" for other uses. So we do have to find our own solutions to maintain safety.

[TheWizard]

I agree with WWWPerfA_ZN0W, you would be better off with a good HID setup. The sharp cutoff was designed to handle much brighter light sources such as HID but got carried over to halogen headlights when they started using projectors instead of reflectors. The projectors are designed to have some "leakage" light above the cutoff for precisely the situation you describe (as well as for road signs) but with halogen bulbs that extra light is usually not enough to effectively illuminate non-reflective objects. Replacing the halogens with a good HID kit will increase that extra light without it being blinding to other drivers.

[gtyates]

I have the same complaint on our '13 Edge. Hate the projectors! They are fine on the interstate, but they suck on back-roads. I did 2 things to help mine. One is, the headlamps were actually aimed a little low, so I raised them a bit using my garage door as a backdrop and taking measurements to make sure I did not go too high. The second thing I did was a bulb upgrade. I put some bulbs made by Vosla, the +30 bulbs, and they have made a usable difference in vision. Still no real side vision, and the scenario that lm700 describes is still a bit of an issue, but it is better than it was.

 

I wish that someone made a light that could replace those stupid "bling" lights that are in the bumper with an actual usable light for night use. I couldn't care less about DRL's, but I wish someone made a light for the bumper that actually worked..

 

Maybe Ford has realized the complaints are real, because the new 2019 Edge has LED headlamps and fog lights...but it does not help us current owners at all.

[TheWizard]

I agree that the decorative lights in the bumper are pretty much useless but in the situation described by lm700, fog lights would actually be worse. Fog lights are designed to throw a wide but low beam that illuminates directly in front of the vehicle for use at slower speeds in low visibility situations. They're fine for general use in built-up areas that are generally well lit but they actually reduce your vision in dark rural areas. That's because the flood of light up close to the vehicle causes your pupils to contract, killing your distance vision. The ideal lighting in that situation is almost no light close to the vehicle but a long throw of the main headlights to illuminate as far as possible down the road.