not sure you know the difference, but forgive me if you already do
halogen bulbs have a filament - like the bulbs that came on your explorer - the lamp housing on your explorer is designed for those bulbs and reflect the light the way the ford designer intended - you can buy different kinds of halogen bulbs such as silverlight - these bulbs claim to give more light but if you ask any 3 people, you will get answers from 'yes they do' to 'no they don't'
hid bulbs like xernon are vapor lamps - like a fluorescent bulb or a streetlight - the light comes from burning gas inside the bulb instead of a filament - these bulbs need a ballast installed and new 'harness' wiring - it needs to be rewired because it draws too much power for the wires that came on your explorer - xenon bulbs cannot (or should not) be placed in your explorer's stock lamp housing - the light is very bright and it is completely unfocused (meaning, the light is blared out of the housing and will blind everyone in other cars) - xenon lights are installed in 'projectors' that reflect, direct and focus the light downward - check the pictures on here and you will see guys shining their lights on their garage doors - the lower portion is very bright but the upper area is dark - the line between the dark and light is what they call their 'cut line' - the more defined the cut line, the more prestigious - these projectors have a lens in front of the bulb and a piece of metal that allows the light to shine on the road but blocks the light above the 'cut line' - usually, guys convert to hid bulbs by installing a ballast for each bulb, wiring in the ballast AND installing an aftermarket projector - they install those projectors inside their factory headlamp housings (or buy another housing to mount the projector and swap out the factory housings) - there are threads here how to do it, but it involves baking the housing in the oven, prying it open, mounting the projector inside and resealing the housing - very bright but a LOT of work
trunner bought led lamps - the led lamps require no wiring changes - they are not filiment bulbs like halogen and they are not gas burning bulbs like xenon - they simply replace the halogen bulbs you already have - they are fairly new and i was curious how well they distribute the light in the stock headlamp housing, since the housing is designed for halogen - led lamps (in houses) are rated to last 22 years - yes - years - i don't know the rating for headlamps but i suspect they will outlast the truck
led bulbs should last the longest
halogen will burn out but last many years for me
xenon bulbs need replacement more often
might be wrong here - but light output
hid (xenon) puts out the most light
led second
halogen third
hid bulbs use the most electrical power
halogen use less
led uses very little electrical power
after seeing turnner's led lamps, i am going to get those
