Poor low beam road lighting performance on the Maverick

[twntyfive2life]

Fortunately, IF you are watching the road, you still have the ability to dim the headlights manually.

Doesn't matter if you're watching the road or not because if you're illuminating someone enough to see it's too late, you've already fried their vision

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[Ohio Mitch]

Interesting, have a 2024 Lariat. My lows seem a little dim too. Brights are good, both light up the signs. But I also have cataracts.

 

[gp1200x]

It's in the dash settings menu somewhere. I totally blinded a bicyclist who was on a path alongside a 55 mph road shortly after getting the truck and disabled them immediately after. Still feel bad about that, can't believe auto high beams are legal even. No regard to anyone who might be near the road. We've got 100 years with manual high beam control, no reason to change it now.

Interesting, have a 2024 Lariat. My lows seem a little dim too. Brights are good, both light up the signs. But I also have cataracts.

What people didn't understand was that the headlights themselves seem to have a lot of lumens (brightness) but it is somewhat misdirected. That is my issue with the Maverick headlights. If you drive along side others on a highway at night you will notice that most of the other cars place a lot more light down directly in front of their cars in the 0-70 foot range. This is something that the Maverick does poorly in. The Maverick headlights seem to focus most of their light in a small light spread that does a good job of lighting up signs down the road and sides but not the road immediately in front of the truck.

You can verify this by comparing your other cars headlights to the Mavericks on a garage door from 15 feet away. You will see that the Maverick Lariat with the LED projectors shines the majority of its light in a narrow beam with pretty significant cutoffs for both high and low. Not sure what the XL/XLT reflector halogen lights compare.

Installing the DIODE Dynamics fog lights and wiring them to be on during both high and low beams does a great job of solving this issue and the difference is amazing. Fogs should have been an option on the Lariat from the start.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

What people didn't understand was that the headlights themselves seem to have a lot of lumens (brightness) but it is somewhat misdirected. That is my issue with the Maverick headlights. If you drive along side others on a highway at night you will notice that most of the other cars place a lot more light down directly in front of their cars in the 0-70 foot range. This is something that the Maverick does poorly in. The Maverick headlights seem to focus most of their light in a small light spread that does a good job of lighting up signs down the road and sides but not the road immediately in front of the truck.

You can verify this by comparing your other cars headlights to the Mavericks on a garage door from 15 feet away. You will see that the Maverick Lariat with the LED projectors shines the majority of its light in a narrow beam with pretty significant cutoffs for both high and low. Not sure what the XL/XLT reflector halogen lights compare.

Installing the DIODE Dynamics fog lights and wiring them to be on during both high and low beams does a great job of solving this issue and the difference is amazing. Fogs should have been an option on the Lariat from the start.

About a month ago I encountered an suv with 8-12 lights low like fog lights. They were on and so bright they hurt my eyes at about 10:30 am. I considered calling the sheriff but I couldn't get his plate #.

 

[Ryom]

About a month ago I encountered an suv with 8-12 lights low like fog lights. They were on and so bright they hurt my eyes at about 10:30 am. I considered calling the sheriff but I couldn't get his plate #.

Reminds me of an old coworker of mine that had terrible night vision, and so elected to install the brightest LED bulbs and aftermarket fogs possible and just blind everyone else so it looks like daylight for him.

 

[Pointyears]

About a month ago I encountered an suv with 8-12 lights low like fog lights. They were on and so bright they hurt my eyes at about 10:30 am. I considered calling the sheriff but I couldn't get his plate #.

Probably like this here. Totally not street legal.

 

[kevinmccune]

Just depends what you are used to. Maverick HL's are just average, compared to modern LED HL's across the makes/models. I find the high beams more lacking than the low beams. But they are certainly adequate, and reasonable for the price of the vehicle, IMO.

doesn't seem like the hibeams offer much brightness over the low beams,not much of a problem for me nowadays,I avoid driving after dark

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Me to, got rid of the cataracts and my glasses.

I had to keep my glasses since I refused to pay the $1800 per eye for the custom replacement cornea to correct my astigmatism! I can see fine without the glasses but chose distance correction for surgery which required reading glasses with astigmatism correction. I get glasses from va semiannually. I wanted to get cornea far correction in left eye and near correction in right eye so I wouldn't have to wear bifocals but couldn't convince surgeon I could handle that (I had worn contacts like that for years so I felt ok with it but gave up with surgeon)!

 

[Sticks]

I agree with IIHS, which rates them "Acceptable", but not ideal by today's standards.

They fall short on LH turns and seem to have a bit more glare than is necessary for "sign lighting".
They perform better than most vehicles I've owned, but not as good as a typical OEM LED projector.

 

[Sticks]

Even at max load, the tail does not sag nearly as much as it does on other trucks. The headlights might move up maybe 2 degrees, but that's about it.

To be fair, a 2 degree squat would result in the beam raising over 5ft at a 150ft distance. It's still more than enough to glare everyone.

 

[Carlitos_92]

What people didn't understand was that the headlights themselves seem to have a lot of lumens (brightness) but it is somewhat misdirected.

Several people have mentioned that these headlights are adjustable by the owner for vertical rise/fall. Have you looked into that at all?

 

[Pointyears]

Several people have mentioned that these headlights are adjustable by the owner for vertical rise/fall. Have you looked into that at all?

P.S. the Maverick lights aren't "projectors" on any trim level.

They sure are on my 2025 Lariat.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Probably a stupid question, but have you adjusted them down a little? Mine were lighting up everything but the road. adjusted down a little bit and they're pretty good now.

Same.

Mine came from the factory with headlamps aimed up way too much.

Quick and easy to adjust and makes a world of difference. Like a new truck!

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

Even at max load, the tail does not sag nearly as much as it does on other trucks. The headlights might move up maybe 2 degrees, but that's about it.

The nose goes UP A LOT with a load in the bed.

I was blinding 18-wheelers until I got out with a + screwdriver and adjusted my headlamps down, quite a bit needed even with a modest 700 lbs in the back.

 

[Mavster Mechanic]

About a month ago I encountered an suv with 8-12 lights low like fog lights. They were on and so bright they hurt my eyes at about 10:30 am. I considered calling the sheriff but I couldn't get his plate #.

People who run fog lights on all the time suck IMHO.

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