I have to disagree with you. If the most you're doing with your truck is driving it down to the local mall, you are probably right. If, on the other hand, you're going to be actually driving the truck at night, in inclement weather, outside the built-up areas of Metroville, USA...? You may want to re-think that line of thought. Lights are life-safety items on dark secondary highways up in the mountains, and if you cheap out on them and then still persist in driving highway speeds, eventually you're going to run into something. Like a deer, elk, moose, rock, or dumbass pedestrian who is inexplicably walking in the middle of the road dressed in mostly stone-colored clothing.
I've had to spend quite a bit of time on winter-dark roads around here, and I'm going to keep putting money into upgrading my vehicle lighting on everything I have to drive under these conditions. Anything else is just asking for fate to catch up with you, either because you get rear-ended by some other idiot who actually thinks that the posted speed limit is the mandatory minimum, even though they're way over-driving their headlights to do so, or because you yourself are in a hurry and going faster than you really should.
Frankly, I want a minimum of about 3/4 mile visibility ahead of me, and if I don't have that, I've learned I need better lights.
Never ceases to amaze me how people project the conditions they've experienced on to others. California has a lot more light-hours per day in the winter than we do up here. We haven't even hit winter solstice yet, and daylight hours are down to about 8 hours of light. You go to work in the dark, you come home in the dark, and if you're driving anywhere after work to run errands or whatever, it's dark. Under those conditions, if you don't treat your lights with the same mentality that you do your seat belts and tires, you're nuts.
