[moonshiner]

Where can I get the brightest handlamps possible so I too can be like all the new luxury cars with the Super White Annoying lights...

 

[crowz]

Well if you want the brightest lights you can get then check out retro-solutions. They are a sponsor here. Post something in their section for a quick response.

But remember aim them responsibly

 

[JCart]

For Auxilliary lights check out VisionX.com and look at the LED and HID lights.
I have the 8500 HID 35 watt lights, 4500 HID 35 watt. On the Darlin's Honda Pilot put on Solstice Euro 10 watt LEDs they are wicked for thier 2"x2" size and draw like 0.7 Watts...they are brighter than 100 watt halogens for sure....

jrc

 

[bbbxcursion]

Well if you want the brightest lights you can get then check out retro-solutions. They are a sponsor here. Post something in their section for a quick response.

But remember aim them responsibly

:whs: Buy from Retro Solutions. The service and the product are top notch!

 

[moonshiner]

Thanks
Im looking forward to getting their 55w HID kit... :evil :evil

 

[gnxtc2]

IMHO the OEM and aftermarket headlights buckets are not engineered to be used with HID lights. Most of these kits just replace the bulb with a HID one. If you look at a vehicle with factory HIDs, notice how the headlight buckets are made.

I had HIDs on my truck and took them off. The HID beam was scattered and could not be focused/aimed.

IMHO you're wasting your money with HIDs and factory headlight buckets. Get yourself a headlight harness to apply full voltage to the headlights and your choice of halogen bulbs.

Pics are in my sig.

Billy T.
[email protected]

 

[crowz]

IMHO the OEM and aftermarket headlights buckets are not engineered to be used with HID lights. Most of these kits just replace the bulb with a HID one. If you look at a vehicle with factory HIDs, notice how the headlight buckets are made.

I had HIDs on my truck and took them off. The HID beam was scattered and could not be focused/aimed.

IMHO you're wasting your money with HIDs and factory headlight buckets. Get yourself a headlight harness to apply full voltage to the headlights and your choice of halogen bulbs.

Pics are in my sig.

Billy T.
[email protected]

A quality hid kit, even in the factory housings, work great. A crappy hid kit is worse than the factory bulbs.

I have no extra glare or any other problems with my retrosolutions kit. The light actually focuses better with the retro kit than it did with the stock bulbs. Plus the retro kit has a very defined line where the light stops so it doesnt blind oncoming traffic when you aim them right. That parts not really possible to do with factory bulbs since they bleed light up too far thus getting you flashed by traffic you meet especially if you have a lifted truck.

You might want to try hids again from a better company or better yet find someone on psn that has the retrosolutions kit that lives close to you to see what its like.

One thing I noticed looking at your pics you dont have them aimed right. The low beams are aimed way to high. You had them where I'd probably set my high beams at.

 

[OBSWIZ]

Hids... good read...


HID retrofits – stay away from them. The results are usually less than expected. More importantly, they are illegal in all states. DOT has recently begun fining suppliers and manufactures



H4, 9004 and 9007 bulbs are dual element lamp – both low and high beam. An HID capsule is a single element so you loose one of the beams – more often you loose the low. Notice also that the low beam has a shield next to it – an HID Capsule does not.



The light sources in any lamp must be precisely placed at the design focal point. The lens/reflector assembly is computer designed for the shape of the light source. You cannot retrofit a standard HID capsule with the H1, H3, H4, H7 or 9000 series mounting hardware and precisely position the light source because the design of the bulb base is not precise enough. A lamp designed for a D2S capsule has a precision machined capsule holder, not a stamped steel or molded plastic one.



The light source of an HID is a totally different shape than the light source of a filament bulb. The source for a halogen bulb is an axial filament with a length and a width. The source of a D2S, or D2R HID Capsule is a globular point. Want to see how precise a filament has to be placed? Take a look at the two filaments in an H4 bulb and see how close they are – that’s all the difference between a high beam and a low beam pattern. Now take a look at a 9004 or 9007 – the two filaments are right next to each other. The difference between a high and a low beam is fractions of a millimeter.



There are a number of fly-by-nights out there modifying the standard D2S HID Capsule to fit in some of the other bulb mounts, but those are dangerous to use in a DOT lamp. They put out 2½ times the light of a halogen bulb – but because of the DOT pattern, oncoming traffic is going to be dazzled by the extra light. That’s all fine and good if you don’t mind blinding oncoming traffic. Best case, everyone flashes at you – worst case, they swerve into your lane because they can’t see. Somewhere in between, a state trooper runs you down and makes you get your lights fixed – there goes your investment down-the-drain.



You may have seen Hella HID conversions kits on the internet. I spoke to Hella and asked about them. They said they don’t make those kits. Some one is buying our ballasts and capsules, modifying the capsules and passing them off as a Hella products



Another problem you are going to have is the wavelength of the light output is a short wavelength – which means it dazzles and diffracts much more than the warmer, longer wavelength of a halogen source. One of the reasons gas discharge technology is only on high-end cars is that most are now going to a “self-leveling” system for the headlamps to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic in acceleration situations and when cresting a hill. You won’t have this and the risk that you will dazzle oncoming traffic is enhanced because you don’t. Hold your breath the first time you dazzle an oncoming state trooper and you can’t dip you running light.

 

[crowz]

Guess after reading all that my best recommendation is stay away from hella hids, they are knock offs

To bad 99% of the light pattern info and all is wrong vs modern aftermarket hid kits.

 

[countryboyrob]

^^^^ now thats some good reading

 

[OBSWIZ]

Sorry but Crowz it hasen't anything to do with Hella or any other Hid capsule its the focus ability of a stock housing that isn't designed for Hids. Nothing can change that fact. This is why NO manufactor of Hids will sell a retrofit kit, resellers of capsule's yes. Its also illegal in every state. Like I've said before use them just be informed.

 

[crowz]

The stock housings are designed to put light out. Period. You can use halogens, hids, candles, glow sticks, or pixies for all I care. Its still light.

Its going to focus what ever light you put in them the same way.

What your going to see different with the different light sources is areas showing up that normally you might not see because of the light not being as bright from one source to another. Just because you change whats making the light it isnt going to bend in some new fangled direction.



In figures 1 here we have low beam hids in stock housings.
Notice the PERFECT line where the light stops. Try studying the picture and see if you can find light bleed over problems that would bother on coming traffic.

Now if figure 2 we have the same everything formula wise as figure 1 except this is in the high beam setting.

Wheres the glare? Wheres the light bending effects?

 

[Aljay]

I use a GOS performance wiring kit and silverstar ultras.

 

[389SixPack]

The stock housings are designed to put light out. Period. You can use halogens, hids, candles, glow sticks, or pixies for all I care. Its still light.

Its going to focus what ever light you put in them the same way.

What your going to see different with the different light sources is areas showing up that normally you might not see because of the light not being as bright from one source to another. Just because you change whats making the light it isn't going to bend in some new fangled direction.

Negatory on that one. If you change the focal point of the light source and/or the shape of light point, you change everything.

Specification for 9007/H5 bulb requires a precise filament placement from the bulb base for standardization of the focal point. Halogen bulbs are manufactured to the SAE Standard Specification and all the lamp housings, reflectors and lens are designed for that focal point.

There is a standard to make HID carts for projector applications, but when aftermarket folks decide to make HID replacements for standard bulbs, all that is out the window. The specs are all over the place with each company that sells them. i.e.:

and what happens when the focal point is changed? Well light starts leaking all over the place, the beams spread or are mis shaped, or converge off center of the intended line of sight. Remember, we can only adjust our lights in the vertical. i.e.

So, with any one HID setup, you may luck out with a setup that works, you may not - will they be brighter - inherently, because the bulbs are brighter, but if you are only lighting close in to the vehicle with bright like, it is only a perceived increase. So what is the real answer here, well buy a set of aftermarket headlamps that are designed to be HID projectors and play it safe with optimum light by design. i.e.

 

[crowz]

Thats true if the bulb dimensions are off the final point will be in a different location. But a given light at a given point does not change because the light source type changes. So light wave lengths do not change the way the light is reflected. Thats been my gripe with the way people have listed the differences all along. Also its not going to cause it to glare more. The worse its going to do is cause the destination of the light to change if the position of the light source moves. Type of light has no effect what so ever.

 

[JCart]

Thanks guys very informative.....this is much like taking your Mag lite flashlight and replacing the incandesent bulb with halogen and again with LED....bright to brighter to britest. The beam pattern will change as the focal point or light source relative to reflector changes with each type of bulb. The good news with the Maglite is that you can manually compensate by changing the reflector, (reflector to bulb distance to change light pattern) which can not be done with out head lights...dang....

I notice that Retro solutions has a retro fit HID projector beam assembly for our headlights...you gotta pull apart the light buckets though to install the projector....in theory this might be a really good system as the projector may not utilize the headlamp bucket reflector and in theory the projector beam may have better light control....these HID projectors are another option and will add yet more options....hahahaaa...just gotta love more options

thanks,

jrc

 

[389SixPack]

Thats true if the bulb dimensions are off the final point will be in a different location. But a given light at a given point does not change because the light source type changes. So light wave lengths do not change the way the light is reflected. Thats been my gripe with the way people have listed the differences all along. Also its not going to cause it to glare more. The worse its going to do is cause the destination of the light to change if the position of the light source moves. Type of light has no effect what so ever.

Unfortunately, the manufacturers that make the D1R, D2R, D1S, D2S, and 9500 HIDs, make them to go specifically into projector applications. It is folks that buy them and try to adapt them to replace standard halogen bulbs that neglect the focal points for the mirror or lens applications. Thus a blurry or out of focus light will create more extraneous light than the standard DOT projector pattern. You are correct, the color does not affect focus, but the color does produce more glare.

A little except I found might help a little:
"Blue and violet are very difficult for the human optical system to process correctly. They are the shortest visible wavelengths and tend to focus in front of our eyes' retina, rather than upon it. To demonstrate this to yourself, find a dark blue store front sign or something else that's a dark, pure blue against a dark background in the absence of white light—from any appreciable distance, it's almost impossible for your eyes to see the blue lighted object as a sharply defined form;the edges blur significantly. Deep blue runway lights exhibit the same effect; check it out the next time you land at night.

Blue also is a very difficult color of light to look at; it stimulates the reaction we call glare. Within the range of allowable white light, bluer headlamps have been shown to be 46% more glaring than yellower ones for a given intensity of light. So, it seems culling the blue out of the spectrum lightens the optical workload and reduces glare."

Getting late - more discussion later. LOL

 

[crowz]

Thus the reason I always recommend 4300k. Its the closest to natural sunlight and doesnt cause the glaring blue does. I had mentioned that in another post on here.

 

[OBSWIZ]

The stock housings are designed to put light out. Period. You can use halogens, hids, candles, glow sticks, or pixies for all I care. Its still light.

Its going to focus what ever light you put in them the same way.

What your going to see different with the different light sources is areas showing up that normally you might not see because of the light not being as bright from one source to another. Just because you change whats making the light it isnt going to bend in some new fangled direction.



In figures 1 here we have low beam hids in stock housings.
Notice the PERFECT line where the light stops. Try studying the picture and see if you can find light bleed over problems that would bother on coming traffic.

Now if figure 2 we have the same everything formula wise as figure 1 except this is in the high beam setting.

Wheres the glare? Wheres the light bending effects?

Not much light throw if you ask me ..got them aimed so low whats the point.

Its boils down to Science you either belive the enginers or you don't.

 

[crowz]

Guess I dont believe then because I dont blind traffic and I see just fine. Plus I dont have to worry about melting the housings like I would with stuff overwattage halogens in a stock housing which I have seen melt a set when my brother in law ran piaa's in his stock obs headlights. As for them not throwing light far thats an incline going up my driveway. I'll post some pics from highway driving.