rickyj

A slightly brighter beam, be honest - you are not being "blinded" multiple times every night, is far less dangerous then higher than stock ride height or an aftermarket bumper to other drivers. Higher ride height places the impact zone up into the passenger compartment of a sedan in the event of an impact. Aftermarket bumpers moreso any that are "stinger type" drastically change the point of impact on another vehicle. The consequences are not even close. The HID may mildly irritate some grump on the road, but a lifted jeep with a stinger bumper is going to KILL any front seat occupant in a crash.

I find it odd that there are so many on this forum that are proud they are driving up-armored virtual tanks that sit at car head height complaining about getting a little light in their eyes. I don't have a problem with either one, but I have driven by plenty of aftermarket HID and I have rarely felt that I have been inconvenienced, let alone incapacitated.

Late ETA - The illegal part is huge, if not the only point. That determines what I or others can and can not do without consequence. If I was worried about people hating me I wouldn't drive a JK, as it massively offends people that drive a Prius. You have to realize that each and every time you hop in your JK you are being judged and hated by many people on the road. They don't all think "boy is that guy AWESOME!!!" even if you do. You are driving a low MPG toy on the road and it is an easy bet that 20-30% of the people absolutely hate your guts and think your JK should be illegal.

rickyj

Okay in what way? Some on here would tell you that you risk a $10,000 fine and forfeiture of your vehicle. If you mean heat, any housing that handles an 85w filament bulb will easily handle an 85w gas bulb. Gas bulbs emit much more light than heat. So at 55w you would be running even cooler.

Filament is old stuff. Incandescent bulbs have been effectively banned in the not too distant future (2 years from now) for domestic use because they produce so much more heat than light with that energy. Only about 3.5% of the energy ends up as light. They are very old technology, 1800's. We use no other technology that is so old and outdated on such a massive basis. HID bulbs use gas excitation. They produce light much more efficiently. Around 15% or so of the energy goes to producing light. That is why at the same wattage, you get about 3-4 times the total light output.

So if you are worrying about melting your housings, if they can handle 85w filament - they should be able to handle around a 100w HID bulb. Doesn't make a difference though, because I don't think they go up above 55w.

zig650

HID's are in and working great. I went with the DDM 35w slim ballast kit and 6000k bulbs, huge improvement over stock. Install was straight forward, plug and play, 100% compatible with factor harness. Additionally I picked up a set of H10 HID's and slim ballast for the driving lights.

maxamillion

what intensity are these?

joshmccabe

Sorry to hijack the thread, but would these be the best bet for HID's ?

Also if I purchased this kit, would I need to buy any additional items? Thanks!

maxamillion

if i have an cibie house for hid's can i use an h4 bulb? or do i have to stick with the h13?

maxamillion

awesome thanks. another question. 35w or 55w? does anyone have comparative pictures. are 55w to bright?

rickyj

The main difference that you are going to get is from the more efficient bulb - not the power. The 35w should have about 3 times the light, the 55w about 4 times the light.

If you search for "HID headlights for JK" on Google you can find some pics compared to stock. I didn't find any 35w to 55w comparison.

rickyj

Well I decided to skip the full photo writeup since I found some really good ones before I installed, and there is no way that I could match that level of detail.

The canbus ballasts that I got have no warning light, and no flickering whatsoever on high or low beam. They are steady, bright light. Perhaps too bright, I guess time will tell. The canbus ballasts are about 1/4" + on each dimension than their other ballast (they sent me the wrong one first). That made for some issues fitting. I was hoping they would fit above body mount, but no way without custom bracket. So far they are on the inside of the radiator opening.

In a hat tip to Riptide, if I had it to do again - I would go with the 35 watt ballasts, because the 55w is definitely more light than you need. If there are 35 watt canbus ballasts, get them instead.

As for the cutoff, it really is pretty sharp. I don't think there is light going anywhere that it wasn't before - it is just that there is SO much more light. Driving around before I even adjusted them down I didn't get any flashes from people that I passed in city/suburban environment - including three police officers. And that is Arvada PD, they are total asses that will roll up on you in a parking lot lights going to do a "welfare check" - shoot just last year close to 10% of them were arrested/fired. They arrest a school kid for nonsense at least once a month, beat people up, etc. Google it up. If it was illegal here in Colorado at least, I would have been pulled over in the last two days no doubt. On the highway, it was about every other vehicle that flashed me. And they are bright as hell and were totally misaimed, so I don't blame them. It was pretty easy to adjust them down to a reasonable/appropriate level though, and I don't think it should cause an issue now. I had people flash me all the time with my stocks too, and they weren't great at illuminating the road usually, dangerous in the rain - so I think much of it has to do with the height of the vehicle / people liking to flash.

I would definitely go with the canbus ballasts, more companies than VVME sell them, but they did me well. There is no flickering at ALL. As far as being able to see, there is absolutely no comparison. Night and day. Since I bought my JK I have always put on the fogs, because they about doubled the light on the road - which was barely adequate sometimes. With the HID in, you can barely see the fogs as a pathetic yellow light on the road. And you have to look, if you weren't looking you wouldn't be able to tell on or not. They are definitely staying in. So far I am very happy with them, finally I can see the lane markings when the road is wet and the reflectors on the side of the road actually light up now.

Randonizer

for people that already have a hid kit, is there any projector headlight housings out there? i found some for tj's that are h4. but i was wondering if there are any h13 projector headlight housings. just the housing and no lights inside.