HID's
#61
Who care's if it's legal or not, running lights that help you see and blind others is selfish, dangerous, ignorant and down right stupid. I drive past these people every night on the highways. Flashing them does nothing, they just flash back to show you they are running their low beams that scatter light and rob me of my night vision.
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.
Last edited by rickyj; 04-30-2011 at 01:58 AM.
#62
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 They are very old technology, 1800's. We use no other technology that is so old and outdated on such a massive basis.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.
#63
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.
#68
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.
#69
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.
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.
#70
JK Enthusiast
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.