Side by side comparison hid vs stock lights

6000K? 8000K?

 

4300k from slim chubby group buy. i was thinking 6000k but after careful research I realized that 4300k is the closest to my audi and VW which I really like the looks of a natural bright white as oppossed to a bluish tint which to me tends to look like the cheapos at your local auto store that is just my opinion.

 

Looks good, I wanna get hid's I'm just afraid of blinding other drivers. You should get a night shot next to eachother

 

yeah i went 4500k on both my truck and car, the higher K you go over this you're just compromising the actual amount of light you're putting down the road for the "ricer blue" look

my 35w 4500k lights in my car are brighter than my buddies 55w 8000k lights in his car

 

haha for some reason i always thought 8000k were like european cars lights....thats what i got =)

 

Hopefully they will start giving out more tickets for hids in stock housings. We have some assholes here with em that are so damn bright you cant squint enough to stop them from torching your retna's. Wrong application for on road use

 

Couldn't agree more!

 

X2. I know with our trucks you can adjust them down enough to where you dont blind drivers and still get good light output. The HID's in the fogs are the biggest problems though since they dont have a cover for the bulbs like the headlights do. Once I changed my headlights to retros though, they worked that much better.

 

Agreed! Unfortunately, they seem to be getting more popular up here and now that the days are starting to get shorter I notice it even more.

 

That looks nice with the HID. Like the brighter fogs. I like the halos too but from what ive seen there really blue. Anybody have some whiter ones?

 

Looks like the photo above IS the stock housings?
This has mixed success depending on how the stock housing is made, I have had it work well for some vehicles, but be way too blinding in others.

So, do the HIDs work well in the stock housings for our trucks then?
I realize that getting the better housings or retro fits would be even better, but I was curious if the stock housings at least project a nice, and safe beam.

 

The OP's photo is of HIDs in stock housings. As WWFirefighter stated, you can adjust stock housings so it's not blinding to oncoming traffic however it's still not the best idea in my opinion. Reflector style housings are not meant to receive HID's. A big factor is the HID kit itself. Some have a shield that sits below the HID bulb that helps with the stray light issue, others do not have this shield and cause blinding light to oncoming traffic.

 

Those lights in the OP must suck hard when approaching. I think hid brights are the way to go. Lows don't work unless they have projector cutoffs.

 

Thanks Pugga,
I agree on the bulb shields, all but one of the kits I have ever used had them, and I did notice that the non-shielded ones did have alot more glare to them, even when adjusted down.

 

I also want HID lights for trail purposes, but I do not want to be a nuisance on the road. I also could care less about how 'cool' it looks. Strictly after function here. I am also trying to keep everything as stock looking as possible for the time being so a set of off-roading lights is out of the question right now.

Is it possible to get a set up that when on low-beam, they are no brighter than halogens? The high-beams, and fogs should not be a concern at all... they should be as bright as you can possibly get, cause they can be turned off when approaching other traffic. It is really just the low-beam setting that I would be concerned about in terms of how it affects other drivers. As long as the low-beam can be "tamed" then I can have free-reign on the high-beams and fogs.

What kind of set up will achieve this??

 

The best way to acheive that (without off road lights) is retrofitting your stock housings with projectors. It will be the best light output both on and off road and will not blind oncoming traffic. I'm not aware of a kit that uses separate low and high beams and allows them to be adjusted separately.

 

my HID's that are in the stock housing have a shield on the bottom of the light......

 

mine did but i removed them

 

The two center lights are Hella 4000s with 100 watt halogen bulbs. The two lights on the outter side of the Hellas are Kragen 35 watt HID bulbs.



Here are the Hellas with 35 watt, 6000ºK bulbs (so said GG Lighting). They were too blue and useless off road (dimmer than the halogens). Others have said these look more like 8,000ºK bulbs...?


On the garage wall, both.



Now, that's the ticket... Hellas with 5,000ºK bulbs. Color very close to pure white and very close to the Kragen Euro Beam HIDs.


On the garage wall.


On the garage wall with the stock headlights also on and on high beam.




Lighting up a grassy slope on the street by my house... I have adjusted the aim up more since this photo as well as spreading the Kragen's euro/ driving beams apart to light up a wider area... More photos to come!