Legal Limit?

what is the legal limit on HID bulbs is it 6000 or 8000 watt? or what is same to stock? In North Carolina.

 

6000-8000 watt lights, I WANT SOME!!!! thats power to cook stuff

 

I think it varies from state to state really.
On the HID's, the 6K and 8K is a measurement of the color temperature, and not the true wattage output.
Hid's normally come in 35 watt and 55 watt. There is some off road stuff that are in the 100 watt range, and those are definitely not legal in any state for on road use.

 

I'm not sure if there is a limit IMO there is no reason to go higher than a 5000 kelvin bulb because any higher and you're losing output for color. Not sure what the stock kelvin is, if you measure halogens in kelvin, but pure white light is 4100 kelvin.
Have you read this? If not it's worth a quick look at least.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/84308-lighting-faq-please-read-before-posting.html

 

4300k is what are what come stock in vehicles with HID's. As far as legal limit on a color don't know that there's a specific limit, the higher the color temp the more blue to then purple it will be which will draw more attention. Technically, any HID kit that didn't come from the factory isn't street legal.

 

probably true about the illegal part, although being in Law Enforcement, I've never heard any fellow Officer make a stink about it. personally, i prefer the whitest non yellow HID temp, however i don't know what temp that is... i think someone said 4100 K. As stated above, the more blue or purple, or any "color" light bulb will get an Officers attention, however with as thick as the traffic code is we can usually follow a vehicle for less than a mile and find a violation... so i say, go ahead and get the whitest HID temp and fire away, if we want to stop ya, your getting stopped... by the way... no more than 2 fog lights illuminated at ANY time (on public roadway) and no more than 4 lights illuminated facing forward at any time (on a public roadway).

when you do any light mod or vehicle lift, be sure to correct the light alignment, no portion of the highest intensity light can shine into the eyes of on coming traffic on the lowest light distribution setting. (in other words, make sure your low beams are not set too high) turn off your high beams with in 500 feet of on coming traffic (yup, its illegal to flash your high beams to alert other drivers that an Officer is nearby unless they're further than 500 feet from u). and if your like me and have your off road lights relay tied into the high beams, be prepared to get stopped and talked at if you inadvertently blind an Officer that is running radar on a country road and your truck looks like something from Closer Encounters of the Third Kind....

hope this helps

 

I wish they would. Half the guys around here with aftermarket HIDs blind the shit out of people with their improper installs. Super annoying, and sometimes really dangerous to oncoming traffic as well as to vehicles in front of them.