HID conversion advice needed.

Can anyone help me with some advice on what direction to go with HID's. I believe there are 2 wattage choices for ballasts? Which is better 35 or 55? Thanks for any input!

 

35 is very bright, probably equal to 130 watts of halogen light. Unless you are a racer in Baja, you don't need more watts.... but hey, if you want to to have the most, it is available!

The more important factor is COLOR TEMPERATURE!
Around 5,000° is WHITE and the most light. Going to 6000° or more makes blue light, and that is less bright. Some like the blueish tint for looks... but seeing is more important, isn't it?
A few years ago I posted several photos of my HID lights with 5,000° and 6,000° units (both 35 watt).

 

Thank you for the reply. I agree with the bulb color for driving safety. I'm not a huge fan of too much blue.

 

If you are truly concerned about driving safety, make sure you do a proper projector retrofit. Regardless of what wattage you use, no retrofit is unsafe while a retrofit is safe. Color temperature above 6k is unsafe in any normal driving application, retrofit or not.

 

x2 what is said above.

Putting an HID into our housings will cause you to be "that guy" on the rode who's blinding everyone. I typically flip my light bar on for those sumsabitchez. If you want HIDs, do a proper retrofit, or buy the premade retrofits on here. There's one guy on here who's "cheap" and they run about $500.

 

My reply was considering HID as auxiliary off road lamps, not converting our factory headlights. Might as well go straight to LED and skip over the few years that HID was the name of the game! LED turns on instantly, HID takes several seconds to reach full brightness. That is why they make for poor high beam use, as when you flip from low beam to high beam... the light will be dimmer for a few moments.

 

Retros shouldn't be needed in the 2016 projectors, however as others mentioned I'd look at fanless LEDs over HIDs.

 

Ahhh, good observation. Didn't realize his was a '16

 

If you are considering HID's I would go with Morimotos. They are the best plug and play with reliable and REPLACEABLE components. I would like to see how the LEDs work out for you though.

Coot

 

The wattage difference depends on what kind of bulbs and lights you want to run. If youre just doing a standard retrofit then just go with the 35Watt ballasts