HID Conversion of my Hella 4000 Halogens today!

Location one, my street grassy area:

Stock Low:



Stock High:



Kragens:



Hellas (6000K Pencil):



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Location two, dead end street barrier:

Stock headlights:



Kragen Euro Beams:



Hella 4000 Pencil Beams (6000K 35 watt HID):



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Location three, field by school:

Stock Low:



Stock High:



Kragens:



Hellas (6000K):



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On my garage:

Low Beams:



Kragens:



Hella 4000 Pencil Beams, 6000K:



Flash back, Hellas with original 100 watt halogen bulbs (lights were adjusted a bit further apart):

 

One of my Hellas with a 4300ºK bulb and one with the 6000ºK bulb:




Now, I flip on the Kragens... What do you think, 5000ºK or the same as the 4300ºK Hella (I don't see colors well enough to be a good judge)?

 

Its like a multicolored funkadelic light show lol

I would say for sure not to go with the 6000's

 

Yah, I am waiting for the 5000ºK bulbs to arrive from Cody... that will be my final ticket.

 

Man your 6k look way more blue than most pics I've seen. I just ordered 2 6k kits from Cody for stock headlights cause they seemed most popular. Hope I like them cause I put off hid for a long time. And I looked up those kragens on there website says 6k wonder why the color dif.

 

Someone said that the Kragen (Chinese) HID lights have used 4,300/ 5,000/ & 6,000 ºK bulbs of the past three years they have been sold...

I was surprised at how blue they are... and am anxious to put the 5,000Ks in! The 6,000 Ks are bright indeed... but the color is too dark (does that make sense?) for off road visibility. A very light hint of blue (like the Kragens I have) simulates the daytime blue sky illuminating the ground... and you see colors at night.

 

Just change the bulbs in the kargens to 4300's then have 4 lights with the same bulb

 

My Kragens MIGHT be 4300... or 5000... Can you tell from my photos?

The Hellas don't have to be the same... just not way more blue, like the 6000s did to them. I am hoping the 5000s are in todays mail!

 

Well, finally a text from Cody... maybe I will have the bulbs Monday?

For some reason, the 4300K bulbs light against a wall, flicker like a candle flame in a breeze... the Kragens or the 6000K bulbs do not...?

Anyone have the light from HIDs do that?

 

Still waiting... does it really take over 4 days for a package to go 60 miles, in good weather?

 

Well... I tried so hard to be nice and help Cody as did his friends who refered him to me, here... But, the guy is not reliable and won't return calls to set his customers at ease with screw up in orders or replacing defective parts. Sorry Cody, but I asked you daily for a reply... and you are there, because you answered my friend's phone text after ignoring mine.

SEE: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/174228-beware-person.html

That photo in the above link is mine of Cody against my truck 3 weeks ago when I drive to his home for the conversion.

 

Okay, if you all have been following the 'Beware of this Person' thread started bt 'darkgreentaco', then you know the past 5 weeks has been hell trying to get things worked out between GG Lighting and his customers.

Chris has taken over for Cody and has gotten thing shipped out... and wants anyone who hasn't been taken care of to call or text him (PM me for his number).

I just posted this in the other thread, but it is a final (?) chapter to this thread about my truck's Hella lights being converted to HIDs...


Okay, Chris helping GG Lighting (Cody) sent a new pair of bulbs (that came to them in a box with 'H1/5K' hand written on it) and a new pair of slim ballasts (with made in China stickers on them, the same as the original ones Cody sold me and installed).

Flipped them on, and as they warmed up the color does change a bit... watch them change in the next 3 images taken about 10 seconds apart (right away I am happy with what I see!):





Now, I kick on the Kragen 7" HID Euro Beams:


This is pretty close at color matching, and I am happy with these 5000Ks in color.

Looking at all 4 lamps on:



Kick on my stock head lights at low beam with fog lights:



My stock high beams on:


See how much dimmer and yellower the halogens are compared to 5000ºK HIDs are?

So, guess what... the new lights look good in color, but they both flicker a little... I am going to test them a while, and even though the 6000s (or whatever the really blue ones were didn't flicker, nor do the Kragens, I am going to just see if they perform off road as they are now.

Chris is doing Cody a FANTASTIC FAVOR and performing a GREAT JOB at making sure we all get our product and is performing the warranty exchanges... I am satisfied with Chris' performance and thank him!

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One last look at the various bulbs I have tried from GG Lighting (from China actually):

ORIGINAL 4300 (L) and 6000 (R):


Now to me and others, this 6000K bulb looked much too blue, and more like 8000K.

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ORIGINAL 4300 (L) and first 5000 (R):


The first 5000's were too yellow IMO. I switched the right one with the other 5000 bulb that came at the same time, and it looked the same as above.

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BOTH on with second set of 5000s (today):



The second set of 5000's look good enough, even though I see a touch of yellow... they also contain white and blue.

 

Those 6000 look way too blue. They look more like a 7k maybe 8. my 6k are white with a hint of blue.

 

Yah, for sure... I sent them back to Cody... that is old history now... I think I finally got TRUE 5000ºK bulbs... I will take the truck out at night and take photos... stay tuned!

 

Grassy area by my house... Kragen Euros:



Flip on the Hella 4000s with 5000K bulbs:



Against my garage:


STOCK LOW + FOGS


STOCK HIGH


KRAGENS


HELLAS with NEW 5000s


Hella, Kragens and High Beams


All on coming into garage.

So, finally got the true 5000ºK color... very close to the Kragen HIDs... Only the jittering of the light being an issue, but until it fails, I will live with that. Cody gave me a 'lifetime' guarantee... We shall see!

 

Okay, so today I adjusted the two Hellas up a bit more... They were mixed in with the Kragen driving beams and should be above them, for more distance.

They were at the max. setting on the slider that Hella uses to adjust the up/down aim... so I made a wedge out of aluminum off an electric outlet tab and tapped it in the gap, between the lamp and the adjustable base... it raised them up close to the level of my high beams. Next time I am up to going out I will take photos to show.

I am still liking the color and brightness!

 

BUMP

 

It had to have changed the pattern. The light sources are completely different shapes--just like what happened with your 500's. You can see in his pictures that some of the bulbs have wildly different patterns as well.

You're generally best off sticking with the lamp's original housing design. I think the only design that is moderately resistant to changes in lighting patterns would be Lightforce. The reason I say that, is they basically just use a parabolic reflector. There's no actual reflector design at all--they're basically a large Maglight (and I know--I had 240's). The pattern would likely change slight yet, however. Lightforce uses either a transversely mounted filament or axial filament, depending if you want "spot" or "wide", so the change from a filament to an arc light source should change it slightly.

With lamps like Hella's, they actually design the reflector based on where they want the light to go, and that comes from the light source design.

Sometimes this change in output formation is acceptably useful, and sometimes it's dangerously harmful. You think you have something a lot better than you actually do. It's really hard to measure without some really expensive equipment, and digital photos and human eyes are generally poor judges.

But, hey, if they work and don't cause pain to others (and in this case, the OP won't be using them in traffic so it's not a cause for concern there).

 

Daniel Stern Lighting has a headlight/aux light alignment guide on his website. you can use that, but I think on those bulbs you would want them to be aimed directly at 25 feet. So, you could measure the bulbs height/position on the truck and mark it on a wall and aim them dead on.

Headlights I think need to be 2" low at 25ft on our trucks (depends on lighting height).

It's a pain to measure/set them, especially if you had issues like I did of the lights moving around when people knocked into them and stuff, but it helps a lot at night!

 

Nope... the pattern is the same... these are PENCIL/SPOT beams... so they just light straight down the road, far. Look at the garage wall pics... two round beams on light. They were yellow-white with the halogens bulbs and now they are white-white (with a hint of blue & yellow) with the 35 watt, 5000ºK HID bulbs.

HALOGENS:




HIDS (I have since moved them apart more, like when the Halogen bulbs were in them.):



Notice how much brighter/ whiter the 35 watt HIDs are over the 100 watt halogens?