HID OFFROAD LIGHTS

I wanna know if HID lights are that much brighter than Halogen. I have looked at the Halogen KC Hilites, The KC-861 HID's, and The KC Pods. I am finding it difficult to spend $800 for a set of lights unless its really worth it. Thats what the 861's cost. The Pods are about $1300 for a set. I can get the 150W Halogens for about $250. I know they run cooler but dang. I'm gonna make a poll out of this thread but I still wanna hear from the ones that are running the HID's that was running the Halogens. Are they that much better ????????

 

HID's are a lot brighter.

But it is cheaper to buy halogen lights and convert them to HID with a cheap HID kit like DDM tuning

 

There is a big difference in the light and illumination between Halogen and HID... as well as between Driving (Euro) and Pencil (Spot) beams. Fog lights can also be used for cornering, as they are a short, wide beam pattern.

In a perfect set up, I would have 2 fog (cornering) lamps in or below my bumper, but not where they will get knocked... 2 driving lamps same elevation as the headlights... 2 pencil beams... up high if possible, otherwise next to the driving lamps. I would have the front of the truck able to see wide on both sides, the road ahead and sides lit up, and then way, way out there lit to see things like cows if I am going fast.

Halogen is 'cheap' (~$100), draws 100 watts (or other), and is about 3,000ºK in color (slightly yellow, but white).

HIDs (xenon) are expensive (~$400), draws only 35 watts (or other), is about 4,300º in color (pure white to slightly blue (don't exceed 5,000ºK) The more blue, the less illumination on the ground. 35 watt HIDs give the light of 150 watts of Halogen, but more true daylight on the ground (you easily see colors at night with HIDs, just like the sun is up)!

There is a 'cheap' HID... comes in a 7" Euro Beam, from Kragen... Sadly, they are in an ABS plastic housing and will crack with heavy off road vibration. Mine got repaired with fiberglass... but I since got Metal Hella 4000 100 watt halogen pencil beams. I plane on modifying my light bar to have all four... The Hellas can be converted to HID, as well.

You will be impressed with the 35 watt HIDs, they are brighter and whiter than 100 watt halogens at about 1/3 the energy.

The really big bucks lighting system coming is LED... tiny amount of power.... wild lighting... see www.BajaDesigns.com for all types.

HIDs:







Off Road Racing HID light bar:



Hella 4000 metal halogens:





LOW BEAM:



HIGH BEAM:



HELLA BEAM (pencil):



Again, high beam:



Pencil beam:



My thinking was I could keep as is or upgrade my stock headlights to HID for a good driving beam... and have the pencils for way out there...

 

Here's some numbers for you to play with. The number at the end of the line is candle power.

KC POD - 7 1/4" Driving - Carbon Fiber - HID 70 Watt #9635 1100k
HID - 8" Rnd Driving - Black - 50 Watt #863 385k
Rally 800 - 8" Rnd Driving - Black/SS - 130 Watt #803 170k


KC POD - 7 1/4" Long Range - Carbon Fiber - HID 70 Watt #9634 1200k
HID - 8" Rnd Long Range - Black - 50 Watt #861 814k
Rally 800 - 8" Rnd Long Range - Black/SS - 130 Watt #801 375k


This is all from the KC website. I would prefer to do comparisons in lumens, but lumen data is not available for all the lights.

EDIT: I had one of my numbers switched. It's fixed now.

 

I converted my 4000 into hids WAY brighter than stock. It's definitely a thrower.

 

its been covered on another website already, but ddm bulbs have been proven to melt the reflector bowls in a projector. they have also been proven to melt shrouds on the projectors as well

for more info... check hidplanet.com/forums and you will be suprised how many people dislike ddm.

example is a blazer projector. normally a halogen projector. when outfitted with a ddm kit, the bowl bubbled in less than 4 hours. the ddm bulbs run much hotter than a oem bulb. but of course, you have your die hard fan boys that will never give up their 70 hid kit. bottom line, you get what you pay for. you run a very high risk of damaging your setup by running a shitty kit

 

Are you talking about Hella 4000s or another off road light being converted? Sounds like you are talking about a stock headlight issue?

 

i'm talking about ddm bulbs in halogen projectors, hid projectors, stock reflectors. their bulbs are soooo hit and miss that i wouldn't even give them away. they run hotter than oem bulbs and that means they run the very real risk of melting your setup and causing them to be dimmer/ruined.

never a good idea to retro an hid bulb into a halogen setup. they may not be able to handle the heat of the new bulb

 

That is funny because we put DDM hid's in my girlfriends tacoma in the head lights, foglights and her hella 500's and after many months of use not one issue. My buddy put the DDM kit in his cheap ebay headlights on his dodge with no problems other than a horrible beam pattern because of the cheap lights. I have also converted two other sets of hella 500's without problems. So 0 problems out of the 6 kits I have delt with

 

either you are extremely lucky, or you just haven't look hard enough for the damage its caused. in any case, they are all considered offroad use only cause they just can't handle the light output correctly. you are endangering others with them.

and yes, i flash those around me that have them just as reminder of what it looks like from oncoming traffic

 

I have looked, even had the lights apart last week, and no issues whatsoever. I don't care for HID's in the factory headlights either and we will be doing a projector retrofit but that wasn't the point here.

By the way the glare isn't really that bad on the 2nd gen headlights, I haven't had any problems driving in front of her or toward her

 

I think the OP was refering to offroad lights

 

HMMMMMMMM............So are the converted lights just as good as the ones you buy already HID ?

 

Yes and No.

The converted ones has an external ballast, Some of the HID ones has an internal ballast. The Hella ballast are pretty damn reliable compare to these Chinese Ballast. But for the Price difference I would do the conversion.

The older hella 4000 had an external ballast the newer ones has an internal one.