Yeah, im sorry for sparking such a debate about the HID lights. When I wrote the response, I was originally thinking of upgrading to appropriate housings along with the new lamps so that you would get to keep the HI/LOW and get the best performance (if they even make such housings). I agree, HID conversion in the stock headlight housings would be abismal.

As far as the painless kit goes, They do make a kit for the 9007 bulbs, but it is non vehicle specific. The only PITA part is that it doesnt come with the female headlight socket, so you have to cut off one of the stock headlight harnesses to get signal. I have that kit and so far no problems. the build quality is awesome. I think it was about $100 for the harness but don't quote me on that.

Has anyone thought of putting a mercedes front end on the truck to get the better HID lights? Maybe if you rearended a 850i really hard it would stick to the blockerbeam or whatever and you could just drive around with that on the front and use its headlights. Might want to upgrade to stiffer front springs though.

Isaac

 

I know some guys on here were thinking about experimenting with running the high and low beams at the same time when in highbeam mode. In other words leave the lowbeams on all the time. Has anybody tried this? I know there were some concerns with overheating the bulb.

The reason I bring this up is my wife drives around a little Honda Accord. The lowbeams stay on all the time, and going to highbeam just adds more lighting. She loves those lights, and I have to admit that car does light the road up well.

I thought maybe all the newer cars were going to this type of operation till we drove a 2005 Focus. It was a rental car(that's a long story) and it was for my wife to get around in temporarily. We were discussing the Focus and what we liked about it(height of the seats, and I love that little engine) but she said she did not like the lights, that they were not as bright as the Honda's. I was experimenting with it one night and found that it works the old way, turning off the lowbeams when in high. But if I held the dimmer switch halfway, I could make them all come on and it was much improved.

Has anyone tried this with the old lighting systems? I am pretty sure the lightswitch and the wiring would be overloaded running both filaments, but the same wiring upgrade with the relays you are talking about should fix that problem. But I still haven't heard if there is a problem with the bulbs by doing this.

 

Yes, the ground is shared between the high and low beam. It is too much for anything longer than quick bursts as far as stock wiring goes. The bulb also shares the ground inside so I would consider that a problem.

That being said, yes, I have played around with it (My harness was built with overkill in mind, and I didn't really care about blowing a set of bulbs). What I found was that it is brighter for sure (obviously). What I also found (once I started looking at it more scientifically) was that all the extra light is right up front and does more harm to my long distance vision than it's worth.

Your wife's car was built with separate bulbs/reflectors for high and low. The major difference is that her high beams aren't doing double duty like ours normally are, they have a much narrower area they need to light up since the low beams are taking care of up close. With these trucks the high beam is intended to cover everything, so distant illumination is already hindered (comparatively). Adding more light up close will only make those more distant things harder to see, even though your brain says brighter=better. There comes a point that if you get enough distant light it won't really matter (like when the sun's out, for instance). I did not however find that to be the case with my truck, even with the better bulbs with more voltage (even when I turned on my driving lights it was questionable). The driving lights cover around half (a little less) of the overall beam, the area not covered by them was definately harder to see.

At the very least I would expect a much shorter bulb life. Keep pulling back to activate them all while you have the stock wiring in place and your just begging for a new MFS.

EDIT for accidental deletion earlier: If you are doing higher speed on some twistier roads some more up close and side lighting could come in handy to use with the highs. Some fogs properly angled would be a better option though(rally style). At the very least I would rig the High+low mod to be optional so that the high could still be used without them when HWY driving. On a more straight road you should be looking well past where the stock low beams effectively illuminate anyway when at higher speeds. I like my driving lights because even though the don't light up where I am, they do light up the way well before I get there. It might be best not to see it sometimes...

Sure I might not see what is right beside me but often, if you're going HWY speeds, you wouldn't have time to do much anyway. From some of the aftermath I've seen from (particularly in trucks and SUVs) people swerving for animals you may just be better off hitting it.

 

Well I bought them GE Nighthawks at Walmart tonight. They seem abit brighter in the driveway. I didn't go for a drive due to an accidental dischange by the dog if you know what I mean in the house. I'll they them out tommorrow after I replace the p/s retaining colar that was britle as hell. I see after replacing the bulbs I had a mismatched pair that most likely wasn't helping me any.

 

Different brands (mismatched)?

Planning on a harness? Pretty sure it made more difference than just the bulbs.

I think it does more ratio wise for the hi-po bulbs than the standard variety.

 

Yes, I had one Sylvania and one GE of unknown models. I thought the Sylvania was brighter of the two, but the new pair of nighthawks seem pretty bright maybe even more so. I guess I'll see how things go reguarding the harness. If these bulbs are great maybe not. My next step if I'm not happy is to either buy the harness or upgrade the headlight units to 03 vintage lights. Our 03 seems better with the different headlight units and I do like less orange for the the turn signal as an added bonus.

 

Well I just got to try out them nighthawks in the rain. I like them! I can see loads better than before. I like how I can now see really well from ditch to ditch on a two lane road and see with better clarity futher out also. Everything is pretty clear. Standing in front of the truck one might think about shades. Damn they're bright! I kind of think I need not to go all out with a harness. I see as good as I need to right now. I might up grade the fog lights next with them and be done.

 

Good to hear your satisfied with them. Sounds like they are better than you expected.

I'm not sure if you paid attn. before, but if so, does the beam seem to shine farther than before? Not just 'do they light up better at distance'. Does it seem as though the beam was moved out farther? I know they did in mine, just wondering about your model and vintage for future reference.

I had to adjust mine down when combined with the harness. The main beam wasn't in others eyes but, since the cutoff on these types of lenses (the non "diamond" variety) is "softer", people were getting too much glare from them. They still shine farther than the Sylvania's I've had in it, even after adjustment.

Thanks for the update.

 

anybody else tried 100/80 watt or 120/100 watt bulbs? My friend has the 100/80 from hella (they have the blue glass fo the 'HID look' that end up shining daylight color, but according to what I have read, he should have gone with clear, but hindsight is 20/20) they seem a lot brighter, but not to the point where oncoming traffic flashes him (at least when I've driven with him) I was just curious if anybody else has tried running higher wattage bulbs (with an aftermarked harness of course), and if so, what they thought about it.

Isaac

 

I believe they have improved distance. Not only brighter quality of light, but move the distance of said light out futher in front of me while also improving side to side lighting. They seem like a nice lamp. I had plenty of oncoming cars drive by with no flashing to dim. So I guess the light coming from my truck is manageable to the oncoming traffic.