Attention: TDR Forum Junkies ok so this isn't exactly new but i have not seen the idea brought up here on tdr. now i know a lot of people paticuarly those who drive second gen trucks find the headlights illumination megar at best. the popular thing to do is put clear lenses on and brighter halogen bulbs something like the sylvania silverstars. well i have another idea brought to my attention by a fellow dodge owner and that is hid lights. you know the ones in all the newer bmws and mercedes. i looked into this and found some interesting points that i wanted to share. ill start first with the reliability and longevity since as diesel owners that is what we are into. the hid lights last up to 3000 hours which is much longer then the 3 to 400 hours that a hologen lasts. another interesting this about them is the hids do not burn out like halogens. hids fade over time. one point that was made often during my research was since hids do not have a filament they tend to handle vibration better. vibration will break the filament in a regular halogen bulb.
now for the brightness of the bulb. the 5000k hids produce 3 times the light of the standard halogen. and operate at a cooler tempurature. so your housings wont get warm and melt if your worried about that at all. another plus to the hids is power cunsumption. normal halogens are 55/65 watt bulbs the hid which produces much more light is only 35watts. this puts less strain on your electrical system. i admit this is not much of a selling point(not that im trying to sell these) but it does help.
there was a lot more i was going to say but ive seen to have lost my train of thought. i did want to add though i have seen a single low beam kit on a dodge ram diesel. it was a 96 with the factory hazy headlight lenses and it was extremly bright which made it much nicer to drive.
lastly the cost of this system. now you cant just buy hid bulbs and install them in your truck. you have to buy a complete kit to convert them. the nice thing is they are a plug and play kit no drilling and no modifications just buy the kit and install it. i looked into it and for about 100 to 150 dollars you can get a complete kit off ebay with a warrenty and everything.
just so you all know i am not in anyway affiliated with any of these hid companys and will not be making any profits off them. i just wanted to share and discusse these lights so that those who are interested in a sure fire fix for their sorry factory headlights know it exists. so with that said lets discusse it. i will try to awnser any questions and am open to any comments anyone would like to add to this thread.
now for the brightness of the bulb. the 5000k hids produce 3 times the light of the standard halogen. and operate at a cooler tempurature. so your housings wont get warm and melt if your worried about that at all. another plus to the hids is power cunsumption. normal halogens are 55/65 watt bulbs the hid which produces much more light is only 35watts. this puts less strain on your electrical system. i admit this is not much of a selling point(not that im trying to sell these) but it does help.
there was a lot more i was going to say but ive seen to have lost my train of thought. i did want to add though i have seen a single low beam kit on a dodge ram diesel. it was a 96 with the factory hazy headlight lenses and it was extremly bright which made it much nicer to drive.
lastly the cost of this system. now you cant just buy hid bulbs and install them in your truck. you have to buy a complete kit to convert them. the nice thing is they are a plug and play kit no drilling and no modifications just buy the kit and install it. i looked into it and for about 100 to 150 dollars you can get a complete kit off ebay with a warrenty and everything.
just so you all know i am not in anyway affiliated with any of these hid companys and will not be making any profits off them. i just wanted to share and discusse these lights so that those who are interested in a sure fire fix for their sorry factory headlights know it exists. so with that said lets discusse it. i will try to awnser any questions and am open to any comments anyone would like to add to this thread.
211k on mine, alot of nighttime mountainous driving, delaminated lenses and all, I see fine. I guess if you'd like daytime driving conditions, don't drive after the sun goes down??
