I hate to admit it... I spent 700 on a set of Morimoto D2S HIDs. All I can say is these are top notch headlights compared to the sport headlights I just replaced. Now I didnt have to do all the heating and removal of the lens. I found a site called http://shop.retroshop.us that sells complete HID solutions fully assembled. All you got to is install and wire it up. They are even aimed and pretested before shipping.

2 hours ago, Evan said:

Plus I'm not always wanting to go the same place the wagon goes 

That's what is great about this forum; the willingness of people always looking for a better/easier way to do something or the next best product to install on their truck and posting it.  When you find it your wagon can get crowded quickly. 

FWIW I have a new set of clear lense housings along with 1 set of each, led, hella, and oe bulbs all to experiment with. I do believe you can get better light without blinding everyone. Finding the right combo might take a bit. I personally am very tired of folks just plugging new bulbs and blinding people just so they can see better. Sounds like @LorenS might have found one. But. Thats a hint Loren.

Hint taken, however last night after dark I became Santa's assembly man for my 3 year old's toys! When 1130 rolled around I just wanted to go to bed.

 

I'll try his evening to get pics showing one bulb of each type against the garage door.

3 minutes ago, LorenS said:

Hint taken, however last night after dark I became Santa's assembly man for my 3 year old's toys! When 1130 rolled around I just wanted to go to bed.

 

I'll try his evening to get pics showing one bulb of each type against the garage door.

I can identify with that. I had 3 and 11:30 came to quick most times. It's Christmas the picks can wait. Enjoy the family.

Here are some pics from my phone. I'll try to edit the post from my laptop to editorialize on a real keyboard.

 

Okay, here we go.  The pics basically speak for themselves.  The new HID 9004/9007 light setup from Morimoto is on the passenger side.  It's the 5k Kelvin temperature/color.  If I had it to do again, I would personally try the 4300 Kelvin color.  I just like yellowy light, I know I'm in the minority on that one!  Workbench lights, operating tables, etc. are another matter.

 

The head-on picture really makes it look like the headlight is blinding to oncoming traffic, but it's just that much brighter than the Sylvania halogen.  I had cleaned both housings earlier today in preparation to take the photo.  Both housings were changed within several days of one another about 2.5 years and 34k miles ago; the 18 months I owned the truck I think I only put 1k miles on it.

 

In my opinion, it's difficult to tell if the Honda is a sedan or a minivan in the pictures because the light doesn't go up that high.  Granted, it isn't exactly down the road in "blinding" territory.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Edited December 26, 20195 yr by LorenS
Add commentary.

Those are bright! How are they down the road?

Are they in oe style housings or something aftermarket? How were they on your eyes when standing in ftont of your truck? Theh look good on the house.

The passenger side light is noticeably better, being the HID while the other is the halogen.  Is it as good as my wife's Honda with projectors?  Nope.  But it's WAY better than what I had!  Now that I took these photos tonight I'm going to change out the other one soon and hopefully get to a particular dark, lightly traveled twisty road I know of to get another round of photos.

I'm still concerned about the relay not switching back and forth, however.  I did not try the high beams tonight and I plan to always carry a set of Halogens in the glove box in case I need to switch back to resolve the issue.  Adding these HIDs sure adds a lot of possible failure points(non-stock relay, ballast, ignitors, etc.) to something that was super simple and repairable at any late-night truck stop or junkyard!

31 minutes ago, dripley said:

Are they in oe style housings or something aftermarket? How were they on your eyes when standing in ftont of your truck? Theh look good on the house.

They are OE style housings.  TYC, though I don't remember if I chose the NSF or CAPA certified, but I imagine they're both sham organizations that wouldn't like Tommy Boy at all. "Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time."

 

I found what I wanted on RockAuto and ordered by part number from someone on Ebay.

 

To answer your second question, they're fine.  Just brighter than the other light, but not like a flashlight in the face.  But, my eyes are a little over 66" off the ground and I was 20 feet from the truck.  Someone sitting in a Miata 150' away may disagree!  Maybe another test before I make additional changes is to park the truck behind the wife's Honda and take some photos of where the lights hit it.  Almost 11 PM here, so not going to happen tonight.  I'd be in hot water if the engine woke a kid!

Edited December 26, 20195 yr by LorenS
Finish answering question.

I told you the money is worth it by a long stretch. Wait till you out on a lone road and tall trees and you'll see a way different pattern. Like I love the fact of the light pattern is super wide. It much wider than the highway then vertically it can light up just about 50 foot tall tree to the top. Make sure to set your step on the yellow center line. Then just enough vertical height to cover the pavement but not up on reflectors along the road or signs. 

 

9 hours ago, LorenS said:

I'm still concerned about the relay not switching back and forth, however.  I did not try the high beams tonight and I plan to always carry a set of Halogens in the glove box in case I need to switch back to resolve the issue.  Adding these HIDs sure adds a lot of possible failure points(non-stock relay, ballast, ignitors, etc.) to something that was super simple and repairable at any late-night truck stop or junkyard!

Already have nearly 100k miles on my light no issues. Shutter, relays, bulbs, or ballast. All working as designed.

 

You won't be able to install stock halogens again because the guts of the HID's have to have the lens pulled off and then remove the HID's then you could install the stock halogens again... Not possible on the road.

 

Every morning the HID's are on for 2.5 hours and then every evening 2.5 hours they are one for the trip home. 

 

Power usage is much lower vs. halogen. 35w is quite a reduction vs. 60w halogen burning. Chances of failure is low. 

 

Next step would be convert the rest of the truck to LED tail lights and marker lights. Huge power usage reduction as well. 

Edited December 26, 20195 yr by Mopar1973Man

Whats the beam look like at 40'?

Looks pretty darn good to me.

 

Looking forward to hearing more.

I'd be curious to see some shots against a tall wall at 40', but this is what people mean when they say " scattering light".  

 

Go for a drive and have your wife meet you head on with her Honda to see what she thinks of new lights. That would be a real world response. 

37 minutes ago, Royal Squire said:

have your wife meet you head on with her Honda to see what she thinks of new lights.

Switch it around, you drive the Honda and your wife drives the truck; then you'll know what to think of it. 

I think Mike was saying youd like the lights but I'm not sure. 

 

I think the phone is set on her mode or is focusing on the dark areas to pic up the stray light. Phone may or may not be intensifying the scattered light. 

Does appear to be on far edges of the lense

 

I to would be curious what they look like coming head on. Though to me on the wall they looked adjusted alittle high. But I have no clue the actual right way to set them 

Edited December 27, 20195 yr by Evan

Okay, not sure why the 1st pic below is on top, it should be second from bottom and I selected the files in order!  No tall buildings around, so don't need to worry about people driving up there.

 

The top photo is with me standing in front of the HID light.  The last photo at the bottom is with me standing between the bulbs, and the second from bottom is with me standing in front of the halogen.  Not much difference.  The difference between the halogen and HID amazingly obvious in person, but not as amazing as is indicated in the photos!  Need the wife's SLR on manual mode to have a prayer at capturing reality.

 

On the 30 mile (mostly interstate) drive home any car I followed was lit up less than if a new car with halogens was behind it at around the same distance.  One of those new cars was a gray haired guy in a GMC Acadia or similar.

 

No doubt the $700 projectors are better, but this setup is WAY better than what I had, in my current testing and observation is not (much?) more dangerous or annoying that the average new vehicle, and I still have $540 in my pocket.

 

Edited December 27, 20195 yr by LorenS
Add commentary.

Lets stir the pot a bit more. I just put some new clear housings on and stuck a set led's in them.

 

Only the back rounded portion of the housing has a reflector. The marker has no reflector. Did not notice that until I bought them. I installed a 3 sided white/amber bulb with a small projector in the front.

 

First test was 15' from this wall.

 

This is about 45' ftom the same wall. The lot has a little slope away from the building once you in the parking spaces that might account for the slight rise in the light. Not sure. Only place I could try on in the short ride I took.

 

20' behind a parked car.

 

The yield sign is about 150' away. Lights aimed a bit right of center by the looks. Re aimed them but no picture.

 

70' feet away standing up.

 

70' away kneeling. I was reasonably level to 6" below the truck  where I was standing in both of these pics.

 

This was about 30' away with just the markers on and me standing. They are scattering light pretty good on their own even with no reflectors. Going swap some plain amber in tomorrow.

 

Theses are the bulbs I used. Going to have some visitors tomorrow and jump in the wifes Saturn SL and see how they look from there.  Was nog lighting up anyones interior and no one flipped their lights at me on the test dtive, but a lot want do it even when I know they have to be blinded when I am behind them and the lights are blinding me.

 

They dont seem to scattering any noticable light high, maybe some down low. I'll  tey and find a taller structure some wher tomorrow night and do a Saturn test also. I cant help but think the reflector shape helps with this but I am no lighting engineer.

 

We will see what happens tomorrow.

Edited December 27, 20195 yr by dripley

Still not my recommended method, but it doesn't look too bad.  

 

I still recommend spending the extra $100 and retrofitting projectors.

Is the under 45 crowd making a new wagon?

 

I'm impressed by both set ups. Led and hid.

 

Will hid get warm enough to melt snow. That would be my only draw back from going led

56 minutes ago, Me78569 said:

Still not my recommended method, but it doesn't look too bad.  

 

I still recommend spending the extra $100 and retrofitting projectors.

I dont completely disagree with you by any means. Just not sure I want to tackle building them myself so I thought I would give this a try in the interim . For now these do not seem to reach out much further, 50 feet or so, but they do light the area up much better that the stock housings with Halogens, even the higher wattage Hella's.

 

For now the biggest draw back to me is the brightness of the lights. I know if I crest a hill with someone coming they are going to be blinded momentarily due to the brightness. Something I struggle with with on coming traffic in similar situations. Might even try a warmer bulb to combat that. I dont seem to have that issue with the more yellow light coming at me. I see more and more of the brighter white lights every month it seems. And the scatter on half of them is out of control. A lot of those are in fluted lenses too on older vehicles.

 

I would not mind having projectors one day but now is not that time for me.

 

19 minutes ago, Evan said:

Is the under 45 crowd making a new wagon?

 

I'm impressed by both set ups. Led and hid.

 

Will hid get warm enough to melt snow. That would be my only draw back from going led

I think all of us here try to build a better wagon and I aint seen 45 in a long time. Thats where a lot of the mods we do came from.

 

I was pleasantly surprised as to how focused the beam was with the new housings. I gambled on these with the reflector only in curved part. Saw several with the same shape but the reflector was also continued onto the flat part in front on below the bulb. That to me would have reflected alot of light up in my little brain. I think @LorenS's HID's might work better in the same style. They do appear to have some scatter that mine did not. Loren you ought to get a couple pictures looking at the headlights and see how they look and then try driving at your truck in smaller vehicle to see what others see. Going to give that a try tonight.

 

As far as melting snow and ice, I dont know. Fortunately I do not have to deal with that on any regular basis. It is an issue for a lot you though. 

Edited December 27, 20195 yr by dripley