HID help

[RANDAL]

I am in need of help. I am wanting to put HID's in my Jimmy but need help on what set up I need, I dont want to buy the wrong parts this is what I'm thinking. My main concern is the bulbs since I have 4 bulbs and on the inside bulbs they are 2 prong just wondering if the H4's will work for them as well. also how did you guys run them on the GMC's

Thanks

[skorpioskorpio]

What are you trying to achieve? First off HID is a low beam thing not a high beam thing. Vaporised metal does not come on instantly, it needs to warm up and when turned off it doesn't come back on until it cools off without a restart heater, usually a halogen bulb. Secondly the reason for HID lights is to reduce heat so you can reduce the packaging size of the lighting package for better aerodynamics or design aesthetics. 5 1/4 and 7 inch lamps do not have this issue so it really doesn't serve a point.

There are maybe a handful of manufactures that make good lenses and reflectors, and it's the reason why almost all manufactures farm this task out to one of them and why there is even fewer manufactures whose name you will ever see sponsoring lighting for night time racing. Pretty much if the reflector is made by a manufacture whose name you've never seen on a rally car, or a Le Mans car or a Baja car, it's probably junk. None of these reputable manufactures make 5 1/4 or 7 inch replacement reflectors for HID. Hella the only credible manufacture that does make aftermarket HID principle headlamp packages makes versions in 120mm and 90mm, roughly 4 3/4 and 3 1/2 inches, and the corresponding high beams are halogen.

Also the perceived bluish tint that HIDs have has to do with eye strain because it's actually a terrible color temperature to night drive by and this perceived blue is an over saturation of your blue color perception. You are producing a light wavelength that is almost the precises color that causes daytime eyestrain, and the reason why almost all sunglasses are designed to block that particular wavelength. It's what causes glare and all cars that are factory equipped with HID lamps have windshield with a tint to lessen the perceived blue. It also makes the transition from headlamps to dashboard at night very difficult and is stressful to oncoming drivers. The only real effective use of HID is in cars with E code type lamps which have a sharp cutoff below the horizon so that your forward vision is primarily adjusted to the dark.

Now if your goal is just to have annoying blue head lamps there are cheaper, easier ways.

[GMC-YA68]

You need housings that will accept H4 bulbs. I would get the HID in low beams. Get 6000k on the color. It's 10x easier to see at night. It's not blue. I have never heard of the windshield tint factory equipped cars but I have had 6000k in numerous vehicles with no tint to 2% on the windshield and hate driving a truck with halogens. I also had them on my brights but rarely used them. Get the 55w
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[skorpioskorpio]

The best night lighting is the lighting that projects light to illuminate what is important and not to light up what is not, specifically the dust and water vapor in front of your windshield. Simply putting an unfocused HID capsules into a reflector/lens package intended for a prefocus halogen capsule just blasts a lot of random light around and makes you feel like you are driving in relative brightness when the reality is that you have very little usable distance lighting because you are tricking your eyes into daylight mode, a very bad thing at night. HID capsules are all unfocused, it's the nature of the beast, you need to have a reflector and lens specifically designed for HID and that would specifically exclude H4 packaging.

There is a huge crowd that thinks HID is bling and have convinced themselves that it's better, when it really isn't especially in large reflector applications. The only racing applications for HID are in very minimal frontal area vehicles, or applications where the lighting gets really banged around and you blow filaments because of it, and a lot of these applications are being replaced with high output LED. This should tell you something. HID is nothing new it's been used in street lamps for half a century. Again it's used by manufactures because it reduces heat and allows more design freedom and use of plastics and composites instead of glass and metal, not because it's a better light source. HID lighting will be a thing of the past on new cars in 10 years, completely replaced with LEDs as that technology comes of age, this transition has already started, and it will be long gone while they are still using halogen in racing applications.

Now if you are comparing your HID conversions to typical DOT sealed beams, well that's like comparing a string of 60 watt light bulbs to a fluorescent tubes...for stage lighting. Sure the fluorescent tubes produce more light and let you see the stage better but it's still completely wrong.

[BlackedOut67shorty]

LEDs are probrolly the best thing you can get, the military even uses them on some of thier hummers and trucks. Other than that its usually a sealed beam. LEDs however are very pricey. I think a 7 inch round LEDs headlight was about 400. I'd just stick to sealed beams till they get less expensive
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[RANDAL]

I guess I need to explain what I want more clearly the HID's I want are H4 high/low 55w 5000k which are not blue they are bright white I hate the blue not my style and with that HD harness I want I am going to get it so I can run all 4 lights at the same time so when I switch them to high beams they will not need to warm up. I did some more research and looks like the harness will cover the bulb issue I was worried about. Thanks for everybody's input.

[BlackedOut67shorty]

They have kits to be able to have all four lights for later Chevy trucks and GMC but I don't have the part # at hand. Not sure if they could be adapted to older trucks, probably can be
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[RANDAL]

Originally Posted by BlackedOut67shorty

They have kits to be able to have all four lights for later Chevy trucks and GMC but I don't have the part # at hand. Not sure if they could be adapted to older trucks, probably can be
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I had a conversation with VH Coachworks he sales the HD wire harness for our trucks and he can wire it up so it will run all 4 lights on low and high