I8ABMR

Im glad you are happy with them. For some reason there was a decent number of guys oin the GS forum that were having issues with the headlights after replacing bulbs. I will leave mine bone stock. For a Dodge its probably a lot more effective than it would be on a Lexus. The GS guys were replacing them more for color it seemed

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

Looking at it doesn't mean much. Regular halogens such as 9006 and D2R bulbs when used in the same reflector have different focal points, period. You can't defy the physics in the way optics work. Take my car for example: 98-05 GS. They came with regular halogen or optional HID (reflector). While they looked the same, the output beam is MUCH different. My friend and I tried to stick HID bulbs in his halogen-equipped GS and the glare was so horrible that the top of some trees were easily lit up. To the average person, the reflectors look the same and for the most part they do. It's the curvature of the bowl and the lines on it that defines the beam pattern, and no car company uses the same bowl for halogen and HID. That would get them in the hot seat with the DOT.

I've seen enough Ram trucks on the road to know whether the driver used an aftermarket kit or not. While it may not be as bad as some other trucks, it's still glaring. Pointing the lights down kind of helps but it doesn't really bother me to be honest, except during raining season.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

Looks good. HID lights in trucks don't really bother my anymore. Every other car has aftermarket HID lights now days since you can buy kits off ebay for less than $50. I don't see any difference between your everyday Honda/Toyota with an HID kit or a truck. I did notice my tints really help keep the glare from aftermarket HID kit drivers down a lot. HID's should be standard on all cars already. LED's should be the high end option now.

Och

iTrader: (3)

I wish they would just mandate projectors on all cars. It bad enough that you are blinded by trucks with even halogen lights, but when you introduce HID kits in halogen housing, its a lot worse.

ArmyofOne

So what you are saying is the differences are not visible to the naked eye...Neat! I wasnt aware of this. I looked and looked hard, couldnt see anything. But the reflectors are chrome, and they are hard to see differences in. I spent maybe 30 minutes looking for a difference, but I couldnt find one. I see what you are saying though. Its amazing how just a few milimeters or even microns of change in a shape could alter an entire beam output. I just figured for costs sake they would have used the same housing, so I looked and they looked the same to me.

FWIW, Projectors are on the list eventually, but I dont have the ***** to do a retrofit on my only set of headlights, and a Quality set of lights already retrofitted is pushing $1000 for the ram. I would do a retrofit if I had someone close by who could walk me through it, but with the headlamps themselves priced at over $400 a pop OEM, screwing up is an expensive proposition. The (already assembled) Projector headlamps from ebay are garbage, coming from china/elsewhere show poor fitment quality, crappy cutoff/beam spread and fogging of the lenses in under a year. Not something I really want to deal with when purchasing parts. I will wait till I can afford the Quality stuff. In my experience with modding (and much of anything anymore), you get what you pay for.

dj.ctwatt

There is a difference... And no you can't see it... Tiny angle differences in each reflector... It's all about the focal point. What you're saying is akin to looking at two pairs of prescription eye glasses and saying they are identical because you couldn't spot the difference. I'm sorry (and not to be rude) but your six months of research were not very thorough.

ArmyofOne

Really? You think? Thank you for that, it has already been cleared up. You say you aren't being rude, but you are. I already figured that one out and it has been beaten for 2 pages now, in this thread.

dj.ctwatt

Sorry for the tone. The desire to add yet another post was in the hopes that it helps to prevent someone else from doing the same. The overwhelming consensus on the net is what keeps me from being inconsiderate to other drivers by doing these kinds of mods, and it may make a difference to someone else. I know you already installed them, and it would be highly unlikely you would be considerate enough to remove the HID's, or wait to properly modify them. But that would be the greatest act of un-rudeness. However, it's your car...

ArmyofOne

Get in front of me, you will be singing a different tune. I was followed tonight by my truck, (my wife driving) in a 3 series BMW with no tints. Glare is minimal. Ever occur to you that maybe I am one of the few who is not a complete *** and looks into stuff before he does it? I know projectors are the way to go, but for me at this point, its not a viable option. This is the next best thing. I hate when others put people at risk, I would never do anything to endanger anyone. If they had glare when I checked them after install, they would have come out, went back in the box, and got shipped back to the company for a refund immediately.

In the end, you are entitled to your opinion, as I am mine. Neither is likely to change the other.

llamaboiz

if you say you're not putting out blinding glare, then thats good enough for me~ but you can understand why many dont like big trunks with aftermarket HID kits.

dj.ctwatt

Hey, it's possible. And you keep a cool head despite me being a complete &-:;/-&$/. So, it shows a lot of character. For other people's sake, I hope you are right. You'd be one out of a thousand, in terms of non-blinding HID installs, but it it's possible. Keep in mind that the glare may not come from straight on but at weird offset angles. I had an aquantence who did the same thing, and at about 20 degrees to the left at about 50 feet or so, it produced a blinding glare spot (the position a car would sit heading the opposite direction at a stop light). Dunno if that happens to you to, but it might be worth checking out.

dj.ctwatt

Stupid iPhone typos!!! Argh.

ArmyofOne

LOL, hey man, no reason for it to get personal, I am a pretty level headed person.

I will check the off angles, I havent caught a glimpse yet, but will check it out. As I said projectors are in the future, but I just have wayyyy to much going on right now financially to even consider it.

LexFather

There are so many SUVs or Civics etc driving around with these kits around with even higher temp kits or awful aiming that this wouldn't bug me at all. Quite frankly a stock big SUV with HIDs isn't much better.

He does have a point that it does help at night, I also feel that HIDs are a huge plus at night compared to halogens.

Nice mod.

dj.ctwatt

Honestly, I don't understand why they don't come stock on all new cars. With the cheap stuff coming out of China, it can't be that expensive. If only they were mandated by the DOT... Honestly, preventing accidents (with better lighting) should be just as important as protection for when they actually do happen.