HID conversion

[Grumpy]

nope...... i got high and lows on the same bulb.... not one for low and a halogen for high .... they are in one bulb... and are BRIGHT too ....

[MalcolmV8]

There are some things to be aware of...like the loss of high beams in most cases. Read it over and see what you think.

Is that an aftermarket limitation? my bmw has factory HID and it has HID low & high.

[cgrey8]

It's an aftermarket limitation. Vehicles designed for HID get what's needed. The problem is Rangers (along with dozens of other model vehciles) make use of a single bulb with 2 filaments. The filaments are offset by a VERY known amount and the shape of the headlight is such that the low beam filament aims downward while the high beam filament aims more straight ahead. Filaments that reside in the same gas are small and can do this. But the HID bulb is much larger than a filament and so getting two of those precisely located is difficult.

Now what one company I recall did was put a coil on one side of the HID arch bulb. On low beam the arch was formed in the center of the HID bulb. However when you want highbeams, the coil is energized and pulls the HID arch to the side of the bulb where the high beam filament would be. How well that works, I have no clue. But I'm really interested to know. I have the clear see-thru headlights now (not the stock ones) and I think an HID illumination would look quite distinct.

[Chris]

I have the clear "euro" style headlight on my '90 with a $60 kit off ebay. Thr HID kit has a little electric motor that points the bulbs lower for low beams then raises them for brights. I'm still in the middle of my build so I haven't tried them on the street but the look GREAT in my drive way.

[Grumpy]

Chris..... you WILL like them .... i do .... they change the white speed limit signs blue and the yellow yield ones green and the blue highway signs.... well they get ALOT more blue.... takes some gettin used to .... but i LOVE them .......

[MalcolmV8]

Grumpy, why are yours blue? the factory HIDs I have are a brilliant white. No hint of blue that I can tell.

[Grumpy]

mine are aftermarket and plus... the higher the K (kelvin) the more blue they get ... so the factory ones could be lower in K and they will be more white .... i got the 10,000K ones and they got a GOOD blue tint to them ... but they do go higher and they turn more blue and then even higher that they will turn a purple color ....

mine have both high and low in one bulb... when on low the bulb tilts lower and when on high they tilt higher.... the bulb socket has a small electric motor in them that tilts them to the high/low settings ..... i got a few pix of them somewhere... ill try to find them and post the diff in them .....

[cgrey8]

None of the kits I looked into had a mechanical tilt feature to get the beam spread differently. That's neat...

And yes, 10,000K would be quite blue. I think my Xenon bulbs are 6500K and are on the blue-side of white. I opted against the 8000K models because the higher the K factor, the darker they are due to the darker glass tint...so the less light you actually get on the road.

That's probably not true of the true HID bulbs though since they aren't using a filament and glass tint to get the color. They simply fill the bulb with a gas that will emit the colors they are looking for in the 1st place.

[Grumpy]

i got one of my bulbs here now... and ill take a pic of it shortly ... the glass on mine a clear its the light that it emits that is blue .... and as far as seeing the road with them ..... they are DAYUM bright ... they light up the road better then the halogen ones i had in it ......

[Grumpy]

this is what my HID bulbs look like ........if you can make it out ... the silver thing is the sun hitting the floor.. i think.. its not part of the bulb ......... there are 3 plugs... one for the light (hot and grnd) and one goes to the ballast and one goes to the internal motor to move the bulb filament up and down for high/low..............


[img]HID%20Bulb[/img]

[Adam McLaughlin]

Alright, you guys got me all excited to get the HID conversion started. As soon as I finish getting the battery into the bed with good, solid wiring I will work on getting the HID lights in.

BOY they are far more reasonably priced than what I would have imagined.

Adam

[carvinmark]

I found this on craigslist if it will help.
http://www.hidpro.com/
They have free shipping if kits are ordered.

[cgrey8]

Those kits look like the ones that do sacrifice your high beams. I don't see any kind of mechanism in place to reorient the beam for high beams. So before you buy that, you might want to ask about that just so you aren't caught by surprise.

[Grumpy]

you cant physically SEE the small motor that moves the bulb itself.... its encased in the housing .... well are on mine anyway ....

i bought my kit like 2 years ago and they were only like $100 .... gotta love Ebay !! ....lol

[Grumpy]

Mark .... all .. or most of them bulbs are replacement ones..... they look like high beams ONLY .... no lows ....

would be better to find a whole KIT to do it with ... but make sure it has high AND lows in one bulb ... if not... they might not work .. or you might only have highs .....