HID's Worth It?

[SUL73NAZ]

I am planning on doing black headlights on my expo. While I am at it I am debating whether or not to run HID's. I see a lot of people running them. Would they go with my overall look or are they played out? I am thinking of keeping it grown folk and just running halogens. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[College Student]

If you're going for grown up don't run just HID's ever. If you still want to have HID's then go with a projector retrofit. It is more expensive but has correctly aligned beam patterns.

 

[Ronin8002]

x2. HIDs without projectors = annoying glare. Plus projectors look sweet.

If you're going for grown up don't run just HID's ever. If you still want to have HID's then go with a projector retrofit. It is more expensive but has correctly aligned beam patterns.

 

[Adam Black]

No.

 

[MustangP51]

If your going to do it, do it right. Retrofit Projectors into your housings.

 

[fedyfedz]

Someone who is against hids in regular housings please explain to me how you dont think projectors are just as annoying as hids.

Picture this..... only looking in your rearview or side view mirror and there is a car with projectors behind you. say the road is hilly or bumpy, every time the person behind you hits a bump or goes up the top of the hill as you are going down their lights with there "all mighty cut off beam" will be flickering in your car/truck lighting it up like a light show.

Now picture that "idiot" you hate with hids in a halogen housing. Every time they hit the same bump or hill the light is not changing and flickering, this is becuase the beam pattern is covering a wider area. sure it might be bright and annoying but its not like the projectors where its like a dj's light show in your car.

The same goes for an oncoming car. Where i live there are no flat roads. so you have a car coming over the hill with projectors towards you and they blind you at first, then you can see, then they hit a bump and then your blind again that to me is more annoying than regular hids in a halogen housing.

 

[Kazer]

Someone who is against hids in regular housings please explain to me how you dont think projectors are just as annoying as hids.

Picture this..... only looking in your rearview or side view mirror and there is a car with projectors behind you. say the road is hilly or bumpy, every time the person behind you hits a bump or goes up the top of the hill as you are going down their lights with there "all mighty cut off beam" will be flickering in your car/truck lighting it up like a light show.

Now picture that "idiot" you hate with hids in a halogen housing. Every time they hit the same bump or hill the light is not changing and flickering, this is becuase the beam pattern is covering a wider area. sure it might be bright and annoying but its not like the projectors where its like a dj's light show in your car.

The same goes for an oncoming car. Where i live there are no flat roads. so you have a car coming over the hill with projectors towards you and they blind you at first, then you can see, then they hit a bump and then your blind again that to me is more annoying than regular hids in a halogen housing.

I'll gladly second this argument

 

[College Student]

These hill issues you speak of would occur no matter the lamp. A person running traditional halogens would do the exact same thing.

Edit:
If you're making a case for being blind all the time vs being blind during bumps. I'll take my chances with the bumps.

 

[MustangP51]

These hill issues you speak of would occur no matter the lamp. A person running traditional halogens would do the exact same thing.

Edit:
If you're making a case for being blind all the time vs being blind during bumps. I'll take my chances with the bumps.

^This

 

[Ronin8002]

Good food for thought, Fedyfedz. Wouldn't aiming the projector headlights so the focal point is the same at stock height (I think about 32-35"?) solve the issue you mentioned?

 

[therover1991]

I'll gladly second this argument

Yeah ill agree with both you and fedy. Countless times ill be driving and all I see is lights from a lexus, maxima etc bouncing up and down at every dip, incline, bump in the road and its equally as annoying as someone who has HIDs in their halogen housing.

Ill even throw another argument out there, people who drive with high beams on to compensate for a missing headlight, or are just oblivious are equally as annoying as both other HID scenarios if not more annoying. What about people who drive with misaligned headlights? If you ask me these scenarios are all about equal, although I cant understand how someone doesn't realize they need to replace a headlight bulb.

 

[red82gt]

The same goes for an oncoming car. Where i live there are no flat roads. so you have a car coming over the hill with projectors towards you and they blind you at first, then you can see, then they hit a bump and then your blind again that to me is more annoying than regular hids in a halogen housing.

I'll take being blinded for a split second over trying to orient myself and keep in my lane as a car that has been approaching me for 10 seconds shines a scattered uncontrolled beam that I cannot avoid looking at short of closing my eyes or orienting my head away from the road.

How is your argument any different for regular halogen headlights, they are still going to shine right in your eyes if they hit a bump or crest a hill. With your argument, why doesn't everyone just drive with their high beams on the whole time?
This reminds me of the subset of people who think that they are safer not wearing a seatbelt.

 

[fedyfedz]

it would not be the same as halogens because there is no cutoff beam on halogens, ever go under a bridge and see a spot of light on the top of the bridge right before u pass? that happens with halogen and hids in halogen housing.

aiming the projectors would not effect it at all because there is still a cutoff beam...

your eyes adjust to a solid light easier then a strobing light(projectors going over bumbs.)

People are always bashing hids in a regular housing. 35w hids are really not bad for oncoming drivers unless you have them aimed incorrectly. The only topic i will agree with is people who run 55w hids in a regular housing. It seems like everyone who is against them is referring to those.

Im not going to argue all day about this because in the end people are going to do what ever the hell they want.

People make it seem like people are dying every day because they were blinded by hids. Did someone ever flag you down and say "you blinded me bro and I almost crashed im calling the cops"

I run all 3 setups on my truck because different conditions call for different lighting.

 

[MustangP51]

it would not be the same as halogens because there is no cutoff beam on halogens, ever go under a bridge and see a spot of light on the top of the bridge right before u pass? that happens with halogen and hids in halogen housing.

aiming the projectors would not effect it at all because there is still a cutoff beam...

your eyes adjust to a solid light easier then a strobing light(projectors going over bumbs.)

People are always bashing hids in a regular housing. 35w hids are really not bad for oncoming drivers unless you have them aimed incorrectly. The only topic i will agree with is people who run 55w hids in a regular housing. It seems like everyone who is against them is referring to those.

Im not going to argue all day about this because in the end people are going to do what ever the hell they want.

People make it seem like people are dying every day because they were blinded by hids. Did someone ever flag you down and say "you blinded me bro and I almost crashed im calling the cops"

I run all 3 setups on my truck because different conditions call for different lighting.

There is a reason why OEM projectors are DOT certified... They pass a light scatter test. ALL halogen housings with HID capsules in them do not pass.

Properly leveled HID projectors with the HighBeam shutter closed will NOT blind oncoming traffic. There is actually no light above the cutoff line so halogen and even ancient sealed beam headlights send more light into the oncoming drivers eyes. The split second snap of light you may see when the vehicle hits a bump and causes the cutoff to reach your eye level is far more desirable then staring at the same HID intensity in a halogen housing for 10 seconds straight.

 

[wbrudi28]

The split second snap of light you may see when the vehicle hits a bump and causes the cutoff to reach your eye level is far more desirable then staring at the same HID intensity in a halogen housing for 10 seconds straight.

Personal opinion. I live on Long Island just like Fed, and everyone has projector housings or HIDs in halogen housings. I would gladly take HIDs in my face or behind me than flickering projectors in front or behind me...especially considering its very busy out here. lots of straight but BUMPY roads means you have oncoming traffic in your line of sight for much longer than the people that dont live in New York (if youre going to argue about that, i've lived in and driven though more states than you could possibly imagine. curvy roads for DAYS).


With all this being said, I have 55w 6ks in my stock housings. driver side is aimed down a bit, never a single complaint or flash.

 

[MustangP51]

Personal opinion. I live on Long Island just like Fed, and everyone has projector housings or HIDs in halogen housings. I would gladly take HIDs in my face or behind me than flickering projectors in front or behind me...especially considering its very busy out here. lots of straight but BUMPY roads means you have oncoming traffic in your line of sight for much longer than the people that dont live in New York (if youre going to argue about that, i've lived in and driven though more states than you could possibly imagine. curvy roads for DAYS).


With all this being said, I have 55w 6ks in my stock housings. driver side is aimed down a bit, never a single complaint or flash.

Yes however my personal opinion is backed up by scientific data, a DOT standard, and years of experience working with all fields of lighting. It's a little more concrete than an opinion based on "no one has ever flashed me or been pulled over by a cop". I'm sorry but I think the statement you made

I would gladly take HIDs in my face

is absolutely insane. By the time the lights have passed you your pupils will be constricted and your night vision severely degraded.

 

[FIND]

Did someone ever flag you down and say "you blinded me bro and I almost crashed im calling the cops"

How often do you stop, flag someone down and tell them, "You blinded me bro, and I almost crashed. I'm calling the cops," to someone who is driving with their high beams on? Never? Yeah.

No one has ever flashed me. No cop has ever pulled me over. I think my lights look good. I need that much light to drive around in a part of the world that has more ambient light even on the darkest nights than people living outside of major metropolitan areas get during a full moon.


A compilation of the worst excuses I've ever heard about HIDs. You know. Most people aren't going to flash you no matter what. They just put up with it and make sarcastic remarks to themselves about how much of an idiot you are. That's the way people are. Most people hate any type of confrontation.


Also, as to your argument about flickering cut-off. Where I live, we have bumpy roads, rolling hills, and a whole lot of nothing to block the light cars cast, I see HID flicker reflected in the dust from gravel roads and all numbers of other things. I'll gladly take that slightly annoying flicker over the full-blown blindness that bad HID retrofits cause when I don't hold my hand up in my windshield to block the light they are scattering.

The only people here defending the constant blinding light over the momentary flickering are people who have HID retrofit bulbs in stock halogen housings, which are coincidentally the only people who ever think that they get a good beam pattern from those bulbs...


Also, remember, anyone who drives in areas that don't have the crazy amounts of ambient light you do in or near major metropolitan areas really DOES get blinded by that light. Our eyes have to adjust to much darker conditions, I mean, have you ever seen the difference in the night sky between where you are and somewhere like where I am at? I mean hell, the term light pollution was practically invented for the east coast.

This is the difference between your sky and my sky, albeit made artificially.

It is just that much darker here at night.

 

[wbrudi28]

Yes however my personal opinion is backed up by scientific data, a DOT standard, and years of experience working with all fields of lighting.

Its quite impossible for an opinion to be backed by scientific data when the opinion itself uses abstract adjectives such as "blinding" because your opinion of blinding and mine are clearly different.

The human eye is far more compromised by a light that is shut off then turned back on (example of the flickering projector pattern) than a lighting source that is amplified over a lighting source it is used to seeing (HID compared to halogen).

If you would further like to discuss this, please PM me as to not clutter the thread. I am an employee of the NYS DOT, have a bachelors in mechanical engineering and a masters in biomedical engineering so i know a few things about roads and the human body.

 

[MustangP51]

Its quite impossible for an opinion to be backed by scientific data when the opinion itself uses abstract adjectives such as "blinding" because your opinion of blinding and mine are clearly different.

My scientific data is the results of a light scatter test. If you are a DOT employee then you are familiar with these tests correct? If so I don't understand your side of the argument based on this alone.

The human eye is far more compromised by a light that is shut off then turned back on (example of the flickering projector pattern) than a lighting source that is amplified over a lighting source it is used to seeing (HID compared to halogen).

This is incorrect... when light levels decrease the rods in your eyes become more active and begin to amplify ambient light. It can take up to an hour for these rods to become fully active. If you eyes become exposed to bright light again these rods become less agitated and you loose your eyes ability to amplify light. When you get hit with the flicker of a projector, a quick squint, or pupal contraction will minimize the light entering your eye and prevent a good amount of night vision degradation. After being exposed to the lights it will take a good amount of time to regain the same level of low light vision. Longer the exposure to bright light... the less active your rods become. the less active your rods are... the greater reduction in low light vision.

If you would further like to discuss this, please PM me as to not clutter the thread. I am an employee of the NYS DOT, have a bachelors in mechanical engineering and a masters in biomedical engineering so i know a few things about roads and the human body.

Keep the conversation here so others can also learn. Not quite sure why we had to drop credentials but this side of the discussion has a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering, Instrument Rated Commercial Pilot/ATP/MEII. You must learn almost everything there is to know about the human eye when becoming a pilot to prevent them from deceiving you and killing you.

 

[FIND]

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Just saying.

I think I've got you guys beat.