Using HIDs for high beams

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Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
For what its worth the construction and beam pattern of many older lamps are much better than new ones.


That's very true. A first generation Miata with the 7 inch round headlights, upgraded to street legal "H4 Hella's" produces a very nice pattern to drive behind.

However, while that pattern may be really nice, they are not particularly bright. A stock Chevy Tahoe on high will blow it out of the weeds with actual "lumens out the front".
 
It is absolutely must to have good beam pattern. Throwing extra lumens without controlling where they land is counter productive. Your eyes really prefer not to have blotches of extra bright light right in front of you. What you want is uniform light with no hot spots.

Over the years, I have come *this* close to buying the illegal HID kit but the rational part of me holds me back. Good halgoen bulbs are now costing *more* than cheap illegal HID kit, so I understand the massive temptation.
 
Oh, yeah. Our 2011 F150 XLT Ecoboost has the worst headlights ever. No hot spots, nice cut off, nice wide spread. But they are so dim, on both low and high, they are unsafe.

I started thinking about this issue and I can do some objective testing. I have an el-cheapo, but reliable light meter for simple measurement. It would certainly be interesting to take 30 or 50 foot reflective measurements from a known surface. Possibly something I have with me regularly.

I rent cars once or twice a week. Best lights so far are on the Chevy Tahoe. They are stunningly good, both high and low. The Fords seem universally horrible.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
I started thinking about this issue and I can do some objective testing. I have an el-cheapo, but reliable light meter for simple measurement. It would certainly be interesting to take 30 or 50 foot reflective measurements from a known surface. Possibly something I have with me regularly.


A common way to augment such tests is to find a nice, quiet country road and see what you can actually see at various distances. Get someone to assist you so you can see at what point you can see a normally dressed pedestrian. See when reflective markers are visible, too.
 
I recently installed some piaa low beams in my 2012 civic and am driving around checking them now. They have been in three weeks. This was just a bulb change. At first I was impressed at how much brighter these are but then people started flipping me off and honking. So I aimed them down a bit. Then I couldn't see anything. I just readjusted them and am driving them on my mountain roads. I think I've got them aimed right but the light just doesn't look right. It brighter on the right than left. Sometimes I feel like one of them is out so I flip the brites to check. I think I'm going back to stock. I feel like although they are in fact brighter, I don't really know what I'm looking at. It could be a deer or simply an extra bright spot.
 
I thought there were many warnings here on NOT using PIAA bulbs, especially the blue ones. Stick with non-tinted Philips Extreme or imported Osram if you want good bulbs.
 
I'm running the Euro H4 housings in the Jeep, with Hella 55/100 bulbs (55w low beam, 100w high) and a relay harness. It's a great setup, and has great visibility on low and high beams (especially with my extra driving lights tied to the high beams). Low beam cutoff is clean and good, and not blinding to other drivers.
 
rslifkin has the right idea with having a set of driving lamps tied in with the high beam activation, best method especially if you had a reputable set of aux driving lamps.

As a side note hopefully the H4 housings can take the heat in your jeep. I have seen the reflective material burned to dull gray exactly over the over-wattage bulb rendering the beam pattern disfigured over time. The wiring is only half the equation.
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
For what its worth the construction and beam pattern of many older lamps are much better than new ones.


That's very true. A first generation Miata with the 7 inch round headlights, upgraded to street legal "H4 Hella's" produces a very nice pattern to drive behind.

However, while that pattern may be really nice, they are not particularly bright. A stock Chevy Tahoe on high will blow it out of the weeds with actual "lumens out the front".


The best choice may be an H4 bulb with stock low bean output and a high output high beam filament, such as a 55/80.
 
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
rslifkin has the right idea with having a set of driving lamps tied in with the high beam activation, best method especially if you had a reputable set of aux driving lamps.

As a side note hopefully the H4 housings can take the heat in your jeep. I have seen the reflective material burned to dull gray exactly over the over-wattage bulb rendering the beam pattern disfigured over time. The wiring is only half the equation.

People have run higher wattage bulbs than mine without hurting the housings (and if I needed, I could find the official Mopar e-codes which have ceramic reflectors, rather than coated plastic like my aftermarket ones). Both sets do have glass lenses though.

And yeah, my driving lights are a set of cheap-ish (but effective) 100w pencil beams aimed straight ahead, and a set of IPF 968 100 watters aimed slightly outwards to widen the field of view for deer spotting when passing empty fields, and to see better around corners on windy backroads. 600w of well-thrown light on high beam is quite effective, pretty much like flipping a switch for instant daylight
laugh.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Cujet
Oh, yeah. Our 2011 F150 XLT Ecoboost has the worst headlights ever. No hot spots, nice cut off, nice wide spread. But they are so dim, on both low and high, they are unsafe.

I rent cars once or twice a week. Best lights so far are on the Chevy Tahoe. They are stunningly good, both high and low. The Fords seem universally horrible.


Trade the 2011 in for a 2013, they have HIDs. Still might have to put 50W ballasts on them though.

I agree some Fords are awful. Some much older era Fords were awesome, say the 89s with the huge flat front lens.

If you want to actually improve your lighting, I can PM you a great site.
 
I understand that the optics on the H13 bulbs are pretty loose. American manufacturers seem to be in love with this bulb type, but beam focus (as noted) is often not very good. You can get upgrade bulbs in this type, but the housing is still often mediocre.

I've come to really like HB2 housings (which can also take H4 bulbs). These very often have very good beam focus and very good optics. The ones on my CR-V provide a very European-type beam pattern, with a lot of light down the middle of the road, a good amount of light to the left illuminating the road, and only a moderate amount of light to the right. It's still a US DOT VOR upper cutoff with a slight step, but the beam spread below is very useful.

I've had many cars before with United States-type beam spreads...very wide to both sides but rather indistinct with distance, and little beam focus. They LOOK pleasing to the eye (ooh, wide, they must be good!), but aren't as effective at night in my opinion.
 
I run 55w HIDs in my hi beams. It's the best lighting mod I've ever done. Tons of light and yes it's scattered all over. Exactly what you want. The stock 55w bulb was a H1 55w. Lo beams are 35w OEM HIDs.

They have been in there for over two years and a lot of my driving is at night in rural situations. No problems switching them on and off. And only when they have been off for 10 minutes or so is there any delay when the come on.

My fog lights are also 55w HID. This is overkill they should have been 35w. They are also wired to only come on with the hi beams and are aimed as high as I can get them.


all-lights-on.jpg
 
so many fails, the mind boggles :-(

fog lights aimed high to come on with the high beams :-(

55W HID hooked up to high beams with reflectors :-(
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
so many fails, the mind boggles :-(

fog lights aimed high to come on with the high beams :-(

55W HID hooked up to high beams with reflectors :-(


The key is hi beams. Think about it. You want light scattered all over.
 
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
Looks just like my HIR setup.



for intensity....but my HIR setup is way more controlled...

(dang computer froze up before I could edit...aaargh)


Even though the high beam has a less controlled beam in comparison to the low dipped beam pattern...you still want something pointing the light correctly. With HID capsules you just can't get that in a halogen enclosure.
 
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