That's why I'm doin them to save my HL switch and I like the look of them and they are bright!

 

Wow those are harsh.

How do you get the High beam on your HID's, is it mechanical or is there a separate xenon High beam lamp?

On your HID lamp is there a shield covering the end of the lamp like on a conventional H-4 incandescent lamp to keep the scatter from projecting froward, this is what creates the harsh oncoming glare, if the end of the lamp is covered the light is bounced off the reflector and projected out the fluted lens to shape the beam, without it all of the light floods out of the reflector in all directions.

This is a common problem with most of the HID kits on the market.

I bought a pair of the Autopal housings from e-bay and they are still setting in my garage, I do not like the cutoff pattern when I tried them using Silver Star Ultras, so I am interested in a pair of HID's.

I am just wondering how yours are set up, not being mean or trying to be disrespectful towards you.

Jim

 

You must buy the Projector housings for the bounce back that you are talking about jim. I've ran both types and without it the light is everywhere. The high beam is a standard bulb that is in with the hid bulb. They do make a set that has a little flip down deal like the new camaro's but I don't think they are dot approved as of yet in the aftermarket world.....I may be wrong on this. But once you try the Hid I doubt you will need more than what they produce all on their own. Ebay has the housings, I'd stay away from the slim kit's on ebay, some of my friends have had them and all though they say life time warranty once you have a problem and send them back they claim it was something wrong with the install. A good quality hid kit can be had from the mid 100's with a company that will stand behind their product. I've had one ballast go bad with my kit and it was my fault but they gave me a new one anyways.

 

Before you go and buy HIDs, trot on over to Daniel Stern Lighting and do some reading.

*I am not affiliated with Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy; He seems to know what he is talking about.*

 

Jim Lane- are your autopals the E-spec lens or standard?

 

In my opinion, all HID's wether factory or not are bright! Even factory HID"s can be hard on the eyes because of the type of light production (arc). There are ways to minimize the glare which many people do not attempt. Even my HID's with E-spec lenses get comments of being so bright, they do not however say they are blinding.

 

There are ways around having to have projectors to control the beam, as simple as masking the end of the bulb the way that fog lights have, a simple cap in the reflector would shield all of the light emitted from the front of the HID lamp.

For the high beams I have seem the xenon lamp, mechanical shutter that dips the lamp in relation to the reflector and I have read of method that uses a strong magnetic field around the beam that magnetically deflects the beam the same way a cathode ray beam is moved.

Sometimes I talk in simple terms to help someone less technical relate to what I am trying to say, but I have worked in electronics, auto and diesel mechanics, HVAC in some capacity as either professionally for the past 42 years, and as a hobby 56 years.

HID's are not that bright compared to a standard incandescent lamp, most HID's are around 35-watts compared to a standard 55-watt headlamp, I think the advantages come from the low current consumption once the arc strikes and the bulb warms up, the color temperature makes you think they are brighter but the main advantage of the HID is the way the beam is precisely controlled through the projector.
Also the HID emits light in the UV region so at night the surroundings will fluoresce more and look brighter.

The xenarc XP6054 Projectors are the lamps I was looking at.

http://www.brightheadlights-hid.com/...ire-Trucks.htm

Jim

 

Standard DOT lamps.

They are not the E-code, they are made for people who drive on the wrong side of the road, the light pattern is completely different than ours and will get you noticed real quick.

Jim

 

Why HID headlights bother older drivers (something Ill bet you didn't know)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1771460/

Jim

 

Some good info there.

I have the e-spec's and have not had any issues yet, hopefully it remains that way.

I have never been brighted either so i assume that they are not terribly bright for oncoming traffic. I did take care to adjust them conservatively with oncoming drivers in mind.

 

Where did you hear that HID lights weren't more bright than resistive lights? I believe you have your information crossed up between HID and the "super white" lights (silverstars, etc) that claim to be brighter, but are still the same wattage and the same lumens at a higher color temperature...

A regular H4 is 1000 lumens.
A Silverstar H4 is 1000 lumens.
A regular H7 is 1300 lumens.
A Silverstar H7 is 1300 lumens.
A 5000k 35W HID bulb is 3200 - 3500 lumens.

They put out so much more light with less wattage because an arc is more effecient than a resistor that gets hot enough to glow...

Also, UV is from 400nm to 100nm. Black light is from 400-410nm. As you get into hotter Kelvin color temperatures, the peak does get into the black light and UVA range, but glass stops UV. UV takes a special grade of quartz to pass through, so your 12000k HID isn't actually putting out any UV. This is also why the higher Kelvin number on get with HID, the lower the lumen rating is... The light is not only mostly not visible, but is also blocked from getting out of the envelope... The purple you are seeing is really just the top edge of visible light (less than 400nm)... Even if it gets out of the envelope due to what it's made of, it's not getting through the plastic or glass lense of the headlight... Trust me, as a UV Engineer, if they were putting out UV, and you were setting up camp or whatever by headlight light; about 8-12 hours later, it would feel like you had sand in your eyes for about 4 hours... Not fun. Believe me!

Mike

 

sorry for the late reply yes my lenses are projectors and the high beam is what they call bixenon all it does is pull the bulb in with a coil to change the angle of the light