Has anyone tried to hook up HID headlight conversion kits on their truck???

 

An HID conversion "kit" won't do it on these trucks. These trucks, as far as I know, only come with halogen lights from the factory. Replacing the halogen bulb with an HID bulb isn't going to help you. It will increase the amount of light that gets thrown out, but it won't direct it in the proper directions. HID headlight lenses are specially designed to direct the light emitted by the bulb in the proper location. IOW, an HID conversion "kit" where you just replace the bulbs will **** off a lot of other drivers, but not actually give you a real benefit.

To get the true benefits of HID without pissing anyone off, look into getting actual HID lenses to replace the factory lenses. If Dodge actually did have an HID option (which, like I said, I don't think they did), this would be the way to go.

 

Thanks for the info...I was camping over the weekend and a friend of mine invited someone he works with and sad to say it was a powersmoke but he had HID's on his truck, by the way it was a 2004. The light from his truck out shined mine, it looked like my trucks lights wasn't even on. The pattern it shined on the road was very bright and was even in its own lane, not all over the place...I think he said the company he bought it from was proxenon or somthing like that...he said it was a plug and play kind of hook up, no wire cutting or splicing. Well just wanted to see if anyone tried to hook up HID kits on their trucks....

 

I have HIDs in my fog lights and theyy work tremendously. I didn't use them in my headlights for reason that tdupuis stated and I didn't really want to loose high beam. However since then they now make HIDs in high/low beam for 9004's, 6's, 7's and so on now days.

 

A friend of mine replaced the 2 inside bulbs with "Nighthawks". He drives a lot at night and as most of us do, he hated the factory lights. With the Nighthawks he says he's never had such great headlights. They light up the ditches now as well! (He's had them for 3 months.)

 

Just changing to the PIAA bulbs helped mine a good bit. I agree that if you want to go HID you need the proper reflectors. Then again what do I know, I just work in Lighting..

 

Lightman
Which PIAA's did you get ?
Superwhites
Starwhites ?
Thanks

 

03CTDCO, I'm trying to remember....I got them shortly after getting my truck. If you do a search, there were quite a few threads about them. I know they had a super white and a bluish bulb that fit our trucks at the time. I went for the whitest color temperature, but for some reason I thought they were eliminating that option and going to the bluer light, for that fake HID look...

Edit - ok I checked their site. Most have gotten the xtreme white plus, but when I got mine there was an option for just xtreme white. It may be what they are now calling a different name - as they appear to offer one at 3800K (pretty white/like daylight) and one at 4000k, which is cooler/bluer with that slight tint to it.

It was a basic bulb swap, and I think it was less than $50 to be honest. It doesn't make a night and day difference, but it is marginally brighter and with a slightly better beamspread. It's easy to see the difference if you change one and leave one stock and light them both up.

 

Lightman
PIAA's latest is called "Starwhite" at 3800k I believe. Maybe its time to try a pair.
I was adjusting my little PIAA 1000's I installed and notice just how dim and yellow
looking our stock bulbs look.
Thanks for the feedback

 

I really don't like the stock headlight situation either. The low beams seem to fall off drastically after about 75' into a big black hole in the pavement. I need to keep my fogs as fogs.

Therefore, I upgraded my bulbs and have had the PIAA Starwhites in my truck for about 8 months. They made a slight improvement over OEM bulbs, maybe 10-15% better IMO. However, one of my low beams just popped the other night and is now dead. High beam still works fine. Even though I have the DRL activated they run at reduced intensity daytime. I was very careful installing them and did not touch the bulbs. I am somewhat dissappointed after spending the $80 to upgrade to these bulbs that they did not even make it a year. I seem to recall that someone else here, or another fourm, complained about their 9007 PIAA's not lasting very long either.

I'm putting my OEM bulbs back in and waiting for someone to offer a retrofit reflector/HID assembly rather than shelling out another $80 bucks for such a small improvement and short life span.

 

XZILR8N
E-mail PIAA directly thru their customer service...they will replace that bulb.
I've done this several times over the yrs. PIAA will stand behind their products.
I would be disappointed if they didnt send you a new set.

 

i don't think switching bulbs only will get you HID quality light. my cousin is an engineer at sylvania and he brought home a HID unit. it has special ballast that cost well over a thousand dollars. i am thinking these HID bulbs are just a gimmick.

 

Hercules130
I dont think anyone is saying that. A whiter (higher kelvin temp scale) light in a conventional
light bulb is not the same as a HID bulb. HID's for our trucks would be sweet.

 

maybe i read this wrong, but it sounded like he swapped out some bulbs and had HID'S. i'm not trying to pick any fights. maybe there is some new stuff out there i don't know about , which wouldn't surprise me. the last bulbs i bought were silver stars for my tacoma, and they were awsome.

a side note about a true HID conversion, it is illegal in maryland to put HID's in a vehicle that was not equipped from the factory with them. i am not sure if other states are going to follow this law, i hope not.

 

I replaced the 9006's in the fog lights with a cheaper HID kit from ebay, my headlamps just have silverstars in them.