04ctd

Found out about them in this thread:

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...t273245p2.html



Make sure you tell Todd you saw it on DTR, and you want the Diesel Truck Resource Forum discount.


All the pictures: ( about 80 )
http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...HID/?start=all


Here’s the bad part:

-the bulb does not fit; you have to pick the washer out of your OEM bulb to make it snug. Not a biggie, easy to do.



-the brackets are total flaming crap. They did not even survive the install, the Dewalt hammer drill shook the ballasts out while mounting them with self tapping sheet metal screws.

-the input harness from the headlight plug, those wires are twisted. I would take the electrical tape off, and solder those. I think a CTD shakes too much to have twisted wires providing the lighting, esp if you tow heavy and could hurt someone.

-the ring terminal for the power lug will not fit over the Remote battery post on the Fuse Box.

-the headlight plug will not stay plugged into the OEM plug, I heat shrinked mine, you will need to tie wrap or tape them together.

-no dielectric grease comes with the kit. I used ˝ a tube from some other project.


Here’s the good:

-fully functional High and low beams.

-no “Bulb out indicator” on the dash.

-very well defined LOW BEAM

-High beam has a LOT of light out put.

-you can SAFELY see.

04ctd

The bolts that come in the pack with the lights will mount the ballast in front of the air box.





Cut a HUGE hole in the air box to clear the ballast. You can the molded character lines I used as guides if you compare the pics.



You NEED to mark the holes to mount the Driver side ballast BEFORE you remove the head light. I put it in too far, and it hit the adjuster rod (see pics) and I had to pull the headlight again to move it. I ground a spot down to bare metal for the grounds there, and sprayed it with some “rust sealer” stuff.





Take out the driver side light. Two bolts in front, one thru the fender well, pull the rubber plug & use universal joints.
I had to SLAM it front the rear of the light housing. Be SURE to put a thick TOWEL under the light to keep from scratching the fender. Have a chair to set the light in till you get the lights out.

04ctd

I had to wallow out the hole on the relay box to get a bolt thru there. The bottom hole was big enough, but was so close to the relay body, I could not get a socket on the bolt when it was in that hole.



The Relay can mount right by the Fuse box, in an existing hole. Use a hemostat to toss a washer thru the hole, and a nut. Then, I used an angled box end wrench (7/16) to hold the nut. I only had one wrench that would FIT in the hole.




I did not like the way the passenger side leads laid across the washer reservoir, so I pulled it loose, and ran the wire behind it, along the washer fluid line.






I put the battery cable in the rear holders, and tie wrapped the passenger side leads to the washer fluid line, and I put a piece of flex loom on the wire where it touched the metal of the radiator.

04ctd

I took the wires off the headlight connector, and cut off the excess, and removed the quick disconnect connectors, and soldered the resistors right in. and mounted them to the radiator support to heat sink them. The ground wire on there is not used in our installation.









I tie wrapped EVERYTHING together. Vibration kills electrical stuff, and chafes wires. Rigidity = reliability.

I wrapped the OEM passenger light plug in a HUGE piece of heat shrink, and doubled it back over to seal it, and tie wrapped it back up in the fender.



I put a LOT of heat shrink over the wires for the passenger side ballast; where they passed the AC lines, and I put some Flex Loom over the AC lines (have to be observant to see that in early/late pics)



The ring terminal on the relay is too small. I could not even cut the end and spread it far enough, just buy a bigger one (I used a yellow terminal, and folded the wire in double to get a good crimp).
I tie wrapped the power fuse to the relay. It may stay there.

The supplied ballast brackets are just TRASH. I would buy some 3 inch Band clamps (like on the stock Air intake tube) and use them to hold the ballast in the clamp. I tried bending out the little tab, but it is BEHIND the ballast, not below it. It was too late for me, I had to use tie wraps. I went around back, and came THRU the hole where the tab was, so that should hold

04ctd

I have had this 2006 since new, and lately, my eyes have gotten worse. In the rain at night, I just can’t see crap.

And no one can see to turn at night; you have to roll the window down at every turn. Now, with the HID’s, you can see around the corners. There is a huge blob of light right out past the driver side mirror

Even my wife thinks she will be able to start driving at night again. She had quit, she was totally dependent on me to carry her everywhere.

Install took ~4 hours, and a LOT of random materials (heat shrink, flex loom, tie wraps, tape, solder, ring terminal) that you may want to gather up the night before.

You can hear the ballast humming, and you can hear the headlight shutters click, in the truck, with the motor off (like at a drive thru)


no ONE has "high beamed" me yet, so I may try to raise them a notch.

I can't even tell my fog lights are on, except in two spots, on each shoulder.
i put the super-duper bulbs in there last month, and the fogs were MUCH brighter than the stock headlights, and now the fogs look dim compared to the HIDs




Hope this helps someone else out, and helps them feel more safer & comfortable driving at dark.

my wife had pretty much gave up on having an independent life after dark.
we kept wondering why we could see so good in other vehicles, but not in our own truck. those crappy stock lights are why

MikeyB

You know only one load resistor (low beam) is needed for the 2006?

I used the slim line ballast from Todd. Works great!

MikeyB

jfdid

I second the information, the local shop sold me 4 load resistors and I used only one - on the low beam circuit. I took them back and they said "No, you need 4", I told them it's working fine, "No, you're going to need 4", ok bud, just give me my money back. @ $20/piece I can see why they want you to use 4.

MikeyB

Yep, only the 2002-2005 requires four load resistors.

MikeyB

scout1ton

Nice writeup 04. You should be pleased with them. I did have to use 2 resistors and no capacitor. I have had mine working correctly for about a month now, no negative issues except for getting pulled over by county Deputy. No ticket given, he just said "your going to have to do something with your lights fella". I let him know that I would adjust them down and he was fine with it. I didn't know about the DTR discount, I may hit Tod up for some swag if he has any.


I removed your demeaning description of the Deputy. T'rad.

rockcrawler304

Very nice write up

04ctd

thanks guys. a few typos in there, sorry, was a lot to type up.

FWIW, this is the most "regretful" mod, i have done, because i REALLY regret not doing it sooner.

i put a crappy HID kit in my 2004 (just a HID bulb, no high/low, no light aiming) and it kinda burnt me on HID's

i am TOTALLY STOKED with these lights, and would recommend them to anyone. there are few bugs in the install, but that is ok for the results you get.

as for the two resistors, it looks like the vendor puts the main harness together, and the "point of sell" guy has to add the plug in parts needed to be vehicle specific, and the guy has no way to know which harness is low or high beam (wires are covered in tape) so he just puts a resistor on both leads.

I have not been high beamed once since I put them in.

driving at night in the rain is a MASSIVE improvement. it's much better, especially with daylight savings time making it dark so early.

04ctd

checking back in after a few months.

we got a local guy on a local forum, selling the cheapo crap kits.

i put some in my Tahoe, and the bulb bases did not fit (broke tabs off trying to tighten)

so i bought a set of bulbs (and another HID kit for daughters car) from DDM Tuning, and those HID bulbs did not fit the H11 socket on a GM product, either.


this kit in the pics is much better than the cheapo ebay/ddm tuning crap.

the stuff i bought local, only one ballast works GOOD, the other one is hit or miss. i put the above kit in, in a few hours, and have never touched it again.

the cheapo kit i put in the Tahoe, i have worked on about 4 hours total now, trying to get it all sorted out. gonna swap the ballasts tonite, see if that one ballast is still bad. in other words, considering what my time is worth, it would have been cheaper to PAY MORE, and have LESS WORK to do .



i was in the Tahoe, about 3 cars back behind the wife (she was driving the CTD) last week, and I could TELL where she was, just by how much light was output by these lights. there was a big box truck behind her, and she lit up the road all around.

my daughter put ~2000 miles on the truck this month, and LOVED them.

it's $$ well spent, to do it right the first time.

Coblue

Just wanted to add my $.02- Retro-Solutions kit is a fantastic upgrade.

I bought my '06 2500 used. It had 8000k HIDs installed in both the headlamps and fog lamps. The headlights were low-beam only, and the relays were wired to the parking lamps to avoid the 'lamp out' display in the dash. I could not have parking lights only, but I thought the light output was great, until I needed high beams and had none.
I traded a few emails about the BiXenons with Todd and Steve at retro to make sure I would get what I wanted. I ordered the 4300k bixenon kit to maximize visible light and 3000k bulbs only for the fogs.
I installed the kit today and I am thoroughly impressed with the improvement over the HIDs I had. There is much more visible light with the 4300k vs the 8000k. There does seem to be more light at the side of the road and the cutoff up the road is good. The high beams really get out there; at least compared to none before!
My comments relative to 04ctd's:
He probably did a more detailed install than me (no heat shrinking, trimming wire length, etc.)
Since I had to remove the prior installation, I removed the airbox and both headlights. I then started at the passenger headlight and worked back to the power box.
I mounted the passenger ballast to the plastic fender well so I wouldn't have to cut a hole in the airbox. If I had self-tapping screws when I started the install I probably would have mounted it low on the rear side of the vertical frame piece, below the ac line; I ended up using that area anyway for the ground after a trip to get #10 self tapping hex screws for the grounds.
The rubber gasket that came from Retro was a little thin so I used one that was a little thicker from the original set of lights.
Because the ballast mounted low on the fender well I ran the wire under the radiator fan shroud, over to the driver's side. Again I mounted the ballast on the fender well and grounded to the side of the vertical piece that the washer bottle mounts to. (I thought the ballast mounts were at least adequate, not flaming crap. I mounted the brackets and then inserted the ballasts. I mounted mine the opposite of 04ctd with the single hole at the bottom.) For the driver's lamp the old gasket was not even enough so I doubled up the two Retro gaskets.
I enlarged the holes in both resistors slightly to use #6 self tapping pan head (there is not enough clearance for a socket to use Hex head screws) and mounted them to the front of the same piece for heat sink and airflow. I also mounted the relay box there; I did not have to enlarge the hole. Again, if I didn't mount the ballast to the fender well I might have mounted it here like 04ctd did.
Be careful about mounting anything to the outboard side of the vertical piece- you have to leave enough room for the headlight aiming apparatus. (Ask 04ctd and I how we know!)
I agree that the positive ring connector is too small; I used a cone-shaped dremel bit to enlarge the hole. (Don't try to use a drill )
Before bolting the headlight housings back in I checked to make sure everything worked.

I reused the old ballasts for the fogs so it was just a matter of connecting plugs. The bulbs came with two bare wires that need to be inserted into included plug housings (piece of cake). The 3000k is definitely more yellow than 4300k but I haven't had a chance to use them yet in fog or snow.

In summary it was a great install. Everything was included other than self tapping screws, zip ties, electrical tape. I spent a lot of time figuring out where things would mount and how to route/tie wires (the driver side is very busy)- but I don't know that there is an 'ideal' way. They lit up the first time; no trouble shooting needed.
Two thumbs up for Todd, Steve, and the Retro-Solutions kit.

04ctd

good deal.

i would like a "radiator clamp" around the ballast, but they do seem to work as is. i am just into overkill on mechanical stuff.


FWIW, we put 35w HID's in my wife's SUV,
and the 55w Retro kit is MUCH brighter than hers.
we have had different ballasts and diff bulbs in the SUV tryin get it brighter, but the Retro kit is AWESOME

everyone who rides in it/drive it is like WHOA...thats a LOT of light! the dodge amazes people.

its worth the price...to do it RIGHT the first time.

Lil Dog

I would suppose that one would have to disable their Daytime Running Lights to have this work in a Canadian Truck EH? I would like to do this upgrade for my 08..