HIDs for low beams, what for high?

[Lewis&Clark]

I've finally settled on XenonDepot to source my front facing light upgrades. I'm going with 5000K HID for my low because I prefer HID on the low beams, and 5000K is the middle ground I'm looking for -- bright but not too blue.

HID on the high beams doesn't make sense because it takes them a little longer to warm up, making flicking/flashing of high beams a little pointless.

I was going to go with LED there, but XenonDepot tells me they won't be as bright as my low beams -- and that sounds kinda silly and counterproductive.

I plan to replace the fogs too, and those will almost certainly be LED given the limited space to fit in more ballasts, etc.

What would y'all suggest I go with for the high beams if I'm using 5000K HID for low?

 

[Samm25]

I have LEDs in both my low and high beams and they’re bright as hell. I aimed the headlight down more not to blind oncoming traffic, I usually get flashed only when coming up a hill since most of them are little cars that’ll flash.

But the high beams light up a bunch of the road.

 

[dsieber]

I just decided to go the light bar route, and tied it into my high beams. Plenty bright, and no delay. . Have HIDs on the lows, and it works very well.

 

[riceandpho]

I've finally settled on XenonDepot to source my front facing light upgrades. I'm going with 5000K HID for my low because I prefer HID on the low beams, and 5000K is the middle ground I'm looking for -- bright but not too blue.

HID on the high beams doesn't make sense because it takes them a little longer to warm up, making flicking/flashing of high beams a little pointless.

I was going to go with LED there, but XenonDepot tells me they won't be as bright as my low beams -- and that sounds kinda silly and counterproductive.

I plan to replace the fogs too, and those will almost certainly be LED given the limited space to fit in more ballasts, etc.

What would y'all suggest I go with for the high beams if I'm using 5000K HID for low?

i do yellow high beam bulb, when flashing its very noticeable, but you can also do a bright white or HIR bulbs which is a little bit brighter, HIR is different from hid.

 

[Folsom4Rnr]

i do yellow high beam bulb, when flashing its very noticeable, but you can also do a bright white or HIR bulbs which is a little bit brighter, HIR is different from hid.

+1 on HIR... its what I did for my hi-beams after putting HIDs in for my lows.

 

[t-rex grrr]

I've got HIDs for lows, and LEDs for highs.

I swapped out my Phillips 100w 9005s for the LEDs recently. Although much much whiter, I wouldn't say they're brighter. No complaints, but just don't expect LED bar brightness.

 

[Lewis&Clark]

I just decided to go the light bar route, and tied it into my high beams. Plenty bright, and no delay. . Have HIDs on the lows, and it works very well.

Any chance you have a photo to share of your truck at night with only low beams on, and a photo at night with the highs and bar on?

 

[dsieber]

Any chance you have a photo to share of your truck at night with only low beams on, and a photo at night with the highs and bar on?

Hmmm - not sure, but definitely something I could arrange for over the next couple of days. I’ll try to take some this weekend and post them.

 

[akcc]

Nice.

I did hids on my low beam 55w 5000k, fogs 55w 6000k, and high beam 25w 6000k led.

I was going to add a secondary Fog light in the lower bumper grill with 6000k 55w hids but 3 years later... Sitting on myshelf collecting dust.

 

[Lewis&Clark]

Hmmm - not sure, but definitely something I could arrange for over the next couple of days. I’ll try to take some this weekend and post them.

Thank you.

 

[dsieber]

Thank you.

Sorry to say, it’s going to be a bit delayed. Poured yesterday when I planned to do it, and I’m now on a business trip away from my car. Back this coming weekend though, so I’ll still get there!

 

[iBison]

I put HIDs in my lows and now I never use the highs.

 

[Ed_C]

Diode Dynamics SL1. Better performance then even a 9011 HIR bulb upgrade, tested by lightwerkz.net using a light meter.

I recently tried them on a GX470,which uses 9005 highbeam bulbs like our 4th-gens except a projector instead of reflector. Our eyes can deceive us into perceiving a light source being brighter because of the color and change in beam pattern. I performed my own light meter testing,measuring the "hot spots" of the beam patterns projected to a wall and there definitely was in increase in output. The hotspot was also larger than the halogen, so there's more usable light.

 

[dsieber]

Hey Lewis&Clark - sorry this took so long!

So, here's two sets of photos. They were just taken with my phone, but I tried to make sure they were the same speed & ISO, so they should be at least a bit comparable.

Driveway:



Street:



Unfortunately, neither spot was really perfectly dark - street lights & house lights. On a really dark trail/road, the lightbar makes a huge difference.

Hope that helps,
Dirk