xenon lights

kndmercer · **Joined:** Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:28 am **Posts:** 23

I am wanting to upgrade my headlights on both Jeeps...2005 Renny and 2007 Sport...what modifications do I need to make? If I screw it up and they burn to the ground I may have to jump off a bridge!!! What lights do you have and how much better are they?? Lots of deer out my way and no street lights in sight!!

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:45 pm

Unless you replace the whole headlight unit not much you can do. Plus its illegal to use them on the road way, they don't work as well as what you think.
read on Daniel Stern lighting's web page when you have a chance
Get some good driving lights and call it a day
plus you won't burn it down :ROTFL:

kndmercer · **Joined:** Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:28 am **Posts:** 23

tommudd wrote:

Unless you replace the whole headlight unit not much you can do. Plus its illegal to use them on the road way, they don't work as well as what you think.
read on Daniel Stern lighting's web page when you have a chance
Get some good driving lights and call it a day
plus you won't burn it down :ROTFL:

really?? I see the xenon light on a bunch of vehicles around here I figured if they did such a good job blinding me they would work good...will look into it I travel about 45 miles with nothing in sight gets pretty dark looking for better lighting now if I could just use the lightbar while driving down the road :twisted:

irollgen4s · **Posted:** Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:46 pm

if its THAT dark, and i know theres very rarely cars on the road, i just use my lightbar on the road. Makes me feel better about being able to see deer farther away.

kndmercer · **Joined:** Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:28 am **Posts:** 23

irollgen4s wrote:

if its THAT dark, and i know theres very rarely cars on the road, i just use my lightbar on the road. Makes me feel better about being able to see deer farther away.

Would love to however it is a 45 mile trip...no towns but, 2 lane highway and lots of truck traffic to avoid the toll roads...and them sneaky hp that will see the bar glowing from a mile away!!

brettacuff · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:23 pm

Definitely don't look under Post Your Jeep Pics Here at HIDs Installed and see how my headlights don't brighten the roadways. :lol:

All kinds of people run HIDs (probably what you're referring to) these days and I don't see them being pulled over for it. However, they are illegal.

To tell you the truth...I think stock flickering HIDs (BMW Nissan Mercedes Acura Caddillac) are worse and more distracting than aftermarket HIDs.

I'd go with HIDs (maybe not yellow 3000k but...) the semi trucks won't be bothered by them. They sit too high.

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:27 pm

brettacuff · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:35 pm

tommudd wrote:

:roll:

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:48 pm

Facts are facts, throw HIDs in a stock KJ housing and the light goes everywhere it scatters does not give you even half the light a normal bulb does, you may think it does,
you may laugh but they do not work:wink:

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:01 pm

brettacuff wrote:

Definitely don't look under Post Your Jeep Pics Here at HIDs Installed and see how my headlights don't brighten the roadways. :lol:

All kinds of people run HIDs (probably what you're referring to) these days and I don't see them being pulled over for it. However, they are illegal.

To tell you the truth...I think stock flickering HIDs (BMW Nissan Mercedes Acura Caddillac) are worse and more distracting than aftermarket HIDs.

I'd go with HIDs (maybe not yellow 3000k but...) the semi trucks won't be bothered by them. They sit too high.

You will blind truck drivers with HID's in the KJ housings and they are not so forgiving as most of the other traffic you run into.

Just run a good quality halogen bulb and correctly aim the lights.I use Hella 9007's and they are great lights.

brettacuff · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:20 pm

tommudd wrote:

Facts are facts, throw HIDs in a stock KJ housing and the light goes everywhere it scatters does not give you even half the light a normal bulb does, you may think it does,
you may laugh but they do not work:wink:

I know and respect how much knowledge you have about KJs...however I can't argue with the results that I've experienced with my bulbs. My HIDs give off way more light than stock.

brettacuff · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:23 pm

tjkj2002 wrote:

brettacuff wrote:

Definitely don't look under Post Your Jeep Pics Here at HIDs Installed and see how my headlights don't brighten the roadways. :lol:

All kinds of people run HIDs (probably what you're referring to) these days and I don't see them being pulled over for it. However, they are illegal.

To tell you the truth...I think stock flickering HIDs (BMW Nissan Mercedes Acura Caddillac) are worse and more distracting than aftermarket HIDs.

I'd go with HIDs (maybe not yellow 3000k but...) the semi trucks won't be bothered by them. They sit too high.

You will blind truck drivers with HID's in the KJ housings and they are not so forgiving as most of the other traffic you run into.

Just run a good quality halogen bulb and correctly aim the lights.I use Hella 9007's and they are great lights.

Well, for some of us, our headlights aren't 12" higher than stock. :wink:

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:47 pm

brettacuff wrote:

tjkj2002 wrote:

brettacuff wrote:

Definitely don't look under Post Your Jeep Pics Here at HIDs Installed and see how my headlights don't brighten the roadways. :lol:

All kinds of people run HIDs (probably what you're referring to) these days and I don't see them being pulled over for it. However, they are illegal.

To tell you the truth...I think stock flickering HIDs (BMW Nissan Mercedes Acura Caddillac) are worse and more distracting than aftermarket HIDs.

I'd go with HIDs (maybe not yellow 3000k but...) the semi trucks won't be bothered by them. They sit too high.

You will blind truck drivers with HID's in the KJ housings and they are not so forgiving as most of the other traffic you run into.

Just run a good quality halogen bulb and correctly aim the lights.I use Hella 9007's and they are great lights.

Well, for some of us, our headlights aren't 12" higher than stock. :wink:

I don't have HID's in my headlights.

brettacuff · **Posted:** Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:38 pm

I know but I'm just saying that of course HIDs in your rig would blind truckers, they're 12" higher than a normal KJ's. :wink:

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:01 pm

Coming from someone who has driven almost a million miles in a Peterbilt , yes those DA** lights will blind a truck driver
Thats one of the reasons I had a spot light trained to the left side of the lane beside me, worked great when someone came up along side with HIDs
by the way
Halogen headlamps and HID headlamps require very different optics to produce a safe and effective—not to mention legal—beam pattern. How come? Because of the very different characteristics of the two kinds of light source.

A halogen bulb has a cylindrical light source: the glowing filament. The space immediately surrounding the cylinder of light is completely dark, and so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is along the edges of the cylinder of light. The ends of the filament cylinder fade from bright to dark. An HID bulb, on the other hand, has a crescent-shaped light source -- the arc. It's crescent-shaped because as it passes through the space between the two electrodes, its heat causes it to try to rise. The space immediately surrounding the crescent of light glows in layers...the closer to the crescent of light, the brighter the glow. The ends of the arc crescent are the brightest points, and immediately beyond these points is completely dark, so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is at the ends of the crescent of light.
When designing the optics (lens and/or reflector) for a lamp, the characteristics of the light source are the driving factor around which everything else must be engineered. If you go and change the light source, you've done the equivalent of putting on somebody else's eyeglasses: You can probably make them fit on your face OK, but you won't see properly.

black and blue · **Posted:** Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:51 pm

I can't speak for KJ lights, and I have never driven a semi, but I do have HIDs in my KK housings

The light output is not consistent, and looks a little "blotchy" in some spots, but overall is much brighter and shines further down the road than other vehicles' lights (just by comparing my lights to other cars as I drive by them on the highway)

I have not been flashed one single time in the past 5 months or so that I have had them (since I aimed them down), so I assume they do not blind anyone in any normal driving situation that any other halogen wouldnt blind you in

I have considered adding some sort of under-eyelid feature like HID projectors have to cut off the light. If I am blinding truckers, this would probably prevent it from happening in the future

brettacuff · **Posted:** Wed Oct 26, 2011 11:16 pm

For a daily I would not install HIDs but a crap load of people do. Sylvania Silverstars perform pretty well. Go for those.

Ryn7 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 28, 2011 3:16 am

tommudd wrote:

Coming from someone who has driven almost a million miles in a Peterbilt , yes those DA** lights will blind a truck driver
Thats one of the reasons I had a spot light trained to the left side of the lane beside me, worked great when someone came up along side with HIDs
by the way
Halogen headlamps and HID headlamps require very different optics to produce a safe and effective—not to mention legal—beam pattern. How come? Because of the very different characteristics of the two kinds of light source.

A halogen bulb has a cylindrical light source: the glowing filament. The space immediately surrounding the cylinder of light is completely dark, and so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is along the edges of the cylinder of light. The ends of the filament cylinder fade from bright to dark. An HID bulb, on the other hand, has a crescent-shaped light source -- the arc. It's crescent-shaped because as it passes through the space between the two electrodes, its heat causes it to try to rise. The space immediately surrounding the crescent of light glows in layers...the closer to the crescent of light, the brighter the glow. The ends of the arc crescent are the brightest points, and immediately beyond these points is completely dark, so the sharpest contrast between bright and dark is at the ends of the crescent of light.
When designing the optics (lens and/or reflector) for a lamp, the characteristics of the light source are the driving factor around which everything else must be engineered. If you go and change the light source, you've done the equivalent of putting on somebody else's eyeglasses: You can probably make them fit on your face OK, but you won't see properly.

Why H.I.D. light bulbs don't work as good in a headlamp designed for a Halogen bulb.

It actually has to do with where the light source reflects it's light onto the lamps reflector.
If the light bulbs light doesn't hit the correct focal point of the lamps reflector then the light gets scattered causing an
unfocused beam pattern*.
This is what happens when you install a H.I.D. bulb into a Halogen headlamp housing, the arc of the illuminated H.I.D. bulb is just outside of the headlamps reflectors optimal focal point*.
Automotive headlamps which use a standard Halogen light bulb such as a 9000 series or an H 4 variety are designed
around the bulb.
The same for a high intensity discharge bulb. The headlamps reflector/projector lens is designed around the bulb.

The light that gets reflected onto the road is better than that of a standard Halogen bulb but the stray light that is cast everywhere else is a nuisance to oncoming drivers

kndmercer · **Joined:** Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:28 am **Posts:** 23

Thanks everyone a lot to chew on, I learned a lot with all of your replies. I wasn't looking forward to upgrading my ballasts and wiring so...it looks like I am going to stick with halogen and rewire my fogs. I know it can be done where they are on when you use your high beam and shut off when you dim your lights. I maRight now I have the little lights built into my grille...have you seen anyone mount Renny style or hellas over the openings? How does it look?

2006 KJ · **Posted:** Sat Oct 29, 2011 6:37 pm

brettacuff wrote:

For a daily I would not install HIDs but a crap load of people do. Sylvania Silverstars perform pretty well. Go for those.

x2

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