Extreme bright headlights

[Whatswrong]

I expect a few opinions on this topic .Seems every time I'm on the road in the dark I always meet a few vehicles with the very bright bluish color lights .These are so bright they are dangerous to meet ,seem worst on 3/4 tons with a dab of weight in the back ,we live in an area where almost 1/2 the trucks are work trucks .My question is are they that exceptionally better for night vision or is it just cool to have them .Seems to me if they are that much better they should be a running light that is put off in dim mode.

 

[bcp]

Found this:

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

Bruce

 

[murphy1244]

I know what you mean, flash them yours and you get Blinded.

 

[adventure bob]

While I really hate the Gov intervening in our lives in any way, theres a reason and a lot of testing that goes into certifying road worthy things for use in Amerca. Lighting is one of them. The problem is that really good lights, that do an amazing job for night visibility, are really **** expensive. Look at the HID or LED bulbs used in Porsches or Infinities, or Lexus for that matter and go to AZ or Advanced and price the things. All these guys with trucks are getting the $40 "off road only" lights that have had no testing, arent certified and use a color temp that will burn the retinas out of an oncoming drivers eyes.
If your gonna do it, do it right. If your gona red neck it, just buy some Hella driving lights an dbolt them on so you can turn em offf and not blind the other drivers.

 

[Topkicker]

I don't mind the bright white factory headlamps or even the newer LED's aren't too bad from the manufactures. The ones I have a problem with are the aftermarket, bright blue light kits that are usually on a 10 year old rice rocket. I feel like I'm staring at some one welding when I meet a car with these. I have flipped on my KC's at a few of these to give them the same feel.

 

[Scooby074]

As mentioned.

How many of these "blue" lights are factory HID's and how many of them are guys who bought chinacrap HID kits off ebay?

One of the reasons factory HID is so expensive is because they contain actuators to adjust the bulb so it maintains proper focus and aim as vehicle weights change. When started, you can see the actuators adjust the beam to the correct aim. Those cheap kits just stick the bulb in there with none of the aiming and adjustment which leads to glare.

While expensive there is NOTHING like the light that you get from a properly aimed HID system. Dad has them in his Lexus, and the difference in both brightness, beam width and length is absolutely amazing. They are MUCH safer in a rural environment, particularly one polluted with deer like his.

I guess I should not have said "nothing". Audi is offering a truly revolutionary LED system on their flagship models, but only in Europe due to the US's (dumb) rules. The best way to describe it is to watch the video below. It continuously adapts to the road and cars ahead and allows you to "see" around corners, all electronically with no moving parts so that distracting glare is a thing of the past.

 

[JerryK]

On a simular topic, people seem not to dim their lights anymore. I was taught that you dim yours when you can see tail lights ahead, or headlights coming your way. Lots of people drive almost up to your rear bumper before they get around to diming their lights... by then, what little night vision you have to see deer on the edge of the road is gone... I feel like an idiot driving around with my dash lights dim'd, straining to see deer, and trying to keep some sort of night vision to see with.... [ well, more of an idiot ]

 

[QRTRHRS]

Once upon a time in states that had annual or semi-annual vehicle inspections, the headlights would be checked for proper alignment. Not sure but I do not think this happens anymore.

Someone mentioned adding driving lights. I love it when the lights are mounted up above the bumper about even with the headlights instead of way down low where they actually work best.

Having a good many nightime miles under my belt, I tend to use my low beams rather than my highs. When someone comes at me, I don't have to worry about dimming my lights and I can see them coming. I can focus on finding the edge of the road as they often as not do not dim in a timely manner and/or blind me with their driving lights.

In my opinion, there is a time and place for driving/fog lights. The drivers that use them all of the time get used to them to the point where they do not see any better than those of us that do not.

Lastly, fine, so you can see idiot! Do you not worry about blinding me and that I just may hit you?

 

[Bob77064]

When I lived in TX we had annual vehicle safety inspections.

 

[SPYDERLK]

When blinded by others lights I find I can see better by using my brights.

 

[uglyboywith11fingers]

While expensive there is NOTHING like the light that you get from a properly aimed HID system.

I don't know how far back you go, Scooby, but the best lighting I ever had, from a drivers perspective, was my 1950 Mercury.
Of course they were 7 inch units powered by a 6 volt system. On high beam those things lit up the road at least a half mile.
Nothing I've driven since has come close. Todays lighting systems disperse far too much light way off to the side of the road.

Pete

 

[Bob77064]

We have many dark country roads here, I use my high beams a lot. But when I see another vehicle coming or approach a vehicle traveling in front of me I switch to low beams.

 

[Scooby074]

I don't know how far back you go, Scooby, but the best lighting I ever had, from a drivers perspective, was my 1950 Mercury.
Of course they were 7 inch units powered by a 6 volt system. On high beam those things lit up the road at least a half mile.
Nothing I've driven since has come close. Todays lighting systems disperse far too much light way off to the side of the road.

Pete

Not quite that far, lol

The thing I like about the headlight pattern of my fathers car is it's the perfect mix of distance and width. Width is important here for the deer mostly.

Compared to the sealed beams of the 70's, 80,s and 90's I'm familiar with, todays HID is significantly better.

The Audi Matrix headlights I linked to above take that to the next level.

 

[Creamer]

I guess I should not have said "nothing". Audi is offering a truly revolutionary LED system on their flagship models, but only in Europe due to the US's (dumb) rules. The best way to describe it is to watch the video below. It continuously adapts to the road and cars ahead and allows you to "see" around corners, all electronically with no moving parts so that distracting glare is a thing of the past.

I really like the way the headlights make the deer stand beside the road so you can just keep driving!

 

[Scooby074]

I really like the way the headlights make the deer stand beside the road so you can just keep driving!

That's a
"Well disciplined" Deer.

 

[dodge man]

Lots of good comments and I'll add a couple. One thing no one has discussed is cutoff. I have factory HIDs in my Dodge Challenger. In low beam they have a very sharp cutoff line, in other words they only shine so high. If you add HIDs to regular headlights the reflectors and lenses aren't designed for them and you don't have that cutoff and blind other drivers.

HIDs are great, they only shine down the road a little farther but shine much higher and wider on high beam and there are less dark spots.

 

[Monster5601]

Lots of good comments and I'll add a couple. One thing no one has discussed is cutoff. I have factory HIDs in my Dodge Challenger. In low beam they have a very sharp cutoff line, in other words they only shine so high. If you add HIDs to regular headlights the reflectors and lenses aren't designed for them and you don't have that cutoff and blind other drivers.

HIDs are great, they only shine down the road a little farther but shine much higher and wider on high beam and there are less dark spots.

I see the same issue around me, guys are putting HID lighting in their trucks that have conventional headlamps. HIDs are designed to be used with projector headlamps giving the projected lighting pattern with the cutoff avoiding blinding on coming drivers. Some HID lighting providers are offering dipped HIDs lamps to help prevent that but I don't these being used.

Many truck models have after-market headlamp housings available that offer projectors. If you chose HID lighting please consider using projector lamp to avoid blinking the motoring public.

One other issue is the Kelvin temperature of HID lighting, many believe the higher the Kelvin values the more light that they can make. Kelvin is color temperature, the maximum amount of light is at 4,300 kelvin, this is typically the temperature used by OEMs. LED lighting is somewhere in the 5,000 to 6,000 temperature range. Halogen is around 3,400 Kelvin and noon daylight is around 5,000 Kelvin.

The lower the temperature of the light, the more yellow it is, as the temperature increases, the light changes from yellow, to white to blue. If you have older eyes (like I do) and often drive country roads, in the dark, and on rainy mornings, you will be pleased with 4,300 to 5,000 Kelvin temperature lights. There are many color charts on the Internet if you Google for them.

 

[jones6780]

It's not so much trucks but all the rice burners around here that change out the bulbs and put those blue HID lights in. I can't half see when one of those comes at me, blinding. Another problem for me is the factory driving lights that are on even when there is no fog or limited visibility. I always wear sunglasses in the day time and usually a ball cap where I can pull the bill down to block the sun light or headlights.

 

[xring100]

Found a better link on this page

"Thinking of converting to HID? ... STOP! Put away that credit card. HID headlamps are terrific, and they can offer significant and substantial safety performance advantages over halogen headlamps, but only if they're designed and built as HID headlamps from the start. Installing an "HID kit" in a halogen headlamp isn't an upgrade, it's a large and serious safety downgrade."

Pretty much All of the OEM's that have Factory HID's Use self leveling mechanisms in combination with projector type lenses This keeps the beam pointed down and for the most part out of the eyes of oncoming traffic when set to low beam.

I used have 150w sealed beam KC's mounted on my previous car and would flip them on for these clowns with these conversion, and the guys who refused to turn off their high beams when i flashed them mine. I figured i was going to get in trouble at some point so i never installed them on my current daily driver

HID Headlight Conversions

Found this:

Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

Bruce

 

[bandaidmd]

Our Lincoln MKZ has the best headlights i have ever driven behind. There some sort of projection hid and as others mentioned the focus /cutoff line is really distinctive. They also swing a little left to right with the steering.