For awhile now I have been thinking about adding some serious offroad use lighting to my 09 Silverado.  I am really looking at adding some HID lighting to the truck.  I am not just looking at the replacement bulbs but the full on kits. The factory stuff seams to be lacking.  One option is to do the HID conversion on the factory head lights as those damn things really throw some major light.  The wifes car has HID as factory and it is really impressive at night. Another option would be to add two HID 7-9incher's on the grill guard but these seem to carry a hefty price tag.  Has anyone here done the conversion or added the large HID offroad lights?  If so, what brand did you stick with?

Tag.

I'm needing to do this to my Jeep.  The factory lights suck!

What I did to my 2008 tacoma, was just install the HID bulbs themselves. They make a huge difference in performance, not to mention they're about $700 cheaper. Next thin I did was mounted to KC HI Lites to my Bull Bar,those to things make a hell of a difference.And like any good SF'er, I stuck  a couple extra on the cargo rack, and 2 pointed to the rear for backing up just to be doubly safe. Total cost for all lights and install(I did almost everything myself), $540.

They are much more effective ways, cost wise and performance wise when you compare what you're getting with what you've spent. Just my .02 though, YMMV

What did you use??  From what I read you have to have the ballast with the HID's.  They do make plug and play kits but I have never seen true HID bulbs.

I take it that this is serious?

Amen brother

link

Thought about replacing my headlights with a "projector" kit, but no.  Regular headlights are fine, especially if you add off-road lights...and you could upgrade your headlights to PIAA or Sylvania HID bulbs if you think it's necessary.

Tag for how it was done on the Taco.

Can non-Team Members tag? Am I missing out?

Also bump for interest in the Taco, I'm thinking about getting one...

I usually just try to remember what thread I like. Too lazy for that.

There are two ways to do this as far as the retrofit to the oem headlights. 1st is to use genuine Hella/Phillips/Osram ballasts with the correct HID bulb to fit in place of the oem bulb. This is the better of two options. You will not find these ballasts sold as an aftermarket kit. You would source these from an audi,or benz and pair them up with the bulbs that fit your application.

Option 2 is any of the aftermarket kits, the aftermarket chinese kits have come a long way and if installed soundly will work very well. And are cheap enough to get a spare kit to keep close at hand should it be needed.

Either way when retrofitting to hid, ALWAYS utilize a relay harness to power them from the battery, thus bypassing extended riring throught the dash,etc and much lightening the load on the headlight switch.

Expect to pay $200 to $300 with the good ballasts option 1  or $85 for the chinese ones.

When mounting the ballasts dont use the included mounts as they vibrate and cause premature failure. mount the ballasts with the connectors facing down for gravity promoted drainage of any condensation. Mount them to a CLEAN surface with automotive silicone. When mounted and allowed to dry 24 hours they will be very secure.   Please use EXTREME CAUTION when working around energized HID's as the startup voltages can be 35000 volts and will hurt you.

I would also reccomend a set of Hella rallye 4000 non hidlights and then convert them to hid as well.  I have on my BOV which is a built 98 tahoe both the high and low beams converted as well as 4 Hella 4000's converted and 2 of the Factory HID Hella ralleyes. the Non HID 4000's are about 95$ per light the HID 4000's were 600$ per light. The difference in light between the factory HID's and the nons that I converted to HID is not much and deffinately not enough to justify the extra $1000.

I have installed a shitload of HIDs and the above is my .02 YMMV

Stand-alone lights are going to be a ton better than any conversion.
KC has very good performance lights for very reasonable prices - definitely the bargain in the HID lighting world.

These are quite reasonable from Summit, at around $665 for the pair.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/KCC-660/



These are the Hella 4000 HID conversions. They sucked.


Hella dedicated 4000 HIDs, and some converted. Better but not great.


Best I've used yet. KC 8" HIDs. Awesome. $800 for the pair on sale.
http://www.offroadwarehouse.com/products/sfID1/8/sfID2/469/sfID3/490/productID/33880

I can tell you from experience that while the HID headlight conversions add light, they're not even in the same ballpark as a 9" offroad light. I wish I had pictures of my truck going down a trail, it looked like a football stadium on the move. The two lights in the middle are Lightforce HIDs. The others are standard Lightforce 9 inchers. The two lights in the middle could throw a beam of light for MILES down a straight road. They are absolutley unreal in person. The only downside to these thing is that it's not good to flick them on and off. The ballasts take a while to fire the bulbs, and they actually have a cooldown cycle. So they aren't what you would want for driving roads with other cars on them, where you're constantly flicking the lights on and off. Yes, Lightforce HIDs are extremely expensive. Yes, they are worth it. See if you can find a shop near you that sells these, and see them for yourself. You'll be amazed.

If you are into fabrication, I have a pair of Infiniti headlight projectors and ballasts I am looking to sell PM me if interested.