Does anyone have any experience with 55 watt 3000k HIDs?

[Dexter]

Dex check on f150online.com

I remember seeing a couple of threads about this bro......

Will do. Trust me, I have a while before I will be able to afford these. I still need a new front end.

EDIT: I just searched for "55 watt HIDs in expedition" and thread is the second result. Guess no one runs HIDs in expeditions these days...

EDIT 2: I looked around and people seem to think it should be ok. I'm usually driving when they're on anyways, so it seems like the wind blowing on them would cool them down to some degree. I'll keep looking though.

EDIT 3: Lol, I think I'm just going to go with 35 watt 3000's in the Lows, and Fogs.

 

[dougmcp]

I'm really old and my night vision is not what it used to be. I had 6000K lights and on the river/delta roads I travel, the fog and rain created a real problem. The light is too blue and is absorbed by the wet surfaces, when I changed to the 4300K bulbs it made a world of difference.
The 3000K is what you would use normally for fog lights, not headlights.
The closest thing to daylight and the brightest light comes from the 4300K bulbs.
The 55w won't hurt your wiring, your normal headlights low and high are usually 55w/65w but the temperature that they develop is considerably higher and could melt your plastic housings.
There is not that much extra light from 55w over 35w and I would stick to the 35w.

As a side note: I would deep-six the windshield tint if you want to see where you're going.

 

[Dexter]

I'm really old and my night vision is not what it used to be. I had 6000K lights and on the river/delta roads I travel, the fog and rain created a real problem. The light is too blue and is absorbed by the wet surfaces, when I changed to the 4300K bulbs it made a world of difference.
The 3000K is what you would use normally for fog lights, not headlights.
The closest thing to daylight and the brightest light comes from the 4300K bulbs.
The 55w won't hurt your wiring, your normal headlights low and high are usually 55w/65w but the temperature that they develop is considerably higher and could melt your plastic housings.
There is not that much extra light from 55w over 35w and I would stick to the 35w.

As a side note: I would deep-six the windshield tint if you want to see where you're going.

I know that 4300k is probably the optimal color but I was leaning towards 3000k since it will be pretty eye catching as well as very functional. I mean who runs 3000k headlights lol

 

[dougmcp]

I mean who runs 3000k headlights lol

Europeans run them for inclement weather.
Here are some photos of HIDs installed in a VW Passat with projectors:
5300K low beam and 3000K fog

 

[Dexter]

Europeans run them for inclement weather.
Here are some photos of HIDs installed in a VW Passat with projectors:
5300K low beam and 3000K fog

I meant no one uses them for low beams lol

 

[Thermo]

Dexter, a few things that I see here. Lets start with the basic one in that 55W HIDs are not DOT approved and therefore are illegal to run in your truck regardless of the temp of bulb. So, you are opening yourself up to get pulled over more just for that.

Second, the temp of a HID bulb is based on the temp of the gas burning inside of the bulb, which therefore emits a certain color spectrum. Yes, if you look at a 35W and a 55W bulb that is 3000K, yes, the 55W bulb is going to appear to your eye as being whiter as you are overloading the rods and cones in your eyes. This causes your brain to see it as white light. So, yes, it will "appear" more white, but at a distance, it is still the 3000K color spectrum, so, it will be putting the same color light down to the ground.

To wire up lights like this, you WILL!!!!! have to rewire the truck. Each HID ballast is going to pull right around 30 amps on start up (60 amps total). Your stock headlight switch is only meant to handle about 15 amps max. So, in short, it will work for some time without the wiring modifications, but you are going to eat through headlight switches left and right.

Now on to where I think most guys are going to agree with me here. When you ride in someone else vehicle at night and you have that that car coming towards you with their high beams on, it makes your eyes hurt. Keep in mind that this is normally only 2000 lumens (roughly) of light that is not properly aimed. What you are talking about doing is running something in the neighborhood of 4300 lumen of light that is not properly aimed. So, it would be like a car coming at you with not only their high beams on, but having a set of off-road lights on too. I don't know about you, but that would piss me off. Atleast with a projector setup, the light is purposely aimed away from the oncoming traffic to make it so they don't get blinded by the increased light of the 35W HIDs (which still output around 3300 lumen-slightly less if you drift away from 4300K).

You want to install the 55W HIDs as your brights, I say go for it as you should only be using the lights when no one else is around. But, to make them your normal lights, I think you are going to find that it is going to create a lot of heart ache for you.

 

[Dexter]

I have 35 watt 6000k's right now. When I installed them I aimed my headlights down slightly...Me and my friend switched cars and drove at each other so I could see how blinding they are. Turns out...they aren't blinding at all. And on top of that, his car is a lowered 240sx. So if anyone would get blinded by them, It would be whoever is driving that car. In fact, I've never been flashed while driving with them. Not once in 6 months. I drove from New Orleans to Panama City during the summer, never got flashed. Seems like 35 watt 3000k's would only be LESS blinding since yellow is a lot easier on the eyes than blue...

Just my $0.02

 

[jacks3am]

sure they are just dont get 55w no reason to, keep the 3k's for the fogs and 4300's for lows

 

[Dexter]

I'll keep 6,000ks in the lows and buy 3000k fogs. I'll see how the color looks in person, then decide if I want to do 3000k lows.

 

[jacks3am]

thats a good idea for sure