building vs buying HID driving lights...

[Itsavanman]

So I want to upgrade the forward lighting on my Subaru. what I want to do is use the 4" fog light holes in the bumper, but I want to use a HID projector setup as auxiliaries when going down forest roads at night to set up camp. I would like to use a bulb that has both high and low and has the ballast built into the back of the bulb like a d1s, so I could turn them both on for extra lighting. or possibly very small (1-2" in size) add on lights up in the grille. What I don't want is anything gaudy, or brush guard mount, as I just think a mall crawling suv shouldn't look like a jeep. so has anyone mounted high powered driving lights down low in the fog light area of their rig? and how well do they light? and whats out there for small diameter HID driving lights with a proper HID eyeball? Thanks folks!

 

[155mm]

I don't think these have any dimming capabilities, but they fit the size you are looking for: http://www.bajadesigns.com/products/hid-lighting/fuego-hid-lights


I've got some "wide cornering" LEDs mounted low and angled out slightly and it really helps me see around corners when driving down the forest roads. I also have a spot LED mounted in the lower grill pointed forward to help the headlights.

My only concern with using the factory fog light holes, is that most of them point straight forwards. This is great if you are adding lighting to see further down the road, but it's not so helpful if you are trying to spill light over to the sides so you aren't driving down a tunnel and have no idea if you are turning into a pullout or a ditch/over the mountain.

 

[anickode]

A d1s does not have a built in ballast. It has a built in igniter, and still requires an external ballast.

Hi/low beam HID projectors are called Bi-xenon. The bulbs do not dim, and there is no "both on" for extra light. They use a mechanical flap inside the projector housing to block the top portion of the beam pattern on low beam so it's not glaring in peoples eyes. Hi beam lifts the flap, allowing the full round pattern to escape. It's shadow puppets.

The reason they do this is because when an Hid bulb is ignited, there is a significant delay before the bulb reaches full brightness. When switching between high and low beams, with separate HID bulbs, there would be a second or two that got real dark. Before bi-xenons were common, high beams were still Halogen reflectors. And the reason they don't do hi and low beams on together is because having a brightly lit foreground decreases your eyes sensitivity to the lit background, which is sort of counterproductive when you consider that high beams are for seeing farther. (Also why fog lights switch off with high beams) Factory lighting setups are designed for normal drivers on normal roads. The lighting requirements of off-roading are totally different... otherwise you wouldn't need off-road lights.

Because of that, using a DOT-rated on-road designed lighting setup like a Bi-xenon projector for auxiliary lighting is silly.

 

[kojackJKU]

Mount a set of hella 500s, install a 4300k 55w hid kit (good quality like a morimoto), and have ALL the light you will ever need. I run this setup and its AWESOME. I have them tied into my high beam for a trigger. I always look at other lights and think I want them, but then, I drive my rig in the night...and realise the new fancy LEDs provide nothing that my converted hella don't already do. I get a better long distance light than any of the LED offerings, and I dont' get the over supersaturated forground that the LED bars, and lights give. Win Win. Best part, is they are inexpensive unlike good quality LED system. Yes there are cheap LED bars, but they do not put out good light, they fail and are made from crap materials!

If your trying to stay very compact, I have seen the same HID setup in the hella FF75. They put out a strong beam too, just not quite what the 500s do as they 500s have a larger reflector.