Hid regrets

00R/T said:

Well, yeah. You're talking 55w vs 35w. Different projectors too. There's a lot more variables than just color temp there.

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No such thing as different projectors for different wattage ballast. 55w will burn hotter sure but the housings aren't different. It's all about projector design and the distance of the bulb arc to the projector bowl surface and the coating on that surface. Cheap ballasts use cheap coatings and will burn up (bubble/flake or turn colors) at 55w compared to 35w. But a D2S bulb the bowl is wider and thus the arc is farther away from the back of the bowl and thus the heat isn't an issue. H1 projectors are notorious for burning the chrome bowls as the arc is very close to the back of the bowl. But that is overcome with better coatings. A lot of the OEM use high quality projectors, large solenoids and good coatings. U can run 55w on them without issue. Also morimoto 7.0 mini H1 has stepped up the coating and they are now rated for 55w kits.

With this being said I have run 55w kits on cheap MH1 projectors for lots of hours and have personally never seen bowl burning. I also ran 50w ballasts on the stock ram projector headlights for over a year (entire life of the truck till I retrofitted) and never saw any bowl burning. A lot also has to do with moving ambient air around the projector to keep it cool.

It's also a miss conception that 55w bulbs exist. No such thing for 99% of the stuff out labeled as 50-55w bulbs. The only difference being a thicker electrode but that's not true as well for the most part. Most labeled 55w bulbs are just relabeled 35w bulbs. In fact no real 55w bulbs exist and were never made by OEM.

blackbetty14 said:

No such thing as different projectors for different wattage ballast. 55w will burn hotter sure but the housings aren't different. It's all about projector design and the distance of the bulb arc to the projector bowl surface and the coating on that surface. Cheap ballasts use cheap coatings and will burn up (bubble/flake or turn colors) at 55w compared to 35w. But a D2S bulb the bowl is wider and thus the arc is farther away from the back of the bowl and thus the heat isn't an issue. H1 projectors are notorious for burning the chrome bowls as the arc is very close to the back of the bowl. But that is overcome with better coatings. A lot of the OEM use high quality projectors, large solenoids and good coatings. U can run 55w on them without issue. Also morimoto 7.0 mini H1 has stepped up the coating and they are now rated for 55w kits.



With this being said I have run 55w kits on cheap MH1 projectors for lots of hours and have personally never seen bowl burning. I also ran 50w ballasts on the stock ram projector headlights for over a year (entire life of the truck till I retrofitted) and never saw any bowl burning. A lot also has to do with moving ambient air around the projector to keep it cool.

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Right. I know all of that (but it's a great post for those who don't). The post I replied to was talking about how the 6000k bulbs in one car were brighter than the 4300k in another. I was pointing out that the 6000k was running a 55w ballast vs the 4300k's 35w, and they were two different projectors. So, it's not in any way a valid comparison of color temperature.

blackbetty14 said:

with this being said I have run 55w kits on cheap MH1 projectors for lots of hours and have personally never seen bowl burning. I also ran 50w ballasts on the stock ram projector headlights for over a year (entire life of the truck till I retrofitted) and never saw any bowl burning. A lot also has to do with moving ambient air around the projector to keep it cool.

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Glad you mentioned this cause I was just about too

I currently have my 55w kit with my eBay projectors with zero issues as far as burning or melting anything.

Same with my fogs....55w in them little housings...zero issues burning or melting.

I keep hearing about dudes with the 55w kits melting **** but don't understand how they're doing it.

00R/T said:

Right. I know all of that (but it's a great post for those who don't). The post I replied to was talking about how the 6000k bulbs in one car were brighter than the 4300k in another. I was pointing out that the 6000k was running a 55w ballast vs the 4300k's 35w, and they were two different projectors. So, it's not in any way a valid comparison of color temperature.

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Then we agree. In that case the 6k would be brighter as in more lumens but also the color temp of around 5k or a brighter white light compred to the 4300 at 35w. But technically for every watt up to 35w the 4300 will have more lumens.

Rzrman328 said:

Glad you mentioned this cause I was just about too

I currently have my 55w kit with my eBay projectors with zero issues as far as burning or melting anything.

Same with my fogs....55w in them little housings...zero issues burning or melting.

I keep hearing about dudes with the 55w kits melting **** but don't understand how they're doing it.

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Haha they throw $hitty bulbs in ****** ballasts. The really crappy bulbs have no uv radiation protection and it throws a ton of uv into the bowl,lense and then into the actual housing lense. I've seen the lense on the housing the projector is retrofitted in have uv damage to the lense where the beam shines through. Also a lot has to do with on time of the bulbs and airflow. A lot of the rivers run around with there headlights on during the day bc they think it looks cool. I'm sure it would happen eventually but you would need a ton of hours on a ****** bulb in poor conditions.

Andrew09HEMI said:

Look brighter than mine but I have my passenger side not as bright for some reason. Haven't had time to figure it oit

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My retro shop HID's do the same thing

Honeybadger556 said:

My retro shop HID's do the same thing

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It could be that the focal point is off a little causing it to appear not as bright. I had this happen to my 14 Sport HIDs. I had to rotate the HID bulb until it was right....kind of annoying.

Wow this is some serious light knowledge here. So much that the info gets blurred. I was wanting to buy HID for my 2016 1500 w/projectors. I was leaning towards the kits from retro. Can’t decide if that’s best? 35 or 55 w? What color? I was leaning towards 5500k. Price wise isn’t my deciding factor. Or is there a higher rated kit?

I've always used 5k 35 watts and never had an issue with light output.

cwalker222 said:

Wow this is some serious light knowledge here. So much that the info gets blurred. I was wanting to buy HID for my 2016 1500 w/projectors. I was leaning towards the kits from retro. Can’t decide if that’s best? 35 or 55 w? What color? I was leaning towards 5500k. Price wise isn’t my deciding factor. Or is there a higher rated kit?

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For best the best combination of performance and reliability, I would stick to 35w and bulbs around 5000k.

If price isn’t a concern at all, I’d swap out the factory projector units inside the housings for a dedicated HID projector.

My setup is Morimoto Mini D2S projectors, Hella Gen 3 ballasts (35w), and Osram CBI bulbs. With good quality stuff, I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed with a 35w setup.

A 55 watt hid kit light @ 6000 k will be a lil different color than useing a 35 watt @ 6000k

Does anyone get any dark areas with these HID kits due to the wire in the bulb creating a shadow in the projector housing? That was an issue on my last Jeep with a 9006 bulb, it was "solved" by rotating the bulb so that the shadow was above the cutoff line and so that the passenger side bulb washed out the shadow on the driver's side, therefore only an issue when the high beams are on. but this isn't a complaint i've heard Ram owners talk about.

I’m pretty sure the bulb is supposed to be rotated with the wire facing down on HID’s. That’s how I have it on my truck and don’t notice any dark spots

Nope never had a issue the bulb return wire is suppose to be down and make sure your ordering the right bulb for the application


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quietpeen said:

I’m pretty sure the bulb is supposed to be rotated with the wire facing down on HID’s. That’s how I have it on my truck and don’t notice any dark spots

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Correct. Return wire should be at 6 o’clock. On HID projectors there is typically a notch so you can only install the bulbs in one position. Since halogen projectors aren’t meant for HID bulbs, you have to pay attention to orientating them correctly.