Steen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2013
- Posts
- 112
- Reaction score
- 20
- Location
- Weeki Wachee
- Ram Year
- 2016 Big Horn Crew Cab 1500
- Engine
- Hemi 5.7
Hey guys,
Just wanted to write a little review about the RETRO-SOLUTIONS HID kit for my 2008 1500.
First off, let me say that their customer service is first class. Emails are responded to generally within hours, even on weekends. My kit was ordered on Tuesday and was at my house on Friday. Pretty Impressive.
The kit comes in this pretty cool looking briefcase. Don't get me wrong, I don't think you be able to use it for anything as it is "cheap", but then again a lot more expensive than a cardboard box. So kudos to them for the appearance factor.
All the wiring was nicely protected with both heat wrap at soldered joints and flex tubing to hide all the wires. Looked good.
I like to install everything with a factory and 'consistent' appearance the best I can. Finding somewhere to mount the ballasts and resistors were the biggest challenge. I decided to mount them on the side fender walls inside the engine bay. But I couldn't see anywhere where I could use the nuts and bolts. I used what is called a HELI COIL.
So after I got the HELI COILS set on both the passenger and driver side. Here is what they look like.
Ok, now I need to find out where to put those damn little resistors that can't get mounted on or near plastic. I decided to mount them behind the driver side headlight. The headlight will have to be removed to drill pilot holes.
The wiring harness seems to be about 6"-8" short. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it makes the difference of being able to stealth all your cables underneath, over, behind and around things in the engine bay to hide everything neatly. I don't want to have cables going directly to my battery + and - terminals when I can get the same power from the TIPM block. I would like to mount the relay to the firewall but there is not enough cable to do it in the manner how I want the cable ran, if that makes sense. I had to extend both the ground wires from the resistors 6" to reach my ground location and extend the 12v power 6" to reach the underside of the TIPM with 16ga stranded wire soldered and heat wrapped. I really don't hold RETRO-SOLUTIONS accountable for this since all the mounting locations were MY choice but another 8" in wire could be easily concealed in their approach of installation. In other words, it would be better to have a little more than not enough here.
Here is closer look of both ballasts installed into the HELI COILS on both sides:
An overshot of the engine bay after install.
Now here is where my review takes a turn. Everything is mounted and I am getting ready to plug everything in with this "Plug N Play" kit. Everything goes fine until I get to the connector that plugs into the stock headlight plug. In other words RETRO has a connector that mimics the back side of a H13 bulb. It plugs into that and gets the signal from the truck for the headlight to come on/off, brights, etc. Their plug will not lock into place. I couldn't believe it. Believe me it will not go in...
So after expecting these kinds of obstacles from a eBay kit or Hong Kong fuey I had no choice but to improvise with this:
Which I was VERY VERY disappointed in. I spend a lot of time taking pride in my work and I don't mind paying good money for something. But to have connectors zip tied together is not something I would expect from a $170 kit. Now unless I am Completely missing something, RETRO has got to get the connection right.
Otherwise, the lights are awesome.
Cheers!
Just wanted to write a little review about the RETRO-SOLUTIONS HID kit for my 2008 1500.
First off, let me say that their customer service is first class. Emails are responded to generally within hours, even on weekends. My kit was ordered on Tuesday and was at my house on Friday. Pretty Impressive.
The kit comes in this pretty cool looking briefcase. Don't get me wrong, I don't think you be able to use it for anything as it is "cheap", but then again a lot more expensive than a cardboard box. So kudos to them for the appearance factor.
All the wiring was nicely protected with both heat wrap at soldered joints and flex tubing to hide all the wires. Looked good.
I like to install everything with a factory and 'consistent' appearance the best I can. Finding somewhere to mount the ballasts and resistors were the biggest challenge. I decided to mount them on the side fender walls inside the engine bay. But I couldn't see anywhere where I could use the nuts and bolts. I used what is called a HELI COIL.
So after I got the HELI COILS set on both the passenger and driver side. Here is what they look like.
Ok, now I need to find out where to put those damn little resistors that can't get mounted on or near plastic. I decided to mount them behind the driver side headlight. The headlight will have to be removed to drill pilot holes.
The wiring harness seems to be about 6"-8" short. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it makes the difference of being able to stealth all your cables underneath, over, behind and around things in the engine bay to hide everything neatly. I don't want to have cables going directly to my battery + and - terminals when I can get the same power from the TIPM block. I would like to mount the relay to the firewall but there is not enough cable to do it in the manner how I want the cable ran, if that makes sense. I had to extend both the ground wires from the resistors 6" to reach my ground location and extend the 12v power 6" to reach the underside of the TIPM with 16ga stranded wire soldered and heat wrapped. I really don't hold RETRO-SOLUTIONS accountable for this since all the mounting locations were MY choice but another 8" in wire could be easily concealed in their approach of installation. In other words, it would be better to have a little more than not enough here.
Here is closer look of both ballasts installed into the HELI COILS on both sides:
An overshot of the engine bay after install.
Now here is where my review takes a turn. Everything is mounted and I am getting ready to plug everything in with this "Plug N Play" kit. Everything goes fine until I get to the connector that plugs into the stock headlight plug. In other words RETRO has a connector that mimics the back side of a H13 bulb. It plugs into that and gets the signal from the truck for the headlight to come on/off, brights, etc. Their plug will not lock into place. I couldn't believe it. Believe me it will not go in...
So after expecting these kinds of obstacles from a eBay kit or Hong Kong fuey I had no choice but to improvise with this:
Which I was VERY VERY disappointed in. I spend a lot of time taking pride in my work and I don't mind paying good money for something. But to have connectors zip tied together is not something I would expect from a $170 kit. Now unless I am Completely missing something, RETRO has got to get the connection right.
Otherwise, the lights are awesome.
Cheers!