Here's a pic of the zXe lighting. It's hard to get a good idea of the clarity with a cell phone camera, but if you look at the fog light pattern on the pavement, you can see how white the light is. Same thing from the headlights even though, again, it's tough to tell in this shot. Very clean and very nice going down the road!
I went the phillips h11 - h9 route, cheap and insane difference in headlight brightness. i work for the RR, no schedule, so drive most of my miles, in darkness, on rural interstatres, with tons of Iowa Deer jsut waiting to jump in front of the truck.
For comparision, my conductor was talking about his new Express. Once we got the train "in" and crew changed, we both jumped in our trucks. Went out to rural two lane black top, sat them side by side, he truned on his lights, we marked off lighted area, then he turnoff his lights, i turned on mine and we both flipped.
I knew the HIR bulbs were brighter but had no idea they were THAT much brighter.
for the next couple of months, lots of other engrs and conductor were askign me which bulbs I had, so they could get them for their trucks.
thoguht about HID but didnt; want the ballast issues.
Considered the ZXe but got scared off by short bulb life and blue tinting.
Teh HIR bulbs ere plug in play, once I tweaked the bubl base,w hich took all of about 4 seconds and a pair of fingernail clippers.