Got my lights Friday and had time to put them in today. Here's how it went:
HIR bulb mod. Simple. I suggest NOT using a file as this will create a lot of vibration for the filament. It's incredibly easy to generate the high frequency vibrations the bulb would never see in a car, and shake them till they break. I've personally done this twice. At the very least, you're fatiguing and shortening the filament's life. The material is interesting and yielded very well to a hacksaw blade's fine teeth without vibrating the bulb. With an old bulb for reference, took about 1 minute per bulb, and I used a thick cloth to hold it firmly in the vise. Be sure you've got it held well as obviously if your blade catches it's headed for the concrete. Then a few wipes with some sandpaper to clean up the edges.
Popped right in. Compared to a very high quality German NARVA +30, I would say it puts out more total light, and the light seems to be in a slightly larger pattern as viewed against a white wall - perhaps 15% larger. I don't know which pattern is correct as I was unable to discern any difference in filament position comparing them in my hand, but clearly they're slightly different. My feeling is the NARVAs are slightly off as over the miles I've felt like they were a pair of beams vs creating a smooth pool of light like the HIRs do. The big improvement is that they're a more of a natural light frequency vs the NARVA's notably whiter light against the wall (NARVAs are faintly blueish, not the trendy look, but discernably). This is also nice as to an oncoming car the HIRs don't have as much of a harsh look even though they're actually brighter than my NARVAs. This means less "flashing" at me though the NARVAs didn't get too much of it.
I also ordered Daniel Stern's suggested upgrades for the rear blinkers and the brake/tail. These went in perfectly and here's how they performed when I put all of them in on one side only:
Brake/Tail. No discernible difference on the taillamp brightness vs the factory original (!) Koitos labeled 27w/8w with the 8w obviously the taillamp filament. On the brake lamp filament though - nice increase in brightness! You could see the difference even during the daytime, and at night it is much brighter. Very pleasing.
Blinkers. With the emergency flashers on, there is NO question which side had the new ones - FAR brighter. And that's compared to a set of 20w Osram halogens with converters I fitted when the truck was new 11 years ago. So you guys replacing stock bulbs with these are going to be blown away. Hugely bright, these things are going to be annoying to someone behind you at a light. Frankly speaking, if these things protect my family a single time in foul weather, they have done their job and I think ALL vehicle rear lights should be this vivid and crisp - it would probably prevent thousands of rear end collisions a year. I did notice the new blinkers take a bit longer to hit full brightness which is probably simply due to the larger draw. You would not notice this if you were not a fanatic about lights like I am.
So, overall a big success and I'm looking forward to assessing the HIR pattern on an upcoming trip. I did not like the amount of flash back in snow on the NARVA's color last winter, and these will definitely be an improvement in the coming months here in the North. I have noticed this flashback with all the cooler bulbs and lights I own and the friend's cars with HIDs. My HID bike light is also really bad with flashback in fog - wow. It's the frequency, so these HIRs should be just what the doctor ordered.
DougM
HIR bulb mod. Simple. I suggest NOT using a file as this will create a lot of vibration for the filament. It's incredibly easy to generate the high frequency vibrations the bulb would never see in a car, and shake them till they break. I've personally done this twice. At the very least, you're fatiguing and shortening the filament's life. The material is interesting and yielded very well to a hacksaw blade's fine teeth without vibrating the bulb. With an old bulb for reference, took about 1 minute per bulb, and I used a thick cloth to hold it firmly in the vise. Be sure you've got it held well as obviously if your blade catches it's headed for the concrete. Then a few wipes with some sandpaper to clean up the edges.
Popped right in. Compared to a very high quality German NARVA +30, I would say it puts out more total light, and the light seems to be in a slightly larger pattern as viewed against a white wall - perhaps 15% larger. I don't know which pattern is correct as I was unable to discern any difference in filament position comparing them in my hand, but clearly they're slightly different. My feeling is the NARVAs are slightly off as over the miles I've felt like they were a pair of beams vs creating a smooth pool of light like the HIRs do. The big improvement is that they're a more of a natural light frequency vs the NARVA's notably whiter light against the wall (NARVAs are faintly blueish, not the trendy look, but discernably). This is also nice as to an oncoming car the HIRs don't have as much of a harsh look even though they're actually brighter than my NARVAs. This means less "flashing" at me though the NARVAs didn't get too much of it.
I also ordered Daniel Stern's suggested upgrades for the rear blinkers and the brake/tail. These went in perfectly and here's how they performed when I put all of them in on one side only:
Brake/Tail. No discernible difference on the taillamp brightness vs the factory original (!) Koitos labeled 27w/8w with the 8w obviously the taillamp filament. On the brake lamp filament though - nice increase in brightness! You could see the difference even during the daytime, and at night it is much brighter. Very pleasing.
Blinkers. With the emergency flashers on, there is NO question which side had the new ones - FAR brighter. And that's compared to a set of 20w Osram halogens with converters I fitted when the truck was new 11 years ago. So you guys replacing stock bulbs with these are going to be blown away. Hugely bright, these things are going to be annoying to someone behind you at a light. Frankly speaking, if these things protect my family a single time in foul weather, they have done their job and I think ALL vehicle rear lights should be this vivid and crisp - it would probably prevent thousands of rear end collisions a year. I did notice the new blinkers take a bit longer to hit full brightness which is probably simply due to the larger draw. You would not notice this if you were not a fanatic about lights like I am.
So, overall a big success and I'm looking forward to assessing the HIR pattern on an upcoming trip. I did not like the amount of flash back in snow on the NARVA's color last winter, and these will definitely be an improvement in the coming months here in the North. I have noticed this flashback with all the cooler bulbs and lights I own and the friend's cars with HIDs. My HID bike light is also really bad with flashback in fog - wow. It's the frequency, so these HIRs should be just what the doctor ordered.
DougM
I'll keep the "kryptons" as spares, just because I'm too cheap to throw them out. I still want a set of taillights for the wife's truck, perhaps I'll go with JCWhitney again.
