TL;DR - Anyone know their way around aiming headlights and willing to help me make my truck safe for night driving again?
My '02 had original lights and were not as bright as I would have liked. Did some research and decided going with a HID conversion on Depo headlights was going to give me the best output. Paid another MUD guy to retrofit b/c the price was too good and I knew I wouldn't have the time to do that part myself.
After first install, I realized the cheap HIDs from Amazon weren't going to work. Light output was "weak" and they flickered. So first change was I spent the extra money and got the "good" HID lights, ballast and extra wiring from battery to ballast to get more power running to the headlights. That solved the flickering and weak light output.
Next I realized the light was all too concentrated close to the truck vs. on the horizon to allow for seeing what's coming (people, animals, curve of the road). So I started adjusting the screws on the back of the lights to try and get it aimed higher. I don't feel like this made much progress though b/c the concentration is still too close to the truck and was knocking the plastic grommet that keeps the HID dry b/c it was so low in the housing (to point the light up). Then I got the idea of adding washers as a spacer to the bottom of the house to try and get the light further. Again, this had limited to no success.
So at this point, I have everything wired, the housings mounted in the truck and electronics "operating" as I want. What I have not been able to figure out for the life of me is how the heck to get the light aimed "properly." The concentration of the light all seems to be 10-15ft in front of the truck. When another car is behind me they create a shadow of my truck in front of me vs. my lights filling in the gap. Generally speaking, it is scary when driving b/c everything sneaks up on you.
Anyone able to meet up and help me figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong? More then willing to compensate with beer or bourbon for your time.
My '02 had original lights and were not as bright as I would have liked. Did some research and decided going with a HID conversion on Depo headlights was going to give me the best output. Paid another MUD guy to retrofit b/c the price was too good and I knew I wouldn't have the time to do that part myself.
After first install, I realized the cheap HIDs from Amazon weren't going to work. Light output was "weak" and they flickered. So first change was I spent the extra money and got the "good" HID lights, ballast and extra wiring from battery to ballast to get more power running to the headlights. That solved the flickering and weak light output.
Next I realized the light was all too concentrated close to the truck vs. on the horizon to allow for seeing what's coming (people, animals, curve of the road). So I started adjusting the screws on the back of the lights to try and get it aimed higher. I don't feel like this made much progress though b/c the concentration is still too close to the truck and was knocking the plastic grommet that keeps the HID dry b/c it was so low in the housing (to point the light up). Then I got the idea of adding washers as a spacer to the bottom of the house to try and get the light further. Again, this had limited to no success.
So at this point, I have everything wired, the housings mounted in the truck and electronics "operating" as I want. What I have not been able to figure out for the life of me is how the heck to get the light aimed "properly." The concentration of the light all seems to be 10-15ft in front of the truck. When another car is behind me they create a shadow of my truck in front of me vs. my lights filling in the gap. Generally speaking, it is scary when driving b/c everything sneaks up on you.
Anyone able to meet up and help me figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong? More then willing to compensate with beer or bourbon for your time.
