GEN 1 Stock HID upgrade advices

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oplersx

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Hi guys, looking for more light output on 2014 stock HID... what is the best/easiest way? Would just a set of new D3S bulbs like the Osram CBI make a difference?
 
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I don't know about the Raptor, but I purchased the CBI's for my FX37 (D2S) and there was absolutely no difference in color or output. For me, I felt like it was a waste.

I'd be interested in a truly brighter bulb as well.
 

waddellw

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I wonder if technology has advanced far enough for LED headlights to be viable inside projector housings. I know one company on here is selling some now.

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Also do HID bulbs dim over time because my 100k mile raptor doesn't seem to have the output it used to and they occasionally flicker.
 

LXCoupe

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HID bulbs do dim with usage. Stock 100k mile bulbs will be a lot dimmer than new ones. The stock bulbs are Osram 66340 HBI's and I replaced my 90k mile HBI's with Osram 66340 CBI. I noticed a big difference in brightness on my Raptor, but that was due to the age of the stockers. The CBI's are also slightly more blue.

I also replaced my stock HBI's on my 2014 FX4 (had 2k miles at the time) to CBI's. The only difference I found on those was the color, but this is also due to the stock bulbs being pretty much new.

The only true way to get more output out of the stock HID's is to do a projector retrofit, and this is very pricey if you don't do it yourself.

Other than that get some DOT/SAE compliant LED fogs to light up the front up close. I had Morimoto XB LED fogs on my FX4 and matched with the CBI's they made the truck light output awesome, but they don't make anything for the Raptors :mad:. Maybe some Rigid SAE fogs would work, but I've never seen their light output in person.
 
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waddellw

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HID bulbs do dim with usage. Stock 100k mile bulbs will be a lot dimmer than new ones. The stock bulbs are Osram 66340 HBI's and I replaced my 90k mile HBI's with Osram 66340 CBI. I noticed a big difference in brightness on my Raptor, but that was due to the age of the stockers. The CBI's are also slightly more blue.

I also replaced my stock HBI's on my 2014 FX4 (had 2k miles at the time) to CBI's. The only difference I found on those was the color, but this is also due to the stock bulbs being pretty much new.

The only true way to get more output out of the stock HID's is to do a projector retrofit, and this is very pricey if you don't do it yourself.

Other than that get some DOT/SAE compliant LED fogs to light up the front up close. I had Morimoto XB LED fogs on my FX4 and matched with the CBI's they made the truck light output awesome, but they don't make anything for the Raptors :mad:. Maybe some Rigid SAE fogs would work, but I've never seen their light output in person.
I just use my led cubes on the front bumper and talked to the cops about it and they said it was fine, at least for Mississippi standards

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Hopscotch

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Maybe some Rigid SAE fogs would work, but I've never seen their light output in person.

I just use normal Rigid duallys with Amber covers as fogs. Just have to make sure they aren't pointed to high.



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LXCoupe

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I just use my led cubes on the front bumper and talked to the cops about it and they said it was fine, at least for Mississippi standards

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Wished I stilled lived in MS, the Highway patrol are brutal here in MI
 

4x4TruckLEDs.com

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I wonder if technology has advanced far enough for LED headlights to be viable inside projector housings. I know one company on here is selling some now.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Also do HID bulbs dim over time because my 100k mile raptor doesn't seem to have the output it used to and they occasionally flicker.

Yes actually. See a lot of guys around these parts don't realize it but one of our biggest sellers on our site are our XHP Series (and now are newly release G9 Series) LED Conversion Kits. A lot of F150 owners didn't get the LED package from Ford so they were left with poor lighting... so we came up with a terrific LED kit (we tried a LOT of kits before settling on the ones we sell, trust me on that).

So a lot of the older LED kits REALLY sucked but the ones we sell are TOP of the line.

They work very well in projectors actually and halogen housings.

Now HID will give you a bit more throw/lux then LED but what is intersting is as you double up on the distance, the HID light gets lost VERY fast. We did a quick test at 25' and then 50' with our XHP/G9 Series kits.

The Morimoto HID Elite kits put out 2,160 of lux @ 25'. Our XHP Series kits put out 1,002 lux and our G9 Series put out 1,172 lux.

So naturally HID had twice the light. The drawback to HID was that it it took about 10 seconds to fully power up and you can't flash them on/off.

Now at 50' the Morimoto HID dropped to 537.7 lux. Our XHP were at 235.3 lux and our G9 were at 314.4 lux

So you can see there was a TREMENDOUS amount of light loss.


Now if you have HID lights arleady, well you might as well keep them. you can upgrade the bulbs but you may not see a WHOLE lot of difference unless you went with a higher powered ballast and different bulbs. BUT that's going to cost a lot and you can damage your housings (they'll get real hot and melt your housing possibly).

We do offer our XHP and G9 seres in D1/D2/D3/D4 bulbs. Our XHP come in D1/D3 bulbs and our G9 are a D1/D2/D3/D4 combo bulb.

We did some testing in the Ford Projectors. I had to trim the opening of the 2014 OEM Projector to make the XHP Series bulb fit. As our XHP series bulbs are bigger/have fans.

However our G9 series bulb seemed to fit just fine (they have fins on them, so it's a smaller bulb).

NOW... is there an improvement. I have NO IDEA. I have a broken set of projectors here from a junkyard I got just to test fit. So my projectors light output is not correct.

I'm actually looking for someone who is willing to order a set of our G9 D1/D2/D3/D4 bulbs and try them out. Then send them back for a refund (or keep them if you want).

So if anybody wants to try it out, let me know.

You do have to basically bypass your wiring on the ballast, because you no longer use your factory ballast anymore.
 

waddellw

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What modification would have to be made to run the Mortimo HID elite kit and could it be done without damaging the stock housing??

If that's a loss I might be willing to try out the G9's for ya if there's maybe a little discount thrown in somewhere lol

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---------- Post added at 07:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:29 PM ----------

And what entails to bypassing the stock ballast? Just a wiring harness change or some serious cutting and splicing?

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---------- Post added at 07:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:30 PM ----------

@4x4TruckLEDS.com

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4x4TruckLEDs.com

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Welp the thing is you have a Factory HID system. So you can pop in Morimoto HID Elite bulbs, no problem there. Not sure if they'd be an improvement or not. They are not that expensive though...

DS3: Morimoto XB HID Bulbs, Pair - 4x4TruckLEDs.com

Those are the Morimoto XB. They don't have the elite in direct OEM replacement (utilizing your existing Ballast)

Well I can give ya a discount. If they don't work, send em back, and full refund.
If they do work AND you wanna keep 'em, I can give you a discount on them since you tested them out. Shoot me a PM if you are serious about trying the G9 and letting us all know if they were able to get installed or not.
 
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