HID Headlight Shootout - All three options tested

Dangerdick · February 12, 2015

We have three trucks lined up. All 2015 Sierras, 1 SLT and 2 Denalis.

Stock Headlights
Morimoto Sierra-Spec HID kit in factory housing
FX-R Retrofit with XB35 bulbs courtesy or a popular retrofitter

FX-R Truck

Morimoto Kit

FX-R vs Morimoto

FX-R vs Stock

Results: The Retrofit is obviously the brightest. The FX-R is a very bright and has a good beam. Issues were the build quality. Broken tabs, stripped adjusters and missing parts meant that we were unable to align them to the factory truck we had on site. Awesome upgrade and WELL worth the work, but either do it yourself and make sure it's done right or pay for a skilled retrofitter. The work to open these lights is painful and getting it right is important. Not being able to adjust these ones that he purchased means we will be removing them tomorrow and installing the factory housings back in with a Morimoto kit instead.

My Morimoto kit was still quite bright despite being a much higher kelvin. Having this kit in own vehicle, I'm quite happy. I will be doing a retrofit at some point but for the time being I am happy.

I have had no issues with the install and have had no issues with reliability since. For the cost and effort, I definitely recommend the TRS kit for these trucks. Great improvement from stock with little work.

Stock is obviously rubbish compared to either setup and should be changed out ASAP.

Retrofit:

10/10 Function

2/10 Ease of install

Morimoto

8/10 Function

6/10 Ease of Install

Stock

Shitty.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Dangerdick

WendysOrBust · February 12, 2015

You've done a great service to this forum.

Dangerdick · February 12, 2015

Too bad there isn't a Canadian flag

GMC-AT · February 12, 2015

+ 1 Danger knows his HID sh$t

corwest · February 13, 2015

Nice work here. Should put some rx350's or evox-r's on the list of great retros too.

morrislee · February 13, 2015

Where is this? I dont mind coming down and do some comparison for DDM vs Morimoto. I think that is a very big topic people have always asked

hutch08 · February 13, 2015

No love for DDM??? Haha, I don't doubt that the Morimoto's are better quality but I've always had great success with DDM... especially for the price!

DDM 35watt 4500k

DDM LED Fogs + Amber Delete Tron Mod

Dangerdick · February 13, 2015

Doesn't help when they're not head to head so we can see a direct comparison.

Taken at my shop in Edmonton, Morrislee

thetruck454 · February 13, 2015

Doesn't help when they're not head to head so we can see a direct comparison.

Taken at my shop in Edmonton, Morrislee

What do you guys do in that shop? It looks huge!

ls13sierra15 · February 13, 2015

Which TRS Morimoto kit is that? 35 watt or 50 watt and what bulb?

Spurshot · February 13, 2015

DD,

Thanks much for posting this.

But, while the efforts to compare these is honorable, the information to the reader is anecdotal.

In order to tell how well a driver can see with each, there would have to be some kind of testing at distances encountered in real driving situations, including beam width tests, since that is the biggest complaint about the Sierra. The "brightness" of a hot spot on a wall is difficult to translate to any type of driver vision.

Also, the "brightness" is affected by the bulb in a large way. To make a fair comparison, all of them should be with comparable bulbs.

This is a good place for a Lux meter test.

elviswas · February 16, 2015

I'm from edm as well where did u get the lights from

Dangerdick · February 17, 2015

Ordered my lights (big black denali) from TRS, and my friend bought from a retrofitter. Third one is stock and I'll be retro'ing that one as well.

I'm going to be doing the RX350 Projectors in my truck soon.

Spurshot · February 17, 2015

DD,

Did you get non-AFS or AFS projectors?

ls13sierra15 · February 17, 2015

Ordered my lights (big black denali) from TRS, and my friend bought from a retrofitter. Third one is stock and I'll be retro'ing that one as well.

I'm going to be doing the RX350 Projectors in my truck soon.

Hey Danger,

Which TRS kit did you go with? The 35 watt or 50? Also which bulbs?

Thanks