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HID Headlight Shootout - All three options tested

Dangerdick

By Dangerdick
in Modifications & Accessories

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2SSRS Enthusiast

2SSRS

Posted
Posted

Why not upgrade to the new 2016 3/4 and 1 ton headlights there HID from GMC ?

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Dangerdick
Dangerdick

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 retrof

Spurshot
Spurshot

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, the

BootyHunter86
BootyHunter86

Both with and without fogs. Brighter pictures are with both on. The lower light pics are just headlights     Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted Images

fpdsniper Enthusiast

fpdsniper

Posted
Posted

Why not upgrade to the new 2016 3/4 and 1 ton headlights there HID from GMC ?

I tried that approach. The dealership and GM both said "no way".

2SSRS Enthusiast

2SSRS

Posted
Posted

I tried that approach. The dealership and GM both said "no way".

No why what? we did it with our harness, dealer are only good at sealing new cars and trucks, and some times not that.

fpdsniper Enthusiast

fpdsniper

Posted
Posted

No why what? we did it with our harness, dealer are only good at sealing new cars and trucks, and some times not that.

No way they would do it. I provided them with info from another dealership in Wisconsin that did this for one of their customers. I was then advised that "A lot of people got in trouble over that", and they refused to do it. Tired of trying to get them to do something about it, so I'm going aftermarket.

2SSRS Enthusiast

2SSRS

Posted
Posted

No way they would do it. I provided them with info from another dealership in Wisconsin that did this for one of their customers. I was then advised that "A lot of people got in trouble over that", and they refused to do it. Tired of trying to get them to do something about it, so I'm going aftermarket.

Most aftermarket dont last as long as OEM, but if that's what you like go for it by all means.

  • 4 months later...
Sean D Enthusiast

Sean D

Posted
Posted

2cc1f0167bbf08bfe3a82a0b21c17c80.jpgc4f27bf2210d88bf1939dd02c43e8138.jpg0b178d12c81887d009402e1a4676a52f.jpgbb8076dcaa1f3dda189c27165d295aa5.jpg3d416aa60af5063530cf4be9ba6c5657.jpgd67d6d1ae2b1b3f4bad3510855236d6a.jpg

 

Both with and without fogs. Brighter pictures are with both on. The lower light pics are just headlights

 

Where did you get your projectors?

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • 5 months later...
  • 1 month later...
Ravenkeeper Senior Enthusiast

Ravenkeeper

Posted
Posted

Interesting thread!! I'm going to be trading my weak-ass lows for LEDs, but I also want to "upgrade" my highs to ones that "will burn the eyeballs out of skulls from beyond the horizon." Any suggestions?

  • 7 months later...
Erion109 Enthusiast

Erion109

Posted
Posted
On 10/1/2016 at 8:16 AM, Sean D said:
On 2/7/2016 at 12:26 AM, BootyHunter86 said:

2cc1f0167bbf08bfe3a82a0b21c17c80.jpgc4f27bf2210d88bf1939dd02c43e8138.jpg0b178d12c81887d009402e1a4676a52f.jpgbb8076dcaa1f3dda189c27165d295aa5.jpg3d416aa60af5063530cf4be9ba6c5657.jpgd67d6d1ae2b1b3f4bad3510855236d6a.jpg

 

Both with and without fogs. Brighter pictures are with both on. The lower light pics are just headlights

 

Where did you get your projectors?

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Are your housings factory HID? I have a 2015 with halogens and want to go HID. I’d like to buy factory housings before trying a retrofit. What are you running in the pics above?

  • 2 weeks later...
rogerdoger Enthusiast

rogerdoger

Posted
Posted

I just bought a 2017 Sierra and it has T4F listed for the lights. It has HID for headlights and led for fog lights. When searching for led replacement I can’t find anything compatible. Is my only option to replace the whole lens with the factory led ones? I’m sure after market leds will come out at some point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • 3 years later...
Jim85IROC Enthusiast

Jim85IROC

Posted
Posted
On 12/22/2017 at 11:55 AM, savagesultin said:

I just bought a 2017 Sierra and it has T4F listed for the lights. It has HID for headlights and led for fog lights. When searching for led replacement I can’t find anything compatible. Is my only option to replace the whole lens with the factory led ones? I’m sure after market leds will come out at some point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Morimoto has full LED headlamp assemblies if you want to cough up the $1600 for them.  I have no experience with the factory HID setup, but I just picked up a 17 SLT Premium that has the LED headlamp assemblies.  Guys seem to love these, but I'm underwhelmed with them.  My last truck was an 08 Silverado.  On that truck I replaced the stock bulbs with LED bulbs that were able to be rotated inside the housing so that they could be installed perfectly vertically, and the light from those was just amazing.  Moving from that truck to the 17 with the LED lights has been a big disappointment.  My low beams give a nice even distribution of light, but they don't have as much of it as the old truck.  The real disappointment though is the high beams.  With the 4 headlight system, the high beams gave me more light everywhere.  The road was brighter, plus the long distance lighting was significantly improved.  With the 17, the high beams just add light above the low-beam cutoff.  It doesn't add any light to the low beam area, and in fact, there's still a dark zone right above the low beam cutoff, which is exactly where I need the extra light the most.

 

long story short, I can't really say that moving to the OEM LED headlights is a worthwhile upgrade.  I can't really imagine a bulb upgrade in your current assemblies being any worse than the OEM LEDs, and in all likelihood, with the right bulb, should be better than the OEM LEDs.

  • 4 months later...
truckguy82 Senior Enthusiast

truckguy82

Posted
Posted

This thread made me wonder, why the hell are headlight assemblies so expensive.

 

molded plastic, some glass, mirrors...where’s all the money going?

 

I’d assume they were $100/pair if I didn’t know any better.

davester Senior Enthusiast

davester

Posted
Posted

Designing/testing the lense (so it forms the beam properly, doesn't overheat the light assembly, fits in available space, visually looks nice/different), moulds are expensive to make, and with more and more trucks needing different ones (as in they work for fewer model years), and with limited sales (as only a small fraction of owners swap out the oem ones), and then advertising, distribution/reseller markup, it's not surprising they are getting more expensive...

 

For my truck, the lens is good for at least '04 - '07 classic (probably more), and 1500/2500/3500 trucks.  Now, I think the 1500 is different from the 2500/3500 and they change every year...

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  • 1 month later...
truckguy82 Senior Enthusiast

truckguy82

Posted
Posted
On 6/8/2021 at 5:39 AM, davester said:

Designing/testing the lense (so it forms the beam properly, doesn't overheat the light assembly, fits in available space, visually looks nice/different), moulds are expensive to make, and with more and more trucks needing different ones (as in they work for fewer model years), and with limited sales (as only a small fraction of owners swap out the oem ones), and then advertising, distribution/reseller markup, it's not surprising they are getting more expensive...

 

For my truck, the lens is good for at least '04 - '07 classic (probably more), and 1500/2500/3500 trucks.  Now, I think the 1500 is different from the 2500/3500 and they change every year...

I was talking about the oem ones as well. They are very expensive to buy new oem headlights. With 100’s of thousands of them built, they should be cheap.

 

i mean it’s over $2k to buy 2 new headlights from the dealer I believe. On a $40k truck, in which over 100,000 were produced, the headlights are 8% or more of the cost of the vehicle? That makes no sense.

 

I totally understand they have to appease regulation and need testing, but they have to do that with a lot of stuff. Surely those costs are a drop in the bucket when dealing with that kind of volume.

 

I bet the only reason for it is wanting to avoid people buying the cheaper truck and throwing the better headlights on it, since headlights are nearly as important as wheels from a cosmetic standpoint.

davester Senior Enthusiast

davester

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, truckguy82 said:

I was talking about the oem ones as well. They are very expensive to buy new oem headlights. With 100’s of thousands of them built, they should be cheap.

 

i mean it’s over $2k to buy 2 new headlights from the dealer I believe. On a $40k truck, in which over 100,000 were produced, the headlights are 8% or more of the cost of the vehicle? That makes no sense.

 

I totally understand they have to appease regulation and need testing, but they have to do that with a lot of stuff. Surely those costs are a drop in the bucket when dealing with that kind of volume.

 

I bet the only reason for it is wanting to avoid people buying the cheaper truck and throwing the better headlights on it, since headlights are nearly as important as wheels from a cosmetic standpoint.

First, the cost of the part by itself isn't the fraction of cost of it on the vehicle.  IIRC, someone priced out a vehicle and it was about double to buy the parts for the vehicle vs buying the vehicle pre-assembled.

 

Second, people want them fancier.  A bunch of led's around the edge, that blink in a pattern, are brighter, more intricately designed, all costs more.  It may take more molds to fabricate, more time to assemble, etc.  And the lights may be embedded in the housing now, where they weren't before.  And even for GM, it becomes more expensive because they joined the rest in having separate body styles for 1500 vs 2500/3500 trucks.

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