crappy picture taken with a blackberry, but you get the idea. (or actually, probably not, because you need to see them in person to appreciate them)
this is what real HID's are supposed to look like.
they are not aimed perfectly in this picture, I do have to adjust them up slightly.
Everyone thinks their "HID bulbs stuffed into stock halogen housings" are the cats meow and "so bright!!!".......I invite you to take my truck for a drive at night on back roads and open highways where there are no street lights. You will laugh when you get back into your own truck at how different (in a bad way) "fake" HID's are in comparison to "real" HID's with a true bi-xenon projector and properly focused lens.
There is a crapton more to properly illuminating the road ahead of you than just blasting out as much harsh/unfocused/'untuned' light as possible.
Your eyes are very deceiving in the way they perceive things, especially at night, and what is perceived by your brain as "seeing well" and "not seeing well".
The point of high-beam headlights is to be a distance spotlight, so to speak. To help your eyes see as far down the road as possible. At night, your eyes naturally go to where the most light is, or the brightest-illuminated object in front of you.
You physically cant focus on nearfield things and distance things at the same time, especially at night. Its either one or the other.
This is why the ever so popular "all four on high" mod is HUGELY deceptive. Its all a big mindf***. The all four on high mod doesnt actually help you see better in the distance. I know it looks that way to your eyes/brain, but hear me out for a minute.
Your low beams are purely for around town/near-field light to help you see the short-distance in front of you at low speeds, and to prevent blinding other drivers. Low beams are effective maybe 40 feet in front of you? I dunno. Thats where it cuts off, and thats where the "cut in" of the high-beams starts. High-beams are meant to help you see down the road as far as possible.
SO...pray tell me...how the hell does turning on the low beams while your high-beams are already on, help you see FARTHER DOWN THE ROAD??? It doesnt!!!! All it does is overload your nearfield vision with excess light...and what this does is naturally draw your eyes down lower (where more light is, because thats where your eyes always naturally go to at night in darkness, the low beam pattern/coverage area) to the road directly in front of you.
So when you're going down a country road at 50mph with your "all four on high" mod, in reality, your eyes are probably 75% focused on the road only 40 feet in front of you, and 25% focused on the area farther down the road (the part of the road that the high beams are meant to illuminate in a stock truck without the all-four-on-high mod).
Why, at 50mph on a dark road, do you want to be focusing most of your limited night-time eyesight at a patch of the road only 40-50 feet in front of you, when your truck takes at least 125 feet to stop from that speed??????
Next time you're driving at night on a straight road with your "all four on high" mod on high-beam, make a metal note of roughly what distance in front of the truck your eyes naturally drift to. Dont "TRY" to look straight down the road...just drive naturally. Then take the all four on high mod out, and drive around. I guarantee you'll find yourself looking farther down the road...where you SHOULD be looking 100% of the time at night!! It might seem like theres "less light", but there isnt. Sure, theres less light in your nearfield vision with ONLY the high-beam bulbs on...but why the hell do you need to be able to see the area 0-30 feet in front of you at night, unless you're in town at slow speeds?? You cant stop in 30 feet anyways!
The all-four-on-high mod does not make your high beams (distance lights) any brighter!!!!! It doesnt actually help you see better at night. Its all psychological, and biology/the way your eyes/brain works in low-light conditions.
Think about it.
ben
