WayneOrwig
GT Reference
My work brings me home at about 1 AM. With plenty of the route surrounded by wooded country roads, with deer and other critters.
The headlights on the Stelvio, basically, SUCK. They have at least two issues. One, the reflectors are so poor, that they tend to scatter light, and not focus it forward were it is needed. Most headlights have the bulb buried down inside a bowl that reflects as much of the light forward as it can. The Stelvio reflector is so shallow, that you can almost look straight down at the bulb from directly above. That is lost light. You tend to get a lot of light straight up in the trees overhead. Two, the plastic is crap. I hate plastic. Stuff a hot bulb in it, and it melts. I hate plastic. The chrome peels. Did I mention that I hate plastic.
The single headlight on my EV actually out performs the dual headlights on the Stelvio, by a good amount. There is one spot, with a long straight stretch. Out ahead is a curve in the road and a power pole out in a field. On high beam, the single EV headlight on high would light up that pole about 3 seconds (not sure how many feet that is @ 45MPH. Someone do the math..) before the Stelvio high beam would light it up.
So, I finally gave in to my wish to experiment, and bought an HID kit. If you search, you will find where I have commented about how much I HATE those damn things for various reasons, so I am being a bit of a hypocrite. This kit has High/low bulbs. I actually keep the high adjusted down a good bit. So on high, the light reach from these VERY BRIGHT lights is about the same as my EV. I can see that pole at about the same spot that my EV would light it. But as I said, it is adjusted down more then it could be, to prevent blinding traffic when on low beam. So in the countryside on high beam, since it is adjusted down, there is a huge spot of light about 50 in front of me. I may adjust it up a touch more once I know I am not blinding people.
The high/low is accomplished by a magnet that moves the bulb back and forth. The bulb is held inside a metal shield. Turn on high beam, and the bulb is pulled back, where there is a hole in the shield to let light out for the high beam. It works pretty well, but the bulb is floating on slides, and does vibrate a little when you hit bumps.
It got a bulb color that is NOT the irritating (and less useful) blue. I wanted the 4000K, which is even yellower. But they only had 4500K or 3500K. There isn't any real noticeable blue, but my incadescant driving lights are now yellow in comparison. :lol:
So, hopefully now the headlight reflectors won't melt and hopefully I will not be irritating people with the light scatter when I'm on low beam. I can at least now see a good ways ahead finally to spot the critters.
I got them from here. $60 US for the set.
http://www.ddmtuning.com/
The headlights on the Stelvio, basically, SUCK. They have at least two issues. One, the reflectors are so poor, that they tend to scatter light, and not focus it forward were it is needed. Most headlights have the bulb buried down inside a bowl that reflects as much of the light forward as it can. The Stelvio reflector is so shallow, that you can almost look straight down at the bulb from directly above. That is lost light. You tend to get a lot of light straight up in the trees overhead. Two, the plastic is crap. I hate plastic. Stuff a hot bulb in it, and it melts. I hate plastic. The chrome peels. Did I mention that I hate plastic.
The single headlight on my EV actually out performs the dual headlights on the Stelvio, by a good amount. There is one spot, with a long straight stretch. Out ahead is a curve in the road and a power pole out in a field. On high beam, the single EV headlight on high would light up that pole about 3 seconds (not sure how many feet that is @ 45MPH. Someone do the math..) before the Stelvio high beam would light it up.
So, I finally gave in to my wish to experiment, and bought an HID kit. If you search, you will find where I have commented about how much I HATE those damn things for various reasons, so I am being a bit of a hypocrite. This kit has High/low bulbs. I actually keep the high adjusted down a good bit. So on high, the light reach from these VERY BRIGHT lights is about the same as my EV. I can see that pole at about the same spot that my EV would light it. But as I said, it is adjusted down more then it could be, to prevent blinding traffic when on low beam. So in the countryside on high beam, since it is adjusted down, there is a huge spot of light about 50 in front of me. I may adjust it up a touch more once I know I am not blinding people.
The high/low is accomplished by a magnet that moves the bulb back and forth. The bulb is held inside a metal shield. Turn on high beam, and the bulb is pulled back, where there is a hole in the shield to let light out for the high beam. It works pretty well, but the bulb is floating on slides, and does vibrate a little when you hit bumps.
It got a bulb color that is NOT the irritating (and less useful) blue. I wanted the 4000K, which is even yellower. But they only had 4500K or 3500K. There isn't any real noticeable blue, but my incadescant driving lights are now yellow in comparison. :lol:
So, hopefully now the headlight reflectors won't melt and hopefully I will not be irritating people with the light scatter when I'm on low beam. I can at least now see a good ways ahead finally to spot the critters.
I got them from here. $60 US for the set.
http://www.ddmtuning.com/
