Projector Headlight/55W HID install

[MSparks909]

Decided to install my projector headlights/HID's last night. Man am I glad I did! The new light pattern is SO wide and crisp. Talk about a sharp cutoff...I have to aim them tonight because I got done around 3:30 A.M. last night and after that I'm sure I'll see some more improvement. This mod was expensive but I feel it was highly worth it. I can light up so much more road, especially to the sides. And the high beams are just ridiculous. I highly recommend Jeremy's work in projector retrofitting and Retro-Solutions 55W HID kit. The kit was plug and play and made the install super simple and easy with the wiring guide that Jeremy sent me. Can't wait to get some HID's for my fog lights

Here's the wiring guide used for 06-08 trucks. 05 and post 08 use different diagrams.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f210/ ... RamH13.jpg

Step 1: Unbolt old headlights (10mm) and unplug factory light plugs

Step 2: Find a place to mount your relay. Since the supplied harness didn't come with a very long power wire I needed to mount it somewhat close to the battery. I mounted it to the right of the fuse box with a #10 sheet metal screw (after drilling a pilot hole).


Step 3: Plug in the harness plug into the factory headlight bulb plug and mount the capacitor. I zip tied my harness/headlight plugs together because I broke the retaining clip on my green headlight plug. Oh well...


Step 4: Run the passenger side headlight wires. I chose to run mine underneath the crossbar directly in front of the radiator that the hood closes to. It seemed the "cleanest" to me. I used plenty of zip ties in the process.


Step 4 continued: Running the passenger wire...


Step 5: Run the wires for the 2 resistors/resistor grounds. The resistors have heat sinks on them because they get really hot when the HID's are running. I wanted to attempt to get them some airflow so I mounted/grounded mine on the crossbar above the winch/in front of the radiator and ran the wires tucked into that crossbar to make it look cleaner.


Step 5 continued: Running resistor wire...


Step 5 continued: Resistors mounted with supplied screws (after drilling pilot holes)


Step 5 continued: Resistor wires grounded on crossbar (sanded the area first and grounded with #10 sheet metal screws).


Step 6: Mount driver's side ballast and ground ballast wire/hook up wires to ballast. Took me a while to find a spot to mount the ballasts that wouldn't interfere with the headlights when they were mounted. Finally settled with mounting them on the sides of the crossbar next to the radiator. Was going to mount them on the front of that crossbar but the clearance was too small to allow me to mount the headlight. The ballasts are hidden by the grill when you look from the front. Drilled pilot holes and secured with #10 sheet metal screws/washers.


Step 7: Mount passenger's side ballast and ground ballast wires/hook up wires to ballast. Mounted same way as driver's ballast.


Step 8: Plug in all wires to their correct places (AFTER using copious amounts of dielectric grease on everything!!!) and then plug the harness/factor light plugs into new projector headlights. Install headlights.

Step 9: Remove negative battery plug (1/2"). Remove positive battery plug (1/2"). Install power wire on positive battery bolt (ran my power wire behind the fuse box and behind battery). Re-install positive terminal nut and tighten. Re-install negative battery plug and tighten.



Step 10: Close hood and turn on the lights. Enjoy.

[Pit Slave]

Sweet deal!

I'll be honest I didn't read the whole thing yet.

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[MSparks909]

Here's two pics showing my unaimed lows & the high beams. Talk about sharp cutoff! I'm going to raise my passenger side projector up some tonight. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics...

Lows:


Highs:


I'll post some updated pics later showing how the lights are after I aim them.

[MSparks909]

Sweet deal!

I'll be honest I didn't read the whole thing yet.

sent via telegraph using Tapatalk TOO

Figured I'd post up a full install how-to on the new forum I don't think you need to read the install Mr. Electronic Guru. This was for the non electrically-inclined people out there haha.

[Pit Slave]

Sweet deal!

I'll be honest I didn't read the whole thing yet.

sent via telegraph using Tapatalk TOO

Figured I'd post up a full install how-to on the new forum I don't think you need to read the install Mr. Electronic Guru. This was for the non electrically-inclined people out there haha.

[VA_Wagon Man]

Nice write up Sparks. I must have missed it, but what's the ball park figure on the cost? I can tell by the pics that there's no comparison to our factory ones.

[MSparks909]

I paid around $700 for everything, but I opted to use new headlights (could have saved $150 if I would have re-used my originals but my originals were starting to fog up) and on the new headlights I opted for the amber strip at the bottom which my stock 06 headlights had. The 07-08 headlights didn't come with the amber strip which would have saved me $40. And then you can choose what HID kit you want. I wanted the most powerful kit Retro-Solutions made, which is their 55W "Digital" HID kit. Benefit of that kit is everything has a lifetime warranty. Morimoto projectors were used and I also opted for the larger "Apollo" shrouds for the new headlights.

You can play around with pricing/different HID options/whether or not you want to paint the inside of the new (old) headlights/add Halo's, etc. on Jeremy's new website if you want (this new site wasn't up when I bought my lights):
http://shop.retroshop.us/

Here's the link to the Retro-Solutions website detailing the different HID kits you can choose from:
http://retro-solutions.net/

[VA_Wagon Man]

Sweet, thanks. That's a good chunk of change.

Can't wait to see them next week.

[MSparks909]

Sweet, thanks. That's a good chunk of change.

Can't wait to see them next week.

Yes indeed it was...LT header fund is now wiped out So far they have definitely been well worth it. Now I have to save up for headers, then custom front & rear bumpers and a 40" Rigid Industries LED lightbar. Then I think I'll be done with lighting for a while!

[VA_Wagon Man]

I'd say! I'll be able to see you coming across the NC/VA line! (i'm 300 miles from there) lol

[Cactus Red]

Looks great - nice sharp cut off on the low beams. I'm impressed!

[MSparks909]

Looks great - nice sharp cut off on the low beams. I'm impressed!

Thanks! I'll have to post some new pics up of the lights...I aimed them last night. Had to slightly rotate the passenger side projector counterclockwise because the cutoff on that light was slightly tilted to the right. I also raised that light's cutoff pattern to match the driver's headlight cutoff, which I found to be the perfect height for both providing excellent vision down the road all the while not being a nuisance to other driver's on the road due to the sharp cutoff. The highbeams are stupid bright for using only 2 lights (because the fogs turn off when the high beams come on). They are similar to my friend's (4) KC Daylighter 130W's. I cannot wait to get a Rigid Industries LED lightbar

[Ducky's Dad]

The highbeams are stupid bright for using only 2 lights (because the fogs turn off when the high beams come on).

I wired my fogs though a separate switch (bypassed the computer so that it thinks they are always off) and now they stay on when the high beams are on. They are on when I want them on and off when I want them off. Don't need no stinkin' computer.

[AceMan]

The highbeams are stupid bright for using only 2 lights (because the fogs turn off when the high beams come on).

I wired my fogs though a separate switch (bypassed the computer so that it thinks they are always off) and now they stay on when the high beams are on. They are on when I want them on and off when I want them off. Don't need no stinkin' computer.

Good mod! I believe I read a mod somewhere that if you changed your ECM to Canada locale, you can get the fogs and highbeams to work together. However, I'm not sure what else that affects.