HID Upgrade Info

Just be aware that HIDs have a "warm up" time of up to 30 seconds before you get full light output. For the lowbeam this is fine, but putting HIDs in the highbeam, you'll have to wait for the light to warm up.

I put a kit from DDM Tuning into my car with excellent results. They were very pleasant to deal with, and have good reviews on their customer service. It was $40 at the time (Apexcone Raptor Brand). Prices on their site have come down significantly since then. I went with 35w 5000k which is borderline a little too blue for my taste, but acceptable and puts out a tremendous amount of light. If I had to do it again, I'd go for 4500k. I like the 35w since it doesn't get as hot as the 55w (less risk of melt) and you can "plug and play" as opposed to running wiring harness relays. I've personally never experienced a 55w HID first hand, but the 35w puts out a great amount of light -- the 55w must be like mounting two suns on the front of the bike (in both light AND heat output!).

The 6th gen runs an H4 bulb for low beam, which is a dual filament bulb. In most motorcycles, the H4 is used for both high and low beam. However the 6th gen is wired only for low beam filament usage on the H4.

My suggestion would be replace the high beam with a high quality, high output halogen, and replace the H4 low beam with an HID kit.

The same 35w Raptor kit I bought a year ago is now available for $25 which includes the lifetime warranty. There is also the motorcycle kit (same thing but slimmer ballasts) which is $35.

Those are prices for the kit to convert BOTH bulbs to HID, single filament. In other words, they will function the same as it is stock, but with more light.

Additionally, like I said, the H4 bulb is used in the low beam which is technically a high/low dual filament bulb. If you wanted to get moderately creative, you could run an HID hi/low H4 in the low beam. This would function the same as the setup above, except in this case you'd get high beam patterns from both the low beam AND stock high beams.

Since the HID has a warmup time as I described above, they get around this by one of two ways, either:
-The HID bulb has a halogen bulb in it as well. When switching to high beam, it lights the halogen bulb in addition to the xenon HID bulb or;
-The HID bulb has a magnetic servo which refocuses the beam pattern to a hi-beam pattern -- this way the bulb is never turned off to switch thus no need for a warmup time when switching.

In all honesty, I would probably prefer the easier of the two setups and go for the "single filament" HID H4 plug and play 35w. I like the way that the VFR uses both low beams AND high beams simultaneous when the hi-beam is switched on, so the low beam illuminates the road right in front of you and the high beam shows farther ahead. If the HID in the low beam housing was to go high beam with the stock high beams, you may lose some light right in front of you.

Links:
Apexcone Raptor HID Kit (35w or 55w): HID Kits, DEPO Lights, BMW Bumpers & Lighting - DDM Tuning "Regular" Raptor Kit $25
DDM 35W & 55W Dual Motorcycle HID Kit: HID Kits, DEPO Lights, BMW Bumpers & Lighting - DDM Tuning "Motorcycle" slim ballast Raptor kit $35

Cliffs:
I suggest upgrading high beams to quality halogen, and low beams to DDM Tuning "Raptor" plug and play HID kit ("single filament" H4, 35w, 4500k color)

 

Also want to add that the VFR uses halogen reflector housings. You won't get a fantastic beam pattern with an HID in a halogen reflector housing, but it may be "good enough". My car came stock with halogen projector housings which gave the plug and play setup a fantastic beam pattern and cutoff right out of the box.

Sorry but I don't have any info on retrofitting HID projector housings into the VFR...

 

Thank you for the information and the links! This is MUCH cheaper than the other places I was looking and it's nice to have your recommedation on it. I'm going to do a little bit more looking around to figure out what I want to do for sure. I'm thinking I'll go 1 of 2 ways:

1: Install a low beam HID (35w 5000k) in place of my Low beam bulbs = EASY

2: Install a hi/low beam HID in my low beam spot and wire it up to work with the switch on my handlebar and have a separate switch to run my high beam hallogen bulbs. That way I can still have the look of all 4 bulbs on, have the performance of HID in my high beams, or the option of just running with my HID low beams and hallogen high beams.

What do you think?

(on a side note... I'm going to do an HID conversion on my durango as well... it uses a 9007 bulb. Do you know of any aftermarket projector lenses can be used with HID bulbs? I've read that many of them say that they're not compatible with HID, and many people complain that they are very dull and not even usable when they direct the beam of a hallogen bulb. So, I can either just put an HID kit in my reflector headlights, or find a projector lens that works with the HID kit...)

 

If you really want to go route #2 with hi/low in the low beam housing, and stock high beam setup, why go through all the trouble of a second switch? Just wire it such that the low beams are on as normal, and the high beam switch fires not only the stock high beams, but also switches the low beam to high beam mode as well?

You should check Dodge forums to see if there are any easy retrofit options to do on the truck. The way I see it, if you're going through all the trouble of baking and cracking open the headlights to swap in projector housings, you might as well go "all out" and get an HID projector. If those simply aren't available, a halogen projector will be better than the reflector housing. Putting HIDs in a reflector housing runs the risk of excessive scattering; making other drivers think you've got your high beams on when you don't (this applies to the VFR as well). There are companies out there that specialize in retrofitting HID projectors into reflector housing headlights. Might be worth looking them up and getting price quotes. Then maybe get an extra set of headlights to send them and then swap when completed?

 

don't use a hi/lo bulb in your low-beam-only reflector. The reflector geometry isn't setup to take advantage of the other filament, and the hi/lo bulbs aren't as reliable (due to the mechanical movement of the capsule in the assembly). Leave the hi-beams as halogen, HID doesn't like to be turned on/off frequently (it's hard on the ballasts). Consider that many people switch hi/lo at least 10x as often as they turn on the low beams at all.

Since the VFR doesn't have projectors, you won't be able to find angel eyes (nor do you really want to use hid capsules in halogen projectors, although it *may* work out ok). If you REALLY want something like that, then go have someone like HID Projector Headlight Retrofit for Subaru, Honda, BMW, Scion and More | LightWerkz.net retrofit some quality HID projectors into your reflectors (may require a month of bike downtime to send assemblies off for modification, and it's $$$), but the results are pretty astounding. His acura projector swaps are very, very nice.

Real HID high-lo projectors put the horizontal cutoff shield on a solenoid, so when you kick on the highs, it just pops the cutoff shield down out of the way (the lens reverses this into making it look like it's lifting out of the beam).

 

+1 on Lightwerkz. I've heard they do fantastic work.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll look into lightwerkz more and see what they say and post back here for everyone.

 

Well, I just ordered a set of the 55w 6000K HID hi/lo lights for my Durango. I'll see how they go, and how they look. If I like them, I'll just order a set of 35w slim ones for the VFR. They're pretty much the same kit, but with slim ballasts.

Here is a post I found on a triumph webpage about DDM Tuning:

I used to live next door to the guy that owns DDM tuning/Apexcone, and we're fellow BMW M3 enthusiasts. He's a bonifide EE, and he designs all the electronics for those HIDs, and then has them assembled in China. My M3 was a test mule for more than a few products.

He took making HID kits and light rings for local M3 owners from a garage hobby to a full time job. He now spends half his time in China staying on top of production, and makes kits for almost every application now.

Long story short, the DDM stuff is of pretty good quality, and Jim's warranty philosphy is this: "Don't work? Here's a new set". Seriously. Can't get much more peace of mind than that.

As for pricing, keep in mind, these ARE made in China, and there's no middlemen (that's a huge part of cost increase for Chinese goods), they go direct from the factory to Jim's warehouse in California.

BTW, I have his latest generation slim ballast HID kit in my M3, replacing a 4 year old prototype kit, and it works great. Reason I replaced? Left bulb was shattered along with the headlight lens when a "hockey mom" backed into my BMW with her Mercedes SUV in a parking lot last year.

If you do decide to buy a kit, I recommend you buy the lowest color temp. The higher temp (more blue) might look better to some, but they don't put out as much usable light.

 

Thanks for that info Fireman! That explains why most of their website is custom BMW lighting products.

 

Well, I ended up putting a set of 35w H4 5000k HIDs in my interceptor. I ordered them from DDM Tuning. They had good customer service! I had ordered HIDs for my Durango first, but they were out of stock, so I called up and changed the order to what I wanted to put in my bike. They shipped the next day, refunded the difference to my card, and I got them on my doorstep 2 days later for $50. Great deal! Bright lights that were very easy to install. I highly recommend them!

Thanks All

 

Hi
Reading throught the thread is interesting to say the least. In Australia we have skippy's who some think are lovely little buggers.
Well when a bloody big Eastern grey buck steps out and your movin at speed through the night, let me tell ya ya heart rate rockets and other parts pucker!! as I am a member of your IBA association I ride a lot a night.
And have just come from my Honda dealer and he tells me the low beam globe in my 2005 viffer is a H4 dual filament globe and therefore does high and low beam. I would like to convert this to HID. Given the input on the thread I am a bit confused (Mind you some say it doesn't take much to confuse a single brain cell)
And leave the high beam H7 globes alone for now, is this possible to reliably have a HID low beam as it is when I switch to low beam that at night I am virtually flying blind till the truck cabin passes me and I switch to high beam again.
All info gratefully received
Freighttrain
Farrider #246
IBA mem #38554

 

Yeah, the idea of utilizing the high/low beams in the lower reflectors appealed to me as well. I may try it later, but for now I'll go with this. It probably wouldn't be too hard to figure out the best way to do the wiring so that the switch on the handle bar will actuate the high HID beam and the top headlights at the same time. The nice thing about just doing the low-beam is that it stays on all the time and is all plug and play, VERY easy to hook up. Next time I have my fenders off, I'm going to move the ballasts inside the inner fender wells. Right now I just have them stuck on the outside of the inner fender