That looks so much better!!!

Such a simple and subtle little mod that makes a huge difference.

And I answered the 3rd light question above in the briefest way I could.

 

Hi Serge,

First off thank you for that great explanation on the Esky 3rd light. I have a bit of an update. I ended up adding 5000k HID's to the Tahoe and they look great! They are aimed perfectly and dont blind oncoming traffic, even though there are no projectors.

Also I bit the bullet and bought the resonator delete tip from KPE performance that you have as well. Fedex delivered it today and I'm going to have it installed tomorrow. I saw your posts on this over at the tahoeyukon forum so I know the pipe needs to be cut right after the metal clip.
http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=27405

My only question is that does anything need to be bent for the tip to side exit?

 

Hey bud,

No nothing needs to be bent ... after you cut the pipe they just need to set it at the right height and weld it on:





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Please don't be vexed, but on the subject of the HIDs, although it may not seem that way you are indeed projecting a lot of glare onto oncoming traffic. This is simply the result of inserting HID bulbs in reflector housings for which they are not designed for.

This is the typical effect on a Tahoe:



It's not good.

 

Good to know nothing needs to be bent, it was a little hard for me to visualize so I just wanted to be sure.
As for the HID's I have stood outside the truck at night with the lights on and dont really see them as being blinding to other drivers. But it is entirely possible that it could be. I haven't been honked or flashed at yet, so im not sure what to think.
I have seen ebay headlight units that look just like stock but have projectors for around $190 for the pair. Maybe that combined with higher quality HID bulbs & ballasts might be a winning combination. I dont really see how the ebay healight housings could be any worse quality then the OEM GM ones.

Also, is that a clamp I see in the tip install picture?

So tell me are there any mods u currently thinking of doing?

 

It's not an ebay/ballast/bulb/harness thing, it's a compatibility thing.

You probably won't get flashed because having glare is not the same as having high beams from the pov of oncoming traffic. High beam is light projected at eye level, glare is an overall, well, glare.

There's just no way to physically make hid bulbs not glare when installed in reflector housings. If you look at your stock low beams the bulbs have caps in front of them. That's because the light diffuses backwards onto the reflector which in turn returns the light forward.

HID bulbs are meant to be inside projectors which project upwards/sideways and forward inside the projector housing resulting in a focused beam forward. It's just light engineering stuff that I probably cant explain well enough.

Even worse is when folks buy ebay housings with halogen projectors in them and swap hid bulbs in them. This doesn't produce that much glare mind you but it does produce this:





Basically no usable light.

People don't want to hear it but there just isn't a shortcut for having a vehicle not equiped with oem hid projectors from factory. There are ONLY 2 solutions to this:

1. (relatively cheap) Buy the best possible halogen bulbs and call it a day.

2. (stupid money) Get a professionally installed retrofit.

It is what it is.

PS. If you want to see what happens when folks slap PnP HID kits on their reflectors, a quick browse through this thread will show the sadness:

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...d-fail-gallery

Cheers!

 

Thanks definitely good info! If you dont mind me asking how much did your retrofit setup cost?

 

Mine was around $1500 ... but that's because I went with a quad bi-xenon retrofit (all four projectors are on both on low and high beam) plus the double led switchback leds for drl/blinkers. So that's double the hardware and labor than a dual setup requires.

I don't know/remember where you live or if you have access to a retrofitter ... the only vendor I know of that sells a pre-retrofitted plug and play solution is: http://blackflamecustoms.com/product...eadlights-p-94

But overall one can expect to spend from $900 to much more depending on the quality/nature of the parts involved, and complexity of install.

 

Cheaper option: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PCwNmYpML.jpg or Silverstar zXe.

 

Oh and this is the effect/beam pattern one gets with either a dual or quad retrofit:

 

OUCH! Quite a bit more than what I expected. But very cool that you decided to get it done. I Definitely will have to think about this one, not too sure if I can justify the expense.

One thing I am considering, is that after I get the resonator removed I may replace the muffler with a Flowmaster 70 series. But that will depend on the sound of the resonator delete.