Pickup trucks headlights evaluated

transamz9 wrote:

rickeoni wrote:
High beams are brighter in halogen bulbs because the reflector is different and the bulb usually has no cap paint, but the low beam and high beam bulbs have the same wattage, usually 55 watts. In projector style of headlights there is a flap that moves to allow more of the light to escape the lens, but uses only one bulb. If it is a H.I.D. bulb it is usually driven by a 35 watt ballast. As to the coloured bulbs, if you add a film to a halogen bulb too fool the eye into making it look whiter it actually lowers the lumens, resulting in a lower light output. H.I.D. bulbs are rated on the Kelvin scale with 4300K being the brightest and is what most O.E. manufacturers use. Once again as you go up the Kelvin scale to get to the bluer colours you lose light output.

One of biggest problems with aftermarket products now is the pnp

H.I.D. kits on the market. These illegal kits scatter light everywhere because a halogen reflector bowl is not designed to focus the light of an H.I.D. bulb. The second problem is people with misaligned headlights, how many cars on the road today have on headlight aimed too high? You can always spot the ones that Marty Feldman aimed.

if you feel the need to fill in the dead spot in front of the vehicle when driving turn on the fog lights. While this actually makes your night vision worse, it fools the brain into thinking that it is brighter.

My 2013 Ram came factory with 55 watt low beams and 65 watt high beam halogen bulbs as do most two bulb systems.;)

I stand corrected on the wattage issue, but if you look at pictures of the bulbs you will notice the biggest difference is the black cap on the tips of the low beam bulb vs the lack of it on the high beam bulb, unless you have a HIR bulb which is a whole different technology again.