The best part of opinions, you dont have agree with everyone's. To be honest I had no intentions to swap out the headlight assemblies. But as time goes I guess we'll see how things go and make adjustments based on changing conditions.

 

"uppity"?
"high horse"?

Feeling a little defensive?

The fact of the matter is that HID's in a halogen reflector housing are unsafe. No matter how low you aim them, they produce a dangerous level of glare which blinds other drivers.
You may feel safer because you can see, but you are not.
In recent years I have witnessed two crashes caused by HID's in reflector housings.
In one case the driver was blinded by a person running illegal HID's behind them, resulting in the lead car swerving off the road and striking a sign post.
In the second incident a vehicle traveling the opposite direction was clipped by oncoming traffic that was blinded by thier HID's, this one in particular was a nasty wreck on a rural highway at 55+mph.

Do you understand that laws do not exist simply to rag on your fun?
There is reason that these setups are not DOT approved.

I am not going to say you are an idiot because your setup does not comply with the law. I am, however going to say you are an idiot if your setup is dangerous.

I'm not saying, don't break the law.
I'm saying, don't be an idiot about it.

 

Well, this calm and rational discussion has certainly caused me to reevaluate my plans.

 

Don't let a hack turn you off of it. There are safe ways of doing a retrofit. Simply buying the bulbs and throwing them in your housings isn't it. It does take more effort to keep you AND others safe. I'd suggest hopping over to hidplanet.com and searching. There is a good number of s-series that have done the swap easily and safely.

This is like any other mod. You wouldn't just go pull some rims off a mustang, drill the holes out bigger till they fit on your studs, and bolt them up would you?

 

This makes me want to take to the to get ahold of a local DOT rep to ask questions and see what research, if any, has been done by Minnesota. The only projector assembies I've found that I like range from $170 to $230, plus the cost of HIDs. My headlight project might have to wait longer. I am happy about the info and opinions I've gotten from this thread so far.

 

The closest legal way to do it is to convert your front end to gmc envoy or diamond edition. They came from the factory with hids and are dot approved housings. The problem you might run into is if your truck is titled as a chevy or its not in the correct year range. Since either of those facts means it wasn't a factory option for your make and year it could still be seen as a retrofit thus illegal. Just depends on how they want to read the laws.

 

Whatever you do DON'T get them from ebay. 35 Watts are brighter, i perfer 35 watts. I dont like slim ballasts. HIDLOOK.com has good product. I AM NOT AFFIALATED with them in anyway. Just telling you where i had good luck. Anyway i hope i was helpful.