What is HID?

HID is the abbreviation for the High Intensity Discharge of light from an electric arc. By producing this arc between two tungsten electrodes in a glass envelope filled with xenon gas we have an HID bulb or Xenon bulb.

The light produced by an HID bulb is much brighter that an Halogen filament bulb and when HID are used for headlights in a car or an ATV they produce the ability to see farther and better at night. The brightness of light as perceived by the human eye is measure in Lumens. For Example:

• A standard halogen ATV headlight will produce between 700 and 2100 lumens at 40 – 70 watts of power.
• An ATV headlight converted to HID will produce between 2800 and 3500 lumens at 35 – 38 watts of power.

That up to a 300% difference in brightness that an HID headlight has over a halogen headlight and this extra brightness is produced with less power. An HID headlight will last approximately 2000 hours compared to 700 hours of an halogen headlamp and that is typical for cars.

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For ATVs and OHVs the life of a halogen headlight is much shorter due to the rough trails that are encountered. The fragile halogen filament typically ends up breaking long before 700 hours. The HID bulb has two tungsten electrodes instead of a fragile filament, thus the HID bulb is much more durable.

You may have noticed cars on the road at night with a purplish tint to their headlights. Those were most likely HID headlights. The purplish color comes from the specific temperature of the arc and is measured in Kelvin (K). The higher the temperature the more purplish color and the less brightness.

There are typically five specific HID headlight temperatures/colors available:

• 4300K (approximately 7,280° F) – Pure white with a slight tint of yellow (3200 lumens)
• 6000K (approximately 10,340° F) – Pure white with a very slight tint of blue (2800 lumens)
• 8000K (approximately 13,940° F) – White with blue tint (2550 lumens)
• 10000K (approximately 17,540° F) – Blue – violet (2200 lumens)
• 12000K (approximately 21,140° F) – Purple (2100 lumens)

For offroad and ATV headlights the 6000K is preferred as it does not produce as much glare as the 4300K but still produces a bright headlight for those dark back country trails. At CampingATV.com we carry the Eagle Eye Lights line of ATV HID lighting kits. These ATV HID conversion kits are simple to install using the plug-n-play wiring harnesses that connect to the OEM wiring harness.

These ATV HID lighting kits come complete with the HID bulb(s), igniter (for starting the arc), the ballast (for controlling the power and igniter), and the wiring harness. Get the HID lighting you need to brighten up those dark, late night back country trails to see those hidden obstacles.