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Headlights, Silverstars, etc.

alrock

El Diablo
Staff member
Messages
10,660
Location
Scottsdale
I was doing a bit of research on headlights and kept finding myself coming back to candlepowerforums. Lots of great stuff on that forum, especially if you like flashlights and other bright, shiny things.

One of the mods has really strong opinions (and shared by many, but of course not all) regarding the Silverstars and the Silverstar Ultras. That opinion is that they are a waste of money.

The biggest drawbacks are price, short life and the fact that due to the blue coating on the lens, they actually put out less light than comparable bulbs with clear lenses. The blue is blocking part of the light spectrum, hence less light is actually released. This ties in a bit with what Hunner has always said - new bulbs are almost always much better than what you removed simply because bulbs degrade over time. The "upgrade" we think we see with Silverstars may not really be all there.

For the H11s in my Haudi, they recommended bulbs that are hard to find: Osram Night Breaker (Osram makes Sylvania, but they have different product lines) and Phillips Extreme white. For the budget oriented, they recommended the Sylvania Xtravision, which are about 1/2 the price of the Silverstars. (Xtravision were $22 at Walmart for two, or $32 for two at O'Reilly.)

I replaced both bulbs in the Haudi as it was obvious that the driver was significantly dimmer/older than the passenger. I also aimed the lights. I knew they were off but when I checked, they were 18" low at 30' :whaa:. No wonder they weren't doing much for me!

Whenever the next bulb goes out in the Hummer I'll probably head a different direction vs. the Silverstars I have in there now.
 

autumn walker

Well-Known Member
Messages
707
Location
Nova Scotia, Canada
Interesting - I have not done any research on bulbs, but did try the silverstars in a previous vehicle due to the hype. I was disappointed by them to say the least. Cost / benefit is not there.
 

Chook

Well-Known Member
Messages
706
Location
Brisbane (Australia)
ARB has an uprated bulb called "Fat Boy" it is a Xenon focused on improving low beam performance (assumes you have separate driving lights). I tried the others also but once I fitted the Lightforce Striker driving lights my problem was relative blindness when coming off high beam to low beam. Fitting the Fat Boy's helped that aspect a lot as well as around town low beam performance is greatly improved.
 
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f5moab

Mr. Beretta
Messages
1,997
Location
In hiding.....
Phillips Extreme white I have also heard were ok. As for silverstars, these old eyes notice a big difference between the stock bulbs and silverstars, but more in the white light produced vs. any gains in distance. However, I notice no difference between the ultras and the standard silverstars.
 
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