Does anyone have them installed on your 2nd Gen Dakota? I know there are some brands that don't fit the holes very well and I'm trying to avoid them. Also trying to avoid the ones that have phony projector lenses.




If you do.... and have switched from HID over to LED bulbs, I would like to see that too. I have some Crystal housings and I can't see squat on blacktop roads at night.

 

I looked and looked all there is other than retrofitting with the projector assembly (Extreme customization) is the ones by spyder..

I've heard both good and bad things so i avoided them.. all the videos online are really just about installing and no one really took the time to really evaluate them; so i can only assume because they sucked?

I have the clear ones on my truck and had the same issue once i got them aimed correctly they are not that bad..

IMG_20150315_095554_zpsoxmsaxvo.jpg

You can see the housing im talking about.. but they wont fit the HID's because of the inside housing they have.. seems ok for me even with the Explorer having HID's and projector style factory; they are not as crisp but are close (ish) with driving lights on and them aimed correctly.

 

Why wont they fit the hid's? I ran the same lights on my 98 and ran hid's in it.. No problems fitting them in there.

 

I have the Spyders for my 02'. I haven't installed them yet, hope to this weekend (there is a chance for rain so not sure yet..) and I will give my review of them once I do. What was the pros and cons to them that you speak of?

 

Would you write up a review and link here for us once you have them maybe compare the light before after so we can see what kind of light they put out on the low beams?

Also as well what kind of bulb your using.. At this point i dont want to go through the trouble of HIDS or LED's.. so I'd just be running some quality bulbs in there pretty sure you can just disconnect the wiring harness it comes with and use strait factory bulb being the high beam is angled differently i dont ever use high beams anyways always the running lights and low beams.


If you can experiment with factory bulbs too that would be cool before you install hids if you do?

No one really has taken time to do them with the projector spyder i can find online. would be a great help to the community.

 

Every one i seen that was reviewed said to hit and bottom out prematurely on that inside housing.. also that these were also not HID type so they splatter light everywhere..

which they do now with regular bulbs.. i struggled to finally get them lined up enough they actually provide decent lighting on the road in combination with my driving lights.

i had to raise them a touch above normal low beam level to get decent enough driving capability off of them mixed with the driving lights.

But after that they did seem a touch better than stock.

 

I had the lights like Spyder's on my S10 for years. One thing I found out with them was that the lights were "backward". That when the brights are on, it is actually the regular beams, and vis versa. Great pieces, but were backwards on wiring. After I read that there were people who had issues with the Spyder Auto pieces, I investigated for a few hours online. I found out that they are the same way. Not only that you actually do need a CCFL Inverter for the LED's and Halos to become super bright like you see in the sale videos and promotional material.

I will be getting the CCFL Inverters and some water tight plugs for my lights before I do the light swap. I plan on doing a full write up on it.

So in short there is a little bit of "modifying?" that must be done. Rewiring and addition of the inverter for them to work right. That said the actual pieces themselves are nice, quality moldings and materials used. The chinese just didn't wire them correctly.

HERE IS MY SPYDER AUTO LIGHTS THREAD

You can see what I found. I am going to use waterproof plugs to all the lights so I can simply unplug the different lights from one another and the CCFL Inverter easily.

 

So light quality out of the projector was good?

I didnt see in the thread you linked was that with regular bulbs i guess?

I wouldnt use the CCFL's or LED's ; only reason id want them is for the projector it self for better light on the road.

 

You just have to rewire the wiring they have done. The unit itself, the actual housing is VERY nice. The wiring is what sucks. Projectors are good, output by them is nice yes.

They have the wires wrong. They just have wires crossed.

You will want to have the ability to plug the lights in and see them on so you can make the corrections. They have a "common" ground for both lights but the way they wire it, one set of bulbs comes on dimly while the other is working.. and it isn't as bright as it would normally be. Plus they have the wiring backwards (neg is positive and the other way around).

The light output on my S10 were good, but opposite. Brights were normal and vis versa. You have to "unpin" the wires from the light's factory male plug (the plug that goes into the factory loom) and switch them.

The CCFL Inverter is to make the Halos and LEDs brighter.

 

Here are mine. I'm gonna try a pair of LED headlamp bulbs in these before I pull the trigger on a pair of projector housings. My fog lamps are shot and dated too. That's the next project.