writer: Sean P. Holman
photographer: Sean P. Holman, Robin Stover
Last year, we decided to take Project RangeRunner down to the Mexican peninsula to watch the Baja 1000 and knew that we would need something significantly brighter than the stock headlights to navigate through Baja's pitch-black wilderness, in addition to all the impromptu night wheeling we find ourselves doing closer to home.
After some research, we decided our best bet would be KC HiLites' 8-inch HID 4000 Series lights. The lights are available with two different beam patterns (long range and driving) and the housings are made of high-quality stainless steel with oversized mounting flanges. For Project RangeRunner, we chose a set in the driving pattern.
The technology behind HIDs is similar to the lights used at stadiums. Mercury and Xenon gases are ignited by applying 30,000 volts of current between two electrodes in a glass tube. According to KC, bulb life is greatly extended-up to 5,000 hours (that's like leaving your lights on for seven months straight) and provides a whiter light that is closer to daylight than standard bulbs.
After more than a year of use and many trips, we continue to be impressed with KC's HIDs. In fact, we took some mildly whooped-out roads at over 60 mph at night in Baja and couldn't outrun just two of our 8-inch HID lights.
All of KC's lights come with comprehensive installation instructions and high-quality wiring harnesses, which make for an easy install. These lights also offer a 23-year warranty that even covers expensive items such as the pricey ballasts and HID bulbs to go along with the company's excellent customer service long after the original sale.
1. KC HiLites uses only the highest quality components and includes everything you need for a fast and user-friendly install. | 
2. The KC wiring harness is nearly plug-and-play simple, with plenty of wiring length that gives you several mounting options. | 
3. After testing our mounting location for fit, we were ready to dive into the install. |
4. Next, we found a suitable location to mount the ballasts near where the lights would be mounted. | 
5. We then found a location for the relay on the upper radiator support and grounded it to the chassis. | 
6. Instead of using the KC-supplied switch, we tapped into the factory foglight switch circuit that we were no longer using, allowing us to operate the lights from the factory switch. With the switch figured out, we attached the power wire to the battery and popped in the fuse. |
7. To ensure the security and our continued ownership of our new HIDs, we installed a pair of KC's Lite Locks, thus keeping our awesome new lights out of the hands of some pesky freeloader. | 
8. The finishing touch was the installation of KC's rock guards, although with the nearly unbreakable Lexan lenses, they probably aren't necessary. | 
9. With everything installed, we fired up the truck and hit the switch, enjoying our impressive new light output. |