A REAL ANSWER!!! Hooray!!
I'm working on that. I have to trim the base of the bulb a little. When I say focused, I mean way off on one side it's bright than other spots. I installed one set in the passenger side and compared to the original halogen bulb in the driver side. The original bulb seemed MUCH brighter.

 

OP, part of the issue could be the 8000 bulb, that's more a more bluish lighting color and blues are not the best for night lighting. Generally speaking, you want to keep the bulb range 4300 to 6000. On my previous luxury cars, Audi and Lexus, I know the bulbs were 4300. 4300 is more of a white light and 6000 gives off whitish purple.

 

I've got 8000's from vvme in my stock housings and they're plenty bright but not blinding. Some may not like the look but I do and that's all that matters. As stated before the bulb seating could be an issue. I had a bit of that problem with my fog lights.

 

I knew I was getting a little bluer bulb, that's why I went with 55W like I had in my last truck. The HID's were 10x as bright as the stock headlights. I'm just really confused. Could the bulb being longer than the stock one mess up the lights that much?

 

It may be hitting the projector lens. I wouldn't think it would cause an issue unless the projector doesn't have enough room for the bulb to seat properly. And my 35W kit puts out an incredible amount of light and you can still look at the truck and not squint. Oh and I kept my high beams and they're HID

 

With the light all the way to one side that def sounds like a bulb seating issue. The bulb is probably in the housing slanted.

 

That's why I'm thinking there's not enough room in the projector

 

My HID bulbs fit OK in the headlights, but the fog lights took serious sanding on the tabs to allow them to turn as they should. Tabs were way too thick so I sanded them in a taper and they fit fine.

As long as you like them that's all that matters. You'll find a lot of people on here will talk down to you and bash peoples tastes. You just have to ignore the idiots and sift through the nonsense to find the good people and good posts.

 

Exactly. I try to provide as much help as I can in as polite a manner as possible. I don't know why that's so unreasonable to expect from people.

 

Big thanks to y'all. I just checked and the bulb seats all the way down like it should. I can't for the life of me figure out why it seems so dim.