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HID light install

11K views 106 replies 29 participants last post by  lilrez 
#1 · (Edited)
if youve installed them show where youve installed your ballasts please...and what brand ? Im wanting 55 watt looking for deeback to what has worked well... Ive heard ddm...

Im not interested in LEDS ...their lack of light farther down the trail compared to hids is still aparent to me...but the LEDS are freight training and coming on hard...couple more years...

thanks..
 
#7 ·
thought the same thing.. I didn't run with the goggle bag last year. seemed ok. Think if I were to install a HID kit again I would invest in a better kit.. When I was referring to activate the shutter. my kit was h4 bi xenon and needed 12 volts to move (shutter) the bulb to switch between hi/low.
 
#4 ·
Sled Toyz is where I have gotten them in the past and they are made by Rockroyz. I put a set in my brothers 09 turbo and just picked up a set for my 12 yesterday. Will be installing next week sometime.

Jester
 
#13 ·
I have tried them, even bought a expensive "off road" kit, larger ballast with heat sinks. They always fired up but started flicker some and I started to get worried. Gave up on them and went a different direction. It would not be good to loose lights on a 1000mile back pack trip.
 
#16 · (Edited)
5000k color temp is brightest whitest light, 4300 is the brightest light but is yellowish, 6000k has a slight blueish tint to it. ive always used ddm, and bought a set for my sled last year and started to do the refit, but never went through with it just got brighter stock bulbs. as far as high quality https://www.theretrofitsource.com/ has some of the best kits out there and are good quality stuff


the colors:
KELVIN AND LUMENS (35W)3000K:Golden Yellow (~2800 lm)4500K:Warm White (~3500 lm)5500K:pure White (~3400 lm)6500K:Cool White (~3200 lm)XB55 50W Ballasts: (+20% intensity) (-20% lifespan)(-1000K color)
 
#17 ·
5000k color temp is brightest whitest light, 4300 is the brightest light but is yellowish, 6000k has a slight blueish tint to it. ive always used ddm, and bought a set for my sled last year and started to do the refit, but never went through with it just got brighter stock bulbs. as far as high quality https://www.theretrofitsource.com/ has some of the best kits out there and are good quality stuff
agreed. I've been a dealer with them for almost a year now and they've been great to deal with and have the best quality stuff out there IMO.
I've used DDM in the past and although I rarely had issues with their products, they are a pain in the nuts to deal with if you need help.
 
#28 ·
#31 ·
Great.

It's bad enough that we have all those misaligned HID lamps out on the highways, now we have to endure them out on the trails.

I guess it makes perfect sense to blind the rider that's coming towards you, you may as well see what's about to kill you.

As for colour temperature (or degrees Kelvin)

2700- 3000 it typically what you will have in your home. Think the a-lamp light bulbs in your ceiling fixtures or table lamps. These are a very warm (orange/yellowish colour)

3500 degrees kelvin is typically the colour temperature found in most office spaces. More of a yellowish colour, but when illuminated on their own they appear to be white.

4100 degrees kelvin is used in a small percentage of commercial spaces, but is typically used in drug stores where they want to impose a more sterile look, but not too blue, can also be found in parking lot lighting other similar places.

5000 - 6500 degrees kelvin is a blueish/white (or typically called full spectrum lighting) and is clearly used in cars, and sleds to blind oncoming vehicles. It is also used in horticultural applications

CRI (or colour rendering index) is another factor of lighting, but for this topic not really relevant.

If you are going to start new and replace your existing halogen lighting system, then I would be looking at LED's.

The driver (or a ballast for lack of better description) is typically smaller and lighter than the ballast for HID's.

They aren't subject to the extreme colour sifts that are seen in HID, and since they are a diode and not a filament based lamp (in theory) will survive the bumps better, and therefor last longer.

In terms of "lamp life" LED's will last longer than you standard halogen and HID light sources, and because of the tighter beam control available to the LED's they will project further down the trail.

In almost all cases higher lumens translates into brighter light, but it all depends on how the light is channeled (or directed forward).

LED's much prefer the colder climates as their heat source is right at the t-junction of where the LED is seated on the board. A good LED fixture should have a good heat sync. If it doesn't have a good heat sync, then you are just wasting your money.

LED's however start to lose their intensity almost from the first moment you turn them on, so even though they may rate them for 50,000+ hours, the initial lumens start to drop immediately.

just for the love of god......or fellow riders, stop using the "blue" lights, and get a professional to install them so that they are aimed properly.

I know you think you can do it yourself, but honestly......most of you can't.
 
#32 ·
Your info on the color spectrum is way off, it's not the color that blinds you it's the inability of the hid to properly reflect light in the housing there in, 4500 is actually brighter than 5k and 5k is brighter than 6k, if you increase the wattage u decrease the color scale making a 6k look more like a 5 bumping the lumens up but shortening the life of the bulbs. I agree hids in sleds are blinding if not setup properly, ran into a lot last year where I literally couldn't see as they passed.
 
#37 ·
55 watt. Drawing this much power, they do require running a positive lead to the battery. The 35 watt ones do not.
 
#38 ·
led's are the future for sure...but still have a bit to go due to their design flaws...

led's are more efficient but their light is very scattered with the current designs...I prefer hids...and hids will shoot down the trail better..and yes the cutoff line is better , but our crappy housings and reflectors dont help.....its not smart to use a whiter light for our use....as it reflects off the snow dust ...think of a fog light..yellower light pierces fog and snow dust ...4300 is an optimal color IMHO
 
#41 ·
I will add this. I have a rental car this week. It has those HID headlights in it too. And during a blinding rainstorm I could not see the road. I believe that all the available light was bouncing off the roadway and into oncoming cars. These do have a sharp cutoff pattern so there wasn't much reflected light upwards (unlike in Procross sleds) but I did have a few people flash me during my drive to Florida and then onto North Carolina. I know I personally hate these headlights in cars cause it seems they are all misaligned even from the factory (this one has 900mi on it so it's basically brand new). But this is what people want these days. We are going to have to work with them and get it acceptable somehow. Sleds and cars included.

All that said, I personally would like to see LED lights in sleds just due to a lot of the things mentioned already. And LEDS can be tuned towards different light outputs in different k ranges. Some are even tuneable by just changing the voltage to them. That would be optimal in a sled where a low beam could be a yellower light and a high beam a brighter whiter light (that reflects more from the snow). It's just a matter of time before these things get better.

Steve
 
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