Extending wire after HID ballast?

So i just made a light bar for the bed of my truck. I converted two rectangle off road lights to 55w HID's. I drilled the back of them out made a gromet to fit the bulb and epoxied them in. Everything worked fine. Then i decided to extend the ballast far away from the lights so the ballast wasn't visible. I put them in a water proof box and mounted it under the bed where it is not visible. Now to the problem. I cut the wires going from the ballast to the bulb and extended them by soldering them. I used heat shrink when i was done to make sure it was fully insulated. I flip the switch and hear a loud buzzing sound for two seconds and they dont turn on. I noticed that the original wire is double insulated. It has a white insulation on the inside (I think this is PVC insulated wire). i then notice when i turn the switch on that before power is getting to the lights it is shorting out. Little arcs are coming out of the piece of cable that i soldered on and jumping to the ground. Im guessing this is happening because the HID ballast output is a higher voltage. I think thats all i need to do is replace the wire i added in with the heavy insulated wire they used. Does anyone know what type of wire this is and where i can get it. And sorry for the really long paragraph.

 

hmm I didn't Know that. I had them working fine with the extended wire as long as where the arc was jumping out i moved away from the ground. But thanks for the Info.

 

I added wire in mine for the lights I have mounted on my light bar. I only had to add about 12" of wire But I didnt get any problems from mine. IIRC I just used 10gauge wire and soldered the ends. but the wire I extended was the wire from the bulb to the ballast.

 

Thats what i did but i extended mine about 5 feet. I think ill be fine as long as i can find some of that double insulated wire. Tired looking it up on line but it was no luck.

 

No one knows where i can find this wire?

 

Very Very Very bad idea. There is 23,000 Volts going through those wires on start up. Very good chance for Arcing if you don't use the right kind of wire. Not something I suggest doing even if they seem to be working. This has nothing to do with the gauge of the wire and everything to do with the type of insulation.

 

Is there anywhere i can buy this extra insulated wire.

 

Its all over ebay. This is what you should have bought to begin with.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HID-...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories