55watt HID off road lights

hey all, i'm about to convert my off road lights to hid. I really would love the output of the 55w setup, but am worried that it will overheat the small housing (6'' diamiter, 3'' deep). I know there are some guys with 55w HIDs in their offroad lights, i'm just wondering how it turned out. mostly just worried aboit melting the lense and/or reflecting surface. so what are your thoughts?

thanks,
Colin

 

I converted some Hella FF75 lights to 55 watt HIDs a couple of years ago on my Xterra. They worked great.

LONG ANSWER: (scroll to the bottom if you want the short answer)

The basic laws of physics are applied here:

Let's look at a 100 watt incandescent halogen light bulb, typical of what you might find in an automotive lighting application. This light bulb uses 100 watts of energy. 80 watts is being converted to HEAT. The other 20 watts are exiting the housing in the form of LIGHT. (Note that these numbers are approximate). That means 80% of the energy is being wasted in heat.

The heat component is what you are worried about, right?

Well, HID lights are more efficacious (no, it is not 'efficiency', it is 'efficacy', look it up). Let's assume that 60% of the energy put into the HID lights comes out as heat since they are more efficacious. Well that works to our advantage, now we have 33 watts of HEAT, and 22 watts of LIGHT. So even though there are fewer total watts, there is more light coming out of the fixture, and LESS heat.

So theoretically, if you have an offroad light fixture built for 100 watt halogen lights, you could put more than 100 watts of HID lighting in the fixture and not worry about overheating it. Unfortunately, that would put out excessive amounts of light, and no one seems to mass produce such a thing. 55 watt HIDs on the other hand will put out less heat, and are guaranteed to not be a problem.




IN SHORT: Yes, go for it, enjoy the light, and don't worry about the heat!


Dave

 

Thank you Dave!!!,

being an engineer (student), that is exactly the kind of technical answer i was looking for.

and i will surely enjoy the light. i've already done the heads, so i'm going to do the fogs (35w so i don't kill people day to day), and all three pairs of off road lights with 55w. i have a feeling night wheeling isn't going to be very dark anymore

thanks again for the help

 

just wanted to bump for the morning crowd. Dave pretty much gave me all of the info I needed, so now i'm just wondering how anyone whith a setup like this likes it.

really i'm just killing a little time before i drop $170 on bulbs and ballasts

 

im just waiting on my hid's to come in. i got my lights yesterday. so if you wanted to wait i can tell ya how it goes. god knows how long it will take to get here tho. it has been forever and hasnt shipped yet. im pissed at DDM

 

I did this to my hella 500's and it was totaly worth it. I got my HID's from DDMtuning for like 40 or 50 bucks.

 

yeah, that's who i got my head lights through...that was before all of the backorder crap, so i got them 6 days after ordering. i have a feeling it's going to take much longer now when i order a set of h10s for the fogs, and 3 sets of h3s for the aux lights. i checked out their homepoage though and they said they are getting in a huge shipment in the next couple days. what setup did you order? i'm wondering which brand (if not all makes) are the ones or backorder. how long have you been waiting?

 

thanks keason, i'm going through ddm. i've been very pleased with their kit in my head lights. i wouldn't be able to do a complete hid overhaul if they didn't have such good prices.

oh and are those 35w or 55w? either way i figure they're gonna be bright as f#$%

 

I bought two Hella 700FF lights and a DDM kit 6000K 55 watt. It's not too much heat, and they're really bright. As for shipping from DDM, I ordered that kit earlier this month and it took 21 days from submitting the order to receiving them. Much better than buying actual HID off road lights. Better to just do this work for yourself.

 

Mine were 55 watt slim ballast.

 

I've been putting off this mod for some reason. Excited to see how this turns out. Maybe once my research gets funded I will be making a DDM order.

 

i couldn't agree more. no need to pay more for essentially the same thing. i guess the only advantage to buying lights that come with HIDs is that the ballast and ignighter are built into the housing of the light...but hey, we have trucks with plenty of extra space to mount ballasts...so why not save some $$$

thanks for the response!

 

i got the 55w 5000k kit and it has a slight blue tint. I wouldnt go 6k, i think that would have too much blue for an off road light

 

good to know. i have 6000k 35w in my headlights and they have a blue tint. i was thinking that the 6000k 55w would be washed out and more white, but your first hand knowlege says otherwise. thanks, i'll go with the 5000ks. middle of nowhere nighttime trail runs in florida call for as much light as you can get

 

All I can say is that they are bright as F**k and that doesnt do justice. Once you do the conversion you will understand what I mean

 

Good to hear because I have two kits coming in sometime and going to convert the new to me KCs I have. Two flood and two pencil beam. I have a feeling those pencil beams are going to be a bright SOB.

 

you have no idea how much i can't wait to get everythign set up. i'm doing the the two sets of aux. lights in my sig plus a third set that i put behind the satoshi (just did that over the weekend) all 55w. not to mention the heads are already done and a 35w kit is going in the fogs.....I'm looking forward to driving the sun on a daily basis

but damn, i'm putting the owner of DDMs kids through college.


BTW, for anyone waiting on DDM becasue of backorders, i talkied to them on the phone on my lunch break earlier....the guy I spoke with said they are getting 7000 kits in this afternoon. they have 2000 orders on backorder...so anyone waiting should have their kits sent out soon, and there will be plenty in stock for those of you ordering in the future.

 

order just went into DDM

one set 35W H10 5000k for the factory fogs (didn't want too much yellow with the 4500s)

3 sets of 55W H3 5000k for all 6 off road lights.

I was thinking, "wow, I can't believe i just spent $170 on lightbulbs".....but then i remembered that these things have a lifetime warranty, and that most kits go for about twice that much without the warranty.... needless to say, i have that "kid waiting for christmas" feeling again

i'll throw some pictures up when they come in

 

I even cant imagine how much light your truck is gonna put out

 

i ordered a 55W h3 6000k on may 10th, then a week later i called to see what was up and found out i owed money for shipping but nobody contacted me

thats good news. thanks

funny how i get more info on my order status from the members here on TW than DDM themselves