Small ballast HID

[tallman]

So a recent post wrt small ballast HID addition got me looking.

 

Anyone have experiences good/bad with the new generation of teeny ballasts?

 

Advantages/dis compared to previous?

 

Do they work as well/better?

 

heat issues and 35W compared to 55W?

 

Anything else?

 

TIA

[Matt, Kazoo]

go here: kbcarstuff.com

Let me know if you decide on their product. I had a slight modification I had to make for my 1100RT. I am very happy with the product so far. Much higher quality than most other brands.

[racer7]

I use a 1off kit that had smaller ballasts than are in my cars, for example, Works fine but is one of the ones before they started having issues and went out of business.

 

Re 55W- not one of lifes great ideas. Uses same bulb of course so life gets shortened but more to the point, it puts out only 20% more lumens while eating a good deal more power, That extra percent isn't enough to do a lot for range but will make you bike more of a glare nuisance, though I doubt even a 55W HID would be as bad as some of the current LED types...

[Camhead in STL]

Anyone have experiences good/bad with the new generation of teeny ballasts?

I'm using the DDM Tuning small-ballast 55W units. Nice an compact, trivial install. Cheap.

heat issues and 35W compared to 55W?

Nothing noted on my 2011 R1200RT with two 55W units... really bright.

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

Found a 35W CANBUS compliant H7 set on ebay, small ballast. Had to put a ferrite choke on the downstream lines to cut interference to the bluetooth headset. I only use this as a high beam.

No performance issues otherwise.

 

[tallman]

Can you compare the output you get to the stock set up?

Are you saying the 35W is comparable to the High beam stock?

What is the bulb, 3500, 4000, 6000?

35W for hi beam?

I was thinking 55W and for the low beam.

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

Tim

I think it's better than stock but it does seem to have a hot spot dead center in the pattern...which ain't bad. I also added some flood LEDs at the same time so I didn't make an apples/apples change. Keep in mind this is on a R12RT whose headlamp system is already several generations improved over the R11RT to which I'm somewhat skewed against.

I used a 35W setup. I still have one more in case I want to convert one of the low beams later.

I always have picked a 3xxx degree temperature lamp for HID. Less conspicuous and I see the illumination better. Higher temperature = more toward purple/blue.

 

If you do a low beam, try to get either a really good mental picture or some photos of the beam pattern on a wall at a couple of distances. Then do the change and compare. That will be an opportunity to see if it is too far off of the focus point. Some of the patterns change and some don't. I think most of the change we usually see is that the pattern is retained (largely) but filled in more.

 

[eddd]

What bike are you thinking of using it on?

 

I installed one on my R1100RT and the improvement was remarkable, but not without some issues. I used a bi-xeon bulb which uses an electromagnet to move the bulb for high beam. The problem I encountered was that when the low beam was at its best setting the high was too high, and when the high was at its best setting the low was too low.

 

The low was so much better that I chose to use only the low and use a pair of Hellas as my high beams. The combination was very good.

 

I've read the 55W does not give enough addition light to be noticed, and the 55W ballasts do not last as long.

[flars]

I have 35W 4xxx bulbs in my 1100RS and 1150 RT. I don't think the 55W is necessary, and would probably be too much light. These things do reflect off of speed limit signs etc - I don't think it is 'scatter' - it is just a whole lot of light.

On the RS with a single reflector and bi-xenon, the HID got rid of the need for additional lighting. I had 55W Hella FF50s on it just above the cylinders, and replaced them with an led spot and an led flood, which I use for lighting up bonuses at night on rallies (I have a euro switch so I can turn the head light off). The bi-xenon has worked well for about 40000 miles. Never been flashed by oncoming traffic, and I never feel I need more light (except on the Dragon at midnight). The high beam really reaches out when I feel the need.

On the 1150 RT the HID isn't nearly as nice because the reflector surrounds the high beam, and you lose the good strong center portion of the light.

 

[racer7]

Some basics

OEM type HIDs use 4100-4300K colr temp bulbs. Anything over 5000 looks distinctly bluish to purple as color tep increases. Colr temp has no bearing on light output direclty but higher color temp bulbs typically put out a little less light. Higher temps reflect more off haze and fog and create more glare off street signs also.

 

A 35W HID nominal output is 3200 lumens and 3800 lumens for a 55W. However, useful range will not go up proportionately due to the physics of light- it only goes up a few percent. But glare to oncmoing traffic will go up proportionately.

 

Don't know how well HIDs work in the older K-GT- haven't tried it- but its probably worth a try for the low beam. A stock 55W halogen of any type is typically 1400-1500 lumens, a good deal less than an HID. Heat won't be an issue but UV output of HID bulbs could be- another reason not to start with 55W. Some housings and coatings are UV sensitive and can discolor or have finishes damaged.

 

I've got a wedge K-GT that's a conversion candidate this year. My RT uses a pair of 35W for its two low beams but the high beam remains halogen. HIDs are not well adapted to frequent dimming, soething you would surely ned to do in FL.

[Fubar]

I'm using 35W, small ballast, HIDs for my low beams. Soooooo much better than the stock bulbs. Longer range, better light. And, the lower wattage let me add 24W fogs for conspicuity without even thinking about it. Interference could be an issue (I have it with my stereo on the distant stations) so be prepared.

Skip using HIDs for the high beam. With the warm up time, even a second or two is too long if all you do is use them for a block or two or to "flash-to-pass". Hell, the high beam is nearly worthless to me now, it just shines on tree limbs, not any farther down the road though in town it does get peoples attention through additional lumens.

[GoldenK9]

Below is a post I did in February. Unfortunately, 1Off Motorsports had to discontinue the HID Kits because they could not get the quality ballasts they had been using, any longer. I still love mine on my R1200RT and my '08 Honda CR-V. I CAN SEE DOWN THE ROAD! I am running all 3 of my H-7 bulbs in 6000K (35W) versions and no problems whatsoever, once you get them dialed in, and that's not difficult. KennyJ

 

I just recently replaced all 3 of my H7 PIAA Extreme Super White bulbs on my '05 R1200RT with a complete set of HID bulbs and their mini-transformers.

I purchased them from 1 Off Motorsports via a search on Bing. I have to say that Spence Tibbs, the older brother of the owner, was one of the nicest people on Earth to deal with, besides being very helpful in his role at customer service. Very simple install, unless you're as picky as I am about wire routing, etc., and [/b]OMG!what a difference they make. I really don't have to run around with my brights on anymore. I CAN BE SEEN. All parts

included are first class and carry a lifetime warranty. Now, I going to convert my CR-V to HID. You can find them at www.1offmotorsports.com . The pricing was very good, also.

[RandyShields]

Tim, there is some traffic on the K1600 Board about riders that have mounted the Trail Tech Eclipse HID's. Generally positive comments and some testing with photos if you want to check it out.

 

Randy

[Dave Wood]

I use a 1off kit that had smaller ballasts than are in my cars, for example, Works fine but is one of the ones before they started having issues and went out of business.

 

 

1Off closed it's doors primary because they got a bit press coverage in the BMWMOA rag which brought the HID business to the attention of DOT/US customs. They ran out of money running into a "few" major roadblocks trying to get the ballast's through US. Customs.

 

1Off was located a couple of doors down from my office in San Diego. Nice products but a case of getting noticed by the wrong folks.

 

 

 

[racer7]

The TrailTech HIDs are infamously bad quality- folks posting about them should get caught up on history.

They've had at least two versions of the ballasts and 3 different constructions of the lamp trying to get them reliable. They cannot be made reliable and put out poor light anyway for a 30W HID- though if all else you've ever seen are the obsolete PIAA 1100s, you'd probably think they're OK. Spare bulbs are $75 each and lifespan is less than a normal halogen on most bikes, the reflectors are not fully sealed and will collect water if you use them in the wet without the silicon covers that cut output, etc, etc.

After a couple years of futzing with them I gave them away and replaced them with 10W LEDs which actually put more light on the road despite being rated at only about half the alleged output of the TrailTechs. They do have a good warranty and OK service but the design is a hopeless screwup not worth 1/3 of what PIAA or others want for it...

You can find historic threads about their problems on advrider and probably elsewhere.

[Fubar]

For whatever its worth, Consumer Reports (Jan. 2013 issue) showed a comparison of halogen bulbs. With PIAA it seems what you get for the price is less money in your wallet. They are no better than much, much cheaper bulbs.

 

A partial quote from consumerreports.org: "We tested the low-beam performance of single-filament (9003) and dual-filament (H7) bulbs from GE, Hella, Philips, and Sylvania, and PIAA’s dual-filament bulb. We also compared their performance with that of two standard bulbs from GE and Helio, costing $20 and $10, respectively, and to the (OE) bulbs."

"...premium bulbs, as a group, deliver a whiter light and up to 19 percent more output than the standard or OE bulbs, and that can be more pleasing for drivers. But none of the premium bulbs allowed us to see farther on our headlight test course than the standard or OE bulbs."

It went on to state that reflector size & shape matter way more than the bulb.

 

The PIAAs were $80, the Philips bulbs $20. All the rest were from $25-40.