Lightforce Blitz 240 HID Conversion build up thread.

[MattWhite Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MattWhite]

yep, I'm sold. Top work Mav.

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Mentioned before was the temperature difference between Hal and HID.
There is a reason they run cooler.

the thing with Halogen and more so with incandescent globes is that they produce alot of light we cannot as humans see. Like infra red, heat, ultra violet, a wide range of the light spectrum is produced.
HID's produce light using a much thinner range of the spectrum.
More in your white and blue light range. So by narrowing the spectrum of light to light that is actually visible to humans means that watts are not wasted.
Hence the lower watts and what appears to us as more light and a cooler light.


[Steps off pedestal to let normal programming continue.]

PS. they work well dont they.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

I have reshot the comparison photo on page 2 of this thread in order to make a fairer comparison. The HIDs still outperform the halogen/HID combo.

[bushy555 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close bushy555]

Hi All,

Bushy here. Paul kindly mentioned this forum and thought I'd just jump in.
Any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I *love* playing with this stuff.
I really only started doing this conversion stuff as a hobby... and it really is only a sideline hobby thing that i do to fill in time. I also really don't make a lot out of it, since I try to sell eveyrthing as cheaply as possible.
I got into doing this from watching a hilux with real Lightforce HID's back in May 2002 at Kandos, and thought about trying to modify my Blitz's.
Two years later at the end of 2004, I successfully chucked in a 50w kit into my Blitz's and one completely blew away two real Lightforce 35w HID's.
Since then I reckon I have forked out around close to $7,500 into HID stuff now --- both into kits, getting these adpaters cut (this is version 4), various XGT's and Blitzs to convert for custom orders and ... ebay fee's!

Have heaps of info and a coupla pics as well as some vids on my little dopey web site.
www.hid.isclever.com (Is a free web service so it might take a few shots at getting it to come up).

Temperature wise: a 130w halogen H3 bulb as used in IPF's run at around 590 to 600 degrees.
I can not get a 55 watt H3 metal halide (HID) bulb to put out any more than 135 degrees.

...so what I did, was to chuck seven HID bulbs into a Blitz light. Yep. Seven. And after around ten minutes it finally started to melt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlbAk9MEFno
Why? no idea. Bit of a funny joke to see what would happen....


As for placement of the ballasts, I have previously made up a few 750mm extension leads with the correct plug/sockets on them., so that the ballasts can be mounted further up inside the engine bay. I have finally found that Narva sell these individually and one of these days I may make up heaps more. I am sure that there is a half-decent market for these items.
After heaps of testing with them, I could not find any problems with the bulb from firing up with using these extension leads.
Im sure that there would be some point of length where the bulb fails to fire up - but what that is, I have no idea.

My setups:
Four 35w 6000k Blitz's on the front of my bullbar on my Patrol ute.
Two 35w 6000k IPF900's on my brumby and two 35w 6000k IPF800's on my Bushrangie which are utter rubbish. The 170 strikers or, heck, even old crappy 20 year old bull lights will easily outperform the rectangular IPF800's. (Big apologies in advance to those who own these lights and think that they are sweet... They are. But there is better out there.)

Enough already. I could go on but had better stop now. Otherwise I will get kicked.

Apologies also for being on a Prado forum, and not owning one.


Oops, forgot. To go better and brighter, Philips make a DL50 D2S bulb.
These bulbs put out 5300 lumens, where as normal chinese/korean/japanese 55w bulbs put out around the 4300 to 4500 lumens. These D2S bulbs can be used with any standard 55w ballast. THe problem? sourcing these bulbs. Last time I looked they were around the US$175.00 mark each.

/dave.
bushy555 at gmail.com / djmaunder at rockdale.com.au

[Grandeman Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Grandeman]

Hey there Dave

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the info.

I have heard that the Lightforce exhibit a really bright "halo" from behind the light - it is apparent from one of the photos on your site.

Does this create a problem when you're driving? What I'm trying to ask is whether it is as much of a distraction as it appears from the pics?

BTW, that lumen output figure is absolutely humongous!!!

[MattWhite Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close MattWhite]

I've seen similar reports Grandeman ages ago but I cant see the back of my lights on the soveriegn bar anyway.
Matt

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Hey there Dave

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the info.

I have heard that the Lightforce exhibit a really bright "halo" from behind the light - it is apparent from one of the photos on your site.

Does this create a problem when you're driving? What I'm trying to ask is whether it is as much of a distraction as it appears from the pics?

BTW, that lumen output figure is absolutely humongous!!!

I have not experienced this with my HID upgrade of the 240's.

[bushy555 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close bushy555]

I have heard that the Lightforce exhibit a really bright "halo" from behind the light - it is apparent from one of the photos on your site.

Does this create a problem when you're driving? What I'm trying to ask is whether it is as much of a distraction as it appears from the pics?

With covers on, yes it can. THe plastic clips that hold the lens on (whether it be spread or clear) can be lit up. I covered these with bits of black electrical tape years ago. Once they weathered off, I just grabbed some black paint and painted the clips on the covers.
Without the covers on, if you look hard enough then I guess there is a bit of a halo, but nothing to get concerned about. I've never really noticed.
I guess it also depends a bit on if the lights are mounted normally on your bar, or if your looking directly at them if they happen to be sitting on top of your bar (which can be illegal in some circumstances --- all depending on various things. Like if you get caught or not)



cheers
dave

[clifton Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close clifton]

Hi Pradogxlv6,

I Like that Mr Mod. keep up the good work

[samo Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close samo]

an I for an I hey matt :lol:

[bushy555 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close bushy555]

Welcome to the forum

ta.

If I buy a 55w 5000w kit from your ebay advert, are they relatively easy to install and get running on my 240XGT's ?

Yes. Dead set easy.

Also, considering you are a business, are you able to better the $198 price for this kit, for our many Prado driving forum members ?

I'm hardly what you'd call a business. I only do this as a hobby on the side, no my lounge room floor, to fill in time in my useless and boring life. I often go looking on eBay to see if anyone is selling their lives, but noone ever does.
I can possibly go $180, but bear in mind I'm making like $10.00 each then (depending on postage costs, which average around the $12), and it is hardly worth the effort. (How many peeps would be bothered to do this?)

The $198 is way too cheap for what they are. Remember that the real Lightforce 240 HID's 35w are $950.00 ish each, and their newer 50w HID's (at $1150 each) were taken off the market coz they kept blowing up. And then consider other dudes who do similar mods are asking upwards of $350.00 for a simple 35w kit, let alone looking at the newer brighter 55 watters. One bloke on ebay there is selling his 35w "XGT HID kit" which when you read the fine print doesn't fit XGT's goes for $400 -ish. Heh! I imagine Repco would sell these for around $500 plus...

so... there it is. In print. So now I'll have to agree to the above.


dave.





edit: I also want to go exploring the world of these newly released twin arc metal halide HID bulbs. Have two glass bulb bits side by side on the single bulb base, where two arcs are produced. Each individial bulb base will then have four wires coming from it, each pair going to a ballast. If these come in a 55w version, then, say for a single XGT's/Blitz you can have a 110w HID. Probably getting close to 7000 to 7500 lumens of light output.
Some dude in melbourne installs these for $1100 + fitting + freight + this + that, and would probably end up close to $1300 on to your supplied XGT's. Am also half considering looking into a pair of 240v 500w HID lights and running them from off my invertor. Depending on price, is kinda worth looking into for serious light. Dunno about durability... :wink:

[Guest Close Guest]

Sure your not mistaking the H4-4 twin HID bulbs? They have two glass tubes side by side.

One for low beam and one for hi beam.

Because of the different locations of the bulbs it denotes hi/lo. I would think in a spotlight it would create a massive throw off from the bulb position if both were illuminated at once.

[bushy555 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close bushy555]

Sure your not mistaking the H4-4 twin HID bulbs? They have two glass tubes side by side.

One for low beam and one for hi beam.

Yep, you are correct. Thanks. Looks like I was jumping the gun.
Wonder why some manufacturer doesn't make a twin tube HID bulb?
And why hasn't any manufacturer made a H2 HID bulb?
(Hella 1000 and 1/4 of all Cibie's use these bulbs)