Changing to Hid conversion on Pro Comp Fogs?

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SOLISIMO

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We will be making a trip up North to my buddys house in the Carolina's and its in the back country. I have the 7" pro comps on my rack and was wondering is it possible to convert them to HID. How is this in terms to changing headlights to HIDS, will it give me better visibility off road or not? Not worried about glare since its gonna be offroad. Just want more light.
 

Thermo

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Solisimo, the question you need to answer is where will you mount the ballasts for the HIDs. I'm not sure how much room you may have inside of the lights themselves, but you need to find a spot that is roughly 3x3x1" in size to place the ballasts. Keep in mind that you have to keep the ballasts within about 18" of the light bulb itself, so, that may limit your options.

As for the HIDs, if you are after maximum light, then you definitely want the 4300K bulbs. They are the brightest of all the HID colors for a given wattage. As for wattage, I would tell you to go with 50W HID setups mainly due to the availability of these setups. There are a few 80W HID kits out there, but they are harder to find and generally are at top dollar prices. Also keep in mind that if you go with the 80W HID bulbs, they will each need their own 30A relay due to the starting surge (around 40 amps for each bulb). Once the bulb is up and running, then the running current will be down around 8-10 amps. But that starting surge is big and can damage relays and whatnot. Atleast with the 50W bulbs, you can pair up the lights and run them off of a 40 amp relay (so only 2 relays would be needed).

As for light, the 50W HID bulbs are going to output about 4 times the light of a 55W halogen bulb. So, when it comes to light, you will have plenty with the 50W bulbs. The Pro Comp housings as I recall (double check me on this) are rated for up to a 100 W halogen bulb, so, the housing will handle the heat from either the 50W or 80W HID bulb. As for mounting the bulb itself, this is where you need to know the bulb style (normally an H1 style), then all you do is find an HID kit that has a bulb in it that matches the H1 style. Then it is a plug and play setup.

Like I mentioned, if you have more questions, I will attempt to give you the answers that you are after.
 

GAINMOB

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from my use of HIDs...i felt the gave me greater visibilty....EASILY!!! i ran 6k...i was so happy with output that i wont do anything but HIDs...have a set already to put on wife's car heads/fogs...
 
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SOLISIMO

SOLISIMO

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Solisimo, the question you need to answer is where will you mount the ballasts for the HIDs. I'm not sure how much room you may have inside of the lights themselves, but you need to find a spot that is roughly 3x3x1" in size to place the ballasts. Keep in mind that you have to keep the ballasts within about 18" of the light bulb itself, so, that may limit your options.

As for the HIDs, if you are after maximum light, then you definitely want the 4300K bulbs. They are the brightest of all the HID colors for a given wattage. As for wattage, I would tell you to go with 50W HID setups mainly due to the availability of these setups. There are a few 80W HID kits out there, but they are harder to find and generally are at top dollar prices. Also keep in mind that if you go with the 80W HID bulbs, they will each need their own 30A relay due to the starting surge (around 40 amps for each bulb). Once the bulb is up and running, then the running current will be down around 8-10 amps. But that starting surge is big and can damage relays and whatnot. Atleast with the 50W bulbs, you can pair up the lights and run them off of a 40 amp relay (so only 2 relays would be needed).

As for light, the 50W HID bulbs are going to output about 4 times the light of a 55W halogen bulb. So, when it comes to light, you will have plenty with the 50W bulbs. The Pro Comp housings as I recall (double check me on this) are rated for up to a 100 W halogen bulb, so, the housing will handle the heat from either the 50W or 80W HID bulb. As for mounting the bulb itself, this is where you need to know the bulb style (normally an H1 style), then all you do is find an HID kit that has a bulb in it that matches the H1 style. Then it is a plug and play setup.

Like I mentioned, if you have more questions, I will attempt to give you the answers that you are after.

Thermo, do the kits have to be 80watts or just the bulbs?
 

walnuts4x4

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look up retro shops thread.. he has a full detail pics showing how he changed his on a set of Hellas
 

panda24619

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use the f150online one. its a very good write up. but just dont leave them on the ground in the garage cause you will hear CRUNCH! haha i think you need H3 bulbs. but dont quote me on that. i do know that my hellas and KCs need H3 bulbs though.
 

Thermo

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solismo, think of the ballasts and bulbs as a matched pair. What I mean by this is that if you have an 80W bulb, you need 80W ballasts. If you start mixing and matching, hard to say what can happen. With that being said, any 80W bulb will work with any 80W ballast unless the manufacturer has done something silly. So, you are not stuck with say 4300K bulbs once you buy the kit. If you want to later upgrade to say 8000K bulbs, that is just a matter of buying new bulbs, as long as they are the same wattage as the ballasts.

The big thing to keep in mind is that if you want maximum light, you need to get the correct style HID bulb. Where they differ is in the focal point of the bulb. If the focal point of the bulb and the focal point of the light reflector are not in the same spot, you will find that you will get very weak light transmission as the light is being tossed everywhere but where the reflector is trying to put it. You should be able to either look up the lights you have or simply pull a bulb out and look on the bulb to get the correct style light bulb.
 
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