converting kc daylighters to hid's

[Plavin1991]

okay s ive been looking at getting kc daylights for my expy i plan on getting 6 of them this friday coming up but in a couple of weeks i would like to convert them to hids i seen someone on a jeep forum post up this below... i was jus wondering if anyone else has done it here

"Just did an HID swap on my Daylighters, figured I'd google to see if anyone else had done it. I have the pencil beam 6" Daylighters and I converted them to use premium 75w Xenon lights. The ballasts do need to be in the open for cooling however; I suppose someone could fab a bracket to hold them behind the lightbar. Granted, it's not a Jeep, but the idea is the same. I've used 35 and 55w HID kits before with good results but nothing like this.

Pics were taken in the daylight @ 60':

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[Thermo]

Plavin, I have not done this myself, but thinking about what it would take, the big thing will be how you turn them on. Hopefully you are turning on the HIDs a pair at a time, if not one at a time. The reason why I say this is that each of those bulbs are going to have about a 40 amp surge when they start. So, if you turn on all 6 at the same time, that is roughly 240 amps that the bulbs are going to need for a few seconds. While the electrical system will hack it, it is going to be hell on the HIDs and lead to rapid ballast failure. HIDs need as much voltage as possible and tossing a load like that on, you can easily drop your system voltage down to around 10 volts (way less than the HIDs require to function properly).

Also keep in mind that due to each of them dropping about 40 amps at the start, you should wire up each light housing on its own relay. Not to mention that you are going to need to run at a minimum 14 gauge wire between the relay and the ballast with a main power wire of atleast 6 gauge (more around 2 gauge if you do plan on turning them all on at the same time). As you can see, we are talking some pretty hefty wiring here. They will work with lighter wire, but you will experience failures in the near future too.

if you want more info, let me know. I have contemplated upping the high beams on my Jag to the 50W HIDs. I just haven't seen a strong need to do this as 1) the high beams are plenty bright as it is, and 2) I don't use the high beams all that often anyways.

 

[Plavin1991]

Sounds like a huge pain in the rear prob gonna b awhile before i even attempt.. And if and when i do i will make sure u are the man i call on for some help... Lol thanks for the info bro.. Also would u happen to know if theres a thread for a diy install on the daylighters?

 

[Thermo]

Plavin, go to google and do a search on "converting KC daylighters to HID" and you will get tons of websites that will have dos and don'ts for the conversion. The big things I see are 1) you will more than likely need to by extension cables to allow remote mounting of the ballasts, and 2) you can not use the KC Slim Lites, you will have to use a bigger housing due to the length of the H1 HID bulb that fits inside of the KC lights.

 

[panda24619]

H3 bulbs are smaller and work just as good. i want to do this one day, but might have to do it to my dads jeep first. its really simple to do. tons of info online on how to do it. and i agree. if you turn your lights on turn them on a pair at a time. turn on, then wait till they are "warmed up" then next pair and so on.

 

[Plavin1991]

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[tallsville]

here is a link on how someone did an hid conversion on offroad lights

Pro Comp Off Road Lights: HID Conversion. - F150online Forums

and hear is how someone else connected them to his fog switch

Installed Lights behind Grill - F150online Forums