HID conversion for Hella 500ff

[Begster]

Ya, I will have to agree. I had originally saw Tony's website, and thought it looked like a quality kit, then I got in touch with him, after hearing XCM and Grimm tell me good things about him. I started talking with Tony, and he was great to deal with, and very helpful. He was more than happy to help me out. I purchased one of his kits, and know I'll be happy with it.

It is well worth paying the money for the kit knowing who I'm dealing with, exactly what I'm getting, and the reputation of the seller and his quality service. I'm more willing to trust the recommendations of people on here, who know what they are talking about, and are just watching out for fellow Jeepers, than trust some E-bay feedback on an unknown seller. For all I know the person could just leave good feedback for a kit that doesn't actually work, or they don't know the difference. Buying stuff on e-bay is a crap shoot, and I want to make sure the product I'm buying will work.

 

[fyrfytr1717]

Can any of you guys tell me what the wiring requirements are for Tony's HID kits? I'm looking specifically for wiring gauge requirements as I'm trying to run my wiring ahead of time while I have my overhead console and A-pillar taken apart. I keep hearing they have a lower amp draw than halogens, but what size power and ground should I use for about an 8-12ft run? How much flexibilty is there in terms of extending the wiring harness so I can put the ballast inside the vehicle?

 

[GrimmJeeper]

you shouldnt need more than a 12g wire to run power to the HIDs themselves, but you want to have your in cab switches trigger a relay under the hood, and use small guage wire for that. dont run the power for the lights through your switch. i would 14 or 16g wire from the relay to your switch, and 12g from the battery, to the relay, then to the HID ballasts.

 

[fyrfytr1717]

12g will handle 300W or 50A for a 10ft run. Do the HID's require a lot of power at start-up or something? Shoot, I was only planning on using 14 guage for a pair of 100W halogens. Either I've misunderstood the power saving properties of HID lighting, or your suggestion for 12g is a little overkill.

I know bigger is always better in the wiring world, but I'm trying to figure out the minimum size required to provide sufficient power as I'm going to be running the wires up my A-pillar along with a bunch of other stuff and space is at a premium.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

yes 12g is overkill. they pull a lot of power at startup for the ballasts to fir the arc inside the bulb, then drop to around 3A to maintain the arc.

there is no reason to use anything over 16g to run to your switches. i know someone who uses 22g or smaller to wire all his in cab switches. you really need a relay under the hood, in-dash type switches aren't rated to handle a load like that constantly running through them. it sounds like you plan on running from the battery, to your switch, then to the lights. thats a good recipe for fire. all your high load wires should stay under the hood, and only the switched low voltage wires should be inside. for multiple switch panels inside, an old section of cat5 cable with the ends cut off makes a good wire to use. its double insulated and all grouped together and color coded so there is no confusion.

 

[fyrfytr1717]

OK, so it's the start up power that gets you. Wonder what the amp draw is when the ballasts fire...

As for the rest of the wiring, trust me, I've got that part covered. I've got 8 Carling switches mounted in the overhead. Lower lights are getting a dimmer signal feed, inputs and upper lights getting an ignition switched 12V input. This is all wired with 18g due to the extremely low draw of the bulbs in the switches. Outgoing is being fed via Cat5 cable (which is 24g by the way) to a relay/fuse box. The relay box will be fed with a 1g supply and from there each of the individual accessories will be wired based upon their amperage requirements and their distance from the relay box. So basically, I'm just trying to figure out what gauge of wire I need to run from the relay box, up the A-pillar, through the overhead console, and finally out to the roof top.

Since there's no electrical statistics on the BajaHID site (might want to consider that Tony), I looked at the ones on the eBay link earlier in the thread. They show a continuous current of 3.5A with an initial firing current of 8.5A. If this is pretty standard for HID ballasts, a 10ft wiring run would only need to be 18g. Don't think I'd go that small, but it looks like you could. Is there a flaw in my logic here?

 

[GrimmJeeper]

you've got it about right, and your numbers are dead on,i tend to overkill power wires and run the minimums for the switches. from your initial post it seemed like you were running full load hot into the cab, but i see now you obviously know what you are doing. ive been doing 12v wiring for a long time, and ive seen some very scray things.


good luck, you are on the right track. :cheers: