HID bulbs $99

[Jamie Aust]

Most bulbs I have seen are about $300. If you have a look at GoHid.com you will see they are only $99 each. You will also need the ballast at another $99. Get the Duckworks lense and bracket and your done.
Pitty they dont do KITS for RV's
This is for information only, so I hope that someone might find it handy.

[rzbill]

If one decides to source individual components rather than buy a "kit" from one of the light suppliers, you still need to get basically the same component types that are being supplied by the "kit" vendors such as duckworks or xevision.

I went to GoHID as suggested and only found D2 style bulbs.

So far, the recomendations for aviation use are to use D1 style bulbs that include starters internal to the bulb assembly. The D1 high voltage (read possible radio interferance) starters are enclosed in an faraday cage at the back of the bulb to reduce any interferance issues. The D2 bulbs use external starters and as a result present a fairly long lead with high voltage pulses leading from the ballast to the bulb.

To continue on the subject of rolling your own HID's, don't be fooled by the internet snake oil salesmen that promote HID conversions with halogen mounts to fit in your current halogen reflectors. The optical focal points are not right. Application of an HID in a Halogen reflector will not necessarily get you the light output you are looking for. It will be wasted in an unfocussed dispersion. Also , the bulbs provided are all hacked up D2 units with new bases glued on. There are only 2 reputable automotive HID bulb manufacturers. Osram Sylvania and Phillips. Neither makes HID bulbs to fit Halogen reflectors.

Lastly, you want a D1S bulb. The S indicates there is no paint mask (for low beam applications) on the quartz bulb surface. The D1R bulbs have the mask.

If somebody finds a cost effective spot beam reflector that fits a D1S bulb, let me know because the rest is certainly easy to obtain new from Osram at at about 1/3 of the advertised kit prices.

[RV_7A]

Check the bottom of this page for your needed reflectors that use D1S bulbs.

http://www.aerovisions.com/hid/hid_aircraft_kits.html

I am using Hella FF200 Driving Lights on mine. They too would be a very good choice reflector.

For everyone that really wanted Wig Wag HIDs....


http://www.aerovisions.com/hid/hid_pulsing.html

For mounting any of these, you would pretty much be on your own but thats a no brainer to fab similar to the Duck Works. Besides thats where I really enjoy to spend my time is R&D on non structural stuff.

-Jeff

[rzbill]

Originally Posted by RV_7A

Check the bottom of this page for your needed reflectors that use D1S bulbs.

http://www.aerovisions.com/hid/hid_aircraft_kits.html

Cool Jeff..
I think this might be a recent (a few months maybe) addition to the site, because I have been there many times and had not noticed the offer of bare reflectors. I had called a few other non aviation places unsuccessfully about reflectors, but had not gotten around to calling aerovisions yet.

The Osram Xenarc X1010 fog light kit can be had for 250 to 300 bucks from places like suvlights.com. This might sound like a mediocre deal until you realize there are TWO ballasts and TWO D1S bulbs. The reflector housings probably are useless for an airplane, so the aerovisions could be a big help.