> What the heck? Is this a joke?

Nah - no joke.
Was at the May or June winch challenge at Kandos, NSW and saw old mate running a night stage with real Lightforce HID's. I was blown away. Cost of HID kits back then was around $1000.00. Way too much for my liking. But these days you can get them from ebay for around $200 to $300.00. I saw one set go for $176.00 in Oct 05. Since they are that cheap, Had this dream about converting the blitz into HID's. So went and buggerised around and finally came up with an adapter to be able to these bulbs. So may as well try and chuck one into a LF 240. Did some research and some amercian dude by the name of sway did it back in Jan 2004. But his was a handheld blitz, not the driving light Blitz. So anyway, I pulled off my old 240's, and buggersied around with them for a bit. Pulled them apart. Pulled out old autocad and started drawing. And out came these adapters. Actually these are my second generation, since Ive since bought some HID bulbs that were different to that of the standard Halogen H3 bulb. So anyway, these adapters or 'bulb mounts' will fit all H3 HID bulbs that Ive come across into the original lightforce light mount. You can even put in a 130 watt halogen H3 bulb if you wanna do this. (No idea why but)


> Do you need to upgrade the wiring to these lights???


As far as I can tell there is no need to upgrade any wiring that already runs your 140/170 or 240 Blitz lights. Usually the 170 striker and 240 blitz are running 100 watt bulbs, (although the 140 are normally 55 I believe). The current draw on a single 100 watt bulb is around the 8.5 amp mark. Give or take an amp or two depending on length and size of the wiring. The normal standard everyday HID kits that you find on ebay are the 35 watt per globe jobbies. One of the bulb and ballast combination suck around 2.5 to 3 amps. So if the current wiring going to your Lightforce lights is adequate, then it will certainly be fine for the 35w HID kit. (Am hoping that makes sense).

>You state that there are more powerful versions like the
>55watt or 75 watt, yet you also state that these lights use
>70watts, how can these be more powerful?


I might have to re-read what I said in the descrition field. Sounds like I might have made a bit of a typo. If you do a search for 'HID kits' on ebay you will find quite a few blokes selling 35 watt bulb kits. Each kit contains two bulbs and two ballasts (the ballast is needed to fire and run the bulb). HID uses new technology (high frequency voltages through inert gas) which is nothing like the old electricity through a wire filament. Each bulb and ballast is 35 watts current draw verses, say, a single lightforce 240 blitz which has a power consumption of 100 watts. Put a pair of HID bulbs in and you then have 70 watts, verses two Blitzs which are 200 watts. Instant power savings and instantly a lot less load on the battery and alternator, and thus eventually (a few thousand night hours down the track) less fuel being consumed.

Because HID bulbs use this fancy new techo stuff, one bulb is around 3 times brighter than a standard 100watt bulb. They just put out that much more light. They are blindingly bright when you connect one up, hold it in your hand and you stupidly look at it. They also turn more energy into light rather producing heaps of heat. You shouldn't do it, but you can actually touch the end of the bulb when it is on. Yes it is bloody hot, but no where near the hundreds of degrees as that of a standard halogen bulb. So even though these suckers only use 35 watts of power each, they are way brighter than their halogen cousins.


> How much to the more powerful kits costs?


I'm not really selling the kits, however I can get them for peeps if they do not want to get them themselves. It would be far more cheaper for yourself to bid on one from ebay, however I can easily get one for you. A 50 watt HID kit will be around the $500.00 ballpark figure. I can not really tell you this straight away, however will if you want me to. You can always go to bitdistribution.com.au and ask John about his 50watt HID kits. I bought one about three months ago, and they are extremely bright.


> Does the higher output degrade the covers. Do you get the
> ballast as well???


Higher light output has no impact on the lens. It is just light. Maybe years down the track the extra UV coming out of the HID bulb may partially destroy the lens but I'm just yabbering on here about stuff that I don't know. I reckon the lens will be fine. They can handle the heat of a 100watt bulb fine... They should be able to handle a 35 watt bulb even better.


> How much to the HID globes cost?????


Again, I'm not really selling the globes, however I know that some places around are selling bulbs for anywhere around the au$150.00 upwards. Rather expensive.

When you buy a kit, ballasts will always be included --- unless the dude who is selling the kit is some rip off dude.


> What are those bulbs anyway? H2?


I started calling the halogen bulbs that Lightforce use in their range of lights as a H2, but without wings - the little bit of extra added steel to disappate a bit of heat. Real H2 bulbs are used in some range of Cibie lights, Hella Rallye 1000's and a few others. They are indeed a fairly rare bulb to use, since they just suck. Heat kills them. The bulbs that Lightforce use are called 'GY6.35', and are made by companies like OSRAM.

Basically your throwing away these, and putting in the more common H3 bulb, but as a HID bulb and not an old halogen.


> Why not use GY6.35 HID kits?

Find one and I'll buy it from you!
Yes, you can buy these bulbs in a range of HID style, but I have yet to find a complete kit. Heck, these bulbs even come in a 150 watt version!!


> How do you instal the bulbs and these adpaters?


Basically gotta purchase a HID kit (or I can supply them, though is typically cheaper if get them yourself). Need to drill the rear of the original lightforce mount to put the HID high-tension leads through. Mount the HID bulb into the adapter, pass the bulb leads thru the hole, mount the adapter into the LF mount and screw the lens back on. Re-mount the light on your bullbar/roof. Mount the HID ballasts close-by (they will of course not fit inside either the 140, 170 or 240 light). All of tuhe ballasts that I have seen are waterproof. Connect the leads up, test and use. Two options to close-in the hole in the rear of the mount. Black silicon the hole up, or in step (*) above, use a 25mm electrical cable gland, however this will add about 20 to 25mm of depth to the light so it may cause some mounting problems depending on how close the mounting holes are in the bullbar to that of the grille. I have yet to make this any nicer.


> How long does it take to modify the lights?


If your on a mission both lights can be done from go to *whoa* in 1/2 an hour. Probably closer to 45 minutes per light but. That includes the 2 minutes of ripping out the old "GY6.35" bulb (H2 bulb without wings), Drilling the hole inthe back, screwing the HID bulb to the adpater mount, inserting the adapter mount to the LF mount, mounting the lights back on your vehicle, mounting the ballasts and connecting the leads. If you dont have existing wiring and you gotta run new wiring then, of course, will take a little longer.


> Can I put the old halogens back in?

The HID stuff can be pulled out down the track, the original halogen bulb and adapter can be put back in, and the light is turned back to its original design - except for the hole that is now in the rear. Depending on if you used silicon, a 25mm cable gland or your own idea. One can't really utilise the original wires, since the HID bulb uses high tension wires (similiar design to that of spark plug leads). It will work, but dont expect it to work for very long. The outter rubber sheath will break down under the 20,000 volts fairly quickly and where the two wires are close together, they'll start shorting out and the bulb wont start firing. If the ballasts are of very cheap quality, they may actually end up blowing the output circuity. I've never cut and soldered any high tensions wiring -- and I advise strongly not to do it.


Just a quick recap:
What I am selling are just two adpaters to hold the HID bulb within the original lightforce mounting bracket. You will require to purchase or bid on a HID kit yourself. I can supply HID kits if you don’t have time to bid on ebay or purchase a HID kit from elsewhere. I can perform the entire conversion on your lights, or I can supply brand new lights with the conversion already done. However I'd require a deposit before starting either job. If your interested in either of these options please let me know.

Any other questions please don’t hesitate in asking. Email: djmaunder@rockdale.com.au




Created: Oct 2k5.
Last updated: 24/May/2k8.