what is the best replacement light bulb?

[**sj**]

Why pay $50 or even $30 for regular halogens when you can get HID's with warranty for $70?? They are plug and play. The set I got has a 14 month warranty. Some sellers are now offering 2 year warranties!

This is the kit that I have, but mine came with a warranty. If you look, you can find kits with warranties. Check the price....can't beat it. This kit is currently at $50 with shipping included.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HID-XENO ... enameZWDVW

I believe that sleds use H4 bulbs. Go with 6000K. That is the whitest light. Any higher and you get too much blue, which makes things look weird and distorted. I've seen 8000k and it isn't nearly as bright. Hope this helps!

How bout you post a pic of your sled with the hid's on?

 

[BA APEX]

i am going to the ultras(running regular silerstars now) just to see if they are that much better. I would think about the HID if they are proven to be better, i thought that they were much more expensive though. the split between High/low is terrible, I am thinking of adjusting them to just running high beam for normal and low for oncoming traffic. the washer trick will be tested fist though.

 

[Blue Dave]

Wisconsin,

Did you put an HID kit in your sled or just in your truck? The low beam only option sounds fine with a four lamp system like your truck probably has since the low beam bulbs and high beam bulbs are completely separate.

However I am wondering how a single beam kit would work with a two lamp system like in our sleds. If the HID bulb only has one filament would it be wired to only the low or high beam circuit and what would happen when you select the other circuit?

 

[Wisconsin]

I haven't put them in my sled yet, but plan on doing so. The truck only has a one bulb system. No separate bulbs for high beams. I have no high beams anymore in my truck. If I click over to high beams, the lights shut off. I have no need for high beams. The HID's are brighter than my high beams were anyways. The aim has not changed, either. That means that they are still aimed where the low beams were aimed....however, they are so much brighter that it doesn't matter how they are aimed. They come on automatically as low beams (auto sensing lights). I can easily remove the llights and go back to stock as well. You could buy a set for your sleds and transfer them to new sleds or even different vehicles (need a battery to ignite ballasts, though). I had a firecat and couldn't do HID's because the cat used AC and it wasn't clean power anyways. P.S. I did the fog lights first and had eurodezigns bulbs in the truck (both headlamps and fog lights before this). With just the blue xenon halogen eurodezigns bulbs and the HID's in the fog lamps it was a night and day difference between the two. The HID fog lamps were WAY WAY brighter than even my aftermarket halogen headlamps. The fog lamps alone lit up overhead reflective signs on the interstate way ahead of me and even other cars ahead of me. Let's put it this way.....if I had to put up with looking at an oncoming sled that was very bright instead of worrying whether or not they could even see me or animals or trenches on the trail, I would deal with it every time. Don't stare at oncoming sleds, look at the edge of the trail and give them as much room as possible. If we all do that and go slow when passing other sleds, we will be alright.....and much safer 95% of the time when we are not passing oncoming traffic. I have put eurodezigns bulbs in all of my sleds so far and they have always helped the sleds riding ahead of me as well because of the increased brightness. However, this is my first sled with electric start, so I plan on going the HID route. The brightness isn't even comparable to halogen lighting. If you were really worried about blinding oncoming traffic....only put in one HID bulb and ballast....maybe you could wire it to the high beam somehow and when you encounter oncoming traffic, you could click off of high beams and have one low beam halogen light shining?? They do make bi-xenon kits.....they just cost more and I haven't read many reviews on them. Some say that they are gimmicky and just have more parts to break.

 

[Blue Dave]

Wisconsin,

I looked at this guys E-bay store and found the bi-xenon kit that replaces both of the 9003 H4 bulbs. The kit is $80 and it looks like there is a lot more to it than the single beam kits. I sent this guy an e-mail with questions and received a permanent delivery failure.

I know that other TY members have installed much more expensive HID kits with good results. I however am somewhat skeptical of such an inexpensive kit for use in an extreme application like a sled.

I really like my Silverstar Ultras and probably would not go to HID unless someone else actually tried these economically priced kits and reported good results over an entire season.

 

[Wisconsin]

Well, I use them in my truck.....that I drive in winter....that I put a lot more miles on than my sled....the ballasts also work under water. I have seen them lit up with the ballast in a bucket of water before on a video on youtube. The connections are all rubber gasketed. The bulbs are the same as any other HID bulb or halogen bulb....durability shouldn't be a problem. I have driven off road plenty with my truck and have no problems with them. It's up to you guys, but they work fine for me and they have a warranty if they fail...how can you lose? I am not selling them, I just use them. All I know is that I'll see you before you see me!

P.S. My girlfriend drives an '02 Acura CL Type S that has factory HID's. My lights are much brighter than hers. I won't replace the bulbs with aftermarkets until one burns out, though as they are still much brighter than halogens. Just another point of view.

P.P.S My question is this.....what makes the silverstars or silverstar ultras so much better than all of the other brands of aftermarket bulbs? I used a eurodezign bulb that I got for $7.50 (pair $15 shipped) in my '95 XCR 600 and my friend bought pair of silverstars and put one in his sled (indy 500). They were the same brightness, but he paid $30 for the set. They are all made with approx. the same parts and they either use other gasses from the periodic table or they dont. They either tint the glass or they dont. When it comes down to it, halogens are all about wattage once they get past the cheapo factory crap. They also make 50 watt HID kits instead of the standard 35 watters, but they are about $200 a set on ebay the last time I checked... more food for thought.

 

[Blue Dave]

Wisconsin,

If you put a set in your Apex this season let us all know how they worked out!

 

[Wisconsin]

Yes, blue dave, I will definitely do so. I also edited my post to add some stuff. Check it out. I really want to get some other stuff done first, though. Check my sig. My firecat f7 was very modified and I am sure that this sled will be slower, so I want to get the most out of it without spending big bucks first. I also want to do the complicated stuff before it starts to get cold. The HID's only take a little while to hook up. The toughest part is finding a place for the ballasts and mounting them. The slim ballasts are highly recommended. They only cost $10 more when I checked online the other day. I am looking at putting them on my motorcycle as well, but even slim ballasts are tough to hide on some sport bikes. I already have eurodezigns bulbs in that.