Modding a marine spotlight

[tjl5709]

OK guys, I've lurked around here for awhile, having found this site while looking for info on LED bike lights.

I've got a Guest Beamer spotlight on my boat. It runs an H4 halogen bulb. It came with a 55/55w bulb, but I changed it to a 80/100. It does ok on high (spot) but is terrible on flood (low). Could be poor reflector design, I don't know enough.

Heres the question. Has anyone tried one of the HIDs adapted to the H4 mount? Having observed how much more output you can get with HID for a given amount of power, I thought it might provide a better beam of light for use on the lake.

I'm debating the Sams, CostCo, or X990 handheld HID's, but I prefer the fixed mount on the bow to trying to operate by hand.

Looking at the HID conversion packages, I would need to lengthen the wiring from the ballest to the light. This is because I would need to mount the ballest below the deck, and run the feed wires up thru the deck and the light assembly to the bulb. Would lengthening the wires cause issues? Since the HID bulbs are longer (from what I see) than a halogen, are there focusing issues?

 

[matrixshaman]

Welcome to CPF. No expert here on HID but I'll toss a couple things out there for you. I'm guessing it would focus differently. As far as wiring the length won't be a problem as long as you have a sufficiently large guage wire to make up for any current and voltage loss over a longer run and you use wire that can handle the voltage without creating any capacitive effects between adjacent runs of wire. In other words with the right wire - yes it can be done. The best thing would be to keep the ballast as close as possible to the light.

 

[tjl5709]

ttt

 

[XeRay]

Looking at the HID conversion packages, I would need to lengthen the wiring from the ballest to the light. This is because I would need to mount the ballest below the deck, and run the feed wires up thru the deck and the light assembly to the bulb. Would lengthening the wires cause issues? Since the HID bulbs are longer (from what I see) than a halogen, are there focusing issues?

1 meter cable length is about the max for the high voltage cable. This is for ballasts with internal igniter and HV output cables which look kind of like spark plug cables. 20-30KV is not uncommon through that cable durring start-up.