Help modding light for a friend....

Hey all, I'm a little out of my LED comfort zone here (own two HIDs, but never modded one) so please bear with me! A friend showed me this "Jeep" brand light (seems to be a rebranded Thor?) last night. He asks my favorite question..."Hey, can you make this brighter?" Fortunatly the answer is almost always YES!! Now here's the kicker...I have no idea what I'm doing in a big light like this. I've shown the battery, bulb and reflector/lamp as well as I could with an Iphone. What are my options for EASY mods that an idiot could do (did I mention easy?) that will give substantial improvements in performance. Runtime is not an issue, start up times are not an issue (if going to HID), prefer a strong spot to gaining any flood. Will it be required to replace that battery? It seems to take a charge and functions, but it wasn't that impressive (significantly less impressive than a Varapower VP2000, but maybe it's because for the size, I just imagine this thing should melt holes in the moon). Don't want to spend a fortune, but am open to all options up to say 300-400 bucks. As long as it's easy. Oh, and it has to be easy to do. Easily. By an idiot. As a side-note to me being an idiot, links to EXACTLY the parts I'd need would be helpful! I apologize for the block of text, as for some reason, my return key does not seem to be working. Oh, and I should add that my friend DOES have battery recharging capabilities and experience fromt he RC world, has a hobby charger, should batteries need to be swapped.

Nobody has any suggestions? I was sure some of our resident big-gun experts would have some easy upgrades to recommend...

Part of the issue for me is that you make it sound as though you have zero skills and there are some skills required to mod in an HID kit. You need to be able to secure the ballast inside, do some wiring, match the bulb base to order the right kit and then shim the bulb when done to get the best focus. Google, "Fast Bright ballast". That is the one I'd use because it is almost instant full brightness, not the 10-15 seconds warm-up time ballast that is common. But there are not many sources and on some, it is not clear on how to order one. I'd go with the 55 Watt power level slim ballast and a 5000K color temp lamp. The other variable here is that the HID bulb arc chamber needs to be in the same relative position as is the halogen lamp filament - relative to the front face of the bulb base. Otherwise, you will most likely not be able to achieve good focus. Once you have the parts, its fairly simple to do what I described before. You can always ask for help once you have the parts and have it opened.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?337512-100-Watt-HID-Mod-8000-Lumens-(estimated)

Something along these lines might help

Thanks BVH! Sorry, I have some skills, just never worked in the HID/spotlight world, and was nervous that I'd get great recommendations that were beyond my abilities. What you've described sounds like it's within my skills. The only parts that give me a little pause are matching the bulb base (I have no experience with this, is there a photo that could show me the different types?) and shimming the bulb. I understand moving focal points inside a reflector to get the best focus, but what does one use for a shim with an HID bulb?
Once I have a grasp of what kind of bulb base I have, I'll order the Fast Bright (you're right, ordering is a little iffy!) 55W 5,000 degree.

Do you mind if I open her up and take a pic of the bulb base to ask for advice? Many thanks.

SL1

BVH said:

Part of the issue for me is that you make it sound as though you have zero skills and there are some skills required to mod in an HID kit. You need to be able to secure the ballast inside, do some wiring, match the bulb base to order the right kit and then shim the bulb when done to get the best focus. Google, "Fast Bright ballast". That is the one I'd use because it is almost instant full brightness, not the 10-15 seconds warm-up time ballast that is common. But there are not many sources and on some, it is not clear on how to order one. I'd go with the 55 Watt power level slim ballast and a 5000K color temp lamp. The other variable here is that the HID bulb arc chamber needs to be in the same relative position as is the halogen lamp filament - relative to the front face of the bulb base. Otherwise, you will most likely not be able to achieve good focus. Once you have the parts, its fairly simple to do what I described before. You can always ask for help once you have the parts and have it opened.

Click to expand...

At the top of the thread I linked, there is another link with a parts list and how to for a very similar light as well in case you didn't see it.

I hadn't seen that, thank you!! THat build might be a bit more than I want to try for my first HID build, but I appreciate it! I think I'll give the 55W build a shot, sticking to the original battery for now, and see how it goes. WIsh me luck!

I'd like to give credit for this site but I can't remember who provided it to me.

H Base pictoral guide: http://www.light5light.com/USERIMAGES/GLOBE REPLACEMENT HILOWDEF(2).JPG

Absolutely open it up and snap some shots and post.

Lol, OK, first problem is that I can not get the damned thing open for the life of me! Will try again later...

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