I bought a new Gator Trax 1750HD two weeks ago and was very disappointed with the lights that came with it. They were extremely yellow and would barely light up anything more than 50 yards in front of me. So having put HID's in my truck over a year ago, and knowing how bright they were and how little current they used, I decided to try to put some on my boat. The problem is that I searched the whole web and in almost every place I looked, they wanted an average of almost $200 for each light (thanks to a member here I was able to find http://www.trifectaoffroad.com/Lighting/ that sells ONE round HID for about $110) and I didn't want to spend $400 on a set of lights.

So what I did is that I bought two Vision X VX-4410 lights that are HID upgradeable for $28 ea with free shipping and a Xentec 5000k Ultra Slim Ballast Kit with H3 bulbs from ebay for $40 shipped. The new ballasts are about the size of a D battery but be careful not to buy the older style slim ballasts because it has an igniter attached that will not fit in this lights housing. I do think the original square ballast might work but, since I didn't use one, I can't say they will.

Overall, it took me about 20 minutes to put each light together because I needed to modify the housings internally to accept the ballasts. This was easily done with a dremel with a cutting wheel attached and some wire cutters. So if anyone is looking to upgrade the lights on their boat with some white HID's that will literally be 5 times brighter than a halogen while using less electricity, here's what I did:

1. Remove the 4 screws on the light housing



2. Then take out the bulb housing and unplug the connectors to free the lights. You will also notice in the picture that there is a circle on the inside base of the housing that I needed to remove so that my new ballast would fit. Also, cut the wires coming out of the housing and remove them, you will not need them.



3. Now using a dremel, cut a circle around the base that needs to be removed then using wire cutters, cut it in pieces and remove as much of it as you can. I wasn't very neat when I did it and it kind of looked like a hack job but it worked.



4. Now it's time to install the new ballast. What I did is that I ran the power wire that came with the HID's through the hole where the original power wires were going through. Then I hooked up the power wires to the ballast making sure that the plugs all fit either around or behind the ballast. You need to make sure that there is enough clearance between the ballast and the back of the HID bulb, if not, the housing won't close right.



5. Next, install the HID bulb in the glass reflector. Just remove the one screw on the reflector and pull the bulb out. If you look at the reflector, you'll notice that on the other side of the screw, there's a small tab. Using a small screw driver LIGHTLY bend the tab up to accept the new bulb. Install the bulb with the half circle facing the tab and the square notch facing the screw. DO NOT TOUCH THE BULB WITH YOUR FINGERS!! IF YOU DO, CLEAN IT WITH ALCOHOL, IF YOU DON'T CLEAN IT, THE BULB WILL OVER HEAT AND BLOW!

This picture is of the Halogen bulb, not the HID.


6. Finally position all the wires inside the housing, place the reflector in the housing making sure everything is flush and install the cover with the four screws. Please not that the cover has two drain holes on it that look like two small squares, these need to point towards the bottom of the housing so water doesn't get in.



I'll post some additional pictures of the lights when I have them on my boat but I hooked each light up to a battery just to make sure they worked and I was able to light up houses 3 blocks away with some very intense white light. No doubt these will be a huge improvement over the ones I have now and all at a fraction of what a decent LED light will cost.

One thing that I would like to mention is that Vision X sells this same light but with different reflectors. If I had to do it again, I would go with a flood type reflector instead of the Euro Beam that I got. The reason being that the Euro Beam projects a very flat horizontal beam a much longer way than we'll need to run in the swamp. So I think a flood type beam would be much better for our application even though the Euro will still work fine.

The lights produce about 3200 lumens each while using 35 watts compared to 1300 lumens for a regular halogen bulb at 55 watts.

THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE INTENDED FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY AN ANYONE UNDERGOING THIS PROJECT DOES SO AT THEIR OWN RISK. FABRICATING THESE LIGHTS FOR RESALE IS A DIRECT INFRINGEMENT OF VISION X'S PATENT.

Thanks for this writeup. I will be doing this mod soon!

damn bro, good writeup! half the people that try to explain stuff dont even post pics

im marking this so i can find it in a few weeks

awsome man! cant wait to see em lit up!

I think we need a "how to" forum for stuff like this!

Thanks guys, I'm just returning a favor to all of those that have helped me here. These lights are extremely bright! I've been messing around with them in front of my house and I can literally light up houses a good 300 yards away and see the light clearly. I can't wait to run them in the Everglades at night! People are going to think a UFO is coming at them!

damn man thats great thanks for posting such a good "how to"

awesome write up

HID's are the shiznit. In my Dmax i have 6k HID is all 6 lights. When i turn my brights on my highs, low, and fog lights come on. I light up the nights sky. Been thinking bout this for my boat.

marked!!

I have my boat parked in a warehouse and took this picture with the lights off, it's not as good as the other ones I posted because it was taken with my phone but, at least it will give you an idea of the amount of light these lights put out.



I put the light bracket on backwards and the picture was taken with me standing behind the boat. PURE WHITE LIGHT!

Hmmm I wonder how hard it would be to mount one to a hard hat

When I searched "hid" on ebay. Can you help me narrow it down a little?

Great step-by-step with pictures. Those instructions are dern near Army-proof right there.

I've had HID's on my ATV for two years now and so far I haven't had any issues. I'm guessing that in the last two years of trail riding these lights have gone through more abuse than a boat can put on them.

Chico. Great post. Have you tried to put them in the gatortrax light bar yet? I'm wondering if they fit. Also, is there any particular reason you didn't just buy these for $108 or was it just the money.

http://www.trifectaoffroad.com/Lighting/

why not remote mount the ballasts? keeps em cooler. good write up tho. wish there were more.

you have any other pics? very good write up. i will be doing this.......

Chico, you should get a commission from that seller on eBay!

What made you laugh, the term army-proof? or the fact that you left one detail out?

The term army proof, I have a buddy that was army infantry and he tells me the same thing. I have a feeling that sellers going to run out of bulbs soon.

great write up. we need more stuff like this on this site instead of a lot of the bs that ends up on here. can you take a pic of how you actually mounted them to your boat? i've been trying to come up with a better light setup for mine and i think this is it. THANKS

Damn that is some super bright light.
Very nice write up.

Grizzon, I'll post a picture of the Gator Trax bracket with the lights on it when I get home. I just wrote this post 20 feet up on a tree waiting for a deer to pass by using my cell phone. We're living in the future already.

I just found something new to do while I deer hunt. Post on MMT!

Well I know what I'll be doing next weekend but how do you know what size bulb to get I haven't looked yet but does the nuke in the light say? Might be a dumb question but thought I'd ask first
Thanks for the post though

Marsh, I don't know what you mean by bulb size but the TYPE of bulb you need is the H3 style, this is assuming you use the same light housings I did. As far as color, go with the 5000k lights, they are the brightest.

Ok. I just wasn't sure if there was differnt sizes, i was going to try and see if it would fit in the lights I currently have and if it doesn't work then I was going to get the lights that you got

How would it be determined which bulb to buy? I have a Browning go light that I would like to try to put a HID in. The bulb that is in it is dim and the beam is too tight I think the hid would make it the perfect running light.

You'll have to go to brownings website and look for the specs on the light. Or you could take the light apart and compare bulb types. Just keep in mind that HID lights are a lot longer than regular bulbs which means the majority of light housings out there that were not designed for them will not work.

Might have to try that bulb in a handheld Q-beam I carry for back up. Looks like the same bulb type.

Great post. Is there any way I could fit the bulbs inside
the stock PD lightbar and remote mount the ballast
under the front deck. I didn't see a size for the bulbs
on the auction. Thanks in advance.

H3 is the type of bulb he gave the number to.

Http://www.google.com/m/search?site=ima ... 20type#i=1

i was flippin through the 4x4 mag while takin care of some ..... anyway desert rat ad had HID off road lights. hella lights for 107 ech and piaa lights for 217 a pr. the piaa advertised H3 bulbs.

didnt seem to bad.

this is a good post on building them, but does all that include tax shiping etc. also for a boat do you need a pair? seems like we get caught up in needing a pair, but most are mounted right next to each other. for those that have the mounted this way could you try one and let us know how it works. this way you could cut the cost or keep one as a spare.

Hunt4Deer, The light housings were $28 each with free shipping and the HID's were $40 for 2 lights and 2 ballasts with shipping, no tax. I don't think you could buy a single ballast and light, and my lights came out to $48 each TOTAL. I also like having two lights because if one goes out, you still have the other to get you to your hole. I also point the lights away from each other to get a greater field of view at night, something you can't do with a single.

Here are some more pictures of the lights mounted on the Gator Trax Light Bracket.

These are the lights mounted backwards for all of you to be able to see the back of them clearly.




Lights mounted correctly in the boat for you to be able to see the front of them.



Picture of lights on in broad daylight. I wish I would've taken a picture of the original lights like this, you could barely tell they were on.

you have any pics of the lights on from inside the boat with em pointed forward? what guage wiring did ya go with?

I'm planning on taking the boat out next week before dawn to try out the lights and I'll see if I can take some pictures of them lighting the way. I went with 14 gauge wiring with an inline 15 amp fuse.