k...thanks Chico

Guys,
Chico has been great help on this and I'm running with his idea. I just wanted to let y'all know that I just ordered the Vision X 5511 and 5512 which are the round lights. One will be a spot beam and the other a flood beam. I ordered one of each for a pair of swamp lights. I plan on plugging them into my trolling motor via the plug and putting an inline on/off switch after the HID bulb upgrade.
The company on the link was out of one of the lights so I ordered through vision x superstore. I had to pay $10 bucks in shipping though.
Thanks again Chico.

I had the same idea for power, just using my trolling motor wire and installing a switch to control them. I'm fixing to order this setup as we speak.

I had a chance to try the boat and lights out this morning before sunrise and they were a 500% improvement! The problem I was having before is that either I'm color blind or the yellow light was blending in with the yellow saw grass I run in and I couldn't see anything. Now with the white light, I can clearly see about 200 yards or so clearly.

I've only had this boat for about a month and was previously running an outboard so I had to pretty much stick to the main canals in the Everglades making it very hard to get lost. Well it's a completely different ball game with a mud motor since I can go right down the middle of the swamp now and the first night I took it out during early teal season, I got stuck so bad I thought I was going to have to call 911 and get air lifted out of there because I couldn't see where I was going. Luckily after an hour of pushing, my friend and I freed the boat and I think that's how this idea came about.

Guys, BayouStateHunter tried using the Vision X 5511 and 5512 lights and they did not work with the H3 bulbs. From what I can tell, they require a D2 type bulb that needs to be retrofitted by buying a socket to plug the light in. He'll chime in on this later on but I think he ended up returning the round lights and going with the square ones. So if you intend to do this upgrade, just stick with the original square lights and they'll work as described. Thanks Bayou.

Don't mean to keep beating a dead horse but I built my second set of lights today and I did it in half the time as the first set. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures but you should be able to understand what I mean by looking at the original ones I posted. To speed things up when using a dremel, just cut a ring completely around the inside base on the light housing with the exception of the bottom part where the ring comes in contact with the housing. Then cut clean through the two plastic square molding located at each end of the housing but do so at the same height as the plastic ring that needs to come out. Finally just cut the plastic molds out with wire cutters and everything will come out in less than a minute and look a lot cleaner. It now took me about 20 minutes to make both lights. I also used the spot beam lights for this set and the beam pattern is not as focused as one would expect so they'll still be able to light up objects completely that are at a close range.

marked x2!

I finally finished my lights and they are bright. I went with one flood and one eurobeam. One bit of advice I have is don't buy from the Vision X superstore. They forgot to send my order out, that's why the install took so long and didn't help me out with the shipping even though it was there error. I plan on running with these Friday morning. Thanks again Chico.

I built a couple using just the VX floods. It was the best $100 bucks I've spent on the boat this year. They really light the way projecting out front and to the sides. Thanks Chico80x

Thanks koondog, glad you're happy with them! Enjoy.

Just pulled the trigger on a eurobeam and a flood with the Hid kit for my gatortrax. Can't wait till they get here.

So what would you guys recommend for this set up, one driving beam and one flood beam, or both of one kind?

I think you could get any combination and be happy. I have two euro beams and they work great, plenty of forward lighting with very good side lighting. I put two spot beams on my buddies boat and they too work great, I think he was a little more range than me on the lighting but overall there is very little difference between my beam pattern and his.

If I had to do it again though, I would probably go with one spot mean and one horizontal flood beam to get the best of both worlds but since I haven't seen the beam pattern on this set up yet, I couldn't tell you for sure. Either way, I'm very happy with my two euro beam set up and it was a huge improvement.

thanks for the info, i was kinda leaning toward one of each too

I too have been very disappointed with my gator trax lights. I put a go light on top of the bar and the other two have been useless. I plan on trying to order these. Thanks for the info.

ight orderd mine so ill post up how it goes when i get everything in

I run two floods. You'd be surprised how far forward and wide the light casts. You will not be disappointed.

I did the flood and eurobeam combo. It works great. Anybody who does this upgrade will be happy with it.

Here's some instructions on how to do it to a set of Hella 500s that you can get at Wal Mart.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighti ... -pics.html

orderd all my stuff on sunday

recived my bulbs yesterday

as far as the lights go i got an incorrect tracking number and they were quick to reply with the correct tracking number and they will be here on the 20th

Holy shiat man these things are bright

Thanks for the post these are 200% brighter

I just finished my pair. I bought the euro beams. They are BRIGHT!!
I can't get my bulbs to stay straight in my reflectors. They are being pushed to the side by the ballast. I have all the inside plastic cut out and still cant seem to get it to fit just right. Anyone else have this problem? They work fine, the beams are just a little distorted since the bulbs are not centered on the reflector.

by the way.....great post! and thanks!

Fitting the ballast in there correctly takes a couple of tries to get it just right. The main thing is to find a way to position it so that there's as little pressure as possible on the back of the bulbs but it will still be a tight fit. One thing you should make sure of is that the tab on the back of the reflector is a tight fit along with the screw.

One thing I did on mine to position them better is that instead of putting the ballast flush against the back of the light housing, I put it at an angle with one end of the ballast up against the reflector and the other against the back of the housing. Then position all the wires around the ballast so that there are no wires between the ballast and the bulb to keep any pressure down to a minimum. Hope this helps.

Here is an web address that has lots of LED lights some of which are not to expensive.
http://www.magnalight.com/.

Not a big deal but after the bulbs warm up one light seem brighter than the other

They are still bright as hell but just a question

Chico80x how do those hid's do in thick fog ?
I have HIDS in my trucks but none have them in the fog lights.

btw this a very helpful post. Unfortunately i already spend the big bucks on the KC version but im gunna build me a set for my duck boat!

These lights did good in the thick fog I was in the other day but I had to aim them down because they lite the fog up too much. The fog I was in was so thick that I couldn't see more than 30ft in front of me regardless of the lights but when they were aimed up, it looked like if I was in a white cloud. It was too dangerous to bring the boat up on plane in those conditions.

Well I was going to try building these But, I went to Napa instead. they had these for 16.00 each and the housing is all rubber. I went ahead and paid another 17.00ea for a different bulb. the guy said they use these bulbs for spotlights on airplanes... Will see how bright they are but they are already better than the ones I bought from Gator Trax. Total cost was 60.00 and thats having two extra bulbs

Have you got to try out these lights yet?

Just at my house but I live in a subdivision. I can still see the beam on my neighbors roof though. I put one of the airplane bulbs in today so Im gonna see which is better. Im going hunting Saturday so I will put them to the real test then and will let yall know.

Ok so I ran the boat yesterday. The lights were awesome on the actual canal, brighter than my GO light. Once we got into the bay they got kinda lost if that makes since. I think they may need to be pointed down. Unfortuntely I got stuck and it took me almost two hours to get out so I didnt do that.

Have any of you guys that have built these HID lights had any issues with them? I used mine all season long and didn't have a single issue but for some reason, one of the handheld spot lights I built quit working, I think it's a bad connection but haven't opened it up to find out.

Overall, I would have to say that this was the best addition I made to my boat this year and I just wish I would've done it sooner since it made navigating in the Everglades that much easier for me.

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Apexc ... or-HID-Kit

$30 HID kit. That where I ordered mine from for my truck and my motorcycle. They work great, haven't had a single problem with them. I belive they come with a lifetime warranty as well.

Sorry if someone already said something about these, I didn't read through all the posts. Just wanted to share because this is the cheapest place I know to by an HID kit.

Guys, a member here was trying to buy the parts on the links I provided and ran into some confusion and I'd like to clarify it for anyone attempting this in the future. On the site that you purchase the actual light housings (not the bulbs which is ebay), it'll ask you for the MAKE, MODEL, AND YEAR, of the vehicle you want to put these lights on. Just input whatever you want there because you are buying a generic part that will fit any vehicle so it doesn't matter vehicle these are going in.

Also, the links to the parts listed in the previous posts ARE THE SAME EXACT PARTS I USED FROM THE SAME VENDORS. I was also asked what I would rate the difficulty as from a 1 to a 10. If you have a dremel, I would say building these lights is a 3 at the most. No dremel, a 5 just because of all the cutting involved. Very easy and worth it in my opinion.

The Guy on ebay keeps asking me what size bulbs do I want? So what do I need to tell him?

Thanks!