My Hella 500FF HID Install

So I recently purchased a roof rack in which I knew that I wanted to install some offroad lights on. Only problem was that I already had HIDs in my lows and fog lights. I thought the regular halogen bulbs would be pretty tacky, so I decided to get a couple sets of H3 HIDS. I just got the cheap ones off ebay that have the slim ballasts and got to work. BTW, this wasn't the best timing to start doing offroad lights in the middle of our winter. I spent a few hours doing the wiring outside in single digit weather. Not one of my best ideas!!

So lets get to it...

These are the Hella 500FFs:

Before anything I tested the HID kits to make sure I didn't get any malfunctioning units:

I opened them up and took out the bulbs that came with them:

Next I thought that I would be able to pull the wire cover off the back of the HID bulbs and bend them down so that I could use the Hella's original wire outlets. Well, that wasn't the case since the harness on the back of the HID was made of plastic (unlike my other ones). I wasn't able to get the back cover on the light so I had to find a new way. You can see the plastic harness in this pic:

So I cut a hole in the back cover to where the bulb could sit past the cover:

I found some old master cylinder caps and siliconed them to the back cover:

Now the back cover fit the bulb!

I thought I took a few more pictures but evidently I forgot to. After I got the back cover on I wire loomed it from the inside and had it exit out the back (which you can kind of see in the next picture). Then I was able to permanently seal everything with silicone. Now it was time to get it on the rack.

These ballasts are supposed to be 100% waterproof and able to work properly even when fully submerged. Now that's what they claim and I wasn't very confident in that statement. So I just completely wrapped them with electrical tape for a little extra security. I also mounted them under a roof rack cross bar in hope that it would divert the rain away from the ballasts:

Now that I finished that I was ready to get them back on the truck and light em up. Here's some pics!!

Hope you enjoy!! Now that I have them all set I just need to find a good night to go wheeling really try them out

 

[Ronin8002]

Looks great MT!!

So did you drill the roof to get the wires routed?

 

[1AJeremyD]

Looks great. Definitely adds a lot to the truck.

 

[BrianDye]

I hope you have better luck with the eBay kit than I did :, otherwise, looks great!

Post some beam shots at night if you can

 

[BigRondo]

Outstanding!

Your rig continues to impress.

 

[BrianDye]

I would have typed this earlier but I was on my phone; I call BS on all the "Waterproof" ballasts, I had these little guys:

"Completely waterproof, submergable, vibration resistant" etc, after a week the drivers side ballasts barely worked, water got into it (Melting snow), and fried it.

NOT EVEN submerged or in heavy rain! Just some snow that had trickled under the hood and melted.

 

[fedyfedz]

I would have typed this earlier but I was on my phone; I call BS on all the "Waterproof" ballasts, I had these little guys:

"Completely waterproof, submergable, vibration resistant" etc, after a week the drivers side ballasts barely worked, water got into it (Melting snow), and fried it.

NOT EVEN submerged or in heavy rain! Just some snow that had trickled under the hood and melted.

you should return them and get ur money back, those are weird looking ballasts ive never seen a cylinder type ballast and dont now why you would want one. the thin flat ballasts you can mount practically anywhere, i would figure it would be hard to mount a round object on a flat surface unless it came with mounting brackets. The flat slim ballast i have i had for about 2- 3 years and they still work great and when i first got them i was curious and dunked the bulb's/ballast's in a bucket of water and they still worked.

 

[dreddog47]

I would have typed this earlier but I was on my phone; I call BS on all the "Waterproof" ballasts, I had these little guys:

"Completely waterproof, submergable, vibration resistant" etc, after a week the drivers side ballasts barely worked, water got into it (Melting snow), and fried it.

NOT EVEN submerged or in heavy rain! Just some snow that had trickled under the hood and melted.

thats what happens when you buy crap, look what happens when you get a quality product....




To the OP, the lights look cool. I'd like to see some output shots. make sure you turn the white balance on the camera down or it'll over expose and be one blue blur. Eventually I'd like to get some hellas to put HID's in, so I'm curious how these auxiliary lights can adapt to HID bulbs.

 

[MillerTimeX17]

Looks great MT!!

So did you drill the roof to get the wires routed?

Yeah I drilled beneath and through the front passenger roof rack mount. Then siliconed the hole to waterproof it.

I would have typed this earlier but I was on my phone; I call BS on all the "Waterproof" ballasts, I had these little guys:

"Completely waterproof, submergable, vibration resistant" etc, after a week the drivers side ballasts barely worked, water got into it (Melting snow), and fried it.

NOT EVEN submerged or in heavy rain! Just some snow that had trickled under the hood and melted.

Yeah those are some crazy looking ballasts. I have the larger ballasts for my headlights and fogs but this was more of a project than anything. So if anything goes wrong with these I can always upgrade. Im really enjoying these lights so far, so if worse comes to worse I can shell out a little more money because I know I'm going to like the results.

To the OP, the lights look cool. I'd like to see some output shots. make sure you turn the white balance on the camera down or it'll over expose and be one blue blur. Eventually I'd like to get some hellas to put HID's in, so I'm curious how these auxiliary lights can adapt to HID bulbs.

I dont even know how I would go about changing those setting on my camera haha but I'll definitely give it a shot. Thanks for the advice and I'll keep ya updated on how the hold up.

Outstanding!

Your rig continues to impress.

Thanks Rondo

 

[eazyasone23]

looks good im thinking of starting a similar project. nice xplorer btw

 

[BrianDye]

ddredog-That was a cheap eBay kit like I had said in a previous post. Those were bought back when I cared more about price than quality.

I now have Retro-Solution's and im about todo a set of FX-R retrofits. (W/a Morrimoto 5Five HID kit.

/Endhijack.

Anywho miller, you have a sick looking ride!

 

[MillerTimeX17]

ddredog-That was a cheap eBay kit like I had said in a previous post. Those were bought back when I cared more about price than quality.

I now have Retro-Solution's and im about todo a set of FX-R retrofits. (W/a Morrimoto 5Five HID kit.

/Endhijack.

Anywho miller, you have a sick looking ride!

Thanks Brian. If, or when, these ballasts do go out I'm definitely going with those Morrimoto's!!