SolTek vs Hella HID's

[ACME]

I'm looking at the prefabbed Soltek light bar with 3 HID's (2 flood, 1 pencil) for our 10 car, any input? How do they stack up against the Hella's for durability, light pattern etc...? We've run Hella's in the past with good luck but the adjustability and the internal ballast on the Soltek's look good. Any comments from anyone that has used them would be appreciated!

[Andy McMillin]

We just purchased 7 Sol-Tek Lights for our Trophy Truck. They work awesome! These lights save you the 45 minutes it takes to adjust Hella's, we can adjust ours in less than 10 minutes. Great product and big ups to the guys at Baja Designs, we are very happy with our lights.

[prepguy]

i would go with the vision -x lights they kick *** they run them on all the geiser trucks if you need info on them i can get them for you just pm jimmie jones motorsports

[dhardesty]

I'm looking at the prefabbed Soltek light bar with 3 HID's (2 flood, 1 pencil) for our 10 car, any input? How do they stack up against the Hella's for durability, light pattern etc...? We've run Hella's in the past with good luck but the adjustability and the internal ballast on the Soltek's look good. Any comments from anyone that has used them would be appreciated!

We run the "prefabbed Soltek light bar with 3 HID's (2 flood, 1 pencil)" on top and two flood/driving on bottom of our 10 car. Great setup!! Finsihed the '05 baja 1000 5th and '06 Baja 500 1st with the Soltek lights on board. Talk to Tex at Baja Designs for more technical info.

[Ryan_P]

I sold my Hella's for a 4-light bar Baja Designs set-up and the adjustability is the seller in my opinion.

-Ryan

[JrSyko]

We ran the Soltek's in one race and I didn't like them. The light wasn't as bright as the Hella's and had kind of a green hue to it. IMHO the Hella's are way better but I will concede that the adjustibility of the Solteks is much better.

[SanoDano]

We added 2 SolTek HID (floods) to our set up for the 500, worked great and the adjustably is awesome.

We will be adding 4 more for the 1000..... How bout it Alan, can you swing us a deal?

What does anyone use for driving in the fog? or just do the best you can with the HID's?

dan

[notime]

we use a pair of Vision X ligths in the past CODE race, they ran flawless no problems we already used other brand of ligths and we have some Ballast problems and other stuff.

[SKISPEED]

we just installed the brand new lights from Lazerstar.http://www.weekendconcepts.com/new-products.html New Hid's inexpensive and very bright. We also use a Morphic Industries billet light bar which can be purchase with a manal actuator or a motorized one.

PM me if you need more info.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f202/gspeedracing/coytoye%20200/GSPEEDPC7.jpg

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f202/gspeedracing/coytoye%20200/GSPEEDPC11A.gif

[cgaddis15]

Solteks are the best light hands down. Internal ballast, lighter then the competitors, and takes seconds to adjust. I'll be adding there new 4 inch HIDs to my car for this years 1000 for sure!

[Dan McMillin]

Solteks are the best light hands down. Internal ballast, lighter then the competitors, and takes seconds to adjust. I'll be adding there new 4 inch HIDs to my car for this years 1000 for sure!
They are great lights. I did not get a chance to use them at the 500 but I am definitely using them for the future!

Caleb, you racing that MORE race on the 22nd?

[MSS]

HELLA all the way....

They may be hard to adjust, but they are a great light. I have driven cars with Soltek lights and I was very dissapointed. Hella by far puts off more light.

[RacingMadMax]

For the cheaper but still affective lights go with KC Daylighters!

[Hemp]

any buddy have any experience with the lightforce lights? I like the idea of the internal balast.

[J.JOHNSON]

the soltec has the balast inside the housing. They are also lighter than the hellas.

[Dezertpilot]

Off the topic but when the new HELLAS are more available I heard they are gonna kick all lighting systems ***! Ya know the new ones that only 2 TT teams are able to use.

[Ryan_P]

Off the topic but when the new HELLAS are more available I heard they are gonna kick all lighting systems ***! Ya know the new ones that only 2 TT teams are able to use.

And more than likely cost $800 a light, out of budget for some racers.

-Ryan

[mongo]

There is only one lite in offroad desert racing,which is the one that started it all. As for lite bars for your car, build your own and it will probably be better than the cheezzie ones you can buy. For real good lite deals on kc hilites e-mail racetalk@mongoracing.com for questions .By far the best lite!

[Dezertpilot]

You are right Ryan at 4k plus a pop it is expensive! Yyyuuummm Hella rally inspired lights!

[Haney motorsports]

We run the hamsar diversco HID's,Model XAL-400 (P/N 83008) XENON HID 8.5” Auxiliary Driving Lamps Mounted on the top light Bar and Two of Model XAL-500 (P/N 83009) Compact XENON HID Driving Lamps down on the bumper. Both Feature Internally Mounted 12V Ballasts and are sold Individually.The xal-500 are bullet proof and one of the brightest lights I have seen.The size is great,you can mount these things almost anywhere and not worry about destroying them go tohamsar.comfor more details.Oh yeah! they are pretty quick to adjust as well,another plus is Big Dave G. over there is racer friendly.http://www.hamsar.com/auxiliary_lamps_page3.htm

[ACME]

Thanks for the input, this is the best thing about this forum! Sounds like the jury's split on the Hella vs Soltek issue. Who's used both and what's the light pattern and brightness difference??? I spoke with Jeff Lothringer/McKenzies who's used both and he swears by the Soltek's, says there way brighter, wider pattern and when you throw in adjustability they win. My biggest concern is brightness and pattern... PS the lights Haney mentioned are worth looking at for a 9/5-16, they worked great in Mexico, I just don't know how they'd hold up on a 10 or 16...

[ThisSideUp]

I guess it just depends on your budget. Lightforce makes an awesome light with an internal ballast, but they are very expensive. I have never used a SolTek, but it sounds like it is in a better price bracket for some racers. while the old Hella HID's work well, the external ballast, and the pain trying to adjust them makes them outdated. I have not read any info on the new Hella's coming out, but I would put the LightForce HID up against it any day. You can check them out at www.lightforce.com

Chris

"I never learned anything from anyone who agreed with me":cool:

[TRichards]

I use the Lightforce HID, they are awesome and the other thing about them is you can change the pattern from a pencil to a flood by using a different lens cover which clips on. with the composite housing they are way lighter than the Hellas and mount up just like a normal light. Don't lose the plug though they are special and Lightforce doesn't like to send them without buying a whole light.

[Ryan_P]

Thanks for the input, this is the best thing about this forum! Sounds like the jury's split on the Hella vs Soltek issue. Who's used both and what's the light pattern and brightness difference??? I spoke with Jeff Lothringer/McKenzies who's used both and he swears by the Soltek's, says there way brighter, wider pattern and when you throw in adjustability they win. My biggest concern is brightness and pattern... PS the lights Haney mentioned are worth looking at for a 9/5-16, they worked great in Mexico, I just don't know how they'd hold up on a 10 or 16...

I have used both and I can't agree more with what Jeff said. After speaking with a few of them @ McKenzie's on the issue, I tried them out after being dissapointed with my Hella's. I have terrible vision so I need all the light I can get; I am more than happy with my Soltek/Baja Designs lights.

-Ryan

[ThisSideUp]

I use the Lightforce HID, they are awesome and the other thing about them is you can change the pattern from a pencil to a flood by using a different lens cover which clips on. with the composite housing they are way lighter than the Hellas and mount up just like a normal light. Don't lose the plug though they are special and Lightforce doesn't like to send them without buying a whole light.

Funny you mentioned the Lightforce plug as I need a new one. Who did you call to order a new one? I havent tried to get one yet, so I want to take the easiest route.

[charlie_brown]

Don't lose the plug though they are special and Lightforce doesn't like to send them without buying a whole light.
i have been waiting three months for helllas 4000 plugs. still waiting

[Ryan_P]

Don't lose the plug though they are special and Lightforce doesn't like to send them without buying a whole light.
i have been waiting three months for helllas 4000 plugs. still waiting

Which plugs are you refering to? McKenzie's has the wire harness and the power plug(bare with power and ground wire) for the ballasts in stock.

-Ryan

[jeff]

I run the Soltek lights on the front of my daily driver when I know I'll be going down long and lonely roads. Lately I've been too lazy to take the bar off the front of my truck. I have one pencil bean mounted in the center and two of the "other" pattern lights on each side of the pencil. I run two switches, one for the pencil, other switch for the other two lights. I do like the adjustment procedure. One wrench and I can easily adjust the side to side (a little) and with my bare hand I can adjust the up and down alignment. Pretty cool. I've cycled the heck out of the lights and have turned them on and off repeatedly and so far so good. The internal ballast makes mounting them much easier. I do agree that the lights on some occassions appear to be greenish. But when I turn my standard Halogen headlights on those look really, really yellow. Almost brown. As far as light output goes I think they are pretty good. Properly aimed the three lights do a good job of covering the road that's directly in front of you. I was a little disappointed in how concentrated the "other" pattern is. I wouldn't call it a flood and it has a distinct output beam. In other words, the wide beam pattern still has a very visible point where the light is concentrated. The plugs are generic GM weatherpack connectors. Super easy to replace, repair, and you can buy them at darn near any autoparts store. Another nice thing about the Soltek... clear lens protectors are cheap and easy to install/remove. I've got some clear lens protectors that just push onto the housing. I've run the lights with the plastic protector in place for an hour straight, no problemos... a little additional protection against an expensive lens replacement.

Unless HELLA releases a better mousetrap I'll be running a set of Soltek's on my F150 project.

Aloha

[TRichards]

I got my lightforce plugs from J&E Performance in So Cal. Their # is 909-930-1100. They had to order them from Lightforce.