• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

warn wxt400 hid lights

44135

Member
Hello, I have a 2010 1200rt and am trying to decide which hid driving lights to mount. I am going to mount them below the mirrors. I have narrowed it down to the Warn wxt400,Martin Fab. ,Hella DE Micro,or Baja design Fuego. Does anyone have any experiance,or advice on any of these. Thank you.
 
I have the Hellas mounted to BMR under mirror mounts with the ballasts under the dash. Works well no issues definitely improves the view. Also have HID low beams and overwattage high beam. I have them switched so that they are either off or slaved to the high beam.
 
That's a sweet setup.

FWIW, I would suggest avoiding the WARN stuff. It appears to be the same as TrailTech and I can tell you from a couple years of personal experience that those TrailTech bulb types are a series of poor designs, unreliable, and expensive to replace. They are modified indoor bulbs where an HID capsule is inserted in the reflector in place of a normal halogen bulb for which they were originally designed. So the reflectors don't make optimal use of the HID output. They are not fully waterproof, either. The bulb is not 1 piece and instead has a clear lens over the reflector held in with a rubberized sealant which allows water to be sucked into the bulb when it cools if used in a rain. I could list several other defects, some of which may have been addressed in the successive generations of trying to improve the design but bottom line is the bulbs are also expensive at $80 or so each and I've never gotten 30 hours of use out of any one of them (500 hours is a typical design life for a normal service halogen headlamp bulb, to provide a comparison data point). The beam is also too wide for longer distance -an 11-15 degree beam is better.

Also, from my long experience with lots of types of driving lights- big reflectors will generally trump lens optics designs so if you can get a big reflector HID that uses standard HID capsules rather than some proprietary kludge, it will put out more useful light than a projector type running the same bulb. BUT you have to find one the mounts up well, etc. The real motivator for projector design in the first place is shrinking the lamp to provide more mounting options. The Hellas/Touratechs have a good reputation but there are advantages to "bigger". But if you pick the Hellas, be assured they are well thought of by users.
 
Also, FWIW, I have a set of Hella FF50s on those same BMR mounts but equipped with 65W Osram halogen rally bulbs that I also use in all 3 spots of the headlight on my RT.
So 5 of them across the front with the FF50s having the option of being switched with the hi beam. Makes carrying spares simple but the Osrams have same life as stock anyway.

I also have TrailTech HID 30s on EzyMounts under the oil cooler- they are going away once this bulb set dies- not sure what I will do there yet- possibly one of the new high power LED types for conspicuity as the TTs don't add anything much to what those 5 Osrams do anyway.

Remember that human vision is biased for the lower color temp of the halogens and if HIDs/LEs come with drawbacks for those higher color temps including glare, decreased depth perception, etc etc. If you doubt this- try some side by side comparisons for yourself. Outut isn't everything - it needs to translate into info your brain can easily process.
 
Last edited:
Do you have a link to those mounts? Also, what FF50s do you use? Don't they have 2 models? driving & fog? I need to add some lights to my RT...
 
Am referring to the driving lights. Would NOT mount fogs on the BMRs that are about the same height as stock headlights- too high off the road surface for fogs.

Also a comment on wiring a pair of Hella FF50s. The Hella kit, aside from the lamps is cheap crap, very typical of every Hella kit I've ever seen. Its 16 gauge wire that is too light, fails to provide a relay socket and provides only the cheapest connector types, no shrink tube, etc. I basically threw it away and made my own harness using a better Mitsubishi relay and socket from Eastern Beaver plus used 12 gauge wire for main power to the relay and 14 to the lamps to ensure full output. Alternatively, you could buy a premade harness and relay setup from PIAA (not listed on their website but they do sell them). However I fin I always want to lengthen or shorten some wires in those things and am pretty good at wiring so I'd just as soon make my own- your choice might be different based on how easy you find it to fab a good harness.

I should note that I cannot comment on the durability of the Hella FF50 setup (I do not own and have not used the Hella/Touraech HID or halogen projector lens type). Its been on my bike less than a year and hasn't seen a whole lot of frog chokers, yet. My past experience with Hella reflectors is that they are poorly aluminized and not durable in humid conditions. BUT the entire Hella lamp kit is only a bit more expensive than 1 TrailTech bulb so if the lamps last 3 years or more of use or more than 50K miles without the reflectors going bad, I'll be satisfied. I won't bore you with detailed descriptions of all the Hella lamps I've killed in the past but its a lot- my comments are not based on one pair or one model. My general opinion of is that they mirror most German electric stuff- 2nd rate compared to Japanese or American re durability and parts compromises aplenty to meet a price/profit target.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top