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Iron Butt
Posts: 803
Perry Hall, MD | The auxiliary lights sold for the Vision are made by PIAA and come with 35 watt bulbs. It appears that replacement 35 w bulbs are not available and riders are substituting the 55 w bulbs. There is a huge increase in the light that they put out.
Unfortunately I found out that the stock wiring isn't sufficient to support the increased power requirements. The wires get very hot and it damaged the headlight breaker.
PIAA advised me that their LED bulb can not be used in the original lamp housing.
The option I'm considering now is to buy a $500 set of Clearwater Darlas. Before pulling the trigger on the Darlas I was looking for experiences others may have had with using the 55 w PIAA bulbs. Has anyone upgraded the wiring to handle the load? |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 752
Broken Arrow, OK | so these $300+ lights, still being sold, have no OEM bulb replacements?
http://motoworldracing.com/i-7251038-victory-motorcycle-vision-piaa... |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 803
Perry Hall, MD | okie vision - 2013-09-15 11:22 AM
so these $300+ lights, still being sold, have no OEM bulb replacements?
http://motoworldracing.com/i-7251038-victory-motorcycle-vision-piaa...
Not that I have been able to find and PIAA ignored that question when I asked about using the LED bulbs. |
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Visionary
Posts: 4278
| Have you looked at the auto stores |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 803
Perry Hall, MD | In my area I looked at Pep Boys, Auto Zone, and Audio Connection as well as on-line. I did find one listing with a part number for replacement bulbs from a Victory dealer but with a price tag of $72 each even if they had two I'm not paying that much. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 178
LaGrange, GA | That sucks. I'm pretty sure when the time comes I'll move to the 55W and just upgrade what needs upgrading to make it work. At most we're just talking about a few wires, a relay, a breaker, and a switch. Nothing hard about up-sizing the wires, relay, and breaker(s.) Switch wouldn't see any extra load if it uses a relay. That's $10 worth of components along with the $40 bulbs and you come in a hell of a lot cheaper than the $500 Darlas (although I'm sure those are great.) |
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Cruiser
Posts: 92
| I've been running the 55W bulbs in my PIAA lights (installed them last Winter) with no issues yet. Who was it that told you the wiring couldn't handle it? |
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Tourer
Posts: 348
Sturbridge, Mass | wdwurker - 2013-09-16 4:18 AM
I've been running the 55W bulbs in my PIAA lights (installed them last Winter) with no issues yet. Who was it that told you the wiring couldn't handle it?
I have the 55W ones in as well ( can still get the 35W from dealer.
They do put a noticeable draw on the voltage guage.... |
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Cruiser
Posts: 281
| If it was up to me, I'd ditch the PIAAs and go with the Clearwaters! |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 46
Taylorsville, KY | I bought a hs1 piaa halogen bulb through amazon for $45 shipped a couple of months ago..it is a blue tinted bulb |
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Tourer
Posts: 423
northwest florida | I'm surprised no one has adapted something to mount driving lights to just under the headlight assembly. Something along the lines of the passing lights on the crossroads or the ultras. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 803
Perry Hall, MD | wdwurker - 2013-09-16 4:18 AM
I've been running the 55W bulbs in my PIAA lights (installed them last Winter) with no issues yet. Who was it that told you the wiring couldn't handle it?
It appears that a lot of us are using the 55W bulbs. No one told me that the system wouldn't handle it. After using them for quite a while I experienced intermittent loss of my headlights and auxiliary lights (HID was not effected, but pucker factor was high). The time lapse between failures got down to about every 45 seconds with the lights returning after several seconds. Once I disconnected the auxiliary lights everything was fine. I purchased all new relays, fuses and the breaker then reconnected the auxiliary lights and replaced the parts one at a time to determine that the breaker was the problem. While doing this I found out that the wires from the auxiliary lights were very hot and obviously were not heavy enough for the extra load.
With the new breaker I could probably just start using the lights and assume that I'm good for another year or so, but it's not worth risking another nighttime failure, fire, or damage to the electrical system.
The idea of rewiring them occurred to me as well but they are wired into the bikes wiring harness and I assume that it would be more than just replacing the few wires that came with the lights. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 810
| LennyB, You should also consider the load on your charging system using 110 watts versus the 48 watts (or less) in your decision making process. Victory had a 65 amp stator in their 2008 and 2009 accessory catalogs that never materialized.
I had the PIAA 35, PIAA 55, and then went with TrailTech HIDs to lower the load. I am now considering the Darlas. The TrailTech HIDs were bright, but didn't last very long. After I had problems with them, I called TrailTech and they said they were not for touring use (e.g. not intended to be on all of the time).
Good luck with your decision. Too bad the Erica's won't fit the Vision (6,000 lumens each) !!!
Tim 
Edited by TimS 2013-09-17 8:52 PM
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PIAA 55 w Bulbs in Auxiliary Lights