these threads are great...the pic of all three really shows how halos are nothing compared to the others but then what are the watss of them. never know if the hps and mh are 400w and the 300w halos. But i shoot 150w HPS and like them and would love to get some 400ws eventually. as far as the discovery. I keep mine at 29 just because we get alot of running buffs at a distance so i like it. but i barely ever hit ful draw and shot 100s with it already this year. Only downfall is the distance shots dont get good penitration but that means u just need a quick backup on the big ones

 

Anyhow. Sent all afternoon mounting these stupid lights!!! Lol got the the brackets made wired up started up my genny and plugged them in. POP!!! (Actually blinking light) so I scratched my head and just plugged in the first 3 and let them run for about 2 min. Then plugged in the other 3. POP!!! Well I kinda (barely) understand the whole watt/amp/volts thing. The genny is a generac xi2000. Which is 2000 running watts 2200 surge watts and it has a 20 amp breaker. I can plug in 5-500watt halos no problem. We tried a Vince of different combinations and everything and it just wouldn't run all 6. I plugged in the HPS to the receptical in my shop (20amp) and ran all of them fine along with a refrigerator/freezer (the compressor was running) and I turned on my 1500 watt heat gun and a grinder and it didn't trip till I turned my shop air compressor on. What the heck is going on??? The whole reason I changed lights was so I could use this quiet lil genny bc they didnt use as much electricity. Kinda peed off!!!

To add to the frustrating light thing... Monday we ordered a couple of reels, arrows, roller rest( which said it would fit and didn't) and other stuff from bow fishing extreme and I guess someone could only count to 1 bc they forgot our other reel. Also kinda peed off. We got a trip planned this weekend and it Gettin screwed up. Lol night fellas.

 

I have heard of guys having this problem also with generac xi2000. Something about clean power or something... I know my champion will push 8 of them. But I plan on picking up a Generac at Cabelas sometime this week but I'm bring the boat along to make sure it works... some have said on here that some of the Generac just can't handle it and then others have had good luck... I'm running Caps so I don't think it will be a problem... from what I understand the guys having problems had the HPS light without Caps...

 

There's a lot of guys on here running 6 of those lights on 2,000 watt generators.Apparently there are two different types of ballasts in the 150 hps lights.The cheaper ones have NFP ballasts and the more expensive ones have HPF ballasts.Six of the cheap ones draw to many amps on start up for generators that size.So what you got to do to make them work is buy some 55uf capacitors and swap with the ones that came in it.I think that's right but if it aint then somebody will be by shortly with a thumbs up or a correction.

 

And as far as the bowfishing extreme problem, call up Scott and he will correct it! I'm sure it was an honest mistake they are a stand up company and every time one of my orders has gotten messed up for some reason he took care of it no problem!

 

I think the MH are bleeding over the halos in the water pictures and vica versa with the MH. Also, the angle of the lights on the boat could be different too, looks like the MH are straight out and the HPS are down. What would be the best would be 3 different setups over the same muddy, grassy, stumpy patch of water. Those pictures would mean the most to people. I wish I had a setup with both HPS and MH, so I could just change bulbs depending on the water clarity. I know it can be done, just waiting on the new boat to do it with.

 

The how on my boat are at a 90 same wit Dustin. The halos are angles down slightly I believe. I think the reason mine look like they are angled down is they are the low profile housings maybe?

 

I also want some Halos's in the mix too cause its a freaking PITA when the MH trip and your sitting there in the dark or running across the lake and it goes black.

 

Set your lighting/generator system up right from the start and you won't have that problem.

I think the MH are bleeding over the halos in the water pictures and vica versa with the MH. Also, the angle of the lights on the boat could be different too, looks like the MH are straight out and the HPS are down. What would be the best would be 3 different setups over the same muddy, grassy, stumpy patch of water. Those pictures would mean the most to people. I wish I had a setup with both HPS and MH, so I could just change bulbs depending on the water clarity. I know it can be done, just waiting on the new boat to do it with.

Looking at lights from the front serves no purpose other than making your eyes hurt. I've done enough on the water comparisons between hps-m/h-halo to know that the lumen meter don't lie no matter what kinda of bs TTG :wave: tries to feed you. Hps definately outperform all the rest when it comes to seeing fish--m/h's are great for filming but are the king of glare--halogens are just too inefficient for me to consider using.
TTG is my :bff: bud but unfortunately I think a crackpipe explosion damaged his eyesight way back.lol

 

I'm with you obg, the pic on the boats lookin foreward does nothing but hurt your ewe with out water to compare it really doesn't matter! We were just parked and drinking a beer and thigh it would be a cool pic. It's shows color difference goos but does nothing to show people how they look in water!

 

OBG, please clarify which TTG your talking about. I have never smoked crack in my life....

 

Crap, didn't think about that--not you Tony. I'm talking about my hps hatin friend Throughthegills. lol Maybe I was hittin the crack pipe too hard this mornin.

 

:dh:Going from halos to HPS I thought I had made a bad purchase. Side by side in the driveway the holos smoked the hps for VISUAL brightness. Fast forward to the weekend and get the boat on the water and the hps smoked the halos. Shootin over the halos was tough. The waves and light fog made it hard to see anything. The hps on the other hand cut through it no problem. Now i wish i woulda got 250s or 400s. HPS fan here:hb::hb:

 

Probably be a good idea to run a mix of mh's and hps's that way you can flip off your high beams when you hit a patch of fog.:laugh:

 

Thats al fine and good but i dont shoot fish on shore i shoot them in the water oke:oke: I dont have anything against halos or MH, But the lake i shoot, I couldt believe the differance in the light. The 150s were no were near as bright but they were alot easier on the eyes then the halos. Im thinking about trying the MH, Ive got 3 Eballasts and want to try the 250 hps and ill get a MH bulb and try it, but if they are like the halos Who knows

 

I don't have much against hps's either,I just like starting chit.:laugh:Lumens is where it's at mainly.Don't matter weather you run hps,mh or halogen,you'll be able to see to shoot fish real good with any of them if your putting off plenty of light.Yeah hps's will glare less but that aint even a factor unless like you said fog or choppy water.Some of my best nights of shooting we killed our fish off of rough shoals and we even won a couple tourneys shooting off of the main lakes when they were white capping using halos and mh's both so it's not like they cant do the job.At any rate,250's and 400's are both amazing lights and it don't take very many of either to put a whole bunch of light into the water.:tu:

 

I disagree with the lumens statement. I think it's mostly about color of the light, there is a spectrum chart for it. Then again I"m an old flounder gigger, I've seen the difference between coleman lanterns on coleman fuel vs. propane or even coleman lanterns with gasoline. The coleman lanterns with coleman fuel absolutely
work THE best for cutting the water. I think this carries over into bowfishing too. Lumens make up some of the difference, meaning MH will be better than halo, but lumen for lumen, it comes down to COLOR.

 

Lumens is the measure of light that a bulb will put out so yeah lumens do matter but I know what your saying.One of my brothers still runs an 8 mantle propane light bar on his gigging boat.It penetrates the water best and casts light farther when it's adjusted to burn white hot.The whiter it gets the brighter it gets.It's whiter than a halogen set up and a lot brighter than about all the other gigging boats around here that are running halogens.Pretty comparable to metal halides really and you can get halides in about whatever color temperature you want.I use white because white is where it's at.:tu:

 

Here is a comparison of 400w hps and 4oow MH the Mh is on the right dont have any of the halos

 

Well got em mounted. First trip of the season starts tomorrow. Ill let yall know what i think.

oh and we hooked up the volt meter to the 150 HPS and they are pulling right at 4 amps on start up and reduce to 3.5 after about 5 min and that is about as low as they got. i took the generac back and got a champion 3500 watt. I couldn't believe it but the champion is actually quieter.

 

If they are pulling 3.5 amps warm your new genny must no be putting out 120 volts---maybe around 114 loaded?

 

the volt meter was reading about 117 once everything was warmed up and running good. we hooked the lights up to the 30 amp 120 volt circut and ran a 30 amp cord up front with 2-15 amp recepticals. i hooked 3 lights in series and then put a plug on it and pluged it in to 1 side.with all 6 lights running it was pulling anywhere from 21-22 amps and the genny was puttin out 117 volts after it was all warmed up. when i first flipped the lights on it was 27.1 amps and the genny was still puttin out 117. its seems to run it very good.

 

oops i stand corrected. they are pulling 3.73 amps each after they are warmed up. all 6 were 22-23 amps warmed. still the 117 volts though

 

That sounds better.

 

interesting that the Generac is louder... I was thinking Inverters were on the quiet side... I find my champion too load after a few hours... guess I will save a few hundred more and get a Honda...

 

I thought it was crazy also. I wasn't impressed whit the generac. There is a Honda 3000 watt inverter on craigslist in Tulsa Oklahoma for $1500. He said he'd take $1300 but I just can't afford it right now. He said it was 2-3 years old and had 10 hrs on it

 

well that is good to know... I would be a little pissed to buy one that just as loud...lol... guess I will have to wait... also wanted to mention I dig the Mud Rig... how do you like that Blk Death 5500... been thinking about upgrading my CDI motor since I will be getting a new custom hull in a few weeks..

 

thats a sweet setup you got there...how much did u say those lights ran u each?

 

NICE set up man!

 

Thanks y'all. I love the setup. The black death motor is awesome! Last night I finally to to go. First time in this boat. I'm a hard core duck hunter so the bow fishin stuff has got to go come season I I made it all where it could be easily removed. As fas as the new HPS lights go I'm indifferent so far. We shot about 15 fish last night and it was cold and very muddy! The HPS Deff work better in muddy water from what I could tell. I was curious if anyone ever combined halos and HPS lights on the same setup? What ya think about keeping the 6 HPS and adding either 6-300 watt halos or 4-500 watt halos