Trail Tech MR16 HID lights are crap, 2 lights 2 failures!!!

[One Less Harley]

4/17/2010 Purchased a set of Trail Tech HID lights (MR16 HID), 1st the ballast went out on the 1st ride. Ok, sent it back to be repaired. No problems w/ that. Now the other light fails to arch completely (barely lights up) and light up, I guess i might have no more than 5 hours on the light.

Tuesday I'm going to call and see about getting a refund and possible exchange for regular halogen lights. I'm concerned as the web page on refunds says " Used items may not be accepted."

These lights are crap. 100% failure and these aren't cheap.

[Yellow Pig]

+1, Had the same issue and they would not even give me a new bulb.

[NordStrom]

+1, but with their MR11 mini-HID lites. Absolute crap. One died after 4 months, the second made it just under a year. The warranty period is only 3 months - tells you something right there. My bike is garage kept - despite that, the chrome finish on the lites was toast in less than a year. Bubbled everwhere and then began to flake off in large chunks.

I've recently installed a pair of 12watt (!!) LED "Glenda" lites from Clearwater. These look like a great product. Wired into my high beam circuit, with a dimmer troller for use with the low beams. Really great conspicuity lites during the daylight hours and great critter lights at nite when on high beam. Really fills in the shoulder and ditch with light. Install notes and pics at:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...14&postcount=1

Clearwater also makes a set of 2 x 36 watt LED "Krista" focussed headlites if you want even more auxiliary lighting. I haven't tried these - too big of a power draw for my VStrom.

Their website is http://www.clearwaterlights.com/

[One Less Harley]

I spoke w/ Justin at Trail Tech, he agreed to offer me a full refund on the lights. I'm happy about that. He mentioned that the lights were developed for off road use and the high frequency vibrations on the road are causing some failures, not experienced w/ the off road versions.

A couple of good notes, the lights are made in WA, and they are working on improving the lights.

[bigborefan]

Originally Posted by One Less Harley

I spoke w/ Justin at Trail Tech, he agreed to offer me a full refund on the lights. I'm happy about that. He mentioned that the lights were developed for off road use and the high frequency vibrations on the road are causing some failures, not experienced w/ the off road versions.

A couple of good notes, the lights are made in WA, and they are working on improving the lights.

Glad to hear that. They have a good rep in the off road world.

[Xeraux]

I loved mine, but I could never get them running at the same time.

I finally took them off my bike.

[CodeMonkee]

Originally Posted by One Less Harley

He mentioned that the lights were developed for off road use and the high frequency vibrations on the road are causing some failures, not experienced w/ the off road versions.

I feel this is highly unlikely.

[One Less Harley]

Originally Posted by CodeMonkee

I feel this is highly unlikely.

might be rabbit, might be.


I went with the vision x led lights, same as the denali's, $119 each, wiring not included, but I already had a PIA harness.

[dnrobertson]

Originally Posted by One Less Harley

I spoke w/ Justin at Trail Tech, he agreed to offer me a full refund on the lights. I'm happy about that. He mentioned that the lights were developed for off road use and the high frequency vibrations on the road are causing some failures, not experienced w/ the off road versions.

A couple of good notes, the lights are made in WA, and they are working on improving the lights.

I'd better not use them on my KTM 640 LC4A, (even off-road). High frequency, low frequency, I got every vibration known to man .

[LateApex]

I was really excited about TT HID MR16s, but have about nothing but problems. I currently run motolights, but would like more output. I recently stumbled upon these though,

http://vagabondoffroad.com/products.html

and these look promising.

[One Less Harley]

yeah those lights look promising, but too bad there are no pictures of the actual lights!!! Where is the company located, information on the lights a little lacking.

[bmwblake]

i've been looking at those lights. looking forward to a review once you have them installed.

Originally Posted by One Less Harley

might be rabbit, might be.


I went with the vision x led lights, same as the denali's, $119 each, wiring not included, but I already had a PIA harness.

[Xeraux]

Originally Posted by bmwblake

i've been looking at those lights. looking forward to a review once you have them installed.

+1

[One Less Harley]

X- what about those state flags??? PM me I'd like a small set

[One Less Harley]

About two weeks ago I got an email from Trail Tech, seems they were aware of my less than positive experience mentioned here. The rep asked if I would be willing to test a new improved MR16 HID light. I emailed him back saying I'd be interested.

I spoke to the rep as I was curious what improvements were made. The rep was very interested in my comments on the light. I gave some thoughts about their light construction and some other things. Trail Tech is definitely interested in correcting problems w/ the previous design and is targeting the Dual Sport market w/ the improvements.

There weren't any changes to the light housing. Internally the light has been changed. Without going into specifics the ballast and bulb were changed.