Seems the prices for those remote paintcan style ballasts have dropped a bit on eBay. I picked up a 175w MH/MV remote ballast for $55 CAD including shipping which is a steal considering how much shipping to Canada usually costs.

Anyway here's some of the cheaper ones:

175w MV/MH

400w MV

1kW MV

All of them are apparently quad tap so it should run on 120v. Unfortunately none of them include the Advance SH-1 mounting bracket but the design of it is simple enough for anyone with access to basic sheet metal fabrication tools to reproduce. 

Thanks Joe! Just bought the 175W version! Would have bought the 400W one but it's a little high priced for me.

Thanks Joe! Just bought the 175W version! Would have bought the 400W one but it's a little high priced for me.

I was gonna buy it but looks like you got to it first. 

Thanks Joe! Just bought the 175W version! Would have bought the 400W one but it's a little high priced for me.

No problem, glad to see you got one. Not sure what I'm gonna use mine for, perhaps for one of the Revere peaheads.

I was gonna buy it but looks like you got to it first.  

The seller I bought mine from claims to have more than one available but he hasn't relisted the item yet. Maybe if you try sending him a message he might relist it.

eBay listing

Don't forget to add the ballast bracket for a completed set! Only $99!





sigh...

Don't forget to add the ballast bracket for a completed set! Only $99!





sigh...

Yeah I just made a DIY clone of the SH-1 pole bracket for that reason. I got most of the dimensions from the Advance catalogue and made a CAD model from it. I actually shortened the bracket to better fit the 175w ballast I had.

I used a milling machine to make the keyhole slots and a bending brake to bend it but you can get something quick and dirty that works if you use a drill and bend it with a vise. It just won't look as good lol. Then just get a 6.5" hose clamp and you're set.

Around here, the metal poles would have the ballast fitted to the top of the pole. There was a hand hole in the top of the pole to access connections. A few of the poles still have their ballasts atop them despite the remote ballasts being disconnected between the mid-60s and 90s. The utility company here had a policy of spot replacing non-cobrahead fixtures as they required service starting back in the 1960s so those really old poles here held 400W MV clams, then 400W MV cobras, and now 250W HPS cobras. Now some even have LEDs. Back when they spot-replaced the clamshells with MV fixtures I believe it was procedure to remove the can ballast from the pole (both metal and wood) although when they went HPS in the 1990s, they hired private contractors to do the changeout as fast as possible, so during that time any remaining clamshells had their ballasts left up on the pole disconnected. Those still remain today until the wood pole is replaced, in which case it is obviously not transferred.

Anyway, here is an example of a HAPCO aluminum pole here still fitted with its ballast. Note the ballast is has a mount for a wood pole too. These poles originally held Form 109s I was told, replaced by gray GE M-400s in the late 60s before these M-250R2s took over in the early-mid 1990s.

The electric company fitted the poles with regular caps when removing the ballasts. If it weren't for the few remaining ballasts atop the poles, you wouldn't even know there were ever ballasts on them!

Yeah they're big and heavy! One of those can ballasts is about 50 pounds! Imagine one of those poles falling with a cobrahead also on it? I feel like having the ballast in the base of the pole would be safer but the lights here all had individual PCs, even on the highway. So that meant running power up to the light, back to the ballast, and back up to the light again. So the utility company opted to put the ballast as close as possible to the light to save on wire. Almost all the lights here had integral PCs too, something I believe was uncommon elsewhere. Most remote ballast lights also had a remote PC.

Yeah, even though I made the pole mounting bracket before the ballast actually arrived, the ballast still felt bigger than I thought and mine is only a 175w model. Mine's quite light though, I think it only weighs around 15 lbs. The box it came in was huge though, I think Advance uses the same box for all of their weatherproof can ballasts so it was big enough to fit a 1kW sized can ballast.

Over here it was common to mount the ballast near the arm tube on the wood, concrete and even some metal poles. Pole top mounting was rare along with transformer base mounting. I think I've only ever saw them in parking lots. Most of the ballast cans were removed when they went from mercury to sodium in the 90s, they did a pretty through job too they even changed the arm from the braced S shape that's still used with the gumballs to tapered elliptical arms when they installed cobras. A small handful of the old remote ballasts remain, long ago disconnected.

This one might have had the arm changed but the old remote ballast still remains.

This one is still hanging on but the other poles got their ballast cans removed when the poles got replaced.

This one has a double guy arm on a concrete pole, a common 1950s MTO highway lighting setup.

Note that a lot of them have LED luminiares too, so they survived two changeouts already.

Nice that there are still some old equipment still installed in Ontario too. Most of the arms here are from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s but a few older 40s and 50s arms are around. I guess theres old stuff everywhere, just gotta find it!

Nice that there are still some old equipment still installed in Ontario too. Most of the arms here are from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s but a few older 40s and 50s arms are around. I guess theres old stuff everywhere, just gotta find it!

Yeah, one of the things I like about living near a big city is that there seems to be a lot of lighting equipment that somehow survived. I even know of two radial waves in Toronto that somehow survived by being tucked away in a alleyway. Most of the arms here date from the 1960s onwards but I think some of the older braced S shape arms date to the 40s and 50s.

Saving a remote ballast that actually saw service here is probably unlikely so I decided to buy one when I still could.

Plus the remote ballasts are usually potted in tar so they run even cooler.

My ballast came in today. Havent unboxed it yet.

Yeah, the only issue is replacing any caps (and ignitors for PSMH/HPS models) if they fail. Cool to see yours came in already. Mine is still sitting on my desk, I mounted to the bracket I made for it but haven't gotten around to testing it yet.

I unboxed mine. Appears the ballast might be non potted. Or at least it's not tar filled as the ballast is more that heavy. Perhaps only the higher wattage ones are potted? Might make for easier servicing and if the ballast fails, easy replacement.

Btw, did you base your bracket off the actual advance specs or is it an approximation? I'm interested in making one for mine if you dont mind sharing the specs on it. Thanks!

I think the Wide-Lite ballast cans and maybe the Magnetek ballast cans are potted and seem to be sealed up tighter and I guess maybe the higher wattage Advance ones. I haven't tried to take mine apart but it seems like it just comes apart if you undo all the screws along the base of the can. I agree it makes it more handy for replacing the ballast or cap in the future.

I based most of the dimensions off the actual Advance specs but I did modify it a bit mainly for ease in manufacturing and to make it better fit the shorter 175w ballast can. The actual Advance one is a bit taller and doesn't fit the shorter 175w sized cans as well IMO.

I've attached a drawing of the one I made in the post. I included the slots and keyhole bolt holes like the Advance version but to make it easier to make if you don't have access to a milling machine, you can probably change the 1-3/8" wide slot to a 1-3/8" hole with the hole centre located approximately 1.25" from the right hand side. The keyhole slots can be replaced with two 1/2" holes spaced 4" apart.

As for material, I think the Advance one used some thick 3/16" or 1/4" aluminum bar but to make it easier to bend and since I already had the material I used a scrap piece of 16 gauge steel. Ended up painting it black to match the ballast. I used a bending brake to make the three bends but I suppose you could probably make the bends with a vise and hammer lol.    

Finally, I find a 6.5" stainless steel hose clamp is the perfect size for the top band.