Off road light question.

[hovenator]

I am looking for the best bang for the buck type off road lights to install on my grille guard (2 driving, 2 spot). Would 2 Hella 500's and 2 Hella FF500's with the 100w bulb conversion be a good choice? Or is there a better way to go? Say, for instance, some 100w KC daylighters (driving) teamed up with some 130w KC daylighters (long range).....Would this be a better choice? Any info or ideas would be great. Thanks.

 

[Cackalak Han]

People have been raving about the HID lights from Checker auto (or Kragen. Same store). A little over $100, I think.

 

[chrisngrod]

People have been raving about the HID lights from Checker auto (or Kragen. Same store). A little over $100, I think.

x2... If I had to do it again and wanted to save money I'd probably go this route.

AKA Oreilly I believe.

 

[Psychlone]

x3

I don't think I'll ever go back to traditional lights like halogen after seeing the effectiveness of HID and LED.

It's literally like night and day, and at a fraction of the wattage. One figure I've seen is that halogen is 12 lumens light output per watt. Compare that to 100 lumens/watt for HID and 60 for LED.

I've just bought a 35W HID flashlight (!) with a 3500 lumens output for almost 2 hours on one battery charge. Now my 4+2 roof rack mounted PIAAs look like a candlelight compared to the flashlight.

Haven't checked them in detail, but seems like VisionX has a lot of both HID and LED lights for offroad use. Might also be worthwhile looking at the Acro lights, you can get them at Magnalight... I'm not affiliated in any way with any of the vendors/products mentioned, by the way.

 

[Photog]

The HID's are great, if they are going to stay on for extended periods of time. If they will be switched on/off due to oncoming traffic, go with the halogens.

You are looking for 4 lights. Maybe 2 HID's and 2 halogen's, based on your expected usage.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

It really depends on what your expectations are. The 500's will throw a lot more light than any stock lamp, but the mounting is somewhat flimsy and the beam is not the best. I would recommend FF1000's as a good driving light. I have 2 on the bumper, and 4 FF500's on the roof. The FF1000's are vastly more effective at long range, and the FF500's I use for filling in the middle range over crests which they are pretty good at when mounted on the roof.

HID's would be nice, but for the added cost and complexity, I just don't see the need. I have all the light I could possibly need unless I was off-road racing. I also prefer the more yellow light of incandescents.

 

[HenryJ]

$100 HID. The difference really is night to day. I have switched them off and on for traffic periodically. I don't use them all the time, but when I do the amount of light is just amazing.

 

[hovenator]

You all have great info and good points. Photogs solution may be the best for my application. I will definitely check out those $100 H.I.D.'s. Does anybody have a night shot of them in use?

 

[HenryJ]

The first is quad beam HIRs headlamps. Those offer good light. The second is with two HID lights added. Good useable light at 1/4 mile out.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

See personally, I just prefer the halogens. The HID is noticably blue, and almost overly bright, the road doesn't seem to have much contrast.

 

[Photog]

The more blue a light gets, the more it hurts the eyes. This is called glare. Reflections off shiney surfaces is not glare.

The HID's get very close to a daylight color, which has a lot of blue in it, compared to most other light sources.

Some of the HID's come with lexan rock shields. I have seen these in amber colors, to tame the blue.

 

[jeepmedic46]

I personally like the Kc daylighters. Have used them on all my vehicles and have never had a issue with any of them.:smiley_drive: