Auxiliary lights

[Brian McVickers]

Ok with a rack full of Hella Rallye 4000s at $800 each at one end of the options and a flashlight from the dollar store held out the window while trying to drive on the other end!; What would those with lighting knowledge recommend for additional lighting.

I'm not concerned about looking cool with a bunch of spotlights but rather providing adequate lighting for safe driving.
The sort of lights I would use on a dedicated night time trial ride or on an afternoon trial ride that runs late into the night while you try and find a river crossing.

The first step may be to upgrade the light bulbs in the vehicles headlights, but beyond that?

Also there seems to be a wide price range for lights from $10 - $100 - $800.
What are the factors to consider:
Lenses, Reflectors, Bulbs, wattage, power efficiency...?

[Jonathan Hanson]

This should be a good thread.

Yes, short of a set of Hella HIDs with those steal-me-red rims there are a lot of good choices. I used to have a set of Cibie Oscars which were brilliant lights until the lenses got sandblasted after years of use. Now I run two big round IPF 130-watt lights on the front bumper. They throw a beautiful pattern, wide and even, and light up cows a half mile away. I think lights in this price range ($120 each) such as PIAA and Hella are probably all pretty good, although I hear reports of spotty quality control at Hella now and then. But for that money you get really good reflectors and lenses.

It's important that the lights are waterproof. A friend of mine went the Pep Boys route with his driving lights, and they lasted exactly one muddy trip through Apache country.

Personally I don't like mounting driving lights on the roof, although I know many will disagree. Unless they can be mounted back far enough, or shrouded, so they don't glare on the hood, I find them more of a distraction up there even though the coverage is theoretically better. Aerodynamics suffer as well if you're trying to keep your highway fuel mileage up. The guys over on Expedition Exchange just love to load up the roof racks of their Discos with as many lights as can possibly fit.

Cibies seemed to disappear from the American market for a while, but you can get them now from Daniel Stern Lighting. Don't know if the quality is the same as Cibies and Marchals of yore.

I drove a truck equipped with a set of Cibie pencil beams once. They threw a narrow cone of light an unbelievable distance, but I'm not sure it was useful except at seriously supra-legal speeds. I think one really good pair of driving lights and a headlight upgrade is sufficient for most off-road vehicles.

[Brian McVickers]

How about another couple of twists:

The difference between Fog Lights and Spot or Driving Lights

as well as

The differencen in size, huge round lights vs. smaller compact round, oval or square lights.

And the difference in Wattage ie, you often see 55w, 100w or 135w but the Hella 4000s only draw 35 watts?

[Scott Brady]

Brian,

I am not really that into lighting, and never on the roof (glare and trees, bad combo).

I have two Hella 4000 driving lamps on the front bumper and they are WAY more than I need. However, I am a fan of work lamps, the lights that allow you to see at camp, or while backing up. I use the Hella Matador.

On the Trooper, I only upgraded the headlights to PIAA's with a higher wattage high beam. Great coverage and distance.

The Lightforce lights are nearly indestructible, which wins major points with me.

[asteffes]

Here are some thoughts from my experience with different lights.


Beam patterns:

Fog beams - broad, wide spread, short distance, low to the ground to light up the sides of the road in poor visibility conditions.

Driving beams - narrower, longer-range, good for higher speeds.

Pencil beams - super-narrower, tightly focused beam for ultra-long-range applications. Pretty useless for most folks unless you're haulin' tail through a pitch dark stretch of desert and you need to see the kangaroos miles ahead.


Wattage:

Most common lights are 55 or 100 watts. This refers to the power consumption of the bulbs and, indirectly, the brightness of the light coming out of the lamp. More wattage means a hotter burning filament and more light. However, this brightness does not increase linearly with wattage, so after about 100 watts the benefits from brighter bulbs starts to fall off. Also note that the more current drawn and the bright the filament, the more heat that is created. Heat slowly destroys the tungsten filaments and causes bulbs to burn out more rapidly. In general, given the same quality bulbs, higher wattage bulbs do not last as long as lower wattages. Some of those wacky 130+ watt lamps also require constant movement to cool the lenses and bulbs to prevent burnout. ARB makes some 150 or 170 watt lamps that require such movement.


HID vs. Halogen:

Halogen bulbs use electric current to make a tungsten filament glow white hot. The halogen gasses inside the bulb allow the filament to burn hotter and brighter without combusting.

HID, or High Intensity Discharge, use a high voltage current to create an arc across two electrodes inside a xenon-filled capsule. They use less current (35 watts vs. the 55-135 in halogen lamps) but use a ballast to amplify the power up to around 30,000 volts to strike the arc. These lamps cost more, but provide incredible brightness and longevity. They also get stolen if a theif knows what he's after.

If you don't want to spring $500+ each for a set of Hella Rallye 4000 Motorsport HID lamps, you could buy a set of halogen Rallye 4000s and buy an HID retrofit kit that replaces the halogen bulbs with HID capsules. This can work well with good quality lamps (which have good reflectors and sharp lenses) or it can be awful with cheapy lamps that don't focus all the light properly. I have, for example, used an HID retrofit in a pair of Hella 500s and in the projector headlamps of my old Audi 90 (with RS2 headlamps), both of which focused the light very well, didn't blind anyone and provided phenominal lighting of the road.

Hope this helps.

[offroad_nomad]

I'm happy with my auxillary lighting, a combination of Hella 550s and Piaa 520s.

On the roof rack:
4 Hella 550s facing forward, 2 driving lights in the center with 2 fogs on either side. I also have a pair of 550 fogs on the rack facing the rear.

On my TJM bumper:
2 Piaa 520 fogs.

With daylight savings in effect, it gets dark early here. The additional lights makes a big difference on dark trails. Right now this combination suits my needs.

[BajaTaco]

I have used roof mounted lights with good success. I think it just depends on the vehicle and the lights. As Jonathan mentioned, if the lights are mounted far enough back on the roof, the glare is not a problem. It can be a huge problem if you get the light beam washing anywhere between the forward edge of the roof and the forward edge of the hood. Because I have an Xcab truck with a fairly long roof, the lights actually work really well from the front of the roof rack. A benefit to this location is that it offers some light "bleed" off to the sides of the truck, which allows you to see some details off-trail immediately outside the driver and passenger windows. Just draw an imaginary line from the proposed light mounting location to the front edge of the roof. If you then continue to extend this line forward at the same angle, if it hits the front of the truck before it hits the ground, then you might have problems with glare. If the imaginary line ends well out in front of the vehicle somewhere, then they will probably work fine. As Scott mentioned - trees can be an issue and are a risk that you take if you have glass lenses. This is one reason why I like the LightForce lights so much - they don't use glass.

Also keep in mind the weight. Some lights are freaking heavy with lots of steel and metal parts. Heavier lights not only add weight, but require more attention to bracing or they will vibrate like crazy. Another reason why I love the LightForce lights - they are LIGHT.

[blupaddler]

One thing to consider...You can have twelve HID lights worth $$$$ on your vehicle.

But, if you are on a trail run and aren't the "lead" truck, then you and your lights are useless.

[offroad_nomad]

Yea, I hear you. I don't like blinding the guys up front. When I'm not up front at night, I'll only illuminate my outboard fogs and not the center driving lights. The fogs are angled away from the center so that they cast their light mostly to the sides. Helps alot on turns and switchbacks.

One thing to consider...You can have twelve HID lights worth $$$$ on your vehicle.

But, if you are on a trail run and aren't the "lead" truck, then you and your lights are useless.

[goodtimes]

Something else to keep in mind when considering upgrading your factory headlights. By increasing the wattage of the bulbs, you are increasing the amp draw through the wiring harness. This can become an issue as more amperage will mean more heat....it is entirely possible to start a fire this way. So, be sure to do the math, and see if your wiring is up to the task. Going from a 55 watt headlight to a 110 watt headlight will literally double the amp draw.

FWIW, most factory harnesses are borderline with the typically available upgraded bulbs....meaning that the wires will likely heat up, but not enough to cause any damage. Obviously that will vary with manufacturer, and even model/year of the truck in question. But it is always better to be safe than sorry.