Auxiliary lights

mr natural · 11-07-09, 03:56 PM

I passed a whole line of Army vehicles on the highway yesterday - Hummers, big 2 ton trucks, etc. etc. It dawned on me that not one of them had any sort of auxiliary lights other than the two round headlights on the vehicle. Every off road vehicle seems to have at least one extra pair of lights bolted on somewhere, if not 2 or 3 extra pair.

What is the real origin of all these off road lights and are they really necessary?

I know the Baja and Paris/Dakar racers and the Camel Trophy sort of defined a lot of the "style" of offroad vehicles, and I still think that a lot of what is done to most offroad trucks is done for style reasons rather than utility.

rusty_tlc · 11-07-09, 08:27 PM

Driving at high speed through the desert at night it helps to have a broad field of view. When I ran aux lights I focused them such that I could "see around corners". This allowed me to anticipate turns and rough spots in the road. The longer range also lets you see cows, horses and other critters. I used mine a lot for "on road" driving through open range areas of rural Nevada, a couple of time they gave me that extra times that made the difference between a controlled stop and a panic stop or worse.

sandcruiser · 11-11-09, 03:55 PM

those military folk often drive in convoys and have only to see the vehicle in front of them

if you drive on dark roads.... extra light helps.

sandcruiser · 11-11-09, 03:56 PM

... and if you don't know if you need lights, you don't need them.

maniacv · 11-11-09, 06:33 PM

Who needs lights when we have NVGs??

Devilmans Hand · 11-11-09, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maniacv

Who needs lights when we have NVGs??

Pretty much. Lots of light is usually a bad thing unless it's attached to a weapon system. When military vehicles are driven on regular roads they must still comply with civilian rules, so big bright lights would not likely be allowed. Some armor even have turn signals.

NorCalBorn · 11-11-09, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maniacv

Who needs lights when we have NVGs??

Yep. Convoy+Surveillance+Scopes+Night Vision=No need.

sirenmoses · 11-12-09, 01:56 PM

And if you check out some of the rigs in the sticky'd Chat mil forum (link to come), the dudes actually in the shit want more lights than are issued. One of the 4wd shops actually matches up to $100 donation towards lights for those in-theater....

And my Daylighters definately help me see deer/ turkey/ coyote/ bear/ horse/ cattle/ chupacabre/ Bigfoot before the stock lights do. Not cuz I'm hunting 'em, but cuza the damage they can do...

80t0ylc · 11-13-09, 04:56 PM

It's the "need for speed" that demands the auxiliary lighting. The faster you travel at night, the further down the road and the wider vision you need to see the obstacles and potential critters that might jump in your path.

With that said, it's nice to have some aux. lights for different "reasonable speed" situations, such as fog lights or more powerful back up lights than OEM. But IMHO. I agree that most of the flashy high powered lights that you see are not necessary, and are installed for effect and not function.