Lets talk off road lights (1 Viewer)

[JJHACK]

What is the best off road light set for about 500 bucks. I will wire direct with 10 gage wire, and a relay. So the control and power is not an issue. Just the absolute baddest brightest off road light you can get for about 500 bucks or so.

PIAA makes an Extreme white, there are also HID lights but I need personal experience from you guys.

 

[73slinger]

What is the best off road light set for about 500 bucks. I will wire direct with 10 gage wire, and a relay. So the control and power is not an issue. Just the absolute baddest brightest off road light you can get for about 500 bucks or so.

PIAA makes an Extreme white, there are also HID lights but I need personal experience from you guys.

this is what i'll eventually replace my lights with..

light it up

check out the table at the bottom and compare lumens and watts.. i think i saw somewhere that a 100W bulb compares to an 18W LED light... just somethin to think about..

 

[fieldsken1]

these lights are only 220 a pair and they are 35 watt hids and they are a good bang for the buck. they are being sold under differant names so check ebay. if you want good lights they will cost about 1100 a pair. they come in 4 inch and 7 inch. hella sells the 4 inch under the name optilux and rugged ridge sells them also

 

[Fast Eddy]

I find that with an fj40 you don't really need super bright lights. You're not desert racing. I'm pretty happy with 3x Hella 500s that I got for $75 plus Hella e-code headlights. If I upgraded them all to 100w bulbs they'd be pretty badass, but I like that they're almost legal. I use them on the street all the time.

these lights are only 220 a pair and they are 35 watt hids and they are a good bang for the buck.

Thinking about trying out a set of these. I'd like to see a beam pattern.

this is what i'll eventually replace my lights with..

light it up

check out the table at the bottom and compare lumens and watts.. i think i saw somewhere that a 100W bulb compares to an 18W LED light... just somethin to think about..

Spend your $1500 on their top-of-the-line and compare it to four of the above-mentioned HIDs at 1/3 the price. Lumens don't multiply the way they are implying. LEDs are far and long from replacing HIDs. They do rock for interior, signal and rock lighting.

 

[fieldsken1]

hey eddie the hids i am talking about do well. they do have an euro beam pattern. they do have a 6000k bulb in them. wish it was a 4200 but they still are bright enough to see trust me. i did try to take a picture but it did not come out to well because of surrounding light. they only draw 3.5 amps so you really dont need to use a relay but i did anyway. also dont brother buying the 100 watt bulb i did buy the piaa extreme white 110 watt 55 amp bulb and it was a waste of money. i got the 500s lights for 90 dollars and the bulb was 60 dollars equals 150 2 hid are 220 better deal

 

[ducktapeguy]

When I used to do a lot of night driving, I had some 4200K HID's, but ended up switching them to Lightforce 170's (about $250 a pair) because I just wasn't happy with the HID's.

Visually the HID's looked brighter if you were looking at the car, but from the drivers seat the natural light of the Lightforce's were just a lot easier on the eyes while driving. The color rendition of the HID's just made it a lot more tiresome on the eyes after long periods of driving, and didn't seem to penetrate the terrain very well. It's kinda hard to explain, you just have to go out and see for yourself. The other reasons I decided to go back to incandescents were because the slow startup time of HID's aren't that great for auxiliary lighting if you're turning them on and off a lot.

Plus you can adjust the beam spread on the Lightforce, so you could go from a narrow pencil beam for highway use to a wider flood for off-roading. I rarely did that, just kept one narrow and one wide, but it's nice to have the option. If the 100 watt bulbs aren't bright enough for you and you're willing to do some electrical work, you could swap them for 250W 24V bulbs and get huge amounts of light. There are even 400W 36V bulbs which are insanely bright, but you gotta be careful about melting the housings.

There's a point of diminishing returns for lights, at some point you're not getting more light for your money, but maybe better quality and a brand name.

 

[1973barnfind]

I'm currently in your position, I want to put a custom roof rack (I know a good local builder) and some offroad lights. I don't know if I want to buy top end HID's from Hella, or if I want to go to the flea market and pick up some questionably hot Kc's for a fraction of the price. either way, I'm just looking at all my options for lighting, as the OEM sealed halogen lights don't do justice.

 

[JohnnyC]

I've always liked the Hella 500 series lights...about 1/2 the price of a HID

heres a pic of my hella 500 amber fog lights....they come amber fog, clear fog and driving lights

 

[Mark W]

take a look at the lights here:

HID Off Road Lights 55 watts


The prices look very reasonable and the beam patterns look crisp and tight.

I have not used these HIDS. But I have used Eagle Eye brand driving lights. I have had one set of Eagle Eye 9 inch driving lights for years. They are identical in every way to a set of IPFs that I have except that there is a blank rectangle where the brand letters are on the lens of the IPF.


Mark...

 

[Mark W]

If the 100 watt bulbs aren't bright enough for you and you're willing to do some electrical work, you could swap them for 250W 24V bulbs and get huge amounts of light. There are even 400W 36V bulbs which are insanely bright, but you gotta be careful about melting the housings.

How would you get 24V from a 12V charging system?


Mark...

 

[Mark W]

I find that with an fj40 you don't really need super bright lights. You're not desert racing.

Gotta disagree. If you travel backroads and dark empty highways in any area where deer or moose or cattle or any other big dumb critter is commonly wandering, you can't have too much light.


Mark...

 

[Fast Eddy]

take a look at the lights here:

HID Off Road Lights 55 watts


The prices look very reasonable and the beam patterns look crisp and tight.

The biggest drawback to the generic ones above (orange rings) is the plastic housing. I have read at least one review where it cracked after extended driving in baja.

These are all steel. Nice. Similar price too. Unfortunately their images are copyrighted so I can't show them here.

 

[ducktapeguy]

How would you get 24V from a 12V charging system?

Mark...

The easy way is to have 24V system.. The quick and dirty way is to have separate SLA batteries wired up to switch between series/parallel for charging. The right way would be to use a step up DC/DC converter but one's that can handle that kind of amperage aren't cheap plus you'd probably have to upgrade the charging system and run dual batteries to handle it.

I made a 400W prototype which put out an incredible amount of light, but the work involved to install it just wasn't practical. I shelved the project after my friend destroyed my Lightforce's on the front of his rally car. Now I have some PIAA racing lights with H4 90W/135W bulbs. So far those are the highest wattage bulbs I was able to find for a 12V system.

 

[Mark W]

The easy way is to have 24V system.. The quick and dirty way is to have separate SLA batteries wired up to switch between series/parallel for charging. The right way would be to use a setup up converter but one that can handle that kind of amperage aren't cheap plus you'd probably have to upgrade the charging system and run dual batteries to handle it.

I made a 400W prototype which put out an incredible amount of light, but the work involved to install it just wasn't practical. I shelved the project after my friend destroyed my Lightforce's on the front of his rally car. Now I have some PIAA racing lights with H4 90W/135W bulbs. So far those are the highest wattage bulbs I was able to find for a 12V system.

Kinda my point. A hell of a lot more work and expense and "thingies to go wrong" than it would be worth.



Mark...

 

[ducktapeguy]

Kinda my point. A hell of a lot more work and expense and "thingies to go wrong" than it would be worth.



Mark...

You're absolutely right, but a lot of people have the same opinion about driving a 30+ year old truck. Lots of things can't be justified from a practical point of view, but how can you put a price on fun?

 

[ducktapeguy]

this is what i'll eventually replace my lights with..

light it up

check out the table at the bottom and compare lumens and watts.. i think i saw somewhere that a 100W bulb compares to an 18W LED light... just somethin to think about..

Like Fast Eddy said, the LED technology aren't even close to replacing HID or even incandescent. LED's dominate at lower powers, once you start pushing them hard their efficiency goes way down. Also, when you factor in the color temperature and ability to actually put light down the road, it's not as simple as just comparing lumen ratings.

 

[73slinger]

Like Fast Eddy said, the LED technology aren't even close to replacing HID or even incandescent. LED's dominate at lower powers, once you start pushing them hard their efficiency goes way down. Also, when you factor in the color temperature and ability to actually put light down the road, it's not as simple as just comparing lumen ratings.

interesting... i've never actually researched it out til now...and you guys are right! i retract my previous statement from above... seems like HID would be the way to go over all...

thought about putting in a HID conversion kit for the headlights on my 73 (which would require a new housing that uses an H4 bulb type).. i did the conversion kit on my 08.. they def light up the trail..

just replace the sealed beems with a set of these roundeyes and then do a HID conversion kit... the housings would be able to handle it as HID's only run a 35W.. which means they don't get as hot as the 55/60W bulbs the housings are designed for... now you've got the best of both worlds...HID's and replaced weak factory headlamps...

 

[bomb69tech]

I say go with the Rigid Industries 20" LED Light bar. I have the 10" on my 40 and it is wicked bright.