Driving Lights for OffRoad

[cruiserpilot]

I just finished my HT-60 and am at what I call the 'candy store' stage of building. New bumper up front, tires and wheels, flares, and now driving lights. I used to use 2 5.5" aircraft landing lights on the front of my 73 Mustang for running the Alaska Hwy years ago. Lights have changed since then, and I've been looking. I found this article, and it does a side by side test of a bunch of lights, halogen and HID. Some I think only available in Australia.

http://www.ultimate4wdequipment.com.au/Uploads/Downloads/comparison-article4wdmonthly(1).pdf

I hope this helps everyone, I have no affiliation with any of these companies.

One thing that isn't covered is the new generation LED/HID light bars like
RIGID. Maybe someone can provide good comparision for those lights as well.

 

[prado t]

Light Force Striker 170 with 100w halogen bulbs.

I run HID headlights

 

[cruiserpilot]

I'm leaning towards the Cibie Oscar SC. They have a really great cornering beam, and since I'll
be keeping the cruiser at lower speeds, I'm looking at a wide beam pattern. Not sure I'm going to
make the $ jump to HID quite yet.

 

[inthewall]

How about led's? LED Lights | Off Road LED Light Bars | Military | Defense | Agriculture | Marine | Mining | Landscape | Police | Fire | Machine Vision | Rigid Industries I have the 30" and it has more light than I would ever need. Also, it doesn't draw very much power.

 

[cruiserpilot]

I looked at the LEDs. Is your 30" bar 3 watt or 10 watt bulbs? I was looking at them, a couple of trucks up here supposedly did a test, one with 2 Lightforce and one with a 9" 10 watt LED bar, and the guy said with the lightbar you couldn't even tell the Lightforce lights were on. I don't have any info but I find it kind of hard to believe. It really depends on what reflector angle is on the lights and light outputs, etc.
I will check the link and see, but Rigid Lights are really expensive, but the low draw may very well be determining factor.

 

[spressomon]

LED technology is gaining ground on the only real deficiency in their design: Long throw/distance lighting (compared to real HID lamps). VisionX and Rigid are making ground but I would venture to say it will be, at least, a couple years before they supplant HID lamps for true race speed long distance light illumination.

Having said that I've had several different lighting systems, including a few different LED bars, HID, etc. on the bumper of my LC. Currently I am using a 30" VisionX Prime Drive single array for the front facing lighting system.

A few of the advantages to a well made LED light system:
Incredible light wash from bumper out to medium distance
Zero filament bounce (they don't have filaments in the traditional sense)
Near zero striation patterns in the light wash
~50,000 hour lifespan
Instant on/off
Super efficient (relative) amp draw
Smaller/more flexible form factor
The light temp on my Prime Drive is perfect; the Lightforce HID's were too cool for my eyes

The vertical wash of light can be a benefit or a bane depending upon the application. For night-time trail work in the forest or even sage brush country where I live its fantastic. But in dust/snow not good at all!

This bar is good to about 50mph off-road; faster than this you'll still need HID to augment the LED array.


I have some comparison photos and info on Pages 6 and 7 of my ROTM build linked below. I have not updated this with my relatively new Prime Drive array though.

 

[NorCalBorn]

FWIW here are the Rigid Industries D-2 Floods on the front of my 4Runner w/ the amber filters installed. They're basically led's w/ focal lenses in front.

Without the filters.

Factory Low Beams.

Highs.

Rigid's.

I've had all but the Rigid's shut down and was still able to drive comfortably at speed in the dirt. You can easily get more distance out of them by mounting them up higher. The only reason I did not is not wanting to bother rigging up the roof system for them, and avoiding flare off of the hood edges diminishing my visibility.

 

[sl33p3]

GD you boys have some sexy lights... my wallet winces and my trigger finger itches.... (note i did not say "high beams" that would not be appropriate...)

i have 2x 130W KC pencil beams, happy so far, they throw light a LONG WAY, would like a little more brush/tree/deer near-field illumination, but then i should have bought the driving pattern, or another set altogether...

 

[nuclearlemon]

i'm very happy with my truck light leds.