Hella 4000's...kinda dissapointed

[Boston Mangler]

The Hella's have great coverage. Keep in mind, they are, and have been the choice of rally and night racers for decades.

Yes, the HID ones! Every Baja racer that i have come across or worked with uses HID in one form or another, either the Hella Rallyes of the new Vision X.

Only the lowest budget racers are still using Halogens!

Again, my HIR bulb upgrade is more then enough light for me! I did both my lows and my highs and with the HIR's on high beam it is perfect! Dont really see any need for more light!

 

[IdahoDoug]

I'm going to nominate Cary's 2nd sentence above in post 19 as the best input on this thread so far. That is indeed what often happens - people are looking for a white hot spot somewhere in the pattern to make them feel warm and fuzzy that they got their money's worth. Driving all night behind a professional grade Hella or other top brand with properly distributed light and no hot spots will demonstrate their value.

As for HID lights, I'll parrot Cary again in that the frequencies they put out are not ideal. As a 24 hour mountain bike racer, I've used several nice lights and often the choice of night racing illumination can mean the difference between a successful race and serious injury. So, we make these choices carefully. I have a high end HID lamp and can tell you that it's nice and bright but fatiguing to use due to flashback from dust, and even from humidity in the air. They also tend to "flatten" shadows, meaning they distort the depth of holes and such. Yes, I'll race with it because of the overall output, but there are drawbacks I would not want to accept in an all night drive on the public roadway. You can see every swirling little pollen grain in the air in front of your eyes, and the same phenomenon happens with HIDs on cars. Yes, some of the offroad racers use them because these are the current rage and their sponsor says so.

Great way to see this phenomenon yourself is to get an LED flashlight and a regular incandescent flashlight and go for a walk in a dusty area with one in each hand. I would not choose an HID setup for a daily driver, or frankly for any application at all when there are such butt kicking incandescent lamps out there. Also, price a spare HID bulb if you want to know how pissed off you're going to be trying to find one in Moab, and seeing the price tag....

DougM

 

[mot]

Steve,

I'm not sure if you knew but I have a set of Hella 4000(Luminator) HID driving lights (actually have two sets, but...) that I used while visiting Utah earlier this month.

I have no experience with the halogen counterpart, but when I turned them on it just blew me away. Now I'm not trying to sell you mine because I'm not selling them (keeping them both for myself ).

I believe the color is right around 4200k, which is not quite as bluish as the ones that are popular nowadays like 6000k and beyond.

I only used them on short stints and while I would not recommend on turning them on and off to often for durability, if you can leave them on for at least 20 seconds at a time they are just plain super! I would use the phrase "night and day" without reservation.

I'm not here to argue Cary or Doug here, but this is just my opinion. I've said it in another thread but my buddy who went down to Moab with me (he's very familiar with Moab) screamed "HOLY s***!!!" when I turned them on, and he usually does not curse.

Anyway, I guess you can take my comments with a grain of salt.

Mot

BTW, did I tell you I also have two pairs of the Hella FF1000's that ranked 3rd in the HID shootout in the above-mentioned article in Utah?

Good luck with your quest!

 

[airlaird]

Well I "re-tuned" them last night and it's a little better. I raised them higher up. Anyway, Yes, Mot the HID's would be cool, but as Doug said in post 22, I bet the bulbs are very expensive to replace. I guess I'll keep what have..maybe add a 3rd Hella for the ARB bar.
airlaird

 

[Boston Mangler]

As a 24 hour mountain bike racer, I've used several nice lights and often the choice of night racing illumination can mean the difference between a successful race and serious injury. So, we make these choices carefully.

As do trophy truck drivers going over 100mph at night in the desert! Driving through just about every condition known to man!

 

[mot]

... but as Doug said in post 22, I bet the bulbs are very expensive to replace.

If you stick with reputable companies they usually rate 2,000 hrs for their lifespan.

I had a pair of Sylvania Xenarc HID assist lights before installing the Hella's and it had made driving after dark more enjoyable than w/o. And I liked what I saw everytime I turned on the Hella's even more, but that was not in a dusty condition, nor driving at high speed. So who knows, I might not be raving about them as much if I had used them in a different condition/application.

I think I'll keep mine for now though.

 

[mot]

This is all I could get...

You've seen enough pics of the 4000's on the 80, so here you go...

My ride during my recent trip:


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I painted the rims because I thought they would look better black, as well as trying not to draw too much attention.

I think I want to paint the back in the same color the next time.

BTW, thanks Doug, for the films. They fit like gloves!

 

[Photoman]

It is also possible to use 130 watt bulbs in the Hella 4000’s. That’s the bulbs I used and they put out a considerable amount of light (and heat). I ran with 5 of them so it is important to have a good battery and alternator. Lots of amp draw. Here is a picture of the box with the part number.

Bill

 

[cary]

Re: HID on the off road race cars. Yes they do use HID's, but one main reason is current draw. When you are running a race car, weight is a big concern. Big alternators and batteries weigh a lot, and running 4-6 100 watt bulbs draws between 30-40 amps. Compare that to the 35 watts drawn by each HID and you end up dropping that current draw for 4 lamps down to right at 10 amps.

Like doug I have an HID mountain bike lamp, and also have HID lamps in one BMW car, with another having HIR bulbs in a similar projector with a similar pattern. I would take the HIR lamps in a heartbeat. They are not as bright, but the superior CRI of an Indacedent makes all the difference in the world. There is much more to a lamp than color temperature, you have to look at the full spectrum output, and HID lamps have a limited spectrum while Incadecent bulbs have a very smooth and full spectrum output.

Also, note that there has been a shift away from HID lamps back to standard lamps in new cars. This has occured as standard lamps have become more efficent (new multireflector designs are nearly twice as efficient as lens and reflectors from 5-10 years ago). This means for each lumen of light bulb output, you are getting nearly twice as much light out of the front of the lamp. Then the incadecent bulbs are getting brighter (look at H7 bulbs which are about 1700 lumens). The bottom line is that new incadecent lamps in cars are putting out more total lumens on the road than the earlier HID lamps, with a far better CRI.

Check out this link about CRI:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/disadvantages/disadvantages.html

 

[PKP80]

I run 4 hella blk magic across the roof, with the bulbs upped to 100w. all are pencil, I like.....one day upgrade to 4 Hella HIDS....baja style now that is daylight.

 

[SunTzuMD]

I just put a set of the Hella 3000 compacts (euro beam) on my ARB wired up with a slee off road auxillary harness. My HIR bulbs are so bright that it's hard to notice a big difference. Can I run the H1 100w bulbs in these? The light housing is the same as the 4000's, the difference is the mounting body is plastic.

Stock FZJ80, no other electrical add ons.