Need help choosing off-road lights!

[Hilldweller]

The best bang for your money is still halogen driving lights. You can get anywhere from 55 to 150 watt stainless steel for less than $50.00 and they will out distance ANY LED's. they might not look like what everyone else is running or be sexy but they will light your way! My truck has two 100W driving lights for long distance illumination and two 55W fogs to illuminate the sides of the trails:

X2.
Halogen's CRI is nearly 100%, they come on instantly, are easy to source on the road, and have the best spread of light for seeing far down the road.
I like the Hella Rallye 4000 Euro beam.


BTW, I wouldn't use RainX on JW Speaker headlights or anything else with a polycarb lens. Solvents cause crazing and degrade the anti-scratch coating.
Use Plexus.

For quick cleaning, hydrogen peroxide mixed with distilled water in a squirt bottle and a microfibre towel.

 

[comptiger5000]

easier to ignore "yellow snow" flecks

This is exactly why my fogs are yellow (although they're halogen). For the times when you can't prevent glare, making it yellow is much easier on the eyes. And for when there's not too much glare and you're moving slowly, running the fogs + low beams provides 2 different colors from 2 different angles, which makes seeing ruts and ground contours very, very easy.

I'll grab some pictures of my lighting setup one evening this week.

 

[04Ram2500Hemi]

I've been really happy with my Vision X Lights that I've mounted behind the grill. The bottom row of lights is half distance, and then half for wide angle. The upper bars are all for distance. I also added some lights to my back bumper because there's times at night when the factory back up lights just aren't enough.

 

[nyrikki]

X2.

BTW, I wouldn't use RainX on JW Speaker headlights or anything else with a polycarb lens. Solvents cause crazing and degrade the anti-scratch coating.
Use Plexus.

For quick cleaning, hydrogen peroxide mixed with distilled water in a squirt bottle and a microfibre towel.

When you are on the Haines Highway, with one open gas station and no motel for another 150 miles and the last car you saw was an hour ago plastic longevity is really not a concern I really do like their light output in the summer time but I had decided that they are unsafe within the first hour of using them on that road and that they were going to be replaced. I stopped at a rest area on the Klondike highway and met someone driving a late 80's Ford Tempo with milky white headlights and they actually had better light than these LED lights. They are being pulled of and being replaced today with the stock units. I know Truck lite sells a heated version but IMHO these lights are not safe at all without it.

 

[Hilldweller]

When you are on the Haines Highway, with one open gas station and no motel for another 150 miles and the last car you saw was an hour ago plastic longevity is really not a concern I really do like their light output in the summer time but I had decided that they are unsafe within the first hour of using them on that road and that they were going to be replaced. I stopped at a rest area on the Klondike highway and met someone driving a late 80's Ford Tempo with milky white headlights and they actually had better light than these LED lights. They are being pulled of and being replaced today with the stock units. I know Truck lite sells a heated version but IMHO these lights are not safe at all without it.

JWS is working on a heated version. The TL heated doesn't work well from the tests I've seen.
Have you tried a Hella with a big bulb? http://www.rallylights.com/hella-he...p-with-hella-e-code-h4-headlamps-sm6024j.html
Using a harness, these things really pump out the LUX with Osram Rallye bulbs. The Hella E-code lamps aren't the ideal beam but might be suitable for you. The highbeam is a little too high and lowbeam is a little too low ---- hard to adjust. But a wicked highbeam would help in your situation.

They had the best highbeam performance out of all the 7" lights I tested. And they're pretty darn warm.

 

[kojackJKU]

JWS is working on a heated version. The TL heated doesn't work well from the tests I've seen.
Have you tried a Hella with a big bulb? http://www.rallylights.com/hella-he...p-with-hella-e-code-h4-headlamps-sm6024j.html
Using a harness, these things really pump out the LUX with Osram Rallye bulbs. The Hella E-code lamps aren't the ideal beam but might be suitable for you. The highbeam is a little too high and lowbeam is a little too low ---- hard to adjust. But a wicked highbeam would help in your situation.

They had the best highbeam performance out of all the 7" lights I tested. And they're pretty darn warm.

That's whats going into my Jeep. At least there is heat to melt the snow/ice/slop we get. and with 100w High beams, we should have close to the output as my truck lites and more than the JWs.

 

[comptiger5000]

That's whats going into my Jeep. At least there is heat to melt the snow/ice/slop we get. and with 100w High beams, we should have close to the output as my truck lites and more than the JWs.

Agreed. I run e-code housings with 55/100 H4 bulbs in my ZJ and they do the job quite nicely. And they fit the "it looks stock but isn't" image well too.

 

[Alphonse]

Santa just dropped these off last night. Baja Designs XL80 4" pods...



Installed them this morning. All the hardware and brackets are stainless and the wiring harness uses waterproof connectors. Really nice stuff! These replaced some 8" KC halogen spotlights. I can tell they are way brighter even though it's daytime, I asked my wife to look out the window and turned them on she is still seeing spots 5 mins later. Not a wise move on my part, lol.

Will have to wait until tonight to aim them properly and get the full impact, but really happy so far!

 

[kojackJKU]

Please find a dark road and get some down road shots. Don't care about photos at the lights....that's useless, lets see down the road shots! thanks!

 

[Alphonse]

Please find a dark road and get some down road shots. Don't care about photos at the lights....that's useless, lets see down the road shots! thanks!

Yes sir, I will just need to wait for dark, lol! I will get some tonight!

 

[kojackJKU]

Ha ha for sure...You in florida?

 

[Alphonse]

Ha ha for sure...You in florida?

Yes, Boynton Beach Florida! Still waiting for it to get dark to aim and fully evaluate but check out this daytime picture taken with cell phone. That's JW Speaker LED headlight high beams, JW Speaker LED Fogs, and new XL80's all turned on. The XL's completely shame the high beams, lol

 

[kojackJKU]

right on. I have a house in Zephyrhills...how far away are you?

 

[Alphonse]

right on. I have a house in Zephyrhills...how far away are you?

I'm on the southeast coast about 15 mins south of Palm Beach. Probably 3 hours from zephyr hills I think?

And finally here's some pics!

Scene 1 is a 2 lane road with a stop sign where the road terminates at a main road about 1/8th mile ahead. This is with JW Speaker Headlights (lowbeam) and Fog Lights:


Scene 1 now add XL 80's:


Scene 2 is a wharehouse area with a chain link fence about 75 meters ahead. This is shown with JW Speaker Headlights (lowbeam) and Fog Lights:


Scene 2 now add XL 80's:


Scene 3 is a 2 lane road which ends into a parking lot and signs about 1/4 mile up the road. Shown with JW Speaker Headlights (lowbeam) and Fog Lights:


Scene 3 now add XL 80's:


In conclusion... I can't imagine anyone not doing the Baja 1000 would possibly need more light than what a pair of these XL80's put out. I'm also thrilled with the color temperature it matches my headlights perfectly and is pleasing to the eye (not blue at all).

 

[HAFICON]

Man so much good info... I love the old KC round look, but the amp draw is massive compared.. I known there are some great round options for LED/HID but for the amount of use my lights will get I can not justifi it... I'm thinking KC long range Apollo lights..