Deciding on lighting...

[88Xj]

Currently I have 4 hella 500's, 2 fog 2 driving. And I 7" Kragen HID upgraded to 55w.

My original plan was to mount 2 hella 500ff driving lights on my bumper. 4, 7" Kragen HID, upgraded to 55w on the roof & then mount the other 2 hella 500ff fogs on the side of the jeep facing out, to light up around it. It still seems like a good idea to me, but its also 440W of light or about 37A. I want to be able to leave my lights running as the side lights will be camping lights but I fear its just to much amps..the 4 55W HID's will put out around 8500-9000 lumens & have a rediculous range, but I still need to buy 3 more, & upgrade them to 55W, or buy the 55W version..cost about 300-375 dollars.
This setup 44W of lift, 37A draw


Or my new plan, is to sell the Hella 500ff fogs & 7" Kragen HID, keep the Hella 500 driving lights on my bumper & buy a 20" Rigid LED SR hybrid bar to replace the HIDS. The 20" Hybrid SR would cost me 400, for a new one, thats whats making me think about it lol..It's about 6500 lumens, and won't reach as far as the 7" Kragen, but it'll give off more useable light every where.(25 meters wide x 350 meter long for the pattern). And its low profile, vs those big old HID's, less drag & less to see for thieves!.
And I would buy a set of normal Dually diffused for the side of my jeep, so I can leave them running for hours without worrying..they have more light than a Hell500 and because they only pull 1 AMP, they can be left on for hours!
This setup, 140W, with a 10.5A draw and 5amps are from the Hella's.


I'm truely thinking about buying this 20" LED bar. Its RIGID Brand, its brand new never ran..should have pictures of it in a few minutes.

 

[bat]

:Wow1: Why so many lights

 

[88Xj]

:Wow1: Why so many lights

Because I like to party

Well we do trail runs, whoops & wash board roads at around 50mph or so..and at those speeds and through all the dust you need to be able to see..and so your stuck running alot of lights..honestly with the 7" HID's, you either get a spot or a euro beam. The euros wide enough but not far enough, so I use the euro to light up close, the spots for far..the side lights, are mount around the Bpillar of the car, they are camping lights..I don't trail run with them one, I use them for light up the camping area, or for trail fixes so others can see!
I'm in the desert, and you need to be able to see lol. I've gone out many times with just 2 spot HID's on the roof and 2 hella fogs on the bumper & its not enough light.
Its alot of light in 1 area but not alot of useable light..so you end up running more lights to fill in the dark areas basically.

This is why I made the thread though. The hellas on my bumper are like every day lights, they are always one whenever my headlights are on. The LED will be wide & semi long range so it will take place of all the HIDs...I guess the thread is 4 55w HID's vs a 20" Rigid Sr bar.

 

[m1ashooter]

Why so many lights? Cuz lights are cool! :drool:

 

[pixelcodex]

Or my new plan, is to sell the Hella 500ff fogs & 7" Kragen HID, keep the Hella 500 driving lights on my bumper & buy a 20" Rigid LED SR hybrid bar to replace the HIDS. The 20" Hybrid SR would cost me 400, for a new one, thats whats making me think about it lol..It's about 6500 lumens, and won't reach as far as the 7" Kragen, but it'll give off more useable light every where.(25 meters wide x 350 meter long for the pattern). And its low profile, vs those big old HID's, less drag & less to see for thieves!.
And I would buy a set of normal Dually diffused for the side of my jeep, so I can leave them running for hours without worrying..they have more light than a Hell500 and because they only pull 1 AMP, they can be left on for hours!
This setup, 140W, with a 10.5A draw and 5amps are from the Hella's.


I'm truely thinking about buying this 20" LED bar. Its RIGID Brand, its brand new never ran..should have pictures of it in a few minutes.

I am or even going to question the amount of lighting. Although my rig does not yet have a good lighting solution(still deciding and why yours thread is interesting to me), I have what some people might call a lot on my bike. :roost:

My question is: where are you getting such a deal on a Rigid bar??? :bowdown:

 

[88Xj]

I am or even going to question the amount of lighting. Although my rig does not yet have a good lighting solution(still deciding and why yours thread is interesting to me), I have what some people might call a lot on my bike. :roost:

My question is: where are you getting such a deal on a Rigid bar??? :bowdown:

Well sir, a magician never tells his secrets But a buddy flopped his rig, never got his lights installed..so they are brand new in the box...I can get anyone here a set of Dually D2 driving patterns for about 290, vs 379 at Rigid...They are truely Rigid lights, & brand new, just selling cheaper.

 

[pixelcodex]

Wow, that is an awesome deal on those as well. Sadly, though lights are on my list of add-ons, I stil want to get other stuff before. Hopefully I can a deal like that when the time comes...

 

[Firehawkclone]

I'm using 6 Rigid D2's, 4 on the front 2 rear. My buddy Pat(gotshocker.com) and I just did a quick run up Freeway ridge/ black gulch creek trail last week. He runs a 50" E series😱. I only ran mine about half the time do to the snow. Most of the time it was just the stock lights(Kolak H4 PIAA). I've left these on for the kids to play w/o the engine running for over 4hours, along with the ARB fridge and stereo . I'm running dual diehard platinum battery's with Painless isolator. Started right up. Love the low draw of the LED's through out the jeep.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/firehawkclone/f4050dfd.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/firehawkclone/8fbe78ee.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/firehawkclone/92cd41c1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/firehawkclone/01a3f7e0.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/firehawkclone/600dcfa1.jpg

 

[88Xj]

Oh ya I'm deffinetly doing LEDs now that Ive thought it over.

 

[Septu]

I understand exactly why you want light. I ran 8 HIDs on my last JK (6 35w, 2 75w).

You said the Euro beam wasn't getting the distance you wanted. I played with a Rugged Ridge 7" 35w Euro beam (likely the same light as the Kragen (as all those seem to be the same). When I took it to the rifle range (when it was new), I was getting 550-600 yards with it.

The only 55w HIDs I've played with were ones used in my stock JK headlights briefly, and I was getting ~500 yards with those. The 75w HIDs I modified, I could get 600+ yards and they were aimed incorrectly (much too low).

Here's my question. You've said you want long distance lighting. Yet acknowledge that the LEDs will not project as far as your HIDs (and until technology changes, will remain the case). Yes more LEDs will give you a wider upclose beam... however will do nothing for distance. Yes you can leave them on forever without killing the battery... however how often do you leave your lights on without the vehicle running? Yes they're stealthier, but if they don't do exactly what you're looking for, then you're wasting your money.

Coming from someone who's spent over 2k on HID lighting over the last 18 mths (and will only re-use a small portion of it on the new JK), my advice is don't cut corners if you're looking for something specific. Do what research you can (and get better examples than "trust me, it's a good light").

Just my 2 cents. Hope it works for you.

 

[88Xj]

I understand exactly why you want light. I ran 8 HIDs on my last JK (6 35w, 2 75w).

You said the Euro beam wasn't getting the distance you wanted. I played with a Rugged Ridge 7" 35w Euro beam (likely the same light as the Kragen (as all those seem to be the same). When I took it to the rifle range (when it was new), I was getting 550-600 yards with it.

The only 55w HIDs I've played with were ones used in my stock JK headlights briefly, and I was getting ~500 yards with those. The 75w HIDs I modified, I could get 600+ yards and they were aimed incorrectly (much too low).

Here's my question. You've said you want long distance lighting. Yet acknowledge that the LEDs will not project as far as your HIDs (and until technology changes, will remain the case). Yes more LEDs will give you a wider upclose beam... however will do nothing for distance. Yes you can leave them on forever without killing the battery... however how often do you leave your lights on without the vehicle running? Yes they're stealthier, but if they don't do exactly what you're looking for, then you're wasting your money.

Coming from someone who's spent over 2k on HID lighting over the last 18 mths (and will only re-use a small portion of it on the new JK), my advice is don't cut corners if you're looking for something specific. Do what research you can (and get better examples than "trust me, it's a good light").

Just my 2 cents. Hope it works for you.

Let me rephrase, the HID have the distant..I think I said that, but the issue is they only light up a small area far away! So I needed more to fill in the black area which is where all the power draw comes from. Rugged ridge and Kragens are the same. I love them, but you need 4-6 to get the lighting you want! The thread was more or less about power and amp draw I guess.
I love my HID's..to easy to steal but otherwise I love them! Range wise, they are shooting a good 600 meters easy. But again at that distance, 2 lights doesn't cut it. I think the flood/spot pattern LED bar would give the same distance roughly but much more useable light up close, or to about 250 meters...Rigid's showing around 650 meters, and tons of light from 0-300 meters which is what I'm after I think...just kind of worded it wrong I guess.
And for me leaving the side view camping lights on it semi often. The hella 500ff ons there now haven't drained the battery, but I figured I'd upgrade to the normal Dually diffused setup..we do night wheeling or night fishing, and the jeep becomes the mobil command center pretty much. Everyone else has a crawler and I'm the ExPo guy who carries everything lol.

 

[hollaback55]

Less amps will mean overall better health of your electrical system and battery especially if you keep your lights on and like to party as you said. LED's wont project as far but then again do you really need them to go out that far? race teams running 80+mph through the desert definitely do but if your doing 30-50mph then i think the LED's would work just fine. I just went with a set of Baja Design Squadrons's, they work for what i need and the space of where i wanted to mount them b/c of their compact size. They put out 3600 lumens each but the price reflects that type of performance. If you can get the Rigid and the Dually's at those prices i'd jump all over it in a heartbeat.

 

[88Xj]

Less amps will mean overall better health of your electrical system and battery especially if you keep your lights on and like to party as you said. LED's wont project as far but then again do you really need them to go out that far? race teams running 80+mph through the desert definitely do but if your doing 30-50mph then i think the LED's would work just fine. I just went with a set of Baja Design Squadrons's, they work for what i need and the space of where i wanted to mount them b/c of their compact size. They put out 3600 lumens each but the price reflects that type of performance. If you can get the Rigid and the Dually's at those prices i'd jump all over it in a heartbeat.

I bought the Sr. Its a 20" hybrid beam, and will be selling it for 475..made 80 bucks on it. Didn't expect that to happen, but I found a local shop whos starting up in the LED world. Talked with the owner, I know one of their fab guys. But I will be getting their first 30" bar, similar to the Rigid Eseries. Dual row, 4 more LED's I guess.. I'll be getting it for 250 bones:Wow1: They just want me to promote them sort of..I will not be saying their light is that & this if its not. I'll just be posting pics of its output, showing what it can do, distance, width and such. They are already established as a great shop, so it'll be up the people.

I've second guessed Rigid, when I saw the 6" vs 6" done by Aurora. People claim they are the low end LED bars, but Aurora procuded more light in distance and width with the same size & same number of LEDs. They will be doing a test on a 30" vs 30" as well.
And I don't out run my HID's when going fast, but they don't give enough light when crawling as I do both. And it made me run 4 of them, and I'm ok with the light output now, but not happy with the power draw. I'm certain the 30" LED spot/flood hybrid will give me the light I need for crawling and the distance I need for running the desert at speed.

http://www.kpd4x4.com/aurora-led-4x...ght-bars-test-brighter-than-rigid-industries/

and check this out..same aurora here.
http://laserpointerforums.com/f66/review-aurora-ak-p7-5-led-light-52498.html
Not to dog Rigid but don't always believe the cheaper lights are crappier I guess. Once I bought the Rigid I searched and found all this..I'm happy to be selling in only because I want a dual row LED not the single row like the SR. HAd this been dual row like the E series I would of kept it. But now this local shop, I've known for a few years is starting up, I'll be going through them, unless the turn out to be complete crap..if so I'll go to Aurora!