Lighting Comparison

[SoCalMonty]

Can't stand the blue tinted lights...it washes out on black top and disapppears. I'd rather have the yellow tint of halogen.

 

[Big_Geek]

Good information here and, as I suspected, there is more to this conversation than I imagined. I was leaning toward the new ARB Intensity LED lights, but may steer back toward the Lightforce HID lights instead. I need to do more research. The Hella lights are intriguing and I will look into those as well. I plan to mount them on my bumper (primary reason I mounted up the bumper was to have a platform to install lights). Is there anything I need to be aware of with having the lights out front and that close together? I've seen many other rigs that were set up this way and hadn't considered that it might create issues.

 

[Hilldweller]

Good information here and, as I suspected, there is more to this conversation than I imagined. I was leaning toward the new ARB Intensity LED lights, but may steer back toward the Lightforce HID lights instead. I need to do more research.

Yes; do more research.
Both of those products are dubious at best.

The Hella lights are intriguing and I will look into those as well. I plan to mount them on my bumper (primary reason I mounted up the bumper was to have a platform to install lights). Is there anything I need to be aware of with having the lights out front and that close together? I've seen many other rigs that were set up this way and hadn't considered that it might create issues.

Mount them "cross-eyed" to work best as driving lights.

I don't want to sound like a broken record but spend some time here: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?87-Automotive-Motorcycles-Included

 

[Big_Geek]

take Hilldweller's advise...i did, and couldn't be more pleased. the hella 4000 euro beam with the 100w bulbs flat out rock.

I drive a lot of forestry roads, and remote northern BC to Alaska highways. The hardest thing is your eyes adjusting when you turn the lights off due to oncoming traffic.

This is somewhere in the neighborhood of $225 worth of kit as opposed to $1000 or $1500 for what I was looking at, so the next question (or assumption) is that more lights = better visibility. So, would it be worth putting another two or four of these on top of the vehicle in addition to the ones on the bull bar?

 

[Hilldweller]

This is somewhere in the neighborhood of $225 worth of kit as opposed to $1000 or $1500 for what I was looking at, so the next question (or assumption) is that more lights = better visibility. So, would it be worth putting another two or four of these on top of the vehicle in addition to the ones on the bull bar?

Well, excess is best.... :ylsmoke:

How much light do you need? How much spare juice do you have? What are you going to do with them?

Look at my Jeep (god rest her soul...) when I was finally "done" with her.
A set of good LEGAL JW Speaker #8700 (original glass series with the warmers) LED headlights, very bright 7" Trucklite LED driving lights, 4" Trucklite LED floodlights, & the stock 9145 foglights with yellow Hella bulbs.

I wanted to keep power consumption low and I wanted lights for the driving conditions I'd meet.
Good headlights for most conditions.
Driving lights would only go on with Highbeams. Foglights would only go on with lowbeams. Floods could go on with anything.
I liked this setup a whole bunch.

If I were to replace any of them, I'd have put the Hella Rallye 4000s in place of the 7" drivers; they work better. Much much better. But they're not as tough and they suck much more juice...
...so there's always a compromise of some kind.

 

[SSF556]

Or you could buy a Grand Cherokee, new harness and some HIR low/high bulbs....

: )


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[Hilldweller]

Or you could buy a Grand Cherokee, new harness and some HIR low/high bulbs....

Your lights are incredible.

You'll be at the Elk Watch, right?
We can put your Grand next to Rob's 60 and have the ultimate headlight shoot-out. He has the Hella 90mm HID projectors and has more raw power in theory. But we'll see.
Your bulbs are rated at a particular wattage --- that you're exceeding handily with the harness.

 

[SSF556]

Your lights are incredible.

You'll be at the Elk Watch, right?
We can put your Grand next to Rob's 60 and have the ultimate headlight shoot-out. He has the Hella 90mm HID projectors and has more raw power in theory. But we'll see.
Your bulbs are rated at a particular wattage --- that you're exceeding handily with the harness.

Yes I will be there.....


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[telemike]

For my Hummer H3: I hvae the Sylvania XTRA vision standard halogen bulbs 3500K. Any reason to choose the whiter lights, Xenon or LED bulbs that cost way more? Would I gain anything by LED bulbs in my fog lights? Or shoudl I put a higher watt bulb in my fogs?

 

[Lord Green]

Observations from watching passing off-road race cars while pitting in Baja. LED lights approaching on the highway looked very bright, but they did not reflect the signs 1/2 mile away. HID lights lit up those same signs.

 

[Hilldweller]

For my Hummer H3: I hvae the Sylvania XTRA vision standard halogen bulbs 3500K. Any reason to choose the whiter lights, Xenon or LED bulbs that cost way more? Would I gain anything by LED bulbs in my fog lights? Or shoudl I put a higher watt bulb in my fogs?

The H3 takes H13 bulbs, right? The Xtra Vision isn't terrible but you can get a Phillips Xtreme Power that will put out more light (better focus too).
http://store.candlepower.com/bfcopoh1390p.html

Avoid buzzwords like xenon, "white", "daylight", etc. All the halogen bulbs have xenon in them; it's a noble gas. They aren't arc discharge bulbs (xenon is what they call HID in Germany). And don't put LED replacement lamps in your foglights; the focus is very wrong because of filament placement ---- not safe or legal.
I don't know if there's a higher wattage bulb for your fogs; ask on CPF. It's a 9140, right?
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?87-Automotive-Motorcycles-Included

 

[SoCalMonty]

I gotta say, lighting has become a penis contest in recent years. If you can see the trail well enough to traverse it - then there's no need for more, other than bragging rights and comparing wang size.

Half the people I see with $2500 in LED lighting barely wheel at all, let alone at night. I've been in some serious **** in the middle of the night (Isham Canyon, etc) with E-code 7" Hellas in place of OEM US-spec headlights, and a pair of Comet 500's w/ 100w bulbs, and that was always more than enough to make bats squint.

If you're racing WRC at night and need to see a moose at 500 yards because you're sliding around turns at 60mph, that's one thing. But the 007 lighting doo-dads these days are seriously overkill.

Right now, I'm running 100w bulbs in stock headlights and a pair of $15 Pilot 4.5" rounds. Ultimately, I'd like 1 pair or driving and 1 pair of fogs for the front end, but even that is a little overkill for my taste (I feel weird having 6 forward lights, not to mention planning where to mount them...). I went with the Pilots because I am still trying to figure out my lighting plans for this truck, so these were a temporary solution. I'll post a pic after this weekend.

 

[Big_Geek]

So given all of this confusion around lighting, I finally decided how I was going to approach this problem:

There are guys on this forum that any manufacturer would happily give lights to for promotion. When I look at what they choose when they pay for the lights, it appears that there is a lot of Hella (look at Expeditions West older vehicles). Expeditions 7 is using Lightforce (looks like Genesis HIDs)' but I wonder if that was sponsorship or really a bias-free choice. I think I'm going to pick up Bill's recommendation and give them a shot. The one down-side to the Hellas seems to be that they break fairly easily, so driving around without a stone shield doesn't seem to be practical.

 

[Big_Geek]

Yes; do more research.
Mount them "cross-eyed" to work best as driving lights.

I have spent a bit of time reading here and, though there is some good information, there still does not seem to be any definitive answers (are there ever?).

After spending some time thinking about why I am even bothering to spend the time and money on these lights, I know that they will primarily be used as a supplement to my high beams when driving poorly illuminated (usually country, canyon, or national forest) roads. So, Bills' point about being legal seems spot on in this instance since they will not be used for extreme baja racing (unless I get into the soup in Mexico :sombrero or rock crawling.

I've got the regular aiming technique well in-hand, but I'm not sure about the degree to which you cross the beams and what crossover distance would be reasonable for this configuration. I assume the aiming would have an impact on the legality of using them on the road...

Thanks!

 

[Hilldweller]

Scheinwerfermann had written something about the cross-eyed mounting a while ago and I tried searching it to no avail. I pm'd him and asked for a quote on it; he's the expert and his advice is worth listening to.
Here's a thread on HID: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?183600-Best-HID-off-road-driving-lights

And I agree with post #29 for offroad lighting ---- I like the Optilux cheap-n-stinky HIDs for offroad retina-burners.
For legal driving lights that I'd spend my own money on, I'd stick with the Hella 4000 in a Euro beam. They come on almost instantly and don't break the bank.

I'll post Scheinwerfermann's response (if I get one...)

More good banter: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?348553-Driving-Light-Upgrade

Found one of the old crosseye references: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?354813-quot-Good-quot-set-of-driving-lights

With crosseye, you get some distance punch on/above the road, like the old "finger of light" that used to be advertised back when a certain type of sealed-beam headlamp came on the market, and your beams diverge to show the roadsides and curves starting at a usefully distant range in front of the vehicle. With walleye, you don't get distance punch and the beams diverge right at the vehicle, which means you're wasting light on areas too close to the car to be relevant once you're above about 30 mph.