I would go with the hella housings because I KNOW they work correctly. And just try the 500s with an HID kit in them first....do not go above 4300k or you get that stupid blue light and less output. I only have one set of 500s in the driving beam with 55w HID and they work awesome for every driving situation in clear nights THAT I have ever come across. I drive more in the night than most people here drive ALL year. I think I remember the "self Proclaimed lighting expert" drives 12,000 miles in a year. I put 35-40,000 miles on IN THE NIGHT. I know what works and what does not work when I comes to lighting, NO Amazing gadgets or ties to JW speaker or GOD stern needed.
off road light housing
- Thread starter punisher1130
- Start date
I would go with the hella housings because I KNOW they work correctly. And just try the 500s with an HID kit in them first....do not go above 4300k or you get that stupid blue light and less output. I only have one set of 500s in the driving beam with 55w HID and they work awesome for every driving situation in clear nights THAT I have ever come across. I drive more in the night than most people here drive ALL year. I think I remember the "self Proclaimed lighting expert" drives 12,000 miles in a year. I put 35-40,000 miles on IN THE NIGHT. I know what works and what does not work when I comes to lighting, NO Amazing gadgets or ties to JW speaker or GOD stern needed.
punisher1130
Adventurer
Umm I have a dodge, where did jeep headlights come from? I'm not saying I wont try the hella and hid conversion, I am just gathering info to see if my original thought would work or not for what I am looking for.
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No no, I am talking hellas. Just mr. dweller thinks he's the **** when it comes to lighting and that his way or the highway. I was just making a point to him.
I run just two 500s and there is great light output out far, and in close as well, but not to much in close to super saturate the forground like LED bars do.
I run just two 500s and there is great light output out far, and in close as well, but not to much in close to super saturate the forground like LED bars do.
punisher1130
Adventurer
I figured that much but I got lost when the JW speakers were mentioned. Back to my question though, would it be worth buying the lights I mentioned and getting the hid conversion kits for them?
I don't know to be honest. I have no idea what they are like. That is why I recommend hella product. I have used everything I mentioned. I know what works with hellas and what doesn't. The other light I would look at for a conversion is IPF 968s, they are a dual beam sort of a flood and spot in one round housing. They work quite well with HID as well. They do not throw light as far as my hellas, but do throw it a bit wider. That being said, for the cost of a set of ipf, you can have the hella 500s and HID.
punisher1130
Adventurer
From what I seen in videos, the round ones are straight spot lights, u can see the beam clear as day there is no real spread just a straight beam. As for the rectangle ones, there aren't many videos I could find but the ones I did find, to me, they look like they have a decent flood patter similar to the spread of headlights but no clear beam. Both of them have crappy bulbs that aren't very bright but that could be fixed with hid lights.
I have had both of the housings I mentioned in my hands, both have glass leans though only the round one is a metal housing, the rectangle ones are a heavy duty plastic and when I say heavy duty I mean it does have some heft to it so its not some cheap p.o.s. housing, at least in my opinion anyway I haven't found any reviews on that specificly.
I have had both of the housings I mentioned in my hands, both have glass leans though only the round one is a metal housing, the rectangle ones are a heavy duty plastic and when I say heavy duty I mean it does have some heft to it so its not some cheap p.o.s. housing, at least in my opinion anyway I haven't found any reviews on that specificly.
punisher1130
Adventurer
I'm hoping there is enough space behind them that I don't have to mod too much and since the round ones are 100w bulbs i think those are already set with extra space, I could be wrong though since I haven't opened either one up to know for sure but there is only 1 way to find out. I did look up the hella conversions out of curiosity and there is a couple videos showing how to do it, very straight forward but I think I will tinker with the others first since they are cheaper then the hella lights.
punisher1130
Adventurer
Will do, there are a couple videos that people already did it and they seem to be pretty damn good just no how to videos though I think its pretty straight forward.
punisher1130
Adventurer
Agreed.
RotorHead04
Observer
When it comes to budget lighting, and lots of it I figured I would chime in with my $0.02. I had some cheap round Walmart tractor lights on the front bumper of my truck that worked great for years until we got some Texas sized hail that killed them and every other living creature in the storms path a few years ago. I think I paid $10 per light plus switch, fuse, and some wiring. For under $60 is was an amazing and cheap set up! Like all survivors I knew I would rebuild after the storm.
Having received a promotion from grease monkey mechanic on airplanes to parts guy (and now helicopter pilot) I decided to go with some landing lights. I figured I could get them cheap ($19 each) and make it work.
The big and first problem I faced was getting a housing for them. Harbor freight saved the day. I dropped in and purchased 4 of these bad boys.
I immediately went home and removed the cheap lights from the rubber housings and installed my new landing lights and they fit perfect! So I reinstalled them right where the old lights were.
The next big hurdle I faced was the amount of power these consume, they are 14v 250w lights. My buddy and I determined we would need 10 gauge wire and 20 am relays to make this work. Cheap wire and a single fuse was not going to cut it. So I scavenged some wire from work, bought lots of relays, a fuse block, fuses, and dug up some switches that came off a Cessna Citation 501. You know you're cool when your truck has jet parts, talk about added horse power! I also opted for the jet switches because they are 20 amp circuit breaker switches as a backup if a relay fails, the switch should save my truck from burning down. We ran the lights on two switches, one powering the inner two, the other running the outer two which are slightly angled out.
We managed to get everything installed and working like it should. I am not good at the whichcraft we call wiring and electricity but thanks to a very good friend, having access to parts at the hangar, and a very understanding wife we knocked it out. We started the wiring process around 6 pm and had the lights running by 2 am! We had other projects going on as well, installing and wiring a 3rd battery, power inverter, and fridge. I did make the mistake of doing all this the night before leaving on a +3,000 mile adventure which is why we stayed so late making sure we had it going. I would highly recommend doing any install when you are not pressed for time, and having a friend who knows more about electricity and relays than you do. Do it right the first time, don't just "make it work." Thats what made this all possible.
Three things I was not prepared for after the install. One is the enormous amount of heat these light put off. I would not drive thru a field of tall grass with these on, guaranteed to ruin the field you are in and subsequently your day. They do not get hot enough to melt the rubber housing but they certainly get toasty. When you turn them off the element continues to glow while they cool down for 3-5 seconds. Two, as someone else mentioned, they do turn the night to day and every street sign that reflects anything reminds you of that as you drive by squinting until its behind you. I use them all the time at night and they work great! I only ever switch one set on at a time because they are so bright, you don't need all 4 (unless oncoming traffic decides to high beam you). Lastly I like the cheap light housings, but being rubber mounted to a hard surface they vibrate. I am on the hunt for a plastic or metal housing to eliminate this problem.
Total cost for this budget install was just under $250.
$80 - Lights x4
$35 - Harbor Freight light housings x4
$60 - 20 amp relays x4
$20 - Blue Sea Fuse Block
$60 - Wiring, switches, wire connectors, fuses, and other misc stuff.
On a side note for any install in a fixed housing. Always leave a service loop of wire for when you have the change a bulb out. If you don't leave enough wire to pull the bulb out of the housing to change it you're going to hate life for a simple light change. Also, "they say..." when you install a light with an element spanning the gap of two prongs it is safest to clock the light so the element is going up and down. Reason being for shock resistance, the element it less likely to fail while because it can absorb bouncing around better when in the standing up position vs laying down. I need to re-clock mine. I have had one go out from what appeared to be vibration. Who knows if its true, but it sounds good to me.
All in all I really like my lights, but to be honest when I decide to stop being cheap (or find some for cheap) I do want to upgrade to LED lights. Cooler operation, less power draw, and bouncing down the back roads won't affect them as much. Until then, I love my $20 landing lights. My buddy said at night it looks like a train cruising down the road. Maybe I should invest in some horns...?
Don't worry about always having the latest and greatest, even the big boys upgrade slowly. Notice the LED landing light, but halogen taxi light. Just remember to put your gear down before landing, neither light works well when you're sliding down the runway an night.
Having received a promotion from grease monkey mechanic on airplanes to parts guy (and now helicopter pilot) I decided to go with some landing lights. I figured I could get them cheap ($19 each) and make it work.
The big and first problem I faced was getting a housing for them. Harbor freight saved the day. I dropped in and purchased 4 of these bad boys.
I immediately went home and removed the cheap lights from the rubber housings and installed my new landing lights and they fit perfect! So I reinstalled them right where the old lights were.
The next big hurdle I faced was the amount of power these consume, they are 14v 250w lights. My buddy and I determined we would need 10 gauge wire and 20 am relays to make this work. Cheap wire and a single fuse was not going to cut it. So I scavenged some wire from work, bought lots of relays, a fuse block, fuses, and dug up some switches that came off a Cessna Citation 501. You know you're cool when your truck has jet parts, talk about added horse power! I also opted for the jet switches because they are 20 amp circuit breaker switches as a backup if a relay fails, the switch should save my truck from burning down. We ran the lights on two switches, one powering the inner two, the other running the outer two which are slightly angled out.
We managed to get everything installed and working like it should. I am not good at the whichcraft we call wiring and electricity but thanks to a very good friend, having access to parts at the hangar, and a very understanding wife we knocked it out. We started the wiring process around 6 pm and had the lights running by 2 am! We had other projects going on as well, installing and wiring a 3rd battery, power inverter, and fridge. I did make the mistake of doing all this the night before leaving on a +3,000 mile adventure which is why we stayed so late making sure we had it going. I would highly recommend doing any install when you are not pressed for time, and having a friend who knows more about electricity and relays than you do. Do it right the first time, don't just "make it work." Thats what made this all possible.
Three things I was not prepared for after the install. One is the enormous amount of heat these light put off. I would not drive thru a field of tall grass with these on, guaranteed to ruin the field you are in and subsequently your day. They do not get hot enough to melt the rubber housing but they certainly get toasty. When you turn them off the element continues to glow while they cool down for 3-5 seconds. Two, as someone else mentioned, they do turn the night to day and every street sign that reflects anything reminds you of that as you drive by squinting until its behind you. I use them all the time at night and they work great! I only ever switch one set on at a time because they are so bright, you don't need all 4 (unless oncoming traffic decides to high beam you). Lastly I like the cheap light housings, but being rubber mounted to a hard surface they vibrate. I am on the hunt for a plastic or metal housing to eliminate this problem.
Total cost for this budget install was just under $250.
$80 - Lights x4
$35 - Harbor Freight light housings x4
$60 - 20 amp relays x4
$20 - Blue Sea Fuse Block
$60 - Wiring, switches, wire connectors, fuses, and other misc stuff.
On a side note for any install in a fixed housing. Always leave a service loop of wire for when you have the change a bulb out. If you don't leave enough wire to pull the bulb out of the housing to change it you're going to hate life for a simple light change. Also, "they say..." when you install a light with an element spanning the gap of two prongs it is safest to clock the light so the element is going up and down. Reason being for shock resistance, the element it less likely to fail while because it can absorb bouncing around better when in the standing up position vs laying down. I need to re-clock mine. I have had one go out from what appeared to be vibration. Who knows if its true, but it sounds good to me.
All in all I really like my lights, but to be honest when I decide to stop being cheap (or find some for cheap) I do want to upgrade to LED lights. Cooler operation, less power draw, and bouncing down the back roads won't affect them as much. Until then, I love my $20 landing lights. My buddy said at night it looks like a train cruising down the road. Maybe I should invest in some horns...?
Don't worry about always having the latest and greatest, even the big boys upgrade slowly. Notice the LED landing light, but halogen taxi light. Just remember to put your gear down before landing, neither light works well when you're sliding down the runway an night.
punisher1130
Adventurer
Yeah that is way above my ability, let alone the fact that I have no contact for air craft parts so that is out of my reach, how ever there is a video of a guy with a Toyota Tacoma that has hid headlights, fog light and 8 7in off road lights, when he turned those on the grass and trees turned white they were that bright. As for your thought for train horns, I agree with ur friend, they are great on highway and if your feeling evil they give a good laugh scaring the **** out of people ******** 
. If you want metal housing look into the Baja lights I mentioned, I don't know what size your lights are but its worth a look. For good quality cheap LED's look on amazon and look for Cree LED, I bought a pair of small 6 LED lights that I mounted on either side of my hitch that I got for $20-30 I think and they are very bright so that would be a good start for your search.
Here's that video, now this is some brightness! >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPKy1KAz8OM
. If you want metal housing look into the Baja lights I mentioned, I don't know what size your lights are but its worth a look. For good quality cheap LED's look on amazon and look for Cree LED, I bought a pair of small 6 LED lights that I mounted on either side of my hitch that I got for $20-30 I think and they are very bright so that would be a good start for your search.Here's that video, now this is some brightness! >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPKy1KAz8OM
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If you install 75w HID, into a decent housing, you should have close to 250w of halogen style lighting coming out. IMO if using them on dark roads (no other traffic of course) then 75w is getting on the side of too much. Road signs become very "angry" then. my 55w are at the edge of blinding you with reflective light from road signs.