Paging Hilldweller and other light geeks...

[BIGdaddy]

I know nothing, and have questions.

I currently have my stock fog light switch/harness running a set of hella 500 lights to offset my rather dim stock trooper lights.

I live in a semi-rural area and we have no streetlights and as such I use my aux/fog lights every day when I leave for work around 5am.

I'm wondering what I am able to do in the affordable LED arena to replace the hella's with something with more output. I know you get what you pay for, and that one can spend a ton of money on lighting, but I'm wondering if I can get into something in the sub $200.00 range that allows me to:

-plug into my existing harness without to much more than crimping new connectors.
-Not overheat my harness. It does just fine with my 55w Hella lamps.
-Give me a noticable improvement in early morning/dusk situations

If what I'm asking for doesn't exist, I'll just stick with my current setup but I thought I'd ask. I'm ok with bulb replacements or possibly even a whole new assembly. I'm a big fan of LED's due to the low amp draw, but don't know much more than that for vehicle use.

Thanks!,

 

[JamesW]

Are you sure you can't be tempted to put in a new circuit with a relay running from a switch in the cab? You might even get away with using the fog light switch depending on the mechanism inside it. Doing that will open you up to a whole load of other options then.

I've a cheap-o LED bar on mine,my opinion is that you don't get %200 more with these things if you spend %200 more,but you might get more reliability,I worked for a company designing LED streetlights/industrial lighting and their drivers so if it breaks I know what i'm looking at when it needs repaired. The light out of it is good,but there is waaaaaay too much foreground light,which reduces your sensitivity to the light in the distance,it also means that if there is a small bit of moisture in the air it lights it up like a MO-FO and you are just met by this wall of light. But it most cases for driving country roads at night it does perfect,the LEDs lack range in most applications due to the design of the optics and some other "science" that I tend to be a bit sceptical about

HID is a good option too,i'm contemplating ditching the LED bar I have for some cheap HID driving lights from ebay,again you get what you pay for most of the time,but sometimes all you are doing is paying for a name and you won't get the quality you think you are paying for.

Heres some comparison shots from my setup




Not really a great indication because it was just an idea I had while I was out rather than setting out to take the photos to compare,The tower is a fair distance away,the camera makes it seem a bit closer. I think I got a bit more range with my old halogen lights,but they don't fit into my bumper,they also had a kind of patchy output too

And the lamp itself is one of these ones

 

[java]

Pretty happy with my cheap bar. lots of output compared to a hella 500, and good reach IMO

 

[kojackJKU]

Swap out the 55w halogen in the hella to 55w of hid and you will be singing a different tune.

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[BIGdaddy]

Swap out the 55w halogen in the hella to 55w of hid and you will be singing a different tune.

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Yeah, thanks for the post, I was just reading the responses in this thread:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/122058-LED-light-bars-My-review

Didn't see it until now (oops!)

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Which bulbs do your current lights use? There are some worthwhile upgrades for them as well.

 

[Hilldweller]

Hella 500 is about the worst driving light that Hella makes ------ how about just get a set of Hella Rallye 4000 with a 100 watt bulb and declare victory?
http://www.rallylights.com/hella --- talk to Dave or Ray...

LEDs are pretty cool but the cheap ones can't be called real driving or fog lights. And the pricey ones don't really match the performance of the Rallye yet.

Scootr29 made a set of good driving lights himself too. They're very economical, work well.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?338992-2008-Jeep-Grand-Cherokee-CRD-Lights
It's a bit of work and sorta fun if you're into that type of thing.
But even then I think the Rallye will give you more of what you're after...

 

[kojackJKU]

They work great for me. Better than any led light out there. I'm debating trying the ipf 968 with a 55w hid retro. The 500 works great with said hid installed.

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[kojackJKU]

100w halogen pales in comparison to 55w of hid light. I only use 4300k. Anything else is stupid blue color and light output is decreased.

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[v_man]

Unless you're really set on ditching your Hella's , I would suggest just adding another set of lights . I'm not sure about your bumper situation , or if you have room for more lights ... but I run headlights , KC lites , and this set of LED's ...

Now I rarely run them all at the same time , but it is useful to have a set of lights for different situations . Just running around town I only use my headlights . Early morning freeway driving I run Headlights plus KC lites . Slow off roading I run headlights plus LED's ( and yes they are very low draw) ... and occasionally all 3 , like night time mountain road driving ...

Here's all three on ...

Lastly, I too would suggest just running an additional circuit for what ever you wire up . A simple relay and in cab switch would be an easy , effective , and safe set up for lights , which are constantly drawing power when on obviously .

 

[WMDunkin]

I love my KC Daylighters got them super cheap off of amazon. Highly recommended. All for around $200 if I remember correctly. Two driving and two long range, 130watt per light.

low beams

high beams

KCs and high beams (getting about a full 1/4 mile of light)

 

[kojackJKU]

Again. Just add hid to your hella and you will be happy.



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[kojackJKU]

I measured about 1000 meters of light from my hid equipped Hellas. Not accurate but picked a point on a long straight I could see illuminated and used my trip meter to measure. I was right at the 1km mark. I love my lights. For about 120 bucks all in. They have been on three rigs now. I love them.

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[Forbye]

You have been provided with some great suggestions to explore for auxiliary lights. Have you investigated improving your stock headlamps as well? I know nothing of Trooper wiring so my apologies if this doesn't apply to your vehicle: On my Bronco, Ford chose to run full headlight power through the headlight switch and dimmer switch resulting in high temperatures in the switches and lower voltage at the bulbs. the simple cure is to add a high and low beam relay harness making the headlight switch simply a trigger. The end result is brighter lamps and reduced heat in the switches (helps eliminate "unplanned thermal events").

 

[kojackJKU]

good call forbye. I am setting up my suburban like this as well. I will be using HID, so I want the low beams on at all times and just fire the high beams. There is a relay system for that, but it helps even with halogen. nothing beats good power to the bulbs.