Driving lights

Ger08 · Senior Member

Driving lights

Greg 1 · Guru

Well for a start I am a little old fashioned.
If God had meant for light to be transmitted in square patterns the sun would be a cube.

That said, I am a fan of the round 9" LED spotlights rather than the light bars but that is just personal preference.
I bought a pair off Ebay complete with wiring loom that were $180 for the pair.
They claimed an output of 2900 watts. Whether that is true is debatable but I will say that they are fantastic.
Literally turn night into day with good spread and penetration.
Big problem is when you dip your lights you wonder where the light has gone.

I had a pair of halogen Cibie Oscars on a 4wd before, and I can tell you now these LED lights are way in front of those and the Cibies were about $500 per light.

Dougwe · Chief one feather

I had LED spots and one broke so ended up replacing with a 24" LED bar and very happy.

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.

Whenarewethere · Guru

Are you actually driving at night in the outback?

Greg 1 · Guru

While I try not to drive at night in the bush, there have been quite a number of occasions that we have needed to and the LED's are great for spotting the hoppers and other mobile obstacles.

dogbox · Guru

Greg 1 wrote:

While I try not to drive at night in the bush, there have been quite a number of occasions that we have needed to and the LED's are great for spotting the hoppers and other mobile obstacles.

the one you hit is the one you never seen coming till 2 seconds be fore the bang!! cattle on the other hand usually have no intention of getting out of your in any great hurry

-- Edited by dogbox on Saturday 21st of December 2019 09:05:53 AM

Ger08 · Senior Member

Whenarewethere wrote:
Are you actually driving at night in the outback?

You need to define outback but yes country driving at night.

Cupie · Guru

I have a pair of traditional spots on the GQ bull bar.

I have used them for real perhaps a handful of times in 20 years.

They were on the beast when I purchased it and are well out of adjustment.

Wouldn't waste my money.

Never drive out of town at night.

-- Edited by Cupie on Saturday 21st of December 2019 09:50:45 AM

Whenarewethere · Guru

Ger08 wrote:
Whenarewethere wrote:
Are you actually driving at night in the outback?
You need to define outback but yes country driving at night.

<1lux

Iva Biggen · Senior Member

Just be aware if fitting lights to bullbars that some new regulations may dictate the position of the mounting of extra lights.
I was told the other day by police that a light bar on top of the bullbar is not permitted.
Tough but true unfortunately.

Rod Mac · Veteran Member

I bought a pair of the Kings 7" Led lights ($79) via ebay and then the wiring harness ($40 pick up) direct from 4wd supacentre outlet, they are the best driving lights (in 50 years) I have ever had and with the pre wired harness it was easy enough to wire in.

There are youtube instructional videos to follow, just be aware there are 2 relays in the harness pack and one is a 24v for truck and will not work on 12v as I found out... DOH!

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

I have two short LED light. bars each side . Turned down as I dont require long distance lighting . It can dazzle oncoming vehicles too easy . The question is about lights . Not if you should drive at night ! A wide light is way better . We are not in speed trial or rally !

dogbox · Guru

Aus-Kiwi wrote:

I have two short LED light. bars each side . Turned down as I dont require long distance lighting . It can dazzle oncoming vehicles too easy . The question is about lights . Not if you should drive at night ! A wide light is way better . We are not in speed trial or rally !

usually the standard lights are mounted in pairs one for long range and one for wide spread of light

Long Weekend · Guru

Ivan is right - it is actually illegal to mount light bars or even round lights above the bonnet line.

However, given the number of vehicles driving around the roads with lights mounted that way that are ignored by police they drive past, obviously the law is one of the optional ones. Like riding a bike without a helmet.

But my brother tells me that the police in Wagga Wagga were actively stopping/booking vehicles with lights mounted on their bull bars. So apparently it all depends where you live.

Murray

Keith P · Senior Member

I do a lot of night driving and have the ligjts to help me with this...but also have a really decent and strong alloy bullbar..as well as not travelling much over about 70k an hour. The lights consist of upgraded headligjts (better loom wiring )..8 inch IPF HID with decent wiring and relay,..and a Stedi 22 inch light bar.All of the lights as a combination give good spread and penetration...but the last resort (bullbar) has still managed to dispatch 16 hoppers and 1 horse...all over the 16 years I have owned the Patrol.I still reckon that without decent lights.my truck would be now dead considering the job the ligjts have done to identify and avoid most of the critters that have been a threat over the years.

In response to the OP ...if you do any distance night driving at all ...than upgrade your lights to the best you can afford..taking into account the speed, condition and type of vehicle, amount of night driving you will do , and where. Bare in mind also that really good lights at night also reduce fatigue very markedly. All this stuff has been a way of life for me as a long distance truckie of more than 40 years.

HTH.

Cheers Keith

boab · Senior Member

after doing lots of night driving i found fyrlyt driving lights suited my eyes best the hid lights are very white and tend to give me a head ache while led lights seem to have little distance and blind every one coming towards you it is several years since i gave up driving road trains so lights have most likely improved but my tug has 2 fyrlyts on the front and they do me

JeffRae · Guru

Dept Transport WA regulations re positioning of additional lights

Ger08 · Senior Member

Thanks for all the responses. Is anyone running the ARB Intensity lights?

oldbloke · Guru

Dougwe wrote:
I had LED spots and one broke so ended up replacing with a 24" LED bar and very happy.

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.

Same here. A kings 22" bar. Great

Stretch60 · Senior Member

boab wrote:
after doing lots of night driving i found fyrlyt driving lights suited my eyes best the hid lights are very white and tend to give me a head ache while led lights seem to have little distance and blind every one coming towards you it is several years since i gave up driving road trains so lights have most likely improved but my tug has 2 fyrlyts on the front and they do me

I have to agree with boab on this, I do a fair amount of driving at night in high areas of jumpy jumpy activity and found the fyrlyts the best. I have tried HID and LED and found the eye strain unbearable. I also researched and found that the light brown coloured skippy is near invisible on the light spectrum of HID and LED. The halogen may not be as bright however I have found that I see the skippy earlier. I drive the WA southwest forest roads.

Eaglemax · Guru

Stretch60 wrote:
boab wrote:
after doing lots of night driving i found fyrlyt driving lights suited my eyes best the hid lights are very white and tend to give me a head ache while led lights seem to have little distance and blind every one coming towards you it is several years since i gave up driving road trains so lights have most likely improved but my tug has 2 fyrlyts on the front and they do me
I have to agree with boab on this, I do a fair amount of driving at night in high areas of jumpy jumpy activity and found the fyrlyts the best. I have tried HID and LED and found the eye strain unbearable. I also researched and found that the light brown coloured skippy is near invisible on the light spectrum of HID and LED. The halogen may not be as bright however I have found that I see the skippy earlier. I drive the WA southwest forest roads.

Nice but expensive. Kings might be the option for a budget.

Tony

Greg 1 · Guru

I have found the exact opposite in terms of roo spotting. Went from a very good quality halogen to 9" LED's and have found it far easier to spot roos with the LED lights and less eye strain.

Possum3 · Guru

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Bicyclecamper · Guru

I have a pair of aircraft landing lights not fitted, about a 2km range, used them on my GTS 308 Holden Panelvan, back in the 80's, they were illegal then but were located behind the grill, so not very noticeable, am thinking of fitting them again, but only using in the outback mostly, if we get caught out late on the road. Do you think these are still illegal to use, as this time they would be on the bull bar, with no impedance like behind a grill.

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Ric, if you just use them when it is dark, the uniform girls and boys won't see them in the dark.

Eaglemax · Guru

Ric With so many minor laws not being enforced Id take my chances. Besides it is a safety item