Offroad Lighting Info - What do you use?

[jhmeg2]

I am looking to add some roof lights. I have done the 33w 8k hids, did not like them. I'm thinking about the 55w 5k hids for high, low and fog. Maybe do the same for roof tops as well. But in what housing? As far as a high output alt.... I have been doing audio for years and that's covered. I am back down to a single battery to. At idle, there is still a possibility of a bit of dimming when closing windows, but under load, no worries. 318 amp max output, I think I will be ok.

You will melt the fog housing with 55w. Just use 35w for the fogs. Trust me you will be plenty happy with 55W white's in the lows. Thats all you need to make life better, outside of actual projectors.

Well I have the front bumper all welded up with 5" fog buckets. Now I need to choose the lights. Still thinking of doing 55w HID 5k for everything, but what housing to use for the fogs. It looks like the Hella 550 are the most popular for the roof lights. I just want all the lights to match color wise. So I want to do HID on the roof to, but that means that I don't need to spend the money on a great light if I'm going to change out the bulb anyhow. So again, what housing to use. I want long range output from my roof lights. OR... Do I do a projector housing for it all? then replace headlamps with projectors. OH SOME BODY HELP ME....

[Trail X]

Wrong. If you are going HID, you need a light housing designed for HID. The HID arc and the halogen filament are different enough in their shape that they can create super glare if you just swap a HID bulb into a shitty light reflector. Find a set of lights designed for HID. Retrofit kits are really just for people that want the HID look, and don't really care what sort of beam they throw. Sorry if that offends anyone. A good beam pattern to match your needs appropriately is much more important than the light color or the total lumen output.

Ask yourself what you need the lights for, then figure out what beam pattern makes the most sense, then shop by beam pattern. Understand that in general the more you spend on a light housing, the better and more usable the pattern will be. It sucks, but its reality. There are tons of shitty Chinese lights floating around that have some poorly designed reflector in them. They look really bright when you look into them because they shoot light everywhere, and focus it nowhere.

since you say you have buckets welded into your bumper, start there. Normally fog lights are low - do you get a lot of fog or snow? Might be a good pattern to look for first. Projectors are generally some of the best for fog lights, but that's due to their sharp cutoff. They aren't normally good for long range throw.

[mikekey]

Jebus, can't believe I posted that. I must of had an off day since I had been arguing before with the twerps on GMT that HID's in the factory housing blow monkey chunks and just blinds everyone else on the road. This is why I have projectors now. Although I did foolishly jam HID's in everything else. I know better now.

James is correct, beam pattern is way more important.

However if you are just concerned with looks, 55W will indeed mount the factory fog lights.

(Oddly enough I can now tell the difference after lasik, holy batpoop my night vision was terrible.)

[DustinC1989]

I run HID's in my factory headlights, adjusted them correctly and have had no problems. Could be better, but not as bad as just throwing them in and calling them good like most people do.
Unfortunately, I don't have the option of projectors. Apparently aftermarket headlight companies aren't aware of the different headlights, or just didn't make them because they are less common and wasn't worth the investment.

As for auxiliary lighting, having always used halogen off road lights and recently going LED... I will be going back to halogen.
I am unhappy with the light output of the LED's, I didn't expect a great deal of distance from them since the LED housings are clearly not made for distance. But they are basically a glorified fog light.
For my turn signals, brake lights, reverse lights, interior lights, ect.. LED's are great. But beyond that... not impressed

[Trail X]

Interesting observation on the LEDs. From what I've seen, it seems that much more critical for the LEDs to buy good stuff. I know the Baja and SCORE guys have basically all switched to LEDs from the big halogens and have had good luck. But just like halogen, it's easy to wrap a LED bulb in some randomly shaped reflector and call it good. It's hard to design a reflector for LEDs and get something that really works properly.

Just out of curiosity, do you have a link to the LED light that you have/had?

[mikekey]

I just saw this on the sister site, some yo yo put HID's into his reverse lights. Not sure the warm up is worth it.

[DustinC1989]

Interesting observation on the LEDs. From what I've seen, it seems that much more critical for the LEDs to buy good stuff. I know the Baja and SCORE guys have basically all switched to LEDs from the big halogens and have had good luck. But just like halogen, it's easy to wrap a LED bulb in some randomly shaped reflector and call it good. It's hard to design a reflector for LEDs and get something that really works properly.

Just out of curiosity, do you have a link to the LED light that you have/had?

The bar I have is not a expensive one, its a 12" Rough Country bar.
There are some bars I've seen that friends have, and they are AWESOME.... they also cost more than a set of Radflo's for their smaller bars.

Cost to Performance is my reason for switching back.

My first set of $40 Autozone special KC knockoffs had much more usable light output than my $200 LED bar.
So for the just the cost of replacing my "cheap" LED bar, I could buy all 4 KC's for my roof bar.

[Trail X]

I'd recommend looking elsewhere than KCs... they are some of the crappiest... and knockoff KCs just sound worse.

But your comparison is understood. That even poor KCs outshine the rough country led bar. Sad, but probably quite valid for a $200 led bar.

For the budget user, my impression is that LEDs are much better suited for flood lighting at camp.

[navigator]

I had 2 36W spot/flood combos on the front of my jon boat and they worked great for running at night, they lit up the water really well. Shining down in the water though I had some 18W floods that were a lot better.
I never mounted them on my truck to compare, I wish now I had tried that. One thing that helped is that those lights were likely only 2ft off the water.

I almost pulled the trigger on a 180W LED lightbar off of ebay (link below) earlier this week but backed out. I want to get a couple of the 18W LEDS to mount in the rear for fishing/camping/backup lights. I think they will work great for that with little draw.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190986552105?var=490219768774

[c bausch]

21.5" mictuning led bar, 4 whelen tir3's

[JCrayton99]

Kyle and I both are running the EYourLife LED bars, and I havent had any complaints and I dont believe he has either. Ive had the 20", 6" and 4" bars, he has some of the longer ones.

[HARDTRAILZ]

I have the 32 and 24. Also have 2 six inch bars and 4 27w round pods I am playing with

[Grimor]

i'm pretty happy with my light cannons. just wish the covers were 4 tab instead of 3 so you had more mounting options. ended up not working out for the 5" bumper cans

[AA1PR]

4 hella 700ff's, yet to ever use them off road

[Trail X]

How come?

[AA1PR]

How come?

always get out before dark basically, maybe I'll make a point some time soon