Front driving lights - yes or no?

[Graham]

Hi all,

Rather than keep interupting Crispins ARB bumber thread, I though a new thread would be more polite.

Any way, the topic drifted onto OlaZZ's HID lights that he has just installed on the front of his truck

He has fitted 7 inch HID with I think 55 watt HID bulbs.
I found some 5,5 inch which where similar, except for the size, ie 7 inch as opposed to 5,5 inch.

So I returned to the "local internet market" similar to Ebay, but there is no bidding, it is a fixed price, and have found these monsters.

They really up the ante, with a 9 inch HID powered by a 75 watt HID lamp.

How much light does on really need.
I guess a pair of these 9 inch at 75 watts, would be equall to a million trillion watt halogen light ?

Each size 4 inch, 7 inch 9 inch can be had with either 35W, 55w, 75w

My suitcase is full.

Gra.

 

[Olazz]

Gra,

Whatever you decide, you will def not need 75W HIDs unless you you want to illuminate the road from Weifang to Jinan!

 

[Graham]

Hi Olazz,

I agree whole heartedly with you.

75 watt, 9 inch HID would put a light on the moon I think.

I would be quite happy with 5 inch, at 35 watts, they seem to be quite powerful lights, and light the road well.

Gra.

 

[Crushers]

what are you planning on illuminating?
how far do you actually need to see?
I had a set of 125W on one of the vehicles i brought in from Japan, kinda cool but totally impractical (and illegal) for the roads we travel here.

take a thought as to how fast you drive and how far up the road you need to see. you don't want to over drive your lighting and at the same time you don't want to blind the drivers coming towards you 2 miles up the road ... especially if that driver happens to be a cop on a bad day.

if these are for off road then unless you are rally racing they will be pretty useless for that huge hole or hidden tire eater that is just infront of you. those cheap rubber mounted diffused lights work best for off road.

if you drive 110 km/hr then caculate how far you travel in said speed and use this to determine how much wattage you need to install.

not trying to minimize anothers idea of what he or she needs or how cool or not cool 12 lights are on a vehicle ... as long as they have a need for the lights.

for example, the 70 build i am doing for a customer. he wants lots of lighting. he wants to be able to see the deer that is about to cross the road so a couple Lightforce lights will be installed.
he wants to be able to see to back up at night better so a couple lights for backign up will be installed.
he wants to be able to see to work at night so lights will be installed high up for this reason.
he has a snow blower attachment being installed so lighting will be installed for that.

lights should perform a purpose. if you have a purpose for 75 W 9" lights then go for it. if you don't then ... well ... don't.

also, i would suggest that you check with the local laws and regulations. here any lights that are mounted higher than the headlights have to be covered for highway use. most police do not care unless they get blinded by them at night, then suddenly that law becomes a real pain for the owner.

just a suggestion.

relevant at all?

 

[Matt Richards]

Have you considered LED lightbars for offroad and task lighting ?

 

[Graham]

Hi Matt,

Seen a fair few light bars for sale on Tabao,

They arn't cheap, and I am not yet convinced of the usefull light output.

I guess they are similar to LED headlights, with the high power LED's ?

Gra.

 

[wobbly]

It depends on exact use, but I prefer halogen to led/hid - main reason is that as it gets frosty here the bulb heat stops the light from freezing over, doesnt happen with led/hid as they dont give off the heat.

I think 75w might be a bit ott - you may find you end up not using them as they are too bright, reckon 55w would be fine.

Pete