Off Roading Off-road lights:

[Walker]

My next purchase is off-road lighting for my front bumper. I think I have it narrowed down to the Hella Eurobeams. I don't want a pencil beam or a wide flood pattern. The Euro's seem to be the best for moderate range and width.



Any other suggestions for a "mid" range pattern with lots of light?

 

[cmckinney]

PIAA Lights

Are you using these purely for Off-Road or on road use also? You can spend alot of money on a set of PIAA's, IPF, Warn, or KC's. I have the PIAA's 80XT's Driving pattern. The lights come with the wire lomb and in cab switch. It took about 1 hr to set them up. I drilled holes in the front of my stock bumper and mounted them up and routed the wiring through the cab. Simple and clean looking. They illuminate well but they will blind others so they are not for on road use. Great lights but they run up to $300.



-CM

 

[BRobertson]

I have had the Hella 4000 Eurobeams on my truck for over 2 years now and highly recommend them!!!

They make great moose dodgers!!!

Bob

 

[Walker]

BRob,

How bout' some "detailed" info. on your Euro's?



Are they a good pattern for off-roading in both wide open and heavily wooded areas?



Are they plenty bright for you?



No structural problems (housings etc. ), water leaks,... . ?



Any other observations?



Thanks

 

[bighammer]

I still like my sealed aircraft beams (landing lights) mounted in rubber utility (tractor) lights. $20 ea. (both bulb and mount) Mine are hung under the bumper and have survived despite the abuse. (snow drifts, off roading, etc)

 

[Walker]

BH,

What's the bulb type for the landing lights? I've got a couple of rubber tractor lights as back up lights, and another pair sittin' in the garage looking for something to do.



Is it just a simple "swap out" for the existing bulbs to the new high powered bulbs?

 

[cmckinney]

What kind of amp draw do the landing lights have? Or how many watts are they? I would imagine that those landing lights create a great amount of heat that would need to be dissipated through some sort of heat sink. I’m sure if they are used on aircraft they have a very good range and draw a good amount of amperage.



bighammer do you have pics of your setup?



-CM

 

[bighammer]

No pics, sorry. They are mounted at the ends of the frame rails hanging under the front bumper. They stay put until I hit something, then they rotate back. I had the bulb come out once, but it didn't break.



Yes it is a simple swap of the bulbs. I bought mine at a small town NAPA. For about 50 bucks I got a pretty good light settup. I just popped one out and got the info off the back. It is a



Wagner 13v

4509

100W

(looks like a 15 under all that-- Beam spread?)



They are clear (no lens pattern) and have pretty heavy fillament inside.



They do draw some juice. I fried my first attempt at wiring them up. Worked for about 20 min. and litterally cooked the wires. (I think it was 14 guage) Now I have 10 (maybe 12) guage wire to them. I don't leave them on when the truck is not moving for more than a few minutes. They do get hot, but I haven't had any problems with them.



My switch to turn them on is pretty slick. I used a relay and wired it to my dome light switch. (I got the little pop-o-matic lights in the OH console so who needs dome light switch?) When I rotate the headlight switch, it closes the relay and turns 'em on.



I keep thinking about moving them up into the bumper, but it seems to be a pretty low priority.

 

[merryman]

I have been using aircraft landing lights on my vehicles since I got my new 1973 Dodge pickup. I even ran them on my Benz and on my Volvo.

I do run them through a relay and operate them with an old fashioned foot dimmer switch, so I never need to take hands from wheel to turn them on or off. I also wire in an indicator light so that I have a constant reminder that they are on.

I don't know what the amperage draw is, but heat has never caused a problem and they do produce LIGHT! And if you run them on road, you sure need to be aware and kill them if you meet traffic



Vaughn

 

[tgbol]

You should run 10 gauge wire to the aircraft landing lights. They come in both a PAR 36 style which is what the tractor light usually are and PAR 46 the standard 4" head light. Grote sells a hadlight shell that will accept the PAR 46 Bulb. I have run them on 5 different vehicles with great success. But, I just installed a set of Hella 4000 pencil beams on my truck. But I put 120w bulbs in them.

 

[Jff24Gordn]

I'm running KC 160w 385,000 candle lights on my bumper. The pair pulls almost 30 amps. They are sealed beam par 36 in stainless housings. They were $120 for the pair at pep boys. They have VERY strong bulbs. I've killed birds with them. And broke a nose with one.

#ad


#ad

 

[DarrellB]

I put a set of Light Force offroad lights on my truck about 3 months ago and love them. You can rotate the light housings and go from a spot beem to a flood beem And put different shater proof lenses on them for driving in the fog. ( which by the way is just plain amazing) With the fog lenses on you can see great in the fog and rain.



I ordered them off the net at www.central4wd.com they are a little cheaper than the KC's I was looking at and the Light Forces give you 3 lights in 1 if you think about it. A longrange light, a flood light, and a fog light.



Just my 2cents worth.

Darrell

 

[Rob Thomas]

Does anybody know what happend to Trailblazer Lights, I'm interested in the SR-1000 model, but cant seem to be able to find a source. Did they go out of bussiness?



Later, Rob

 

[snake]

Lights

Try, Lights

 

[Rob Thomas]

These are the lights I was refering to in my above post, has anyone seen these before? Do you you know where I can get them? Thanks



Later, Rob





#ad
<br>

 

[JR2]

I too have the light force lights... they work great...



I have a pic here but all it really shows is the light on the front of my truck.



These lights are very popular in Alaska. You see 4-8 of the big ones on most of the new semi trucks that ply our roads...

 

[tgbol]

RobThomas

About an year ago I tried to track them down for member. I even went by the address in Santa Ana, Ca couldn't find them.

Tom

 

[DarrellB]

Your right

They are out of business Rob. I new a guy around here that had one and hated it. He had problems with condensation building up on the inside of the plastic. Said about once a month he had to take the thing apart and clean the inside so it didn't look like crap. He had his on a Bronco with 44" tires so you can imagine what a pain in the a$$ that would be.



Later

Darrell

 

[Rob Thomas]

Thanks guys,



oh well, I'll havta find somethin' else. I usta have 6 KC daylighters on a light-bar, on my old truck, those were pretty bright. Dunno if I want to go that route tho.



Later, Rob

 

[Walker]

The Warn lights (link posted here by Snake p. 1) use an H4 bulb. The Hellas (eurobeams) use an H1 bulb. What's the difference? I thought the H4's were more powerful, but how can they be similar (or even more) in cost? Is it possible to have a better quality H1 light vs. a crappier H4?



Check out the Warns and compare them with the Hellas.