Who makes the best off-road lights?

[Lhotka]

I am looking to purchase a set of off-road lights and am leaning towards purchasing Hellas or Pro Comps. Which housing material is best? Plastic or stainless? Pencil or Euro beam light patterns? I will be mainly using them while driving on remote roads at moderate speeds. Plan to mount the lights on the bumper and wire them into the high beam selector. Do they supply a wiring harness and is the install difficult? I had a scary near hit (3-4 feet @ 50mph) with a moose the other night. I could literally see her eyes (a cow) bulging out of her head as she passed by the drivers side window. Thanks.

 

[dresslered]

I'm happy with the KC Daylighter's. They have a 23-year warrantee (seems to be a strange number?) on the stainless steel versions. The offer kits that come with wiring harness, relays, switch, etc. They are probably much cheaper than the Hellas. Try Carparts.com and if you do a search on the web you can usually find a discount code that makes the price very attractive.



I do have the Hellas on my car and they are fantastic, but expensive.

 

[pnwradar]

I just installed off-road lights on my rig. I looked at the fancy (expensive) lighting systems at the local 4wd stores -- decided that I liked the simple round KC lights better than any others. I bought some look-alike SS lights from JC Whitney, and replaced the 55w sealed-beam lamps with larger (250w) aircraft landing lights. If I didn't run on really remote roads with lots of deer/elk, I'd probably stick with ~150w lamps. But having 450,000 candles on each side of the bumper is sure nice.



The 250w lamps run hot, and need 20amps, so the wiring all had to be really heavy. I installed two 20a circuit breakers, and 2 30a relays, all fed with 12 gauge wire (one circuit for each lamp). If you chose to stick with lesser power lamps, you could probably run a single 12ga wire through a single relay and breaker.



I decided I didn't want a switch panel inside my cab, so I wired the relay to be switched from the foglight switch on the dash. When I replaced the factory bumper, the factory foglights went with it. I just grabbed the pair that went to the lights, and tapped them for the relay (damn switched ground -- pull the fuse before you cut off the connector).



In the JC Whitney catalog, they had a wiring kit, for their lights with the wires, switch, and relay -- with crimped connectors already attached. I'm sure that if you buy lights from a store, they'll offer a wiring kit (usually $10 for $3. 00 worth of NAPA parts). If you're not so good at electrical work, you're probably better off paying a shop to install the lights for you. It's pretty easy to F up wiring, and the result is smoke/fire in the engine compartment.



JC Whitney 55w lights: $30 each

GE landing lights: $30 each

NAPA relays, breakers, wire, wire loom: $30

total: about $150 for two complete lights



-jon-

 

[BRobertson]

lights

I have the Hella 4000 EUROBEAMS and they are great for spoting all kinds of ditch dwellers!!! Highly recommended!!!

 

[BRobertson]

lights

More info:

The Hellas don't come with wiring harness. I made my own.



The 4000s come with a 100w bulb, and can be upgraded to 135w if I remember correctly??? I am real happy with the 100 as the 10" (approx) reflector uses the light more effeciently than the smaller size lights. I have owned most of the other lights available and these are the brightest so far. .

 

[Dave Fritz]

Hella lights have an excellent reputation. I have a set of 220 Hella fog lights under the bumper, and they have been durable.



On top of my bumper, I have a pair of Warn W620 stainless steel flood lights and a pair of W610 spot lights. The floods work well in the woods, the spots are great for reasonably straight dirt roads, and I light everything up with the high beams on empty roads at night. Several hundred watts of halogen light can almost peel the paint from road signs, and a quick hit with everything up front helps other drivers find their headlight dimmer switch.



I just installed a bright box from Geno's and I am curious to see how well it works when there is too much traffic to use the off-road lights.



Dave

 

[Bigsaint]

I agree with the KC's. Price isn't bad, plenty of light for the backroads, the install is straight forward. There's a pic. of mine in the link below.



Scott W.

 

[EMDDIESEL]

KC's are great, check out www.suvlights.com they have aot of HID ligts and conversion kits. I have PIAA's on my truck, very expensive though and more for the street then off road.

 

[OILBRNR]

I agree and disagree with EMD! (Whats' new ;-)



PIAA's are pricey, but they at least *used* to be built a lot better than anything else out there. I'm not saying that the optics are better than Hella's, but the housings and mounts sure were.



I had a set of the 90 Pro XT dual fog/driving PIAA's on my old 4Runner for years. Those things kicked some serious a$$ and NEVER budged out of adjustment. They were built like a brick sh*thouse compaired to KC's and plastic Hella's.



I kick myself that I didn't keep them when I sold the Toyota! I think that they would have fit perfect in the slot of our bumpers. Oh well.

 

[John]

PIAA

PIAA makes the worlds best auxiliary lighting however, it just so happens they are the most expensive too. That said, if price is not a real concern to you, you can't go wrong with any of the PIAA lights.



I just added a set of PIAA 1500XT ion crystal fog lights as backup lights on my Ram. I'm just about ready (finally) to install my PIAA Dual Sport 900 auxiliary lights (Platinum Series Super White driving lights/ion crystal fog lights in the same housing... the same lights Scott1 has on his Ram), on my Ram. [quit laughing Evan]



OILBRNR, there isn't a better off-road (or on-road) auxiliary light than the PIAA 90 PRO XT. As you know, awesome doesn't even begin to describe them! I was considering these instead of the Dual Sports although I figured there would be a mounting problem in the bumper slots due to housing depth (note I have the auto. trans. )

 

[John]

let there be light!

Originally posted by Dave Fritz

I have a pair of Warn W620 stainless steel flood lights and a pair of W610 spot lights.

Hey Dave, I almost forgot about those Warn lights. I had a set of both mounted on the rollbar of my 1980 Chevy 4x4. I'd purchased both sets just after Warn got into the lighting business. As I remember, I loved the stainless steel housings and mounting system however, the optics were vastly superior in previous Cibie' and Marchal auxiliary lights I had owned.

 

[EOliver]

I recommend KC Daylighters also. I have had great luck with these lights and you can't beat the price for light output. I have tried PIAA and Hella, both were good, but I felt they were overpriced. Plus the KC's have good install instructions and wiring harness with switch and relay included. I run 6 KC Daylighters on my Jeep and they work flawlessly (knock on wood), and they get the crap beat out of them too (along with the rest of the Jeep). They seem to be holding up well. Another plus is you can get all sorts of different styles and colors of soft and hard covers for the KC's.



My favorites site to pick them up at: Quadratec



Later,

Eric O.

 

[lgibson]

I have a set of Hella Rallye 2000 on mine hooked up to the high beams. I got them when I lived in Ak. and saved my a$$ a few times. I like having them come on when the high beams, no extra switch to flip. They now has lasted over 3 years and 112,000 miles and no problems. I bought a wireing kit made by hella and I am very pleased with it.

I had a close call with a moose too. It was in Canada late at night in winter, -35. I was coming around a turn, drop off on one side of the road and a mountain on the other. I saw headlights coming around the turn but in front of the headlights was a bull moose. The moose was in front of a semi and the moose had no where to go. I was going about 30 mph when I saw the moose not 50 feet from me and on an icy road. Well I stoped right at the moose, less than a foot away. I ended up in the ditch looking out and up at this moose about twice as big as my 84' Isuzu diesel pup. The trucker never stopped and he had to see me go into the ditch. I had to shovel snow for an hour to get the Isuzu out, and it was a 4x4. Great little truck, zero problems with over 200,000 miles, besides rust.

 

[dan_gilson]

One other thing that I liked about PIAA

was their website. You can download

any and all specs in pdf form.



The specs include lot of nice information

about light sizes, mounting, etc.



Just about anything you would ever want to

know about their lights.

 

[bighammer]

Low Dollar Solution

Get the rubber utility lights at your auto parts or farm supply store (about 10 bucks each) Then get aircraft landing sealed beams (got mine at NAPA for about 10 bucks each as well) and pop in the replacements (along with heavier wire). Mine are below the bumper on the frame rails and light the road really well.



As far as wiring, I got a universal relay and connected it to my headlight switch. Now instead of turning on the interior dome lamps, I ground the relay that turns on the lights and burns little holes in the retinas of wild animals.



Use a heavy guage wire to the lights. The first time I turned them on, they worked only about 30 seconds. Burned up the wire pretty quick.



For less than 50 bucks, you can do a really bright and durable set of lights. Another advantage is that you can buy one light (cheap) if you manage to ruin it. Mine have held up well in a vulnerable spot. Keep thinking I'll move them into the bumper holes, just haven't got a round tuit.

 

[Dane]

I had the PIAA 1200s, traded them for a set of KC Daylighter 160 watt. Wow, the Daylighters are VERY bright The price and warranty are great also. I'll sell you my PIAA 1200s for 1/2 price

 

[Lhotka]

What type of beam pattern do you all suggest for driving remote roads? Is the drivng beam type patterns much better than OEM lighting or do I need the long range pencil beams? Any suggestions are welcome. Has anyone used the PIAA XT80 Pros? Would they mount on my bumper without the guard? Thanks.

 

[John]

PIAA 80XT Lights

A friend of mine had a pair of PIAA 80XT lights on a previous 4x4... they worked great! However, they are big lights! Most PIAA purchasers looking for large round auxiliary lights opt for the 520 series (round, chrome case/chrome grille guard or black case, black grille guard), as they are a little smaller and look like they belong on a 4x4 as opposed to the ralley car look of the 80XTs. One thing about the 80XTs though, when those bad boys are mounted on your ride everyone knows you are serious about your lighting!



I would advise against pencil beam auxiliary lights unless (1) you have driven behind them before, (2) understand their limited usefulness and (3) already have a pair of auxiliary driving lights. I have had several sets of pencil beam lights over the years on previous 4x4s... after the newness wears off, you will have wished you had purchased an additional set of driving lights instead. The reason I stated I have had several sets of pencil beams is because I owned several different 4x4s that had at least three sets of auxiliary lights mounted on them at the same time, at least one set being pencil beams.

 

[BRobertson]

lights

Having lived in moose country my whole life, and investigating moose/vehicle accidents as a State Trooper, I highly recommend bright aux. lighting!!! Just be repectful of oncoming traffic, please.

I agree with John, pencil beams should be used to supplement driving lights. The best all around I have seen are the Eurobeam style in my Hella 4000s. They are large and probably should be mounted on a grill guard or winch mount. Mine are on a Warn Transformer mount and I think they look proportional.

 

[Jff24Gordn]

I've got the 165w KC daylighters. As for the toughness of the bulb, I drove halfway through a car last year. One bulb caught the B piller. It died. The other bulb came out of the housing..... Went through the passnager window (broke it)... . Hit the girl on the nose (broke it)... ... Went through the drivers window (broke it too)... ... . and proceded to bounce 200' down the road and didnt break. It did scuff the lense, but it is still air tight. I dont think you can make a better bulb than that. I have also hit birds and tapped a few concrete walls with my lights. They are very bright. They are a spot pattern, but you can see what is not in the main spot. I have the stainless housings, and the ones that got tore up in the crash, are still shiny, but they are in the barn. the new ones are just as good. If, and thats a BIG If i ever blow these bulbs, I'll try the 250w aircrafts in my housings.