What kind of offroad lights do you use?

birdtail · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2010 2:53 am

Im thinking of going against the OEM renegade light bar and instead installing lights on my safari basket that I plan to install in the future.

My question is: what type of lights do you use up top? HID? Halogen? LED?

If you use Halogen, what wattage do you have?

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:09 am

If I had the extra money either Light Force 140s or if you have the room the 170s awesome lights, about the best in the world I think.

I have ran everything from Richard Cepek, KC's, Hella's, Pro Comp, PIAA's, Cibies etc all have their good points.
Xenon or LEDs are the best but of course you pay for them as well
Also kind of depends on how big you want and either round or rectangular.
Right now I am running some Hella's on the Rock Lizard rack since I can hardly get into garages as it is, plus when you are back in the trees its not good to have anything way up tall and hitting limbs. Some I see are mounted above the rack and would be torn off where I go in a heartbeat, plus the extra wind resistance.
Right now I have 4 Hella FF300's (Driving not fog, 55 watt) on the rack , they are oblong, sit down close to the roof line and after trying them out along with the FF1000's on the bumper provide a nice BRIGHT light in front
Not the best pic but you get the idea of what they look like I have the two outside ones about as close to the roof as I can get them, mounting bracket maybe 1/4 inch off

JeepBumm68 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2010 1:25 pm

Once the Girls Libby is done,

We are going to run lightforce 140's and 170's on her rig.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2010 4:29 pm

Got the renny lightbar up top,kinda worthless but looks cool(what I was after).On the ARB is the business end of the lights,2 KC HID long range lights that throw a beam well over 2 miles out in front of you.Something like almost 700,000 candle power each.

birdtail · **Posted:** Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:45 pm

Quote:

Got the renny lightbar up top,kinda worthless but looks cool(what I was after).On the ARB is the business end of the lights,2 KC HID long range lights that throw a beam well over 2 miles out in front of you.Something like almost 700,000 candle power each.

See, thats what im looking for.. My lights (apart from looking SEXY) are going to give me a good upperhand at spotting moose in the 7 hour winter drive to and from my hometown and the biggest city in Alaska for Dog Shows. The highway is a beast in the winter and it's hard to see moose ;D So the brighter, the better.

Sounds pricy but also sounds like it's worth spending the money on

LibertyFever · **Posted:** Tue Jun 22, 2010 2:03 pm

birdtail wrote:

Quote:

Got the renny lightbar up top,kinda worthless but looks cool(what I was after).On the ARB is the business end of the lights,2 KC HID long range lights that throw a beam well over 2 miles out in front of you.Something like almost 700,000 candle power each.

See, thats what im looking for.. My lights (apart from looking SEXY) are going to give me a good upperhand at spotting moose in the 7 hour winter drive to and from my hometown and the biggest city in Alaska for Dog Shows. The highway is a beast in the winter and it's hard to see moose ;D So the brighter, the better.

Sounds pricy but also sounds like it's worth spending the money on

I hear you pal. Here in New Brunswick, Canada we get a lot of moose on the highways too and the occasional bear :shock:

Here's my Libby;

Let me explain that my original idea was to buy a roof basket and mount four Hella 500's with 55 watt bulbs in each lamp but then I realized that they weren't street legal, so I bought a pair of Hella 700FF's again with 55 watt bulbs. Soon I'm going to upgrade the Hella 700FF's to 100 watt.
By the way I seldom run all six Hella's. It's simply too hard on the electrical system.

tjkj2002's idea is super. HID's will give you lots of light and little drain on your Libby's electrical system.

JeepBumm68 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:20 pm

The lightforce HID's as cheaper than the KC ones that I think TJKJ was talking about.

They are going to provide the same lighting if not better or slighter dimmer. It would be hard to tell cause I have not seen either the KC HID or the Lightforce HID kits in action.

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Jun 22, 2010 5:38 pm

Graham Jackson wrote an interesting article in Overland Journal recently did a test of 9 different lights. It was in their Gear Guide 2010
Light tested were
PIAA 580 $353 pair
Warn SDB-210 HB Halogen $590 pair
Hella Rallye 4000 Halogen $292 pair
KC Hilites Rally 800 Halogen $433 pair
Baja Designs Soltek Pre runner HID $550 pair
Lightforce 170 Striker $425 pair
IPF 900 XS HID $980 pair
Baja designs SolTek LEDgend $900 pair
Ridgid Edge $800 pair

They liked the Baja Designs Pre runners
They liked the Hellas as a good product, and great value
They thought the KC's fell short in both construction and light performance
They stated that the Warn were power hungry but had decent coverage
Of course the were great but they did not like the design but they win on side illumination
Its a long article but thats the jest of it all

JeepBumm68 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 22, 2010 6:58 pm

Hey tomm do you have the link to this article?

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:32 am

http://www.overlandjournal.com/
this is their website, I can't find a link to the article though, they may not have access to it that way?
was in the Gear Guide 2010 issue though

Tom

SurfGuitar141 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:49 am

Quote:

What kind of offroad lights do you use?

I guess I'm lucky that we don't see Moose on the roads of South Jersey, on rare occasion a brown bear may wonder out at night, but we certainly do get deer, and they usually come out on the high speed interstates like the Atlantic City Expressway, and the Garden State Parkway.
Turtles and ducks tend to be road kill more than anything else around here, and the reason I've always depended more on my stock Renegade fog lamps than adding anything up on the roof. I looked at a silver Renegade with the factory roof lights before settling on the one I purchased, being a surfer and the need to carry 10 foot + londboards on the roof, I was concerned those lights would interfere with the surfboards. However if the opportunity happens that I can find the right roof basket that would allow me to strap my boards to it, and accommodate the smaller rectangular lights, I may go that route....

audiboy86 · **Posted:** Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:03 am

Has anyone tried the Baja Design Soltek HIDs i am looking at them right now and everything i seen and read about them gives them awsome reviews. And was wondering if anyone is running them on thier rig? And if so what they thought about them?

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Jul 09, 2010 7:46 am

Beam pattern is good
Life time warranty
Harness and covers not included though
on light tests others shine farther and have a better beam pattern
For what they cost ( 400-450 each plus harness) I can't see where they are worth it unless you live where they could be used on a regular basis.
Out in the desert or running down Baja sure
I'd go with light force before them

audiboy86 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 10, 2010 2:28 am

I really like the idea of HID or LED just for less drain and strain on my electrical system. I like the warn HIDs and the Hella HIDs but the price is kinda high. I also like the Piaa 520 ATPs just for the beam pattern. I live out in the country with alot of deer and wild dogs both of which are no fun to hit. And seeing as far and as wide as possible is the best thing for me. I am planning on ordering one of boilers rack so that will factor in also. Any ideas i am all ears? Also now i see what you mean about the bajas tom bad idea all the way around.

VoodooMann · **Posted:** Sat Jul 10, 2010 2:56 am

I run Hella Optilux 1900's with 100w bulbs On one of boiler's First racks.

I think they work great, most of my friends call my jeep the sun now.

they throw light a very good distance ahead with a tight beam, and have good spread for ambient light, as well as producing light almost 180* from the lights, they light up the area outside my front windows when I'm sitting in the jeep.

What kind of offroad lights do you use?

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