Cheapest & Brightest

[00dangerranger]

I'm going to be driving my ranger at pismo in the dark alot of the time.
What's the cheapest way to alotta LIGHT?
Thank you

 

[strvger]

buy the cheap lights at wal-mart, then replace the usual 55 watt bulbs with 100 watt bulbs. they will get a little hotter, but you should be ok.

another option (i've done this in the past), get the round, rubber truck/tractor flood lights (sealed beam), about $10 a piece or less. then go to NAPA and get the 100 watt aircraft landing lights (sealed beam) that fit them exactly, about another $10 a piece. the landing lights have no flutes in the lens, they are spot lights and very bright! and the rubber mounting makes it harder for them to break. also, don't forget to use larger wiring on them.

 

[Casper98]

Hid's!

 

[strvger]

Hid's!

guess you didn't see he is needing the "CHEAPEST" light.

 

[strvger]

you can also keep a couple of those flood lights as they are. they are great for lighting up the sides in turns and also as backup lights.

 

[00dangerranger]

Thank you. Thats what i was looking for. I hate not being able to see right or left out there. I want to mount one under each door pointing out. Seen a truck out at pismo like that, looked pretty cool and functional.

 

[baxtej44]

i'd be interested in seeing a lightbar that had lights angled towards the outside... at maybe 60 degrees from standard position... not sure i've ever seen one.. seems like a nice concept.

i personally don't think that my truck would look good with a light bar on the top... especially since i don't offroad... but wouldn't mind some accessory driving lights mounted in my grill... i've always wanted some LED/neon under my truck too haha.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

On the roof I have four 100w lights I got from Harbor Freight, about $20/pair with wiring and a switch (no relay though). I had two on my grille guard for a long time, very bright lights.

Now on the grille guard I have two 55W Hella 500's I got at Wal-Mart, for some reason they had them knocked down to $30/pair with wiring and a relay so I grabbed the two pairs they had left and hung them on each of my trucks.

 

[mud390]

85_Ranger -- How do you like those Hella 500's? Do they do a pretty good job for driving lights? How is their light pattern?

Kris

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

85_Ranger -- How do you like those Hella 500's? Do they do a pretty good job for driving lights? How is their light pattern?

Kris

They reach out there a good long ways, about triple the range of the factory highbeams on my F-150. They are pretty controlled, even out that far they don't shine much wider than the road ditches on a two lane road.

They make my Ranger's stock sealed beams look like cheap flashlights...

They are so bright, I don't use them much for fear of blinding other drivers.

 

[00dangerranger]

Thank you. I was thinking exterior roll cage at first so i could use it as a light bar also but i'm going to have to do it inside and mount the lights on the front and under because the cabinet clearance in my toy hauler. I haven't done all the measuring yet though and my friend was worried the weight of an exterior cage might through off the way my truck jumps which is AWSOME.lol

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I try to refrain from jumping my truck, but I think cage would be a good thing to have if you do it often. I would think when you are flying dead stick with no wings, eventually you are going to get a landing that you won't like.

I ended up taking the lightbar off of my rollbar, if we get two inches of snow they catch on my garage door and either get pushed back or ahead. The orignal plan was to make a latch or something so they could tip back when not in use, but recent developments elsewhere have bumped that way down on the priority list.

 

[00dangerranger]

It's got about 20 inches of travel and i own a dry creek with a jump. I can't help it.
Anyway after todays trip to HARD CORE 4x4 (Cheers to Donnie Burns the owner he took first this weekend at avanal sand drags) I won't be able to afford much. They took the rear diff cvr off to find out whoever built it did't use locktite. So half the bolts were rolling around in the bottom of the diff. It has a detroit locker in it so hopefully it's not damaged. So i'm going to have them do the rear end and anything else they find then I will go from there.