noob questions

[rkneeshaw]

Anyone have a link to a noob guide to offroad lighting? For example, what type of lights, size lights, etc I would want for different needs?

I'm wondering what I would want to mount on my roll bar for long range lighting beyond my headlights, as well as what type of fog light I would look for to handle the short range below my headlights.

I'm just reading many different wattages, size housings,brands/designs and getting lost.

 

[strvger]

most off road lights are about 100 watts. either halogen, sealed beam, hid, etc., depending on your budget. 2 on the roll bar is a good start til you figure out whether or not you need more. round, square, or rectangular is purely a personal choice. a second set on a bull/push bar in front would be a good idea as well. the ones on top will be reaching way out there and the ones on the bar will get you lots of light closer up. which brand depends on your budget. big name brands are usually way more than the chinese knock-offs on ebay. you tend to get what you pay for, but you might do fine with the ones on Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, etc.
a pair of 55 watt fog lights, mounted low on the bumper, or close to that, will do you well. i wouldn't go too cheap on fog lights as those can be critical in heavy fog and you'll be using them on the highway as well. again, clear or yellow is a personal choice. i prefer yellow and mine does well here in northeastern Minn. with lots of fog from Lake Superior.
i'm not big on "driving lights" as most people don't aim them correctly and everyone else gets blinded by them. if you just up grade your headlights with some of the advanced halogen bulbs, the aim will be the same, just brighter light on the road. better and safer idea really.
for all your added lights, make sure you use heavy gauge wiring, 12ga at least, relays, fuses, wire covers, and really good grounds to your frame.
there are lots of good threads here as well as good write-ups in the tech library on this site. just my $.02.

ps. if your budget is real tight and you really need some off-road lights, i'll send you a pair i took off that are from Harbor Freight just for the shipping. look on their web site, http://www.harborfreight.com/automo...-road-long-range-truck-light-system-3029.html and if you think they would work for you, just pm me. don't have the wires, switch, relay etc. but you can get those at the local parts store cheap enough.

 

[02RangerXLT]

I have a pair of KC's for my long range work, but I also got some from HF...

In-store, they're selling THESE: (http://www.harborfreight.com/automo...y-lights/clear-lens-halogen-lights-37349.html) for $10 bucks, I would honestly pick up a couple pairs for your close up/driving lights work. They're cheap, and as far as I can tell, they work. Haven't permanently attached mine yet, I'm using one for a reverse light.

They're 55 watt, and for $10/ea. you can't go wrong.

As a general rule of thumb, I don't use any of my extra lighting on the road when traffic is coming, nearly all lighting like that will blind other drivers, I only use mine when no-ones coming.

For what its worth, if you decide to get name brand lights such as KC, PIAA, etc, go to www.jcwhitney.com. They have good service, and they will price match, just like walmart.

**IMO, the "Eagle Eye" lights, are about the best deal for cheap off road lighting. They come up to 130 watt. I was going to get them instead of my KC's, but on my KC's, I can replace all the parts, if something breaks on the Eagle Eye lights, you can't replace anything. But for the price, they're decent lights as far as I can tell.

God Luck

 

[84stealthranger]

walmart has some 20 bucks a piece 100 watt lights made by rally they kinda look like the kc's seems like a good deal.

 

[lil'_big_truck]

wally world all the way! they are great for a budget

 

[rkneeshaw]

Thank you all for the responses. In my experience its hard to pick out lighting because there's no good way to measure the output, at least no good way that everyone agrees upon. I've had bad experiences where I've bought something on the cheap that looked like it would work only to plug it in or install it, turn it on, and it is useless.

I saw the lights at wallyworld, but then I ask myself, is there a reason they're only 20 bucks compared to the $80-$200 KC setups.

I'm thinking for the long range lights i want to mount on my roll bar there are basically no limits except I dont want big 8" lights up there, I think that would look goofy on a ranger, but maybe 5 or 6" and I want the beam to be as long range and bright as possible, offroad use only of course.

Then I was thinking fogs would need to be close range only, so the beam pattern is critical because I would need to run them in the winter time on-road so they can't blind oncoming traffic. Do most fog lights have the same pattern?

strvger, I'd like to try those out, I sent you a PM. That way I can tell if cheapo lights work fine for my preferences or not. I have to imagine something is better than nothing, and if I even think of telling the wife I'm spending another $200 on this damn truck just for lights.... well... you know

 

[strvger]

fog patterns are typically wide concentrating the light on the road to not quite as far as your low beam headlights. they let you see the fog line (solid line on passenger side of the far right hand lane), and the lane lines on the drivers side. the lenses are fluted for that pattern and only reach out a few car lengths. i wouldn't do the cheap $10-20 lights for that. the Hella FF500 (for fog) are good i hear, but i know the the older name brands are at least as good if you can find them. Marchal, Bosch, Ciebe, Perlux, etc.

 

[4x4junkie]

I've personally never liked lights mounted overhead, such as on the rollbar, it lessens the contrast of objects on the road due to not being able to see shadows (you can demonstrate this using a bright flashlight by holding it over your head, then down by your side).

For long-range lighting, a set of spotlights (AKA "Pencil" beams) mounted in front of the grille should be ideal. For a little closer in, a pair of "Driving" lights will work well (their beam spreads out a little more than a spot beam does). "Fog" lights have the shortest, yet widest beams, and are made to cut through fog and thick dust. I find they also fill in pretty nicely the area missed by your low-beams on the road if your truck is lifted.

Like was said, most incandescent-style offroad lights are around 100W, HID types are usually 35W from what I've seen. You'll want to use some heavy gauge wire (#10 should be good) and a relay straight to the battery to hook these lights up as they do pull a lot of current. There are wiring kits available that include a relay, though it's pretty straightforward to just by the relay itself and wire it up yourself.

 

[strvger]

i keep my lighting rather minimal. i have one 100 watt sealed beam aircraft landing light, 4.75" round, on the drivers side of my push bar. next to it, i have one 55 watt 6" round fog light, in yellow. landing light goes straight down the road a very long way for when i'm coming home after the pm shift and don't want to hit a deer or (worse) skunk. i use it only for the last couple of miles that are off the main roads.
the fog light goes out about 3-4 car lengths and is oriented toward the right side of the road so i can see the fog line when driving through 'pea soup' fog.
up front, that's it. all i need.
on the back, i have two rectangular, clear fog lights mounted up high on the back of my topper. this gets me lots of light during dark winter nights backing out of my 100ft. driveway, and when backing up the tent camper after dark. again, that's all i need.
only 3 switches and i can see everything i need too. i'm a firm believer in the "kiss" principle.

 

[rkneeshaw]

I have mounting tabs for 3 lights on my rollbar. I'm thinking driving-spot/pencil-driving. Then mount higher quality fogs in the stock fog light locations. That would probably be my ideal setup, now fitting that into the budget is another matter

You'll want to use some heavy gauge wire (#10 should be good) and a relay straight to the battery to hook these lights up as they do pull a lot of current. There are wiring kits available that include a relay, though it's pretty straightforward to just by the relay itself and wire it up yourself.

I've seen wiring kits for two lights, but if I wanted to wire up 3 on the top of my roll bar... are there diagrams I could use for wiring up my own harness? Are all 3 lights typically just wired in serial (positive from relay goes to positive on light 1, negative on light 1 goes to positive on light 2, negative on light 2 goes to positive on light 3, then back to the relay)? Are there websites that detail this?

 

[4x4junkie]

They would be wired in parallel (the + from each light tied together and wired to the relay, then the - from all the lights tied to ground). You can wire up as many lights as you want, though most relays are rated for around 30A, so 3 100W lights would be about it's limit. For more lights you'd want to use an additional relay.

IMO, I think anything beyond two of each type of light is overkill (I don't even run pencil beams on my BII, I found I hardly ever used the ones I put on my Ranger. Two 55-100W driving lights and two 55W fogs should be all you'll ever need)