Auxiliary Lights

[sheik]

I'm looking to add a pair of driving lights to my Westin Bullbar. These will be used on rural roads to help spot deer earlier. I have never seen any of them in person and want them to be bright. You can spend as much or as little as you want on a set of these, and I don't know if I'd be happy with the light output with something like the Hella 500's.

What do you think?

 

[4Runner8]

i have heard they are really good but i went with cheap stuff cause i want to experiment. just ordered a set on ebay for 26 with shipping.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

The Lightforces are supposed to be really tough.

 

[BlairB]

Hella's are a great bang for your buck, I upgraded the wiring on the 4 I am running on my roof and put in 100 watt bulbs. Lots of guys also retrofit these to HID's, which I may do myself.

I also run KC Slimlites on my lightbar, and they are another great set of lights. They have a great warranty and are definitely built better than the Hellas. These are available in 100watt and 130 watt. I have 2 130 watt long range, and 2 100 watt driving lights.

The Piaas are also very well built lights, and are on par or slightly better then the KC's.

The LF's are amazing lights, I have seen 140's, 170's and 240's all in action. They are definitely pricey though and you need to ask yourself if they will be worth it for the amount of driving you will do. For twice the price, I personally don't think they throw enough light to justify the purchase.

 

[sheik]

Great info, thank you. Looks like we have a three way tie right now.

Been looking at the Lightforces a little bit more. It kinda sucks that the filters are $40/pair and the lights don't come with a wiring harness.

The Hella's are decent looking, cheap, but I'm concerned about light output.

The PIAA's are said to come with a top notch wiring harness and put out a lot of light.

Gonna take a peek at some KC's next.

Please keep the information comin'.

 

[JAC]

i have heard they are really good but i went with cheap stuff cause i want to experiment. just ordered a set on ebay for 26 with shipping.

I have a feeling we are gonna have the same type of driving lights. By any chance BAJA is the brand name?...they are cheap but they look good...those are the ones I got. Well.....they were given to me and because it is just for looks...hey...they work for me. Now I just have to order the bull bar.

 

[sheik]

Speaking of bullbars, I dropped mine off for powdercoating this afternoon. Sposed to be ready in the morning!

 

[4Runner8]

hahahaah i think they are baja's. 2- 5.5 inch round lights with rock guards that are kinda different looking then regular rock guards?? the ones i got are painted black but u can get em at wal mart chrome. dont know how much though. i got em mainly cause price, and no soldering to wire em and for looks. i will use them however whenever i get the chance

 

[Merle]

Hella 500's run about $50 for 55 watts. You can always increase the wattage by running 100 watt bulbs. If that's not enough, then upgrade.

100 watt Hella's with HID's in the fog/driving lights seem to work fine for me. But I slow down to 55 MPH when there are deer out

 

[4Runner8]

55 will still tota your truck but whatever and for advice no one put those stupid deer warning things on cause they dont work, look gay, and my friend put some on and in less then a week hit a deer doing 45 but couldnt get out of the way in time

 

[redrunner03]

Another option is the PIAA 40 series round. It's a 6" light. I have them on my Nissan and like them. Very easy to wire up too since they already wired unlike the Hellas that you have to make the connection yourself on. And yes I did just edit some details. I forgot what I had on my own truck.

 

[darkie3495]

So i have the Piaa's and LF 140's and have seen Hella's in person, so i can provide some feedback.

As Blair mentioned, Hellas are good lights. throw a good amount of lights but i've only seen 100w conversions so not sure what the standard lights will do.

Piaa's are very well built lights and yes, thier relays are beefy. I have the ATP's and ion driving and i can tell you that the driving lights are super bright!! if you go with these, i would get clear lens protector since they are pretty low to the ground.

LF's are great lights and def on the pricier side and you have to buy the harnesses. This wasn't a huge issue since i'm doing a HID conversion and it comes with it's only relay. I like the fact that the lens is plastic and can hold up to some decent strikes from rocks (or branches in my case - happened once already). I bought these based on size and easy lens conversion.

Although i love my LF's, my vote is to go with the Piaas. They are super bright out of the box and don't require you to swap out bulbs or buy harnesses.

 

[sheik]

Well the more thinking I've done on the subject the broader my situational needs have grown.

In the fall, I need to put more light out there and further out there to spot those deer sooner.

In the winter, a fog pattern and possibly diffferent hue of light might be of some use.

All other times of the year, I drive in pretty dense fog quite frequently due to Lake Superior being right here.

So, while I had more or less decided on the PIAA's, the more I looked at the LF's they started to make more sense with the adjustable beam and various filters available (that cover all my situations).

I found a set of used LF 170's that come with a couple pairs of filters that I am thinking about buying. I'm not too worried about buying the wiring harness, relays are cheap and I can buy quite a bit of wire for way less than the wiring kit.

The thing I'm trying to figure out, is how to wire my lights to come on with my highbeams (fall) yet still be controllable via a cab switch (winter/fog) without having to use a 3 way switch. I want to use the FJ switch you used Kevin. Anyone ever wired theirs up the way I'm talking about?