Driving lights - economic halogen option?

[steveG]

Looking to put a basic set of halogen driving lights on the county to compliment the LED headlights and light bar for occasional night driving.
I've never had driving lights before so take it easy on me ;)

The LEDs in the light bar and headlights put out a decent amount of light, but have no real "reach".
Thinking of picking up a used set of brand name lights as there seem to be plenty around reasonably cheap as everyone upgrades.
A set of Fyrlyts would be nice, but just can't justify the cost for the amount they'll get used.

I've got a 120A alternator so no problem with power for running 100W or 120W lights. Can anyone recommend a suitable halogen in roughly a 175mm (7") size?

Steve

[loanrangie]

IPF's with a HID conversion, i have the 800's which are rectangular but the 900's are round and approx. 200mm diameter.

[John_D4]

I bought XTP led’s from BCF. They weren’t too expensive and put out a crazy amount of light. I’d have to say better distance and side penetration than any other light I’ve seen or owned. We bought the big round ones. You definitely won’t need any other additional light bar or extra driving lights.

[Bigbjorn]

If you want reach in a long range driving light absolutely nothing surpasses the big Hella searchlights. Part Nos. 1503 & 1507. They are large and could be difficult to place on the car legally. I use a 125 W. halogen bulb in mine. Quite awesome with a 55 W. HID bulb.

[350RRC]

IPF's with a HID conversion, i have the 800's which are rectangular but the 900's are round and approx. 200mm diameter.

I totally agree with Nick.

I'm using a crap set of Narvas with an HID globes, etc upgrade and they light up the postcode.

Not as good or instantaneous as the hi lo HID's I used to have in the main headlights, but the whole kit was less than $100.

DL

[Homestar]

The old faithful Rallye 4000’s are good too, and aren’t that expensive but they are quite big, but great if you have room. Come in pencil and spread beam. As mentioned, the IPF 900’s are great too - a mate has those, converted to HID and they are brilliant.

[W&KO]

Nite stalkers Nite Stalker 170mm Combination Driving Light Set (https://www.autobarn.com.au/nite-stalker-170mm-combination-driving-light-set-17023) get fitted to our fleet cars....cannot remember which size.

I upgraded my cars with FYRLYT and after fitting them I thought the nite stalkers did an alright job and maybe I shouldn’t have binned them.

[John_D4]

These are the ones I bought. Spend hundreds and hundreds so you can brag about your light brand to a mate if you want, but these are crazy bright.

XTM LED Driving Lights 9in | BCF (https://www.bcf.com.au/p/xtm-led-driving-lights-9in/543443.html)

[Dorian]

x 2 for Night Stalker
I've run both Lightforce 140's on my defer and the 140 Night Stalker Roo lights on my previous D2. Not much difference between the 2.
Both are adjustable focus, so you can set up your own spread. easily punch 500m on a flat road.
Both brands are around the $250 - $300 mark on Ebay

Cheers Glen

[rick130]

NiteStalker 225's are slightly modified copies of Cibie Super Oscars (AFAIK the reflector and lens is a direct copy) and can be had for around $250/pair.

[steveG]

Thanks everyone.
As luck would have it an as-new pair of IPF 900's came up just around the corner from a mate I'll be catching up with this weekend. Picked them up for $80. I'll see how they go as-is for a start and look at a HID conversion if I still need more.

Those of you that have HID conversions, do you find them to be a harsh sort of bleached light like some LEDs can be.
I like my current LED headlights but mainly because they put out a decent amount of light and are completely sealed so I'm not having to change a globe every few months. In comparison I find the standard "quadoptic" halogens in the 130 a nicer light (when they are both working!!)

Steve

[Fattima]

Watching with interest. I've recently fitted some old Super Oscars I had and am tossing up between HID and LED conversion for them.

[rick130]

Watching with interest. I've recently fitted some old Super Oscars I had and am tossing up between HID and LED conversion for them.FWIW Ozscott has Super Oscars with HID's on his Disco and loves them

[dromader driver]

Watching with interest. I've recently fitted some old Super Oscars I had and am tossing up between HID and LED conversion for them.

I find after a long drive behind the son's LED that my eyes are getting a bit uncomfortable and scratchy. Much prefer halogen. Am looking at going to a set of the old 4 1/4 inch aircraft landing lights made by GE. Not that impressed with some of the newer generation lights.

There is some info on the Fyrlite web page that talks about different types of lights.

[350RRC]

.....................

Those of you that have HID conversions, do you find them to be a harsh sort of bleached light like some LEDs can be. .............................

Steve

Don't go over 4300k with the globe colour or you risk the light being really harsh white or even slightly blue.

Some 5000k globes are sold as 'daylight' but its way harsher than any daylight I've seen.

DL

[Dorian]

Those of you that have HID conversions, do you find them to be a harsh sort of bleached light like some LEDs can be.
Steve

I changed my Lightforce over to HID's for a while, did my own thing, as the genuine light force kit was absurdly expensive.
Changed them back after a couple of drives as
I thought they were too harsh and as mentioned above my eyes were getting scratchy after a few hours
More annoying was the warm up time, though I don't have a light bar to fill in the time delay.
Because they are so bright and blue-ish had trouble seeing for a few seconds when I had to dip to low beam.

Cheers Glen.

[AK83]

....
Thinking of picking up a used set of brand name lights as there seem to be plenty around reasonably cheap as everyone upgrades.
....

If we could arrange a time and a place, I have an old pair of rectangular IPF(sorry can't remember the model numbers, but they're a common light back in the day).

I ripped them out after finding that I hate mixing LEDs and Halogens.
I find the whiter colour of LEDs much less tiring .. so I'd argue against the comments mentioned re the lower colour factor, and go with a min 5000K to 5500K.

Anyhows .... the only reason I saved these IPFs was for moments like this .. I hate chucking stuff that still has some use.

specifics: I'm in the middle of building a shed, and my garden shed shed is a total mess, and they're in there somewhere under a couple of tons of tools and other carp.

So if you're not in a hurry for them, you're welcome to them.
I think they still have their 100w H1 globes. No wires, no nuthin .. just the two globe bodies(and maybe their globes) and the two short wires hanging off the bodies .. so you'd obviously need install stuff to get them going.
Cond is fair. minimal rust on the chrome .. basically in G.C .. that they were worth holding onto.
Had they had too much rust, I'd probably have checked them by now.

SO given the above, if you want to PM me and organise a time to try to catch up .. and can wait a couple of weeks(till I can half finish my new shed, to allow me to half empty the garden shed)

They're all yours.

[twr7cx]

Looking to put a basic set of halogen driving lights on the county to compliment the LED headlights and light bar for occasional night driving.

If you have converted the headlights to LED and I assume the light bar is also LED (as I haven’t seen one that isn’t before), why do you want to go with a halogen driving lights to ‘complement’ them? Why not stick with the LEDs so that you have some consistency in your light colouring etc? From my, somewhat limited experience, the halogen colour gets washed out by the bright white of the LEDs (I think someone else has mentioned similar above too) - I’m not saying that they don’t have the distance or aren’t better performers, and I’m certainly not commenting on FYRLYT which I’ve never experienced but note they are drastically different to other more common halogen lights.

To that end 4WD Supacentre/Kings Adventure have released a new range of LED driving lights which seem to have been upgraded to German Orasm LEDs. The old generation seem to be extremely popular so I’d assume the new ones are an improvement again from what they’re saying - might be worth checking out.

From what I’ve read HID globes are the most fragile (and most costly to replace) while LEDs the most durable which can be a consideration on a 4WD vehicle used offroad.
Theres also the delay factor with HIDs which depending on the model can be quiet lengthy. Certainly I would find inappropriate for somewhere like Tas where the roads are often windy with thick growth either side so it’s on and off a lot.

Personally I fundamentally don’t like the idea of HID and LED conversions as it’s using a light source type that the reflector and lense weren’t designed for. I would assume a proper designed for application light would be superior to that of a converted.

[DiscoMick]

I found my Lightforce spots were redundant once I fitted a lightbar and upgraded headlight bulbs. The spots made so little difference it wasn't even worth turning them on.
I might remove mine and replace them with LED spots for longer distance.

[loanrangie]

HID's will punch further than a retro LED conversion which is the whole point of driving lights, i like my LED light bar for the spread.

[steveG]

IPF's with a HID conversion, i have the 800's which are rectangular but the 900's are round and approx. 200mm diameter.

What kit did you use for the HID conversion?

Steve

[loanrangie]

What kit did you use for the HID conversion?

SteveFrom a guy on eBay.

From the same seller, he has a good rep for his HID kits -

55W H3 6000K HID KIT FOR IPF 900 SPOT DRIVING LIGHTS | eBay (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/55W-H3-6000K-HID-KIT-FOR-IPF-900-SPOT-DRIVING-LIGHTS/160633555368?epid=1460802614&hash=item25668189a8:g:rOQAAOxyoA1ROtee)

[Bigbjorn]

What kit did you use for the HID conversion?

Steve

Jaycar have both 35w and 55 w kits. I tried the 55w in Hella 1503 searchlights on highway trucks and in a single (cyclops) lamp on my County. Awesome lightup but I found the halogen just as effective and not as wearing on the old man eyes. I did not like the delay arcing up with the HID bulbs. One second at 110 k's is 30.5 metres.

[350RRC]

Jaycar have both 35w and 55 w kits. I tried the 55w in Hella 1503 searchlights on highway trucks and in a single (cyclops) lamp on my County. Awesome lightup but I found the halogen just as effective and not as wearing on the old man eyes. I did not like the delay arcing up with the HID bulbs. One second at 110 k's is 30.5 metres.

Pretty sure I have the 35 watt Jaycar kit in the Narvas.

The delay is noticeable with them compared with when I had a different system (hi-lo HID) with different ballasts in the headlights. The delay after the initial supernova when those were first turned on was much shorter.

DL

[bikeman]

Thanks everyone.
As luck would have it an as-new pair of IPF 900's came up just around the corner from a mate I'll be catching up with this weekend. Picked them up for $80. I'll see how they go as-is for a start and look at a HID conversion if I still need more.

Those of you that have HID conversions, do you find them to be a harsh sort of bleached light like some LEDs can be.
I like my current LED headlights but mainly because they put out a decent amount of light and are completely sealed so I'm not having to change a globe every few months. In comparison I find the standard "quadoptic" halogens in the 130 a nicer light (when they are both working!!)

Steve

Hi Steve, I run IPF 900 with 70w HID’s. I went for 4500k as I find the 6000k too white also harder to see skippy on the side of the road. 4500 is closer to the yellow spectrum. 55w would be ample.
Cheers. Phil

[33chinacars]

Although you say FYRLYT's are out of your price range I would highly recommend them . Have them on both my cars. The whole point of FYRLYT's is that they are the correct colour temperature and are less likely to wash everything out

[prelude]

I do not have a lot of experience with the "very far beam" lights you guys have but I do have a bit of experience with light colours. I have been messing around with HID conversion on several vehicles for years now and I used to go for 6K at least because that made them visible during the daytime. Once I shifted down to 5k I thought I saw less of the light during day for sure and seemingly at night (it's all between the ears) but it turns out that the light is closer to daylight and thus goes up in its surroundings more.

Since then I have purchased a car which came with HID's from factory in the late 90's (and is still in top shape, so no worn HID's) and they are 4.3k if memory serves. Thus far I have found this to be the best light colour yet! I guess they did know what they were doing back then ;)

So, tl;dr go with something close to 4.3k and your eyes will thank you for it, wether you go led or hid. Not too many LED's come in this colour though.

Cheers,
-P

[steveG]

Just to wrap up the thread, I ended up biting the bullet and getting a 4.3k 55w HID kit from that eBay seller for the IPF900's.
Finally got a chance to give them a decent test last night taking the scenic route home from work. They work well and have definitely given me the reach I was after.

The light bar still provides a fair bit of close range side fill that the IPFs don't so everything works well together.

Thanks all :)

Steve