Old School Driving Lights - Whats Good & What Fits an ARB Bar?

[4xsama]

Hi All,

I'm looking at replacing the IPF 800's (I think) on my Puma. I have my eye on a second hand set of Cibie Super Oscars or Hella Rallye 2000's. All I need is a pair for a reasonable price (around $150-$200 would be good) in decent condition. I can upgrade to bulbs if I need to get HID's etc but a standard halogen set should do. Question is;



What other options are there in old school driving lights (I dont really want to spend an arm and a leg on LED's/HID's)
Will Rallye 2000's fit on an ARB bar?. I know Super Oscars will fit: https://www.aulro.com/afvb/members-rides/236135-alasdair-my16-keswick-110-a-9.html#post2634864
Is the upgrade from IPF's to Super Oscars or Rallye 2000's much of a difference


Ideally I'd get a pencil and spread pattern and eventually I'll change the headlights too. I have a Traxide kit fitted so there wont be any issues with power supply. Also, if I'm honest its been a while since I did anything to my vehicle so am getting itchy feet a bit.

Andrew

[Phil B]

Why not go to LED?

[4xsama]

Why not go to LED?

I don't know much about them and I don't think I can get a good quality pair for $150-$200 second hand. Aesthetics a bit too I suppose

[Phil B]

You can get good quality Osram LED 7” Dominator lights from 4WD accessory shops (Google is your friend) for about $200 including the wiring loom

[Zcoota]

I have LED Ipfs on the front of one of my cars and they are nothing short of amazing, almost too good. They give back a load of reflected glare. Initially I was going to replace the halogens on my County with a similar set of LEDs but I’m not so sure. The halogens are less harsh on my eyes than the LED. Super Oscar for me.

[Chops]

I just put these (SupaNova) on the car two weeks ago. All I can say is WOW. Admittedly these were about $400 I think, but you can certainly get other a lot cheaper.

[rick130]

Nite Stalker (can't recall the model number) have Super Oscar copies, or at least the reflector and lens are [emoji6]
The body is a little different, glass and reflector quality seem very good

[jon3950]

If you’re going for Hella, I’d suggest the Rallye 4000s, they are a lot better than than 2000s.

I see you live in Sydney, so have a think about what sort of night driving you will be doing - if you’re like me, most of it will be in hilly terrain. In my opinion, a pair of spread beams (driving beams) are much better than the spot/spread combo for this. You’re driving a Defender, how far down the road do you need to see?

In either of those lights, a pair of spreads will give you a good distance down the road, while lighting up both sides of the road, where the suicidal wildlife likes to hide. They are much better in corners, through dips and over crests. I find a spot beam on anything other than a flat, straight road really annoying as you just keep watching a circle of light dancing all over the scenery. Also, both the Super Oscar and 4000 spreads convert well to hid if you want to go down that path later. The one set of converted 2000s I’ve sat behind weren’t much chop.

I love my Super Oscars, they are a good, basic light and good enough for my usage. However, much of my love is from nostalgia - they were very big in rallying in the ‘70s and ‘80s. There are of course much better lights out there now. I would personally rate the 2000s behind the Super Oscars and the 4000s above them both. That’s just from time spent sitting behind them, I have no scientific evidence to back it up.

Cheers,
Jon

[ramblingboy42]

jon3950 , you asked one of the most sensible questions when you asked .."how far down the road do you want to see"?

out on highways these days there is so much night traffic that if you have "bitumen burners" on your car , every vehicle coming towards you is flashing you to come down off your high beam a long way from you which drives you friggin nuts.

the other thing is reflection from road signs , which becomes worse the "better" your lights are. also drives you nuts

I have an upgraded but not higher wattage set of bulbs(phillips) in my headlights which are a big improvement plus a rather small but efficient 5 element 18watt light bar that gives 1 lux @ 250m.....that means you can read a newspaper at 250 metres. It also means no special loom or relays....unnecessary.

I had 200mm superdooper lights on my D2 and the simple setup I have now is at least equal to what I had and doesnt blast out into the distance like all these new leds do.

kangaroos and especially dark cattle are easily seen and if a roo darts from the bush brighter lights are only going to give you a better close up view of the look of terror on its face as you slam into it.

[Tote]

I have a set of Lightforce XGT halogens on my ARB bar on the Defender and they fit, so Both Rallye 2000 and Super Oscars will fit as well. SWMBO has my old Rallye 2000s on the Jeep and I reckon they are a better light than the XGTs. The bulbs in the XGTs seem to grow dim after a couple of years.
The Nitestalker 225s are the Super Oscar clones and some bargains can be had but they are getting a bit hard to find. I'd happily give a set a run. Halogen Super Oscars are getting hard to find as well.
There is a new LED based Super Oscar which has a single LED element and a traditional lens that look pretty good, other than that I'd look at a Hella Hella 4000, just be aware that there are a couple of sizes in the Hella 4000 range.

Regards,
Tote

[jon3950]

I ran a set of XGTs for a while and was a bit underwhelmed by them too. They were replaced with a set of Hella 4000 compacts which were half the size and a much better light. They also converted well to HID.

Super Oscars are usually easy to find in the UK. I’ve always got mine from Demon Tweeks:
Buy Cibie Super Oscar Lamp | Demon Tweeks (https://www.demon-tweeks.com/au/cibie-super-oscar-lamp-241970/)
The quality isn’t quite what it was since production got moved to China, but for the price they are still hard to beat. Much as I like them though, I’d have to say the Hella 4000 is a much better built light.

The Super Oscar LEDs look interesting and I would like to try a set, but I can’t come at the price. They are also a 6000k light which I find a little too blue for my eyes.

Cheers,
Jon

[cjc_td5]

I run some Hella 4000 Compacts on my D4. A great metal framed light with great mounting system. I just converted them to 70W HID this weekend and WOW, such a huge improvement!

[Homestar]

I’ve got a brand new set of Rallye 4000’s waiting to go on something. If I get the RRC running properly will be that, but maybe on the 101 if I can work out a decent mounting arrangement. Not exactly cheap though but I did come by these for a very good price - around half of new price, but still not budget IMO.

[EastFreo]

I run some Hella 4000 Compacts on my D4. A great metal framed light with great mounting system. I just converted them to 70W HID this weekend and WOW, such a huge improvement!

Where did you get the conversion kit from? I have the compact 4000s and wouldn’t mind upgrading them

[cjc_td5]

Where did you get the conversion kit from? I have the compact 4000s and wouldn’t mind upgrading themIt was just an ebay kit from a seller in Melbourne. I can post a link later if you like. The lights require a bit of surgery to open out the holes to let the plugs out the back of the housings, which can take a bit of doing with the metal housings.

[4xsama]

Thanks for the advice and tips. I'm looking at Rallye 4000's now. One thing I cant be sure of though. There's a Rallye 4000 and a Rallye 4000 ff. Looks like the ff stands for Free Form.

What is Free Form in a light??

Cheers

[jon3950]

Free form reflector. Basically the spread of the beam is determined by the shape of the reflector rather than being diffused by the lens. Newer technology, supposedly improves the light output.

Cheers,
Jon

[W&KO]

jon3950 , you asked one of the most sensible questions when you asked .."how far down the road do you want to see"?

out on highways these days there is so much night traffic that if you have "bitumen burners" on your car , every vehicle coming towards you is flashing you to come down off your high beam a long way from you which drives you friggin nuts.

the other thing is reflection from road signs , which becomes worse the "better" your lights are. also drives you nuts

I have an upgraded but not higher wattage set of bulbs(phillips) in my headlights which are a big improvement plus a rather small but efficient 5 element 18watt light bar that gives 1 lux @ 250m.....that means you can read a newspaper at 250 metres. It also means no special loom or relays....unnecessary.

I had 200mm superdooper lights on my D2 and the simple setup I have now is at least equal to what I had and doesnt blast out into the distance like all these new leds do.

kangaroos and especially dark cattle are easily seen and if a roo darts from the bush brighter lights are only going to give you a better close up view of the look of terror on its face as you slam into it.

Totally agree....with the increased traffic and everybody running bitumen burner I find we are spending more (longer) periods on low beam.

I did a little test awhile ago when driving west from Brisbane, I dropped the driving lights only first than dropped high beam as I got closer which meant I had more light for longer.

Just need to move the driving light switch onto the steering wheel.

[timax]

I have Super Oscars on my Defender or at least did have them.
I have upgraded the bulbs and wiring on my headlights and find thats fine for what i do.
I have driven Sydney to Melbourne overnight many times and never needed high beam. Too many trucks to be able to use them.
Back roads sure but speeds are way down so dont need to see miles up the road.
The Osca's are a lovely light to drive with. Really nice spread with the driving light lenses. Comfortable to use and without a sharp cutoff. Im also a fan of warmer colour temps. Less eye strain and better penetration in fog or damp air. Cold LED's are terrible in this regard.

[worane]

I have a 2003 facelift front on my D2. Can anyone tell me of a method of fitting my S Oscars to the front? The bumper is plastic and I need some sort of solid mount.
Any ideas?

[Homestar]

I have a 2003 facelift front on my D2. Can anyone tell me of a method of fitting my S Oscars to the front? The bumper is plastic and I need some sort of solid mount.
Any ideas?

I have done similar on a plastic bumpered vehicle. I pulled the bumper off and made up a mounting bracket that sat just underneath it so when reinstalled the lights are bolted through the bumper to the bracket - about the only way you’re going to support them I think. As to what’s under a D2 bumper, no idea sorry, I think it’s one of those pull it apart and make it up as you go type deals.

[Odysseyman]

Ditto all the comments on the Super Oscars. In particular the comments about using only the driving version rather than the spots, also the comments about the light temperature. We used to run 150 watt Tungsram globes in our rally cars and they stood out as being able to best tolerate all the vibration and shocks.
These days I find the whiter lights on my Disco give way too much reflection off road signs and are nowhere near as easy on the eyes to drive with, especially in rain and misty conditions.
Another thing about the Cibie lights is that they were made in France and at the time France had much more liberal lighting laws than other countries. This allowed then to manufacture much brighter lights. The lenses were lead crystal and controlled the beam exceptionally well which is why they were more expensive than most of the others. The knock offs from other manufacturers were nowhere near as good.

Cheers
David

[jc109]

After fitting the Traxide loom I put H4 Xenon Max bulbs in my headlights and I couldn’t be more impressed.
At the same time I also installed a pair of Fyrlyts (Nemesis 24V), and these are incredible, but having since moved from WA to QLD I have a lot less cause to turn them on. That includes road trips to Melbourne. But, I highly recommend you look at Fyrlyt’s products before you commit.