DRIVING LIGHTS

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Originally Posted by wardy1

WHY?????

Are you wanting to drive a carnival, or is it like most, all show. If you've ever had a light bar, or LED spot/floods, you'll soon realise that you don't need all those lights up there as the light from the LED's is more than enough off road.

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I had this discussion just on the weekend. Horses for courses, its a balance of bling, budgets, and functionality.
I am happy with two cheapo Narva broad beams to light up 100m in front of me either doing tracks or highway. I don't care if a tree, mud, or rocks take them out, or they get knocked off.
Others work on too much light is barely enough. Wanting to see 3klm down the road, or at last to the next hump or bend anyway.

Both burn the retinas out of the car in front, or behind. Usless in a convoy, dust, fog, and rain. And it seems to be largely trend, market, or magazine driven.
First the spotties on the bbar up front for ages, then lay back banks of soptties on roofs, then spotties on top of the bbar up front, then fixed spottie banks on roofs, now it's light bars.

Just get yourself some spotties, price, numbers, size, bulb structure is mostly irrelevant. But no matter how much you pay, the % of time they are actually used doesn't make sense for most of us. Just when you finally do use them they work a treat.

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Originally Posted by PAT303

I want them not because I'm a tough city driving wannebee but because I live in the middle of bugger all and buy having four I can have two forward shining down onto the road showing ruts/holes and two angled outwards showing whats coming onto the road giving me more reaction time. Pat

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I have to agree here. Although I don't live in the middle of bugger all I do live in county Vic and most of my driving is on rural roads. I reckon you can never have too much light.

For me though I pair of very good spotties and an LED bar will be sufficient.

Dave.

I can’t comment about LED bars as I have never seen one in use at night but comments like driving a carnival and the likes are comments made by people who have never done any serious night time driving with roof lights.

I’ve run roof mounted lights on all my vehicles, 2x and 4x, for near 30 years.

Owing to relo locations, I’ve always done loads of driving out west and preferably at night.

I started with a standard set of 100w bumper mounted driving lights.

I then ran a set of 250w landing lights which were by far the best and worst things I have ever used. While they lit up the road for miles ahead, they also meant that on the long straights, you had to dim them half an hour before you passed an on coming vehicle.

They were next to useless in winding road situations.

I first ran a set of 4 roof mounted driving lights ( with up to 6 bull bar mounted lights ) on my Toyota Hilux dual cab, as a test, on a night run from Sydney to Moree, via the Putty ( the best road north at the time )

Over the years, the number of roof lights remain constant at 4, while the bumper/bull bar lights reduced from 6 ( after the first trip with the roof lights ) to 4, then 2, to now where I do not waste my time fitting bumper lights.

I might also add that the roof light globes have gone from 100w to 130w then to 55w and these are all I use now.

Until you have used roof lights, you have no idea how much better they are and it’s simply because, as pointed out earlier in this thread, while bumper mounted lights will light up the road, they are below your line of vision and things like potholes are not well lit till up are almost on top of them.

Roof lights are above your light of sight so so they lights up obstacles like pothole or downed trees before your eyes get to see them so you see thing much further away, giving you much great braking distance.

Set up with the two centre lights aimed at the roadway just ahead of the vehicle, and the two outside lights pointing to the edge of the road, and you have the best long distance driving lights set for long straights and curved mounting roads and they are particularly good for off roading.

As to the law, in QLD they are not only legal but you can get info of the Gov site as to how to mount them and wire them to meet the regulations here.

One drawback, don’t forget you have them on if you go to an undercover car park!

Here’s a couple of pic to give you an idea of the light spread.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...017/03/481.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...011/07/690.jpg

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Originally Posted by drivesafe

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As to the law, in QLD they are not only legal but you can get info of the Gov site as to how to mount them and wire them to meet the regulations here.
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Link?

last point in driving light section

http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/5f...orvehicles.pdf

note point 3 this includes the bonnet that is where some cops get you:D

Tim,can you make me up a kit for the roof mounted lights?,my Puma is arriving this month hopefully so I'll be in contact for a few things. Pat

In NSW the law is 6 forward facing lights max, this includes headligths AND if you have 4 headlights as standard, your only allowed 2 driving lights, 2 headlights 4 driving lights, also not allowed odd numbers 1, 3, 5.

Also the lights must not protude any further than the furtherest point on the front of the vehicle, (eg) on a bullbar they be within the parameters of the bullbar.

Roof lights are allowed but only ornamental, they must not work.

There is an old thread on this, around the time Discowhite fitted roof lights to his 90.

Baz.

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Originally Posted by Redback

In NSW the law is 6 forward facing lights max, this includes headligths AND if you have 4 headlights as standard, your only allowed 2 driving lights, 2 headlights 4 driving lights, also not allowed odd numbers 1, 3, 5.

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So that law hasn't changed in at least 45 years...
I believe that the odd number rule was so that oncoming traffic can determine if its a motor bike or not - rather acedemic in these days of high intensity lighting.

What irritates me is that roof mounted are perfectly legal in Qld as long as even number of lights fitted but as soon as you cross the NT border they are illegal.

You need to get each states actual regulations governing roof lights.

Over the last 3 or 4 years I’ve noticed a huge increase in the number of long distance interstate trucks that now sport roof mounted driving lights and use them, so the regs must be in place to allow this or these guys would be booked off the road.