Thread: Driving Lights - D3/RRS

I may have been misinformed but:
When I bought the D3 I arranged with ARB to fit the B/bar & driving lights. During talks with the ARB people in Townsville I asked for HID driving lights, the 2 blokes I spoke to did not recommended HID for D/L's on the D3.
They said that the car already has good low/high beam lights with a very good spread of light, that HID D/L's would increase spread but not give much more penetration in distance.
They recommended good quality halogen D/L's though they would fit HID's if that is what I wanted.
A lot of this centered around my usually driving on remote area roads in flat terrain. So I ended up with IPF 600's with pencil beams in both. With the D/L's turned off the reduction in light range is quite noticeable, maybe 20 meters or more as an estimate.
I have also noticed that the standard (& all lights combined) give the best spread of light of any car I have owned, that includes cars with Lightforce & big motha Hellas.
My only whinge with the lights are that the low beam height cut off is really a line so it is hard to see/reads signs on tall posts & the amount of glare back off road signs in the bush, just blinds a poor ol' fella.
The above may all be BS just to sell me a cheaper set of lights, but that's what they recommended.
Jonesfam

I am a bit retro on all this but if I had my way, we would all be driving behind 2500K yellow lights, and the street lights would be that as well.

My thinking is of course predicated by living in the great white north where either a full moon or just the northern lights dancing in the sky on fresh snow is common. These conditions can yield very good visibility and if everyone was just driving on their parking lights, one would see almost as well as during the day; well probably better as in the winter, the day can be a washed out dull gray and that is when I wear my polarized grey "sun" glasses - to get some contrast.

I note that the colour of HID's on my 3 is closer to 4,000K, and that I think for xenon is good relative to some of these "blue" things that come at me. There are quite a few RR Sports in the local area and when I see them on coming, the headlights do not bother me. I contrast this to the Mercedes products of a few years back when the HID's first appeared. The colour or something bothers me. In other words, given that everything is trade offs, I think Land Rover got it right.

I realize that I am talking about driving against traffic rather than being the only vehicle in a hundred miles and the nearest street light is a thousand miles away.

But back to 2500K yellow. Back in the seventies, I spent some time in New Caledonia and while it was all just small winding roads in a tropical setting, all vehicle lighting was yellow so on coming traffic was like they only had their park lights on, (may be different now).

For me, seeing the road and edges was good, but speeds were low so to speak. Where there are no bright spots, ones eyeballs open up more and overall, lower lighting levels, but even, seem to yield better overall visibility. The same with street lights, the yellow ones do not reflect back falling snow so the night illumination seems more even.

Originally Posted by harlie

If you put HID in the high beam filler; will you not get a “bulb out” error?

Not with my D4 - no difference between both halogens working or no halogens or just 1 relay coil.

Originally Posted by Graeme

I don't know what light pattern the RRS high beam produces, but the D4 high beam provides a very useful (if only it wasn't in the trees) wide, flat beam that lights the verges well. Therefore converting the D4 high beam to HID (with the globe slanted) is very worthwhile. I fitted an ebay 50/55W kit, using 1 high beam supply wire as the trigger wire for a relay that powers the HID ballasts. I opted for the 3000K yellow globes for best visibility in rain but 5000K would have been my 2nd choice for best all-round light.
The HID high beam is slow to light-up if not used recently, but if dipped for oncoming traffic it responds quickly enough to be able to see through the spray if used whilst still alongside a passing truck.

Hi Graeme, got a link to the eBay kit you bought please?

Whilst this link is not the same brand that I purchased, it appears to be the same. I see that this supplier doesn't have 3000K globes but they have 4300K (same as D3/4 which are not 4500K as I stated earlier) which I haven't seen before in the cheap kits.
55W HID Xenon KIT H1 H3 H7 HB3 HB4 H8 H11 9005 9006 50W | eBay

So what would be the recommended heat range??

4300, 5000, or 6000 noting that these are for high beam and will be off most of the time except when in country areas etc.

I assume the current halogens are H4???

Garry

I suspect the RRS uses H7 globes like my D4, but your handbook may state what they are. The 4300K will give the best penetration and least glare of the "whites". The 6000K will seem to be the brightest but you wont see past the foreground as well as you would with 4500K.

I've got the LR 35W 4500K HID bi-xenons, 55W 6000K HID replacements for the halogen infill high beams, and a set of 35W 5000K HID Euro beam 7" driving lights.

The light spread is magnificent. The colour rendering terrific. This has been the best lighting I've had on a vehicle & give me the best chance to spotting skippy's & other wildlife. The 7" driving lights do provide a very different light spread to the vehicle lights.
But I do find that compared to halogen set-ups that I need to dip earlier due to oncoming traffic or when coming up behind vehicles. The 7" driving lights are more so the culprit that requires earlier dipping of the high beam, so if it is happening too often, I just switch them off & rely on the vehicle lights.
I've had halogen Lightforce, Super Oscars, Hellas and KC's on other vehicles, & the HID's leave them for dead. No contest. The next step would be to move to the LED light bars like what Owl has...when the price comes down...come on eBay!
Agree 100% with Superquag that HID replacements for low beams are an absolute No No.