Jump to content

Driving Lights


Worm

Recommended Posts

What do people prefer in driving lights, spread beam or pencil beam? Or combination?

And what is the difference between the clear lenses and the blue lenses?

I like the idea of seeing very far ahead but also seeing off to the side. But the combination ones seem like it wont quiet be good enough at either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a pair of Hella Rallye 4000 FF "Compact" driving lights on the roo bar of my BA Falcon. They are what you might call a semi-pencil or maybe a narrow spread beam. These are the lights I have: http://www.hella.com/produktion/HellaAU/We...000_Compact.jsp

They spread out gradually and gave a nice beam. I say "gave", because I upgraded them with a 35W H1 HID conversion kit a while ago and now they are nothing short of sensational.

I can easily see about 1km, if not further, down the road now.

A while before that I converted the inboard H7 high beam lights on the car with a similar 35W HID kit of the same brand. With those in place the old 100W halogen globes in the Hella lights barely did anything. That's why I converted them as well.

Needless to say I am VERY happy with the light output of the car. Especially since I replaced a total of 430W (2x100W +2x60W + 2x55W) of power draw with 260W (4x35W + 2x60W) of power draw and got about 3 times the light output and about a third of the heat output, into the bargain.

This is very helpful, since I travel to Perth every few weeks and do most of the driving late at night.

The kits cost $79.95 each. The same ones, from the same seller are now available from ebay for $10 per kit less. Both kits are 6000k light colour, which is pure white, with a hint of blue. Most HID kit sellers recommend going for either 4000k or 6000k for strongest beam and best penetration. 8000k and higher gives a blue light which is harder to see by and doesn't penetrate as well.

The truth is though, that most people could upgrade their inboard high beam globes and be happy enough with the result, not to bother fitting driving lights. Those who only have single globe headlights, could fit driving lights and a HID kit to get the same result.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i pefer 2 spreaders and 1 pencil. i have a lot of suicidal wallabys that have caused unnecessary damage to my 4x4. i like the spreaders so i can see a long way off the road on both sides and increase my chances of avoiding a hit or being able to hit them in the sweet spot because i have seen them and changed direction to reduce chances of damage.

Beno

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah for sure.

The old saying goes, "Once you've had chocolate, you'll never go back to vanilla."

I reckon that once you've used HID, you wont go back to halogen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a set of Lightforce 240's on my Triton. The blue covers are actually a spreading lens. You lose a bit of distance but it lights up the side of the road very well. Good for dodging roo's. I don't think the colour has anything to do with it, it is the pattern in the lens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The colour definitely will make changes to what you see. Its all about the wavelengths that our eyes see in.

As in a yellow light lets you see "through" fog whereas a white one will bounce back and just give you more glare. And red tinted lights don't ruin your night vision as badly as other colours.

Blue lights will "reduce" what you can see (scientific fact - but I don't know how to describe it properly). Not sure how it works but take a look at the next car you see with blue tinted headlights and you'll see how ineffective they are compared with other cars with white headlights.

So the blue lense you have might be spreading the beams as well as having a blue tint.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...