Getting IPF Spotlights next week, Should I get 2 x Pencil or 1 Pencil and 1 Spread?

[gumboot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close gumboot]

As per the title. Prado gettting some IPF 900 Exteme lights next week.
Options is 2 x Pencil beams or 1 Pencil beam and 1 spread beam, or 2 x Spread Beams?
also The IPF lights are also getting 50watt HID kit fitted at the same time.

What do the Pradopoint wise ones recommend?

I have the Philips +100 bulbs which I am very happy with in my main headlights
Useage: General 4wd and night driving and not a huge amount of highway work.

Cheers

[letsgoplaces Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close letsgoplaces]

Go the pencil/spread combo.

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

I have combo 900's and am happy with them.
I think 2x spots would only by suitable for hunting, or if additional lights are planned.

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

I have the IPF 900s combo (pencil & spread) with an after-market (non IPF) hid kit and am very happy with them. Having the combo gives you the best of both worlds and thoroughly recommend them


Craig

[gumboot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close gumboot]

Great, thanks for the advice guys, will go with a spot/ spread combo then
Cheers

[rob_macca67 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close rob_macca67]

I think this is a personal thing.... I've got the same setup on our 150's and I think now that I wish I had gone the 2 pencil beams as the headlights are pretty good in themselves (sideways too) and I find having the one beam a little off putting in some cases... When I can, I'll be swapping to 2 pencils and give that a go.....

I have the IPF 900s combo (pencil & spread) with an after-market (non IPF) hid kit and am very happy with them. Having the combo gives you the best of both worlds and thoroughly recommend them


Craig

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

I think there's other threads already on this - you might want to look at those.

I agree it's a bit of a personal choice - I have one spread & one spot beam. Works for me.

See also:

http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread.php?21494-Spread-beam-spot-light-close-to-wollongong-NSW

http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread.php?22368-Two-pencil-beams-or-pencil-plus-spread&


http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread.php?12766-Spot-Spot-or-Spot-Spread&


Searching threads is easy & quite helpful. It's not that hard.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

i have one of each . had my time again i would go 2 pencils

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

I have one of each and wish I had gone 2 pencil every time I use them. So much so that I am going to buy another pencil and put the spread in the middle. (disconnected) of course

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

I have one of each and wish I had gone 2 pencil every time I use them. So much so that I am going to buy another pencil and put the spread in the middle. (disconnected) of course

I agree, I bought my IPF's secondhand so didn't have a choice, if the opportunity arrises to swap to spots and ditch the spread for a reasonable price I would swap to 2 spots, the headlights cover the spread side fairly well.

Cheers Andrew

[gumboot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close gumboot]

Thanks for all the feeedback,
While on the subject , is there a reason for the blue spotlight covers you see sometimes.
Is this just a visual thing or does it acutualy serve a purpose like reducing reflections etc?

Cheers

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

just re read you original post . if you already have 100watt globes in your headlights , i think youll be dissapointed with the spread beam . the lights on the prado's are very good anyway and for me the spread beam doesn't really add much to the overall effect. your going to be dissapointed if you've ever had 100w driving lights before .

[Leethal Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Leethal]

Swimming against the tide ....

I'm obviously swimming against the tide on this one ...

Since your fitting 50 watt HID kits I believe 2 spreads are the way to go, I have 50 watt HID kits in mine and I changed the pencil beam reflector to a spread beam as I found the pencil or spot beam had great range but most of my driving is not on long straight HIGH speed roads so having a reflective range over a 1000m was pointless.
With the 2 spreads lots of light out to 600m or so, reflections from road signs out close to 900-1000m.

The original post said limited highway and mainly general 4wding so I personally think spreads are the way to go in this instance as long range does not seem to be the main objective

Lee

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Gumboot
As I mentioned above, I have the IPF (900s) with HID kit currently running 1 spot, 1 spread. I also have a spare spot (pencil beam). Unfortunately not 2 spreads, but If you'd like to see what they look like before you commit, PM me and we can catch up somewhere and arch em up...

Craig

[ursos Member Find all posts View Profile Close ursos]

Just to confuse the issue further, I have Light Force Genesis 50W HIDs and love them. They come as pencil spots but you can purchase "combo" filters which spread some of the light but retain a central spot. This gives you the best of both worlds as you can swap filters around to have two spots, two combos or one of each depending on conditions and location. Filters just clip on the front and it takes about 10 seconds to change them over.

On the blue covers, the reason for this is to change the colour of the light to be "whiter", i.e. less yellow. Without jumping into the technical, I am not sure of the colour temperature of the IPF HIDs but typically HIDs are on the bluer side of white anyway so the blue filters are unnecessary and they do significantly reduce the light intensity.