Driving lights and spotlights. HID vs LED vs Halogen. Whats your preference?

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

So I think the title pretty much sums it up but when it comes to driving/spread beam and spotlights. Hid or led or halogen for each?

I'm thinking about my next light setup and I'm thinking LED bar for spread and HID for my spots. What are your thoughts?

[gphcald Member Find all posts View Profile Close gphcald]

So I think the title pretty much sums it up but when it comes to driving/spread beam and spotlights. Hid or led or halogen for each?

I'm thinking about my next light setup and I'm thinking LED bar for spread and HID for my spots. What are your thoughts?

Look at LED driving lights, Yes HIDs will light up the road a K or so down the track, My question is how far do you need to see down the road? the set up I use is a set of spot halogens (Hella 160) and a set of spread halogens (Hella Rallye 1000) this lioghts up the road ahead for 300-350 metres and a lioght spread of approx 150deg in front of me.
Basically its not what you have its how you adjust them.
If i was getting new lights I would go the new lights from Jaycar 10,000+ lumens each for a distance and a spread beam lightbar for a wide beam to spot Skippy and round corners.

just my 2c worth

[pbaynes33 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close pbaynes33]

An interesting question and one I'll follow with interest as I'm about to look at lights for my 150.

A couple of cars back I ran Narva Ultima 175 Blues on my Pajero. I had a spread beam and a pencil beam and found that this combination gave a "good" light for my needs and a more than acceptable spread pattern. For all my night driving around Tassie and two extended outback trips I found these lights more than adequate. I'll add to this by saying that on the longer trips we generally tried to be in camp and set up before dark... but nevertheless had need for the extra lights on several occasions.

I then progressed (?) to a 79 Series LandCruiser and had that fitted with IPF Xtreme 900s. Once again I had a combination of spot and spread beams. To me... and I know it's a very personal thing... I found these lights disappointing. Whether this was compared to the Narvas or the hype about the IPFs, which at the time were pretty much the bees knees, I'm not really sure. I found the pencil beam too narrow and long and the "quality" of the light to be a bit poor, especially given the price premium of these units. As I said I know it's a subjective thing, just my 2c worth.

So now with the Prado I'm faced with the same question RanJ asks. I'll admit my past experience is all with Halogen technology, I haven't tried HID or LEDs. I think if I did go LED I'd prefer the multi-led types (ARB, Lightforce) over the single LED in a traditional free form reflector. I'd be very interested to hear comments on HID lights and how they compare. I'm inclined to agree with gphcald... to me it's better to have a good spread of light for a reasonable distance than go for extra length, often that extra is wasted especially on windy roads and in the bush. Another thing I'm wondering with the LED lights and the very intense white light is the contrast when going from high beam to low beam on the road... even with "lesser" lights this can be a disconcerting issue.

I'll watch this thread with interest. Hopefully it'll lead to an informed decision, rather than just buying the latest and greatest because we're told it is the latest and greatest.

[hawks667 Member Find all posts View Profile Close hawks667]

I run Narva 225 with 55 HID globes fiitted, both lights are spot. Light bar is from eBay, 23 inch, 144 watt spot and spread..All lights are 6K

Fantastic on the open roads with all lights on. For twisty bits, i generally turn the spots off. The glare on signs is bright.....

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

The question hasn't yet been asked, what type of driving do you do, that will give you the best indication of what you need.

For example if you don't do a lot of highway driving long range HID spotties probably don't add much value but a light bar probably does.

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

Well... my current setup is 7" 35w hid spots on the front and the roof is 4x10 watt halogens. While my headlights are 30w led.

My driving is a real mixture of things. It's everything from long hauls down the highways to driving through the bends and mountains that I live in. I've found that the spread from the halogens is a little to "combo" for me and that they try to spread and spot. But I've found that the colour temp is what I prefer for the long drives. My headlights are 4000k and that's nice. But my HIDs are 5000K and just too much blue and i find that after 4-5 hours behind them that they are hurting my eyes. I don't have that issue with Halogen. But then on the next flip side... to get similar output in Halogen would be a massive reflector and 130w bulbs.

I've been pondering putting the yellow fog filter over them to see what happens.

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

I have IPF's (1 spread and 1 spot) converted to 50w HID and a two row light bar on the bulbar of my 150. In the bush I use the light bar has better spread and on the highway use the HID. In all reality the high bean on the 150 standard is pretty good, to reduce the HID glare I run the blue covers over the IPF's.

See ya on tracks, Richo.

[ozspearo Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ozspearo]

I fitted a set of Narva 225 combo halogens on the weekend and have to say I'm not impressed so far. I've only done a few short local trips with them but they don't seem any brighter than the standard high beams on my 150. I'll keep them for now until I can test them on some longer trips, but eventually I'll probably upgrade before I start my outback touring.

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

So... throwing another couple options into the equation.

Round led lights... combo style.
Curved led bars...

What are peoples thoughts on them? My first thought with round led spot spreads is that they'll never have the distance of a hid or hi po halogen... right?

[AussieAndy Find all posts View Profile Close AussieAndy]

Well, what suits me is a set of good halogen lights. $500 spent on a pair of lightforce genesis lights one with spot cover and one with combo cover. Coupled with the factory headlights, factory high beam globes (for now, phillips extreme vision on order), phillips white vision low beam globes (cause they have a pretty colour) and the LED "fog" lights fitted to the TJM bar everything is great.

I personally find the time it takes for my eyes to adjust from HID light back to normal low beam creates more of a danger than not having the little bit of extra distance. Also the glare from road signs is ridiculous with most if not all of these HID and LED lights, it's bad enough with what I have.

Adjustment is everything on lights though, I spent about 45mins adjusting mine once they were all done, this ment unplugging lights so only one was on at a time, then adding them in as pairs to line them up properly and so on.

[shodown Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shodown]

RanJ,

I tried IPF 800 HID's 4300K and found that I severely hated the colour and reflection (plus the warm up time), I managed to pickup a set of Lightforce Genesis Halogen for $150 secondhand that looked near new that are both spot.

I've just installed a single row LED bar, but yet to wire it in properly. Even though the bar is 6000K, I am going to get a single row amber cover in the hope that it will tint the light close to or lower than the Genesis and my main / high beams.

Also toying with the idea of a third Genesis in the middle as a spot, and buying the spread or combo covers for the two others.

Kevin

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

Thanks for the input guys!

[kenny5000 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close kenny5000]

Has anyone used the new IPF 900 LED driving lights?? Got quoted $270 per light and $75 for the loom. Seem like good value.

[awwricecracker Member Find all posts View Profile Close awwricecracker]

Hi RanJ, i've played with quite a few lights on different vehicles. From low end hids and leds to high end. The general rule is you get what you pay for but I've found there are a few exceptions. The cheaper HID kits tend to be a nuisance, some you win with but not often is my experience. I live in the Kimberleys and have now done the trip to Perth 17 times in different vehicles with different lights and most of my driving is outback at night so the lights get a workout most days.

IMO 4300k is the way to go with HIDs, the glare is reduced off signs compared to 6000k and I find I fatigue less than the higher colour temps. I've had reasonable results with nite stalker, ipf and narva but my current favourite is the hella rallye 4000 full size with 100w 4300k HIDs. Yes this goes a long way, but it is a very consistent light, i compliment this with 2x flood night stalkers with 75w kits to fill the sides. I've had no problems with overheating, even towing 3t in 45 degrees.

Offroading is different, the corrugations bounce the bullbar like mad, so it's a real pain having your light shaking all over the place. For this reason I have a couple of 4x10w led floods (or 7 of them if the roof rack is on) which is ample for slower speeds. I really rely on the deep penetrating lights as the cattle eye reflections are what I look for.

I also run around in a huge van with a 42" monster light led bar on the roof and 4x 100w bars on the bullbar. I don't mind the spread, but it limits me to 90km/h, where in the prado im still comfortable on 115 at night. Hopefully my experience helps some, feel free to pm if u wanna discuss more, im not a dealer or anything but i have found a brand of hid kits that i trust now

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

Ricecracker... appreciate the inpit. Feel free to let me in on your hid supplier. As an accessories fitter I have access to a lot and found a kit that's pretty good price wise. For what it's worth, if you can get bulbs fairly cheap then it's worthwhile over boosting the bulbs.

When a lower wattage bulb is put on a high output ballast it increases its output to the specified rating but also lowers the temperature. Hence... a 55w 4300k bulb attached to a 100 ballast gave me similar light temp to a halogen. I was very happy. Mind you I got 9 months out of the bulbs with daily consistent use.