LED spotlight thoughts

 So bit the bullet and upgraded the prado to a 200 series cruiser. Now have to set it up for the annual run up north. What are your thoughts on a decent set of Led's for it. Mid range and price. Seen a few but most shops want to sell me their stock and bag everything else.

Cheers


mullows's picture

Posts: 738

Date Joined: 25/12/08

 Something I want to do one

Fri, 2015-11-27 08:24

 Something I want to do one day in the not too distant future.

Saw this site on the net but havent a clue if their prices are good etc. The curved led bar looks interesting. Wonder if its any good?

 

http://www.stedi.com.au

 

Cheers

Mullows

 

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The Older I get the better I was :-)

tombstone's picture

Posts: 169

Date Joined: 14/10/10

 Depends on what you want to

Fri, 2015-11-27 09:15

 Depends on what you want to achieve from them, need to remeber that you can no longer have lightbars above the bonnet line, or on the roofrack, so most of the curved bars are too long. Rigid industries do a 6" square LED light that reaches 1.1km down the road, now these are pretty pricey, Great White do round ones 8,12,18 leds, they also do the new gen2 range spotties which are pretty deadly, the spot beam at 100mtrs has a 6' radius (claimed to reach 1km), so it's a real spot. Big Red 3watt LED light bars and spotties by Narva are a great budget set of LED's and put out good light, Narva 5watt LED lightbars are good, LED Autolamps do 10watt lightbars well priced. ARB and Lightforce have theirs too, but to be honest I personally think they are overrated for the price you're paying for them. and EBAY lightbars are cheap and is like playing Russian roulette. Or other option is going with HID's for distance and a small/medium lightbar to cover you for spread and the middle ground light. we generally set truckies up this way and have not had a complaaint yet, even had a few guys come back and setup more of their trucks this way.

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 to fish or not to fish...as if there was an option.

scotto's picture

Posts: 2469

Date Joined: 21/04/08

LED vs HID

Fri, 2015-11-27 09:31

I have had a set of HID's, and I now have a set of the 9" round LED spots that are 185W each. at the time, the LED's cost around $700, but as there is a lot of similar products now, you can get them cheaper than that. they are very bright, and its a good clean light, but they certainly don't have the punch that a HID light has.

LED's have a bright, but short spread of light. HID's can pierce over a km no worries. LED's are immediately bright a soon as you switch them on. HID's take up to a minute to reach full brightness.

my personal opinion - get both!! a lot of companies around now (like saledlighting.com ), that have after market LED's and HID's, often in a decent package, and for a good price. I'd personally go with a light bar for a short but bright spread of light up close, and a couple of 7 or 9 inch pencil beam HID's, for a penetrating beam up beyond the 500 or 600m mark. a set up like that, would cover all bases.

Paul_86's picture

Posts: 1449

Date Joined: 27/03/09

 Agree totally with

Fri, 2015-11-27 09:45

 Agree totally with Scotto!

ive got 3 100w HID's, one spot and 2 spread and then a 180w light bar accross the top. Best of both worlds, plenty of spread to see those roo's hiding on the side of the road that jump out at the last minute and the HID spot that reflects off signs and markers for miles. Only down side is the HID's do take a little while to warm up, and also the glare off those big white overtaking signs up north can be pretty bad, makes you need to squint your eyes while your passing them haha. That's when you know you've got enough spotties!

jayce's picture

Posts: 564

Date Joined: 10/12/11

Depending on what sort of

Fri, 2015-11-27 09:46

Depending on what sort of bull bar your running and price.
I have rallye 4000s with a after market HID kit.
They are awsome and better than most light bars.

If you have room put a set of them and then put a 18" light bar above them. Will cover good distance and spread lighting.

I have ordered a fair few bars from stedi.com Find them on facebook. Their light bars are strong cheap and show up fairly quick.

Posts: 334

Date Joined: 02/09/14

wiring up LED bars

Fri, 2015-11-27 10:08

Hi guys,
just wondering, when installing a LED light bar, can you hook it into your High beam wiring loop, so that it goes on & off simply when switching your lights between high & low beams.
thanks in advance

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Wez0062

joel231's picture

Posts: 107

Date Joined: 18/09/12

 Sure can mate, pretty simple

Fri, 2015-11-27 19:24

 Sure can mate, pretty simple to do. here is a diagram to help you.

 

Cheers Joel

 

 

catchalittle's picture

Posts: 1875

Date Joined: 04/09/08

www.fyrlyt.com/http://www.fyr

Sat, 2015-11-28 16:22

www.fyrlyt.com/http://www.fyrlyt.com These are awesome Ausiie made they put out a lot of light you can change them from being spot to spreader I have been running the same globes for 4 years and they have seen some tough conditions.

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Nathan