Educate me as to auxiliary driving lights

The stock headlights on my F-150 are, frankly, terrible. I have added a set of Phillips high-output bulbs which have helped some on the low-beams, but for distance, not much. In the winter especially, I drive on a lot of dirt roads surrounded by woods at night taking my kids to and from their various activities, and deer are a very common hazard around here. So I'd like to add some candlepower to the thing.

Seems like the new hotness is these LED lights. They are more compact and use less power than the older halogen types. But I'm still leaning toward the halogens for a couple of reasons. One, I like the look, and two, what do I care how much power they draw as long as I'm not overly taxing my charging system, which I doubt I would be.

What about brands? Cibie, Hella, Piaa, KC, what's good and what's crap? What's overpriced, what's worth the money?

polish your lenses, OR replace them. something common like an F150 probably costs very little to get complete new housings.

upgrade the wiring to the bulbs, you'll be surprised how much they respond to that.

I'm looking into LED lights for my Miata. They're pricey but the light could be worth it.

HID kit? Good bulbs are important, although good != expensive. Get bulbs that have opaque caps, and ideally housings with an "umbrella" reflector over the bulb. This reduces the chance of blinding oncoming drivers.

Well, the truck is a year old, so the lenses are in fine shape, and are covered with Lamin-X. I've been down the HID road, researched it quite extensively, and have decided I don't want to go there, at least for now. And I've also looked into the wiring upgrade, even sent an email to that Daniel Stern guy, but I never heard back. But it's something I'd still consider.

But anyway, I want to add some lights. Any opinions on the whole LED vs. halogen thing or brands?

The reflector is the most important thing. And all else being equal, bigger is better. On an F150, you've got a lot of real estate so you don't need little tiny jewelery lights. Once the reflector is right, you can pay more attention to what the light source is - LED, HID or halogen.

On my Dodge, I've got a pair of Hella 4000 "euro beams" with standard halogen bulbs - 100w, I think. They have a slightly wider pattern than a driving light but still throw photons a long way down the road. The lights are about 9.5" in diameter. My commute involves at least 20 minutes of heavy deer area in an area with zero ambient light, so they're very helpful. The nice thing about something like this is that they're affordable, mine cost me $85 for the pair used. The 3000 is a very similar light, I've got some of those stashed away too.

Wire them in with a relay triggered off the high beams. That way you'll be able to quickly turn them off when you have oncoming traffic. After all, you either need full light output or you need dimmed light output. There's no situation where you'd want aux driving lights and low beams. If you've got your driving lights set up properly, they are going to blind oncoming drivers.

I have a set of Hella 500ff with HID conversions, and also converted the factory roof lights on my xterra to HID. the roof lights with the HID put out a wide flood pattern, and the Hellas are the "freeform" lens which puts out a spot beam as well as a wide flood pattern. i have the hellas on a switch that is only hot when the high beams are on, and the roof lights are controlled through the BCM so they can only be turned on when the highs are on. great for backroads at night when you want all the light you can get, and flipping back to low beams kills all four (or six, if you count the high beams too) when someone is coming the other way.

Yes, my plan is to wire them to come on with the high beams only.

I'm seeing a lot of support for Hella. Any thoughts on this KC kit? http://www.amazon.com/KC-HiLiTES-121-SlimLite-130-Watt/dp/B0002CO9L2/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1351789560&sr=8-7&keywords=driving+lights

I like the looks of those

That's on the short list of stuff to add to the Trooper. I've always preferred Hellas to KC's for beam patterns, have had the round 550's before and liked them just fine. I also have a big ol' pair of 100w Bosch 'Brute' lights from the '90's that are 100w output. I had a set of them on the roof bar of my Amigo, I swear they would bubble paint! They really lit up the road but work best on a roof bar, the pattern is cut way short when they are on the bumper etc.

I never have problems with lighting.

Its a Carr rack with four modified Harbor Freight lights run off of two relays (should have used four) run straight from the battery. Relays are run off of a switch hooked up to running lamps.

100% NOT STREET LEGAL

Most states limit you to four headlights, so two below the bumper should do. LEDs will not get you the lighting you want. You need some decent wattage and they need to be angled as per state law. Look yours up. I'd suggest angling them slightly outward if you want to keep Bamby off your grill.

Something like these lights would do well for you. They were like $20.00 at Autozone and I pulled the lower wattage bulbs out and added higher. They are legal with all lights running (excluding the under body lamps).

I have a set of Hella 700FF's with stock 55W bulbs and they are great. I also can complement them with a set of Bosch fogs with 100W bulbs, but the Hella's are fine by themselves.

Reminds me - I have to get the light bar and wiring in the WRX before the Rally of the Tall Pines.

I've got some rigid industries duallys for aux lighting. I could use them as replacements for my headlights if I wanted or just to blind the piss out of the person in front of me. Very easy install too.

Not the best shot but this is a picture of just the LEDs on by themselves.

And mounted

They are a bit pricey but I feel they are worth every penny when driving down dark two lane roads with lots of wild life down here in the keys and back home.

Similar to Keith, I had a pair of the Hella 4000's on my diesel Ram. I had the driving light version though. Was great when towing home late at night on the back roads. When I sold the Ram I kept the lights. They are on a shelf now waiting to get installed on the "Dajiban" shop van/tow rig.

I've used the Hella 500's and 550's in the past and were very happy with them. The van might wind up with a set of them instead of the 4000's. The 4000's are like stadium lights and need a good bit of space to install.

We have PIIA fog and driving lights on my wife's Wrangler. They went on after some doofus that can't parallel park backed over one of the factory fog lamps destroying it. The grill guard when on before the new lights.

The PIIA's are OK, but after a decade of use the housings are starting to rust. I'll probably pull them off and blast them clean. If there's enough metal left they will get repainted and go back on. I do like the Hella's better.

So general question. I have been thinking about wiring up some auxilary lights with a relay on my brights circuit as discussed here. I also want to install a switch so that the auxilary lights do not always come on with the brights, like in the summer time when I am rarely driving when its really really dark out.

Do I just put an inline switch in the ground wire coming from the relay? Do I need to fuse that or anything?

Sincerely, Electronics Noob.

I have a pair of 6" 250W aircraft landing lights and they mount up in the brackets for small quad sealed beam headlights (or snow-plow lights).

I've been waiting for something like the tow truck to use them on since 40A worth of lighting is a bit of a commitment. Previously I replaced one of the high beams on my Opel Manta with one and it was amazing. I could see the reflection of the stop sign a mile away from my house.

failboat wrote: So general question. I have been thinking about wiring up some auxilary lights with a relay on my brights circuit as discussed here. I also want to install a switch so that the auxilary lights do not always come on with the brights, like in the summer time when I am rarely driving when its really really dark out. Do I just put an inline switch in the ground wire coming from the relay? Do I need to fuse that or anything? Sincerely, Electronics Noob.

Mine are set up like that. Put your switch on the ground (or power wire) for the relay and not the lights, and there will be very little current running through it. The power going to the relay should be off a fused circuit already (the high beams) so there's no need for a bonus fuse.

the hellas come with instructions on how to wire them up so that they can only be turned on with the brights, most states require aux lights to be wired in this way to be considered street legal. also, lights on the roof are supposed to be covered while driving on the road, due to some ancient thought that oncoming headlights could reflect off of them and blind themselves.

the hella diagram has you run a (fused) power wire from your distribution block or battery + terminal to the power side of the relay, then to a ground nearby, it has a single power wire that goes to the lights, with a positive terminal for each of the lights, and a ground wire is supplied for the other side of the lights. the trigger wire from the relay is supposed to go to the switch on your dash, which gets its power (fused) from the positive wire on one of your headlights high beam circuit.

EDIT: i have hellas, but there are a lot of positive reviews of lightforce, and the LED setups like dirtybird has, they have come a long way in the last few years, and put out a serious amount of light.

Are Lightforce the ones where you can change the beam pattern like a Maglight? If so, they have a dark spot in the middle of the beam...like a Maglight. Keep that in mind.

One of the guys who competes in the offroad rallies here uses an LED light bar instead of fog lamps:

https://www.rigidindustries.com/category-s/129.htm

Mind you, he is definitely the richest guy who competes in the offroad rallies here...

A lot of the Thunderhill 25 cars use LED bars - I'd forgotten. The low profile is great for aero, and they do seem to put out a ridiculous amount of light. But they are not for the weak of pocketbook.

Keith Tanner wrote:

failboat wrote: So general question. I have been thinking about wiring up some auxilary lights with a relay on my brights circuit as discussed here. I also want to install a switch so that the auxilary lights do not always come on with the brights, like in the summer time when I am rarely driving when its really really dark out. Do I just put an inline switch in the ground wire coming from the relay? Do I need to fuse that or anything? Sincerely, Electronics Noob.

Mine are set up like that. Put your switch on the ground (or power wire) for the relay and not the lights, and there will be very little current running through it. The power going to the relay should be off a fused circuit already (the high beams) so there's no need for a bonus fuse.

I run mine with a separate fuse for the DL. The reason is if one fuse pops then the other set of lights should still work. The Trooper has separate fuses for each headlight.

Oh, definitely fuse the power for the lights. The high beam circuit probably wouldn't have enough capacity anyhow. But you don't need to fuse the circuit for the relay separately - maybe I misunderstood the original question. It's true that my description will kill the aux lights if you pop the high beams, but that's pretty hard to avoid if you have the two of them linked unless you take your relay trigger from the low power side of the high beam relay. And that can be a challenge to find in the wiring harness.

Hella sells a decent little wiring kit for their lights, comes with a fuse, relay and an okay looking switch.

the hella kit has the power wire between the battery and relay fused, and also the wire from the high beam circuit to the switch which eventually goes to the low power side of the relay to energize it. this way if you get a short in the wiring on the trigger side, it won't burn your high beam fuse.

Ok, got it now. Strizzo 'splained it well enough.

Switch is on the trigger wire to the relay instead of ground.

TBH theres probably a few different ways it could be wired.