Do You See the Light?
I’ve just had a lot of work done on Toyotie after buying a new (to me) INTI roof rack. Lots of wiring mainly, but also I had a few other things installed at the same time. I’m working on the writeup and photos, but until that’s done I have another small gallery from this weekend.
I wanted to check out the new HID lights that came with the roof rack and get an idea of what they were like. I knew they were cheap HIDs (Kragen 7″) but I’d not had any HIDs before, so I wanted to see what sort of light these things threw.
As it turns out, these things are really, really bright. The throw isn’t as far as I thought it would be, but that may just be because of where they are aimed. I think I need to point them further out… Or at least one pair further out. It looks like I’ll have to park somewhere after dark where I can take my time and play with the adjustments and see what makes sense.
In the meantime, here’s a small gallery of photos comparing the lights on Toyotie as they currently stand.
Here’s a great summary on these lights from JP magazine: “The amount of light that our two 7-inch HID off-road lights produce is unbelievable. It’s like turning the sun on at night and focusing it in front of your Jeep. Once you’ve driven at night with these lights, running just the factory headlights on high feels like driving by candlelight…”
Read more: http://www.jpmagazine.com/techarticles/electrical/154_0905_budget_hid_offroad_lights/index.html
February 6th, 2012 at 9:16 amThe problem I’ve always had with lights above the windshield is that it dumps light all over the hood too. Its a trade off to have such great lighting of the area outside the beams right in front of you. I have my IPF lights inside my ARB wired so that they come on and off with the high beams. That is, only if I have them switched on.
Looks great though! And I really like the stone guard in front of the lights too.
February 6th, 2012 at 9:32 amThey sure light up the hood well. ;^) Now I understand why people get hood blackouts. Maybe I’ll have to go that route but first I’ll see if adjusting the lights upward helps reduce the hood-lighting.
I didn’t have a problem with the IPF 900XS lights on the roof rack of the Jeep. I don’t think those had as wide a throw as these HIDs do, and they were definitely pointed further out.
The stone guards are nice. I’d like to find a spare set to blackout, as you’re technically supposed to keep the lights covered while on the highway and such in CA. But I’ve never been pulled over for it, maybe because I don’t ever mess with them while on the road.
February 6th, 2012 at 9:39 amI wonder if you could fab up a little shroud to mount between the lights and the rack. I’d bet with a bit of experimenting, you could shroud it just right to minimize the amount shining down on the hood without affecting the lighting ahead.
February 6th, 2012 at 7:31 pmGood idea! That crossed my mind and I bet you’re right. Fabbing shrouds out of sheet metal wouldn’t be too hard, I think. If adjust the beams up higher doesn’t cut down on the glare, I might try making some mock-up shrouds with plastic sheets just to see if the shrouds would work.
February 6th, 2012 at 8:10 pm