So I ordered a set of Hella 500 driving lamps complete with guards and covers. The set will be mounted to the A-Frame brush bar and the intended use will be to provide increased visibility/lighting in thick snow storms. Rep at RoversNorth said these were the best thing they offered for what I was looking for.

At any rate I have not even opened the package yet and already having serious doubts about these lights or even Hella in general. Hella appears to be a cheap brand, and widely common on all vehicles far and wide. Im leaning towards the Warn SDB-210 Dual Beam set equipped on certain LR G4 models, but at $500+ per set it will be awhile before I order them. My concern with Hella is the wireing and labour just to install lights I will only use for less than a year. In the mean time should I just do the install of the Hella lights and deal with them or maybe buy a cheap set of LR Safari 5000 driving lamps? At least the Safari lamps plug right into the factory wireing setup so it would not be any hassles.

 

First, which ever lights you install, wire it yourself and save $100 plus in labor, especially since either set can be connected to one of the factory switches.
I go along with what you say regarding, the Warn lights are far better for your needs.

 

The dual beam Warns are great, no question there. But both the price and size are pretty big. If you get Hellas, get the wiring harness and do it yourself like DM says, it's quite easy.

 

Quick question on topic for guys like ZGPhoto that have light mounting points on the roof rack and the front bumper.

Seems like you'd want to have lights with a tight beam and long throw mounted on the rack (to also cut down on bonnet glare). Are folks mounting the same type of beam on the front aftermarket bumper, or are they adding additional fog lights to the bumper ?

My intended use is primarily desert driving. It'd be nice to be able to use the bumper mounted lights in poor visibility situations on occasion, whereas i don't ever plan to use the rack mounted lights while riving onroad.

Any advice on which lights to get ? Are the dual beam warns, the way to go ?

 

I have Hella 4000s all up top, Fog left and right, euro driving in the center. If you have roof lights, it's essentially a necessity to have a hood black out kit. DECAL HOOD BLACKOUT KIT DISCOVERY II, PLH622, LRN9000KAL - Rovers North - Classic Land Rover Parts

People generally put fogs on the bumper, as you're trying to light underneath the fog to illuminate the road. Desert racers generally have lights up top for long throw situations.

 

Hella lights are fine, when you choose the correct light for the task.
I don't know why you bought driving lights when you said, in your other thread, you wanted them for foggy/snowy conditions. That's not what driving lights are for. They are for seeing way down the road in clear conditions.

 

DiscoMike: My Disco was originally equiped with LR driving lamps. I sold them awhile back but I still have the wireing and everything set up, I only sold the light themselves. So with that in mind could I just plug in the Hella lights and be on my merry way until I get the warn kit? Or do I have to tear out all the wireing from original driving lamp setup?

Antichrist: I do not yet have a roof rack, so can't throw any light on the roof right now. I always though the lights mounted to the roof were for long distence visibility while the driving lamps on the bumper/brush bar were for up close wider lighting and snow storm conditions.

I just want something extra to light up the roads during winter, not to mention moose, deer and wild turkeys that frequent the country roads in New Hampshire.

 

Heh ZGPhoto,
Whats the logic behind having the fogs on the outside L and R of the rack setup. I'm assuming it's not for Fog but to increase the spread of the light immediately surrounding the front of the truck, while the euro driving beams provide the longer throw over distance ?

I just spent some time reading up on some documentation, but what I haven't found yet is someone with a similar setup to mine but with their driving lights installed, discussing the pro's and cons of different lighting setups and for which types of applications.

 

My roof lights are set up on two switches, outside fogs, and inside euros.

When I want a wide spread, if I'm driving at a slow speed through tight corners at night(trail rides less than 10mph), I want just the fogs on the corners to illuminate everything around me within 100 feet.

When I'm driving over 50 and I want a long throw and don't want to over-illuminate up close surroundings, I just want the euros and my headlights.


Everything in between gets both.

 

Roof mounted lights are illegal to use on the road. If you're racing Baja or Dakar at night, then yeah, long distance lighting up there is useful. For general off-road use, especially in the East, driving lights are pretty useless, there's no real need to see a great distance. You want floods or cornering lights up high so you can see close at the low speeds you're traveling. Up high reduces long shadows so you can distinguish obstacles better.

Driving lights, if you want to use them for long distance on the road, have to be on the grill/bumper and only illuminate with your high beams. Fog lights (what you want for inclement weather) should be in the same location and only illuminate with your low beams (personally I wire them so I can use without any headlights as sometimes even low beams are too much, however that is also illegal in most states). Any other setup doesn't provide the best use and can actually make you see worse, even though your brain is telling you that you can see better.