Auxiliary lighting

Auxiliary lighting

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Discussion

Snow and Rocks

Original Poster:

2,411 posts

34 months

Monday 11th November
quotequote all
Does anyone have experience of fitting extra long range driving lights to a modern car?

I do quite a bit of long distance driving at night in Northern Scotland and find that despite having various fancy LED setups, most cars still don't throw light far enough down the road for comfortable driving at speed on unlit roads. The best all rounders I've tried were the matrix LEDs on an E class but even they didn't shine anything like as far as the old school halogens with dedicated built in pencil beam spots that Toyota fitted to my old 90's Land Cruiser.

I plan on keeping our Suzuki Across for several years, it also has LED headlights that have been tweaked to get the levels just right but still think there must be a better aftermarket solution. Current plan is one of these fitted into the grill below the numberplate but open to any other suggestions or recommendations?

https://www.lazerlamps.com/triple-r-1250.html

Spare tyre

10,331 posts

137 months

Monday 11th November
quotequote all
The wiring will be pretty straight forward, I guess the choice of always on and or linked to full beam

When running the wiring remember you don’t have to take the most direct route

I’d also consider a roof bar setup, higher light can shine further

If fitting the brand listed think about security etc, some shizzer will have them away

Decky_Q

1,650 posts

184 months

Monday 11th November
quotequote all
It doesnt really matter whether it's an old car or a canbus car. You will have to run a fused +ve line from the fusebox or battery, with it's own switch and relay so it will be isolated from the rest of the cars wiring.

I've never done one to come on with the high beam but this is easy too, instead of a switch use the feed to the headlight to switch the relay on and off.

Snow and Rocks

Original Poster:

2,411 posts

34 months

Monday 11th November
quotequote all
Thanks for that, will definitely need it wired so as to come on and off with the main beam. Some googling suggested that with the LED headlights I would need a canbus interface to get the high beam signal but will have a chat with an auto electrician before ordering things.

The spec of the linked light bar sounds promising so it will be interesting to see how it behaves in the real world. A friend has a big cheap light bar on his tractor and while insanely bright it has no beam pattern at all really so would be near useless on road.

E-bmw

9,963 posts

159 months

Tuesday 12th November
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Snow and Rocks said:
T Some googling suggested that with the LED headlights I would need a canbus interface to get the high beam signal
99% certain all you need is a relay in the high beam circuit at the headlight that then switches a dedicated/fused feed to the "light bar".