To beat a dead horse, I wanted to ask on the roll bar lights just for clarification.

Since I wont be using them for on road since it seems I will be able to improve visiability with composite headlight lenses, Silverstar H4/9003 bulbs and a headlight relay kit. What would I look at for general lighting for off road use?

Spot light still? I am wondering on this cause I just came across a vendor in France that is selling a pair of 9" 111w Cree spot lights for $30 with free shipping and I think they would look good on the roll bar I want to get. The price is also good too since it wont be an arm and a leg for four of them (name brand places I have looked at wanted close to $500 just for a pair).

 

You should figure your amperage draw at 13.7 volts, give or take a few tenths. The amperage consumed by the incandescents will go UP when the alternator is charging, not down.

If you really want some super bright LED lighting, dont buy the cheap stuff.

Buy Rigid.

LED Lights |Rigid Industries LED Lighting, Leader in Off road LED light bars, truck LED lights, Marine LEDs, and Industrial LEDs

Rigid LED lights are bright, durable, and like any LED, have a modest current consumption for the amount of light they produce.

They also have great customer support, if you ever need it.

Unless you are powering a crapload of them, you wont even need a relay for control, and they are regulated, meaning, if the supply voltage goes up, the current drawn will go down, assuming normal ranges of supply voltage. (drastically reduced supply voltages will reduce current also, at the expense of lumens)

They even make multiple patterns in some of the light bars.

Did I say Rigid products are cheap? Nope. Because they are not. But they will last longer than the vehicle you mount them on. Quality does cost money.

 

Not sure I would recommend the Silverstars. I have a pair that were on Dad's and worked well. However, there has been a huge class-action law suit over them as they do not last long at all. So, the Silverstars may go on Rusty and I'll put Hellas on Dad's.

 

I looked at rigid, I dont think I can justify spending over $1,000 for four roll bar lights in LED. They wont be used much since they wont be used as driving lights as of this point. Seems I wasnt thinking about the improvement the headlight upgrades I planned on doing in the near future will be a huge improvement in night time visibility.

Thing is now I am looking at aux lighting for off road use only. The one I found for $30 a pair are rated at 9,300 lumens per housing light out put. This by four housings will be 37,200 lumens total out put. I think this would well exceed my requirements for the limited off road I will be doing. Only thing I am now figuring is since this will be off road only, do I really need spot lights or could I get away with floods. Or should I just say screw it and go with a combination of two spots in the middle and a flood on the flanking sides.

I can get these LED`s I found in both spot and flood for $30 a pair and they are cheap enough that if they dont last I can just simply replace them without a thought.

I just dont know what range these spot lights are rated at or what their amperage is. They are 111watts but that is the total output, 3watt Cree LEDs x 37 LEDs. Cant use that as to figure amperage as that is output. Really wished some guys would list more information on unique products that they are selling.

 

Are we talking silverstar sealed beams not lasting long or the silverstar bulbs themselves for composite headlights?

I seen some people say theirs went out in 3 weeks after purchase but the van I installed the sealed beam silverstars on we didnt have much longer after I installed them so I dont know first hand about how long they last.

 

What about using these in Hella headlight shells? Maybe you don't need the spots?

 

Sealed beams. You can go to their web site and see how much shorter they say the lifespan is.

 

as of this point I wont really need the spot lights for on road use. I will be putting a roll bar on for that off road look and a roll bar has to in my opinion have four round aux lights. These lights now I am thinking will be used off road only. So they wont even be wired into my headlight switch as far as I know, will be a stand alone switch for the relay to trigger the lights.

As far as the Hella off road H4/9300 bulb I saw that as an upgrade will have to hit up youtube and see what people think about those bulbs. I might end up going with them as they highbeam is 100w vs the 60w that the highbeam is on most H4/9003 bulbs.

 

Let us know what you find with regard to what people say about the 100w bulb.

 

I will be sure to do that.

I will also give a review of this 9" LED spot light I found if I end up buying two of them. They are being sold by a seller based in france but I think they are made in China. I cant say anything bad about LED`s made in china, every one ive gotten has been great. I only had one out of numerous LED`s ive bought from china that would not light up at all that was defective out the box.

I just need to sleep on it and see what the seller says the spot light range is and see if I need to purchase two pair and tell them I want flood or just get the standard spotlights they are selling. I know they might not be great but 9" housings would look better mounted on a roll bar than a 4" housing.

 

Actually, you CAN use the wattage numbers provided to figure amperage. Wattage listed is power consumed.

111 watts of power consumed at 13.7 volts is 8.1 amps.

Not enough to worry about. And no relay needed for any normal installation.

As far as flood vs spot, its not unusual to install one of each, to have a hybrid pattern. Works well, I've done it. The LED housings will usually look very similar or identical if they are from the same manufacturer if symmetry is an issue for you.

 

I'm pretty sure we did have this discussion last year, if not just a few months back.
I personally have Bosch conversion housings that came in pairs with Osram bulbs in a kit, but I haven't been able to find them in years.
I have been running the 100/50 Hella bulbs since 03 and I have yet to replace one.

 

I would STRONGLY suggest still having those lights go off when you turn your high beams off. Even off road, if you come up on another vehicle he's gonna hate you if you can't get your retina-burners shut off as you're fumbling for the switch.

 

Good point. A good setup would have the extra lights tied to the high beams but with another switch so the aren't always on with the high beams.

 

It's not quite as simple as that. While your base equation is correct (watts = volts * amps), if you plug 12 volts in you get 9.25 amps, and no light is going to draw more current as the voltage goes down. The 111 watts has to be determined at some particular voltage. Without knowing the voltage they rated it at you can't know the exact current draw. Since I don't know what voltage they use, I'd use 12V as a best guess. If they actually rated it at 13.7V you'll get a high value using 12V. But if they actually used 12V your actual current (and wattage) will be even higher.

Of course, if someone else knows that light makes use 13.7V (or any other value) for rating lights, then that would be the best number to use.