I live up in the Pacific Northwest, out in the country. The stock lighting on my 95 PSD just doesn't cut it. What lighting setups have you folks used...what hasn't met your expectations?

Also, I'm not an electrician...how difficult was the installation for you?

Thanks for all your help!

 

i love my piaa 9001 fog/driving light its a two light in one. was really easy to install. everything is there harness and all. wernt the cheapest but the quality and harness you cant beat.

 

I have a friend with the PIAA 2 way's, he says they are great. The only ones that I have tried are the KC Daylighters. Which I think are great as well. they do just what the name say's, turn it into daylight. I have two mounted on the bumper, looks cool with the yellow smilely caps on them in the daytime, when not being used. They were easy to wire up for me, but I do install home theaters-lots of wiring. I have it setup so that when I flip on my brights they will come on. If I don't want them to come on I have a switch on my dash to turn them off. All of the wiring, switches, and insrtuctions came with them. I believe I got them for about 100 bucks at pep boy's. They throw pretty far, not much of a wide beam. My brother has five of them on the top of his bronco, he likes to flip them on when people cut him off, they definately get a bunch of light thrown at them, haha its great! Definately help with off roading at night, with 5 it really sucks the juice though.

 

I had a pair of Hella 500s on my '95 PSD. Here in rural AZ, they probably saved a half dozen deer and a dozen coyotes over the three years I had the truck... They put out great light and are relatively inexpensive (around $70 from Summit). I plan to put a pair on my 2k PSD when I get around to it...

 

One thing too. The wiring that usually comes with lighting kits is woefully undersized. I always go about two sizes larger than they recommend and then you have zero line loss. The only resistance in the whole circuit is the filament inside the light bulb. It makes it very bright and strong. For instance; to power a two lamp system I use a 70 amp load reduction relay to power the lights. Use 12 guage wire for the power supply and 14 guage wire going into each light assembly. If I want to run 4 lights then it's 10 guage wire or if I want to run 100 watt bulbs inside those four lights then it's dual relays and double runs of 12 guage. And don't turn on the 100's unless you are off road! Guarenteed ticket. VERY bright.

 

i have always liked hellas, i have had them on my last two trucks. i figure if they can with stand what the pro rally drivers dish out, they can stand what i will do to them.

 

Ive had the Hella 500s on my last two truck and IMO they are great.

 

I run a set of Hella HID's. HID's don't take near the power to run that normal lights do and they put out much more light. The only draw back is the purchase price but considering that the bulbs never burn out they will pay for themselves after a few years. Hella, Piaa and KC all offer HID's. The housing on the KC's is a little flimsy. I went with the Hella's because they have a better adjustment system than the piaa's. I have also ran a few sets of the piaa's that take the H4 bulb(high/low beam)and found the bulbs to burn out way too often. Keep in mind that we are in the dark up here for about 5 months out of the year so we do use them more than the average guy.

 

You know I've been wanting some of these. When I do them I'm going to use a Chevy 70's / early 80's floor ''High Beam" switch" to activate them. I have a buddy that showed me this and it sure is convenient and a heck of a lot faster than a switch on the dash or where ever. He told me it is an old "pre runner" desert trick. So I thought I'd just pass it on.

 

That is a great looking setup...are you happy with the amount of light they put out?

 

I've got 4 Hella Rally 3000, equipped with 100 watt bulbs.... great light, and looks cool too!
(sry for the poor image quality, took it with my phone cam)

 

yea they do a good job, they are rally 4000's with the cornering beam. i do want to put 2 more on with the euro beam for some more distance

 

An easy way to switch them is to pull power for the switching side of the aux light relay from the highbeam circuit. That way they will come on/dim with your highbeams, and you can use the aux light switch to disable them in town.

 

I have a Ranchhand grille guard that doesn't appear to have any places to mount aftermarket lights. Anyone ever mount lights on one of these? Did you have to weld mounting tabs on it?