Off Road Lighting

[Bryce]

Need to get my truck lit up for hunting and ice fishing excursions. Anyone have a good installer in sw metro? Have my front light bar picked out. Up in the air yet which lights to install other than knowing that they will not be road legal in order to satisfy my needs. Figure a good installer can steer me in the right direction.

[JOHNBIGDOG]

You get what you pa for. I'm partial to Hella, and there HID series.

Rallye 4000 Xenon Lamps, again you get what you pay for.

[Whoaru99]

I put a pair of Bosch pencil beams and a pair of Bosch driving lights on one of my vehicles back in the late 80s and transferred them to my truck in roughly 1995. They're still going strong, albeit with a few bulb changes since then. They're just halogen, not HID, but they really light up the road and ditches pretty well.

I have the pencil beams aimed more or less straight down the road and the driving lights slightly splayed out to get good side fill. Works quite well. Not as nice as those Hella HIDS no doubt but they do very well, have been durable, and didn't cost a moderate fortune.

[K_Josh87]

when I was looking at setting my back rack up for plowing I wanted something with a low draw and good light... when I check with the Deere dealership they showed me ASIs HID lights... put two of them on the rear... and holy smokers one can see everything.... we just rigged an old tractor up with them at the farm today... 4 spots on the front, and two traps to the rear.... its bright as day all around it...

[Bryce]

Got 4 Hellas ordered for a decent price. 50 watt halogens should give me plenty of light without breaking the bank.

Next question is in regards to draw. Is stock alternator on my Silverado adequate or should I be looking at higher output model or second battery system? Putting this in place for BFE use and these locations are not a fun place to be dealing with a fried alternator.

[JOHNBIGDOG]

I would definitely wire the lamps up with its own circuitry. Do not tie into the factory wiring for anything. Use relays to switch the lights on and off. Remember parallel circuits are your friend.

I would wire the lights in, turn on all electrical loads and monitor battery voltage. If the voltage drops below 13.0V I would think about getting a Higher output alternator. if the voltage is above 13.0 volts it should be good.

[Scott K]

To add to Johns comment, listen to the alternator as well. If it whines when you turn on all your lights, it is working to hard.

[delcecchi]

200 watts is only about 16 or 17 amps. What is the alternator rated at?

[Bryce]

I think it looks good. Got about $350 into it so far which includes two rear spots mounted inside topper. Gets wired next week at $45/hr which I think is very reasonable at a reputable place. Not too bad unless I have to deal with too high of an electrical draw.

[Whoaru99]

Stock alternator should be fine. Was on my truck with 4 x 50W lights. It's not like you usually have all of them on all the time anyway.

I eventually put 100W bulbs in mine and that made the electrical system work that much harder and the alternator did eventually go, more I think though from just being well used since 1994 and a couple hundred thousand miles. The alternator has been fine since I replaced it with a new alternator, had short life from a couple remans.

I have mine wired on two separate circuits with two lights on each, each pair of lights controlled by separate switches. I think I used 12ga from battery to fuses to relays to lights, then from lights to ground. The control circuits I used small stuff, maybe 20ga, since there is only about 80mA, give or take, to run each relay from the switches.

Also, I have mine connected so that the relay control circuit is wired to/powered from the truck's high beam circuit. That way if I have to dim the lights the auxiliary lights dim automatically at the same time as the headlights. Didn't see any drawbacks because if I need the aux lights I almost certainly want the high beams too.

Just be careful that you don't accidentally/unknowingly turn on the lights with the covers on them. Lighted switches or indicator LEDs help with that.