Headlights - What Is Best?

[Old.Tony]

I've done a lot of driving in my Commodore and one of the things I never had to worry about was driving lights. The headlights on that thing were absolutely amazing.

When the dealer loaned me a D22 for a couple of days (while waiting for the proper loan car) we ran it through a few of its paces to see how it handled things, to try and get some idea of what to expect when the D40 arrived.

One of the things we noticed was the absolutely dismal lighting afforded by its headlights. I am not going to say it was like holding up a match and waiting for a reflection to move, but it was nowhere near as good as I was accustomed to.

The dealer told me my D40 would be better, but not quite as good as the Commodore. That's when I asked for the driving lights.

Now, the driving lights are all good and everything, but on low beam I am not satisfied.

A visit to ARB in Lambton resulted in the salesman showing me some IPF Xenon "Fat Boy" bulbs that would "vastly improve the quality of my low beam". He wants $160 for this pair of globes.

Before I shell out for these, I thought I'd ask if anyone else had any experience with different bulbs and see if there were other recommendations. Remember that this is an enhancement to my low beam setting - I've adjusted my driving lights and they're perfect - when I can use them.

 

[Jason]

I've considered those globes too, I don't need the whole HID thing.

Heard good things about them, I think you can get them a fair bit cheaper than that?

 

[4.8GU]

Hey mate I have em (fatboys) in my Nav and they do make a big difference.
Good bang for buck really. Probably not as good as hid but I have heard too many horror stories for hid upgrades so I just went this way.

I will get a price for you if you like as I work for an arb stockist.
Could easily post and they are easy to install yourself.

 

[maddogrc]

anyone got any pics of these? when i googled i got nothing?

 

[Old.Tony]

I have no fear of spending $ if something is actually worth spending it on. At $80 a globe I do want to be careful though!

Supercheap Auto have some Xenon globes (they are visibly different to the Fat Boys) and these promise "50% more light, beam travels 20m further" and they're asking $36-odd a pair.

I know xenon gas is used in flash tubes, I wasn't aware it was in car headlamps. Talk about being in the dark! (pun very much intended)

Thanks for the thumbs up on them. My only hope is that I don't buy them and blow one on the first trip away!

 

[maddogrc]

finally found something...

what you reckon is better?

the blue:
IPF Super Low Beam X4 Blue

or clear:
IPF Super Low Beam X4 Clear

 

[Old.Tony]

what you reckon is better?

I have to admit the claims are good. The extra power required means a minor strain on the wiring looms and bit more on the battery/charging system and if you're running driving lights as well, that could get interesting.

The D40 has a 100Amp alternator = 1200 watts. If I need, say, 200watts (at night) as a minimum to operate the ECU, dash, tail lights, parkers etc (so, almost everything except the headlights) I've got 1,000 watts to play with - and that's when the alternator is pumping out as hard as it can, which it won't do at idle.

So, add a pair of 130 watt driving lights and two of these at 80 watts each (if you were on low beam, the driving lights (sh)wouldn't be on) - that's 420 watts. Radiator fan comes on and draws what, 15 amps? Another 180 watts? You've down to 400 watts remaining out of your alternator's maximum capacity.

And at idle, you're basically drilling holes in the side of your battery.

For D22 drivers with 90A alternators you've less than 300 watts remaining at peak alternator output.

And some of you guys have more than 2 driving lights.

I'm not too concerned about heat in the wiring. 80 watts is 6.5 amps and the thin wiring that they're using will hold 20 amps before it starts getting warm. Don't worry about voltage drop because the lights are not on the end of a long cable (like those lights up on some racks you guys have!).

I'd lean towards the fatboys anyway, for their standard power consumption if nothing else. However, bringing out these globes will do one thing in our favour - it should make them reduce the fatboy's price and that's always a good thing.

 

[maddogrc]

good info to know, but that quite answer my Q XD haha

blue globes or white globes...?

i'm guessing a whiter light (being the blue 4600k globes) would be easier to see and drive with compared to the clear 3200k globes?

though the blue bulb is rated 145w/185w, the clear globe seems to put out more at 155w/195w? but the decent price difference between the two suggests blue is better? (as the old saying goes)

 

[Old.Tony]

I'd be careful about blue globes and blue uniforms. They clash badly if the latter aren't driving the former.

 

[maddogrc]

the blue globes give off a white light compared to clear globes that give off yellow tinged light like our headlights.

so perhaps the blue bulbs would actually be ok?

these days i've seen stock luxury cars with the projector beams and bloody hell they are bright!

 

[Jon]

Guys the best way to improve your standard headlights is to upgrade the wiring loom to the standard plugs to 5 or 6mm wire instead of the standard 1mm stuff. Use relays and everything to do it properly and you will get better gains than what you would from changing globe types. Don't believe me? measure the voltage at the plug and see what you get after the voltage drop, you may be very surprised.

 

[maddogrc]

how difficult is all that?

voids the warranty i'm betting...

 

[livewire]

I would suggest getting a decent HID setup as this will provide a far greater amount of light, plus also use a lot less power! Just ensure that the kit you get is one with HID low/high beam!

 

[maddogrc]

I would suggest getting a decent HID setup as this will provide a far greater amount of light, plus also use a lot less power! Just ensure that the kit you get is one with HID low/high beam!

apart from it's illegal to use in headlights as an upgrade since they arent ADR approved, theres also a few stories around of people who have had their entire electrical system go bang due to the ballasts failing and pumping 20,000v through all the circuitry blowing all the bulbs and such, but not blowing any fuses.

a guy did it to his ricer car on another forum and it cost him 5000 US to fix it all up.

think i'll keep the lights, which are used a lot even in front of cops, legal and also not risk a total melt down.

sure theres plenty of you guys that have done the mod with success and havent gotten in trouble for it or have had electrical issues, but it is something i'll keep legal.

though i also realise now those fatboys are illegal, lol (or they arent?)

 

[Old.Tony]

I'm investigating the legality of these and notice that Section 6 of ADR 46 is fairly strict about the output of the factory-fitted headlights. There's a bunch of detail about the shape of the light and its position in both high and low beam, and a table defining the limit of light output in lumens (great, let's introduce another measurement ... I think it should go back to "slabs of beer" like was suggested in the Waeco / Engel discussion).

Essentially, it appears that ADR46 doesn't allow any modification of the vehicle's standard headlights. I'll look into this further and may make a call to RTA Technical, but for now if you want to read this yourself, visit this page.

Some other interesting information I've discovered ... sunlight is apparently around 5000 Kelvins - this "Kelvin" is the frequency of the light, the higher this number is, the more it tends to blue. 4000K is a yellowish light, 5000 is whitish, 6000 is bluish (and quite dazzling, apparently). There's a specification somewhere (that I'm yet to find, but am still pursuing) that states anything over 4000K is illegal. I'll try to confirm the accuracy of that.

Ok, what about HID inserts in driving lights? I can't see a specific law against these at the moment, so I'm presuming for now that as long as the wiring of the vehicle is not compromised, you can have 2 of these fitted to your vehicle.

There is a law against more than 2 driving lights facing forward, and any driving light facing rearwards (in fact, it seems to indicate that any driving light is not allowed to face more than 45degrees from the front line of the car). If they want to, they can defect a vehicle that has more than 2 driving lights. You can have, it seems, 2 headlights, 2 powerful driving lights and 2 lower-power fog lamps and that's the limit.

So where does that leave us with the original question here?

Halogen or Xenon globe replacements might be legal, but there are limits for:

* light output levels (measured in Lumens) in low and high beam
* light frequency (measured in Kelvins)

and these are the ones that will make it or break it for us. It should be noted that there's a clause in ADR46 that allows for a 20% variation - so if we're allowed 700 lumens on high beam, you can legally stretch that out to 840 lumens.

Investigation continues.

 

[Old.Tony]

Just a note on the colour of the light. The ADR defines the allowed wavelength of light to be:

9. COLOUR

The light emitted shall be white or selective yellow. In the latter case the dominant wavelength must be between 5,750 and 5,850 Angstrom units

Converting the "Kelvins" is not all that difficult. Here's the formula:

Kelvins = 0.0028977685 / (angstroms / 10,000,000,000)

So, the required Kelvin values for the range (for yellow light) allowed is 4953 to 5039 Kelvin. They don't seem to define white light, but since sunlight is about 5,000K I'd stick to anything that produces 5,000K light and be happy that I'm operating within the law.

(I'm hoping, of course, that the formula I found is accurate - it might not be: it's an entry in Wikipedia, linked to by a site that specialises in making hallucinogenic mushrooms - yes, I am really courting disaster there!)

 

[maddogrc]

can just imagine the cop...

"so sir, tell me again where you got this information?"

"it was on wikipedia and it was information supplied by the mushroom man"

lmao!

i had a quick look at the wiring harness today. really doesnt look like fun to redo, at all...

 

[Dave]

HID headlights and spotties all the way. Uses less power and shits all over the halogen globes.

Dave.

 

[tanz]

Ok, what about HID inserts in driving lights? I can't see a specific law against these at the moment, so I'm presuming for now that as long as the wiring of the vehicle is not compromised, you can have 2 of these fitted to your vehicle.

In Qld it is fine to have HID driving lights, as these are required to be wired through a switch to isolate them. This then deems them an off-road accessory. (most likely still get you in strife if you're driving down the highway with them on though).

 

[Jon]

how difficult is all that?

voids the warranty i'm betting...

Not difficult at all, if you're not electrically minded there are kits available on ebay and a few other places. Piranha do a kit also, its all plug and play and can be removed if required. I did it on my patrol with awesome results.