Off Road Lights.

Extra off road lights for a 4 wheel drive are very important when off-roading or even just driving the country roads at night, many 2wd cars, Trucks and Road Trains also have these fitted as they will go a long way to help prevent animal strikes and even just lighting up the road making it safer to drive in general as bends/corners and possible debris are revealed from a distance.

Toyota 79 Series Land Cruiser in the night.

Some 4x4 lights are legal to use on road and some 4x4 lights are only allowed to be used as off road lights, any lights above the height of the existing car headlights must not be used on roads and high ways.

There are 3 main types of light emitting:

Halogen:

Standard type of car headlights and found in head lights on most cars, 4wds and trucks, spot lights also use Halogen.

For more information see this link.

Driving Lights, Spot Lights, Roof Lights & Reverse Lights

"Little Bear" With Plenty Of Off Road Lights.

HID or High-intensity discharge:

This type of light is now widely used in Europe and is starting to be used on newer vehicles in Australia; most spot lights have the option of a HID version, HID conversion kits are available for most makes and models.

For Information See HID Light.

LED or Light-emitting diode:

LED’s are used widely as work lights, day time running lights, on aftermarket rear bars, extra brake lights and additional lights for reversing.

Light-emitting diode or LED is a low wattage and very reliable light source.
This makes them excellent for automotive and camping use.

Led lights can have many uses and come in many different shapes and sizes, from tiny lights in those aftermarket rocker switches to a full 1 meter long LED bar.

LED lights are favored more and more as manufactures keep improving the brightness and distance to the point where LED lights may well one day replace the halogen and HID head lights and spot lights.

For More See:

LED Light Bars

Rock Lights

LED Light Bars:

The amount of vision provided by a 1m LED light bar is massive, thou expensive nothing else can beat the amount of spread and distance at low watts and amps like an LED off road light bar.

Light bars come in sizes from 6inches (150mm) to a whopping 50inch (1200mm+).
LED lights can be fitted anywhere required, bull bar, roof rack, under the bull bar or anywhere a mount or bracket could be placed.

With a full sized LED light bar mounted to the roof rack, there would more than likely be no need for any other source of off road light whilst 4 wheeling.

LED light bars provide spread and distance at the same time, this really makes it simpler to just setup one LED light bar opposed to combining spot and flood lights to get the same effect.

For more details and install tips click here.

LED Rock Lights:

LEDs have really opened up on options with off-road light placement options as the LED light never gets as hot as HID’s or Halogens lights which make for easy design when it comes to water tightness. Most LED lights are IPF67 which is a water tight seal allowing lights to be submergible.

For full details and installation ideas follow this link.

LED camp and work lights:

When camping in the bush, lights are required if anything needs to be found in the dark, without lights it becomes a struggle to do anything.

Fitting LED lights to the vehicle is a great way to add light to the camp ground/area, even better if they are mounted so they can be turned 180-360 degrees. This will allow the lights to be used where most required. Again being an LED it will draw very little power from the battery compared to most other types of light.

Mounted LED lights for camping could be anywhere on the 4wd, the higher up the better, this makes the roof racks option number one.

LED lights are also very useful as work lights, changing a tyre at night will require light and so would any other repairs. There is nothing worse than losing bolts, screws or other items in the dark whilst trying to fix a problem.

Mounting a light on a telescopic pole at the rear of the vehicle is a great place if the spare is mounted on the back or under the 4wd. This might require a rear bar however.

HID Light:

There may be no need to add extra lights as the existing Halogen car headlights, fog lights or already fitted spot lights can be upgraded to HID (High-intensity discharge).

In most cases these will draw less volts and amps but will provide stronger light, so much that it's very noticeable, the area and distance covered will be bigger as well.

This type of upgrade can be expensive but may be cheaper than adding more lights also the current alternator and battery may not be able to power it all. In this case upgrading to HID could be the best option.

For More Information See HID Light.