Spread and Pencils

Publican,
I have 170 Light Force spots. You can turn the whole spotlight around like a clock to open the lense to give a widelight or a very tight spotlight. They are great. Different protection covers give a different type of light spread ie a lot of lateral light. Hope this helps.Counting the sleeps!!

Another taker

I have spread and pencils on my patrol. Pencil WAS on drivers side and spread on the other, the pencil sotting down the road etc. JUst got my winch fitted and the guys swapped them on putting it all back together, cant say as there is a big difference but I will change ot back as I prefer it that way.

One thing is, if you have reasonable lights then go for two pencil beams, i just pitched the "blue" 90/100w H4's and put Narva 100/130's in and now the spread adds little to the light out there, would be better with tow pencils.

I dont think there is any legal preference in Oz.

All the bestSo many places to go!
So much work to do :0(

Indeed, re the Lightforce comment ....they can be set to the required pattern
without tools - just wind them round ! The clip on clears are great for stones and the yellow (fog) and ribbed (diffuser) clip ons are a great idea too. Both the smaller and larger sizes on offer use a 100 W globe but the larger one has a big increase in candlepower - if going to this style of light, could pay to fit the biggies if you have the room.
Love the bush - stuck in the city - help.

doesnt matter which way lights are set up, only legal requirment is a of on switch for the spotties over the high beam of your vehicle. have to say you should look at the brand of spotties you buy as they do differ in quality and brightness amps drawn. another problem i came across is with alloy bars and the mounting plate, i run rally 4000 which are a heavy light and after lots of corrugatted roads have found the mounting bracket breaks on the bar and falls of. Col

Publican,
Just something to be aware of when fitting the clip on plastic covers, the plastic covers may protect the glass but the covers also stop the air flow over the glass which is designed to cool the light. When you have these high wattage lights burning away the air space inside the light gets very hot. The excess heat won't cause an instant failure obviously but by all accounts running a hotter lamp shortens the life of the bulb / globe. Personally I have the stick on plastic sheet light protector which you cut out to fit over the lens, this is designed in a way that the heat of the glass causes the glue to fuse the plastic onto the lens, this gives an indication of the heat generated. After being fitted the plastic allows the air to cool the lens albiet not as efficiently as straight onto the glass. Hope this helpsKeep the shiny side up

What i used to do in the N.T was to fit the pencil beam on the drivers side and have the flood light on the left but pointing slightly to the left off the side of the road.

This would allow me to have an early warning if a cow or a buff was running out from the bush on to the road.

Only my way of thinking !

Kev.

O.K. here's a couple of more ideas to consider.

Run 2 x pencils that cross over at the point where Hi beam is on the road. The reason being that the over throw light will light up the verges of the road for what ever hiding out there and also one beam is leading around the corner for you.

Mount the lights on rhs steel so they are permantly set up then have the bolts come up from the bottom of your bar and locked in so all you have to do is drop the set lights on the bolts and tighten with wing nuts .The advantage of this is it takes only a minute to take on and off and you can keep the lights in the vehicle away from those that are to tight to fork out for their own.

And finally I have 170 lightforce on my patrol and after losing rally 2000 s cibie s to the discount crowd find them to be a top light .Remember the bigger the lights the less air flow and the more desirable for a trophy .

2 pencils for my money.

Interesting problem - What goes where... Simplest answer, is to try them both.. Takes 5 mins to swap them over, and do what YOU find the best. What suits me maynot be what you are after.

Drove back from bleep ney last night, did the last section in the dark (9 hours all up).

I had 2x rally 2000s (one of each) on top of the bullbar, and 2 x old like rally 1000's in the bar last time. Twas GREAT. Had the 2 smaller ones pointing lightly to the side and the pencil on drivers, and spread on left. It was AWESOME.

This time I have 2 x Lightforce 240s, one with normal cover, and one with the spread cover. The difference in left and right light is AMAZING, and the difference between the 4 and 2 lights is also obvious!

The 240's you can play with to turn from spread to pencil, but for me, I'll chuck 2x 181's I have back on, to make 4 lights. I wasnt happy with the overall light output.

I've had 2 pencils before, totally useless. They show the road miles ahead BIG DEAL! But they dont show you crap thats around the side of the road much. Someone mentioned earlier, cattle and stuff, theres also roos that are a problem. Being able to see them could mean the difference in life and death. Believe me it happens. Ultimate setup is mates car with 4x HID's.. but then thats $4000!

I have two pencil beams - regardless of spread or not, you are not going to see a cow or roo that suddenly comes out of a bush at the side of the road and with a fully laden vehicle at 110km/h (or faster for the naughty ones) braking distance is a shocker. Love the bush.
Chris