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Nov. 4, 2008 6:01 p.m. TreoWayne None

I do some driving when it is very dark, sometimes not on a road. I would like to outfit my 91 Tracer LTS with some more lights but I want to do it cheap. The car uses 9004 bulbs, so the bright and the regular beam are in the same bulb and cannot operate at the same time.

I'm sure someone here has had positive experience with some driving lights other than a pair of $200+ Hellas. Something can fit a set of 9006 bulbs or something would be ideal I think. I don't want to be locked into a proprietary or hard to find bulb size. I can cut some angle iron to make my own mounting bracket. I just need some driving lights suitable for custom mounting with good output and low price.
Nov. 4, 2008 6:08 p.m. iceracer Reader

Ther are brighter bulbs that will fit. Silverstar for one.
Nov. 4, 2008 6:37 p.m. Keith SuperDork

Get yourself a set of cheaper Hellas :) I think I paid $75 for a pair of 9.5" 4000's a couple of years ago. Not new, but that doesn't matter. They will throw some photons down the road. Just don't ever light them off when there's anyone else in sight.
Nov. 4, 2008 6:48 p.m. jgp1843 HalfDork

Upgrade headlight bulbs first, if you can - minimizes strain on the electrical system. Then if you are going with aftermarket lights, I'd reccommend one "driving" beam and one "fog/cornering" beam, both with 100 watt bulbs - gives both distance and width for spotting critters (hundreds of deer in my area). You can wire them off a relay powered by the high beams so the auxiliaries will shut off when you hit the dimmer switch. As Keith said, be very courteous, because these suckers can definately blind other drivers.

Sometimes you can end up with enough light that you find you can't use them much unless you are Really out in the boonies, because of traffic. That said, I think there is no better safety accessory for any car than good lights.

In general, bigger is better, and you do get what you pay for - so looking used is good, I used Marchal 700/900s back in my rallying days (which tells you how long ago that was), but Hellas and Cibies are also tops. If your car or truck is old enough to use standard-sized sealed beams (round or rectangular), a good set of halogen conversions with replaceable bulbs with the sharp "euro" beam cutoff is great - you can use more powerful H4 bulbs.
Nov. 4, 2008 7:36 p.m. foxtrapper SuperDork

Actually, you can run both high and low beams at the same time. The cheapest way is a diode spliced between the high and low beam power leads.

The cheapest and most effective way to make brighter stock lights is to use relays and large wires running from the battery. And you can wire it this way so the high and low beam work together on high beam, just use a double pole relay on the high beam circuit.
Nov. 4, 2008 7:42 p.m. Keith SuperDork

I had a set of Hella 3000's (again with the 9.5" size) on my Miata, set up as Jim suggested. One "euro beam" (basically a wide pencil beam) and one cornering light. Worked a treat. They were wired to only run with the high beams, again as Jim said. The first time I tested them, when I flipped back to low beams, I thought I'd blown every light I had :)

On my Mini, I have four smaller lights - as Minis have to have. Two are fogs aimed wide to illuminate the road, two are driving lights aimed down the road. It's great on the back roads heading home from work at night.

I've never tried them, but the Hella 500s always seemed like a good combination of size and optics. You can get them on eBay for $69.95/pair new right now. Of course, I highly recommend visiting rallylights.com for the good stuff. Because they sponsored the Targa Miata.

If you blind another driver, it's not just discourteous. Now there's someone driving a 3000+ lb car coming towards you and they can't see anything. It can be bad for your health.
Nov. 4, 2008 9:06 p.m. thatsnowinnebago Reader

I have IPF 968 lights on my truck and I love them. I upgraded from the stock 55 watt bulbs to the 100 watt versions. Super bright and not too pricey.
Nov. 4, 2008 9:34 p.m. DirtyBird222 HalfDork

get a set of hella 90mm projectors, an ebay h9 hid kit (I can find em for $63 now), and take out the "cutoff beam" inside the housing. Talk about a relatively cheap way to get a bright light that covers the whole road . A buddy of mine did this on his ATV (yamaha raptor). Maybe it won't work so well for a rally application, but for a set of aux lights it might work.

Or you could go to the junkyard, try to find a truck that has a rack of KC Highlights and yank those and wire em up lol.
Nov. 4, 2008 9:38 p.m. stumpmj Dork

If you want really cheap lights, harbor freight has them on sale occasionally for $5.
Nov. 4, 2008 9:41 p.m. shuttlepilot New Reader

TreoWayne wrote:

I do some driving when it is very dark, sometimes not on a road. I would like to outfit my 91 Tracer LTS with some more lights but I want to do it cheap.

Relaying and getting "xtra" lamps like xtravision or euro silverstars would do wonders for output on such a old car. Be sure to clean off all the haze on the headlamps too.
Nov. 5, 2008 6:29 a.m. 924guy HalfDork

I use PIAA fog lights on most of my cars, I like the beam pattern and they work well in fog, which is what i really need them for anyhow and theyre cheap. i havent had any issues with them, not exactly the high quality rally lights that they try and sell them as, but theyve worked well for me for everyday driving.. no idea how the driving lights are, ive only used the amber fogs...
Nov. 5, 2008 7:32 a.m. 44Dwarf Reader

Becarfull with running low and high beams at the same time. The curent maybe too much for the single ground wire to take for long and the plastic housing may melt from extra heat load.

44
Nov. 5, 2008 1:29 p.m. TreoWayne New Reader

I'm pretty sure I would melt my head light housing if I ran the high and low beams at the same time.

I already cleaned up the grounds and relayed the head lights when I moved the battery to the trunk.

The ebay Hella 500s look like they are pretty much what I am looking for. An ebay H3 HID kit added later would probably make the light from those pretty absurd (off road only of course).
Nov. 5, 2008 9:35 p.m. TIGMOTORSPORTS New Reader

Cheap Utility/Tractor lights-about 10 bucks each. If the 55W isn't enough, install a 100w bulb

On the rear bumper of my truck, I installed one $10 tractor light below the bumper, and a pair of cheap walmart 55Watt Driving Lights ($15 a pair) on the top of the bumper (one in each corner, does not get in the way of the tailgate). I hooked all 3 up to a switch under the dash. If I have to back up or load/unload my car trailer in the dark-shazam! Its like having headlights in the back.
Nov. 5, 2008 10:16 p.m. Keith SuperDork

If you've ever run real lights, you'll understand that those HF cheapos are not in the same league. Useful for work lights, though - I had a set on my last Toyota pickup at the back.
Nov. 6, 2008 5:16 a.m. ddavidv SuperDork

As Keith says, quality costs money. I've used lots of different lights back in my TSD rally days. KC Daylighters are without a doubt the cheapest and most effective lights out there, but they have really large housings, so mounting them to a car isn't that easy. Best bang for the buck for car use I've found are Ring brand lights made in the UK. Hella beam projection at about half the cost. They used to be sold here but when I got a pair for the Mini I couldn't find them so had to source from the UK. Hella is pretty much the main game in town these days. You can at least get spare parts and covers for them. I would not buy the cheapest ones they make, however, as I've found the beam pattern to be a bit weak. Also, a firm mounting is important. If they vibrate it will drive you absolutely crazy. 55w bulbs are plenty and won't put absurd strains on your electrics. Be sure to use relays and wire as suggested by Hella. A manual override switch is nice but I simply wire them to come on with the high beam circuit.
Nov. 6, 2008 8:13 a.m. stumpmj Dork

I know the HF lights suck but he did say he wanted cheap....

I have a couple of sets of Hella rally lights but I also have some 10 inch 100W flood lights that i got from Walmart for about $8 each. They have no beam pattern but they definitely throw plenty of light.
Nov. 6, 2008 8:17 a.m. Per Schroeder Technical Editor/Advertising Director

The HF light makes a good reverse light.
Nov. 6, 2008 8:32 a.m. slantvaliant Reader

Poke around at Daniel Stern Lighting, in the tech section. There is some good info on avoiding crap.
Nov. 6, 2008 10:26 a.m. Keith SuperDork

ddavidv wrote:

Best bang for the buck for car use I've found are Ring brand lights made in the UK. Hella beam projection at about half the cost. They used to be sold here but when I got a pair for the Mini I couldn't find them so had to source from the UK.

I think I have Ring lights on my Mini. They're quite good, I was impressed.

I put my big lights on a separate switch, but they still only fire up with the high beams. That means I don't need to run the full load if I don't want to, and I can easily flip them on and off with the high beam switch.
Nov. 6, 2008 11:22 a.m. Travis_K Reader

Hella FF500 lights are about $70 at walmart and plenty bright. They are too big to fit on my car easily or id have a set, becasue my headlights are terrible too.