Choosing your auxilary offroad lights.....

I have 5 hella 550s across my light bar which came with 55w bulbs but i put in 100 watters and put in a hiher fuse. NOW in the grill i had another pair of 550's and decided to take them off for a driving light that has the stone guards on them.
SO, despite that i like the rectangle look, i have never seen a rectangle flashlight and that tells me its because of the pattern of the reflective surface behind the lights.

So heres what im going for, five 6" round KC daylighters that rank in at 150 watts and have 300,000 candle power per light!! Now that sounds like some serious lighting to me, plus they sell a good sortment of stone guards to match the rectangle driving lights in the front and the ones in the rear.

Question is, is KC's daylighters the best thats out there or should i go for a ralley type of a light???? I like the KC's but im asking for all of your opinions and what you think you would put on YOUR light bar????

The KC's are kind of cheap, most that I see are pretty badly rusted around here. I'd go with a good quality Hella driving light and what you say about the round reflector is true, the rectangular types make really good fog lights for under the bumper though..

I got Auto Zone 5" driving lights on my Pre Runner bar on my front bumper, and have 2 but soon to be 4 KC Slimlites on my roof rack. I love the slimlites. They are narrow and put out plenty of light. I have the black powder coated lights and there is no rust.

I've got five 150watt KC's, and I live in PA, dealing with salt every winter. My lights have seen about four winters and they don't have a spot of rust. They are the brightest lights I've seen so far. Also, I wouldn't say they are cheap, I think it was like $110 for a set, even though I didn't pay that much.

Andrew,

How did you run the wires for the lights?

What are you doing for switches, hope you didn't just change the fuse to higher amp. rating and think that will be ok.

for now, I have the wire coming through the door jam, into the trim and down to my switch. I have wires coming from the battery to a relay/fuse. I want to eventually take the wires from the fuse block under the hood though.


I'm not brave enough to drill a hole through my roof yet.

6 X 150 = 900 watts. Divided by 14 volts = 64 amps. You are talking some serious wire here (4 gauge? 6 gauge?). You'll be pushing enough amperage through the lights to weld with. And using about half (or more) of the capacity of your alternator, just to supply the lights.
http://www.kayjayco.com/techAmpsNSAE2Metric.htm
Too small of wire and a big enough fuse, is asking for a melt down or fire.
Many relays are rated at 30 amps. Running multiple relays, fuses and power wires to the lights would probably be a solution.
Every plastic case light I've ever had, I managed to break sooner or later. I had a set of KC clones with 150 watt bulbs that lasted for years, with tubular brush guards for the lights.

I've got a set of KC Daylight clones, 6" 130W and black cases. very bright! about a 5 foot beam at 30 feet. came with no covers, but I picked up a pair of KC covers to make it inspection legal.

makes night runs a lot more fun

KC Slimlites all the way- VERY bright and VERY good looking, just got these for christmas.

unless you have 260 bucks to waste on 2 lights.......and then get these

I have been thinking about trying the little 12V 55W projector lamps. They are a tiny little sealed beam lamp, about 1-1/2" diameter and can mount into sheet metal in a round hole with a rubber mounting gasket and a little two scew bezel to hold it down (or perhaps just a rubber grommet like a Truck Lite). They come on current model Deere dozers & backhoe loaders, they mount up in the canopy just below the roof firing out the front, back, and sides, with some down tilt to illuminate the ground around the machine. On a XJ they could mount right in the sides of a roof rack and could even be flush mounted in the bumpers. They make a wide flood pattern rather than a far reaching spot or trapezoid pattern like a driving light. To me, it seems something like that would be good on the trail, especially in my neck of the woods where we are in tight spots surrounded by a lot of brush and timber. Oh, they are not expensive at all. There are little 3" square cube shaped metal housings you can buy for them that are rugged and look really cool but they are expensive.

I got a set of the 55W Baja's for my bumper about a year ago and I love them, I want to upgrade them to a 100W or 130W soon though.

Friday I got 4 6" 100 watters and 2 have Halos arround them, very bright and good looking too, eventually they'll end up as 130 or 150 watters.

nothing cheap about KC , mine have had a hard life and there is no rust on them.

I had some 6" KC's 100w and they finally rusted and fell off my bumper. However, it took 17 years of salt and grime.

I now have 2 KC 9x6? lights on my bumper, 55w and I love them.