Mysticality's Light Thread!!

[wfdTamar]

Yes. I'd like to see photo's. I saw some light bars in Supercheap yesterday (and they weren't so super cheap). What sort of light power do they have? Can anyone equate it to normal driving lights? Is the colour of the light white or a bit yellow like normal lights. The beam spread?

At the other end of the lighting scale I got a Narva 'plug into the ciggy lighter' rechargable torch which has a few leds. Not the brightest thing in the world , but ok for changing wheels and small enough to hold in your mouth. Ideal for the socket in the boot.

[IBN]

Yes. I'd like to see photo's. I saw some light bars in Supercheap yesterday (and they weren't so super cheap). What sort of light power do they have? Can anyone equate it to normal driving lights? Is the colour of the light white or a bit yellow like normal lights. The beam spread?

Oops! Cocked that one up.
When I started talking light bars, I took them to be the bars to which lights are mounted rather than these LED units that people speak of.
Anyway here's a pic of my set-up for what it's worth.
Cheers, Ivars

[wfdTamar]

Still interesting to see as that's pretty much what mine would look like if/when I put my dual beam driving lights on (I have the same bar).

How have you wired them up? There's a good source of power to the right of the battery where the postive cable from the battery is terminated. Where did you put the switch?

[IBN]

Power is taken from the +ve bus on the fusebox which you've seen. This was done via an original fuse/fusible link. The lights are switched with a "transistorized" relay so as not to cause problems with the car's CANBUS as I've just spliced the switch wire into the high beam circuit.
I thought I'd bring wiring into the cabin for a switch, but ended up being too lazy to do this. After years of using driving lights, I pretty much had them working all the time and the switches ended up being just for show. If I do need to disable the lights I have a switch behind the grille.
Cheers, Ivars

[Mysticality]

Yes. I'd like to see photo's. I saw some light bars in Supercheap yesterday (and they weren't so super cheap). What sort of light power do they have? Can anyone equate it to normal driving lights? Is the colour of the light white or a bit yellow like normal lights. The beam spread?

At the other end of the lighting scale I got a Narva 'plug into the ciggy lighter' rechargable torch which has a few leds. Not the brightest thing in the world , but ok for changing wheels and small enough to hold in your mouth. Ideal for the socket in the boot.

Check these guys out: LED Lights | Off Road LED Light Bars | Military | Defense | Agriculture | Marine | Mining | Landscape | Police | Fire | Rigid Industries
Thats the website of the US-based manufacturer that makes pretty well the best range of LED light bars around, at the moment.
They have an Aussie reseller, too. Snakeracing, I think. Or Sharkracing. One of them.
Beam pattern/throw is pretty damn good, for LED's.

I have one of those little rechargeable jobs, too. Its excellent. It really is.

[Mysticality]

I was considering mounting a Unibar to the front of the vehicle... but IMO it'll look too ugly.
My only options then, are some surface mounted units, or an LED light bar mounted to the metal brace behind the bumper. :/

But they do suit the Scout, I must say.

[wfdTamar]

Yes the Unibar could look better, but it gives reasonable protection from someone backing into the lights. As well as somewhere to mount them.

I had a look for a way to get wires through the firewall when I was doing my towbar (to get a fridge power wire through) and it looked very well sewn up at any hole. Very difficult to get a wire through. I vaguely remember seeing a wireless switch for driving lights which sends the switch signal wirelessly through the firewall for just this problem.

Like this:
LIGHTFORCE WIRELESS DRIVING LIGHT LIGHTS LAMP LAMPS WIRING HARNESS KIT 12V VOLT | eBay

[gldgti]

I just ran amp wiring through the firewall a few weeks back.

I ran it through the main wiring grommet which lives way down behind the battery in the engine compartment... basically pull off the trim in the passenger footwell under the dash and pull back the carpet/sound deadening a little, feel around with your hand and you should be able to trace along the large wiring loom through to the grommet in the firewall. I ran the wire from within the passenger compartment by taping it to the end of a small sharp philips head screwdriver and poking it through the grommet beside the wiring loom (away from the main bunch of wires, in the side of the grommet - its very large, thin and a bit conical). Then, I fed through about 150mm of wire until I could just see it down behind the battery, at which time I was able to hook it and pull it up to where I could work with it.

Hope that helps... I was looking around for ages for another place to run it, that was the best I could find. Might be better but I don't know

[DunlopRS]

I too have been pondering getting a wire through the firewall. As much hassle as it is I need a switch – on long straights with decent lights there are many times I am happy to run the high beams but not the spots with oncoming traffic or when following someone (like 2 phase dipping…..). Have not found anywhere straightforward – gldgti may have solved it-

I just ran amp wiring through the firewall a few weeks back.
I ran it through the main wiring grommet which lives way down behind the battery in the engine compartment

But then there is the problem of mounting a switch in/on a nice new dash. The blanks under the climate control look promising – but then I assume the switches for there are far from cheap and there is the problem of pulling the dash to bits (at least to some degree) to get to them. Don’t like the sound of that….

wfdTamar seems to have found the solution :-

LIGHTFORCE WIRELESS DRIVING LIGHT LIGHTS LAMP LAMPS WIRING HARNESS KIT 12V VOLT | eBay

I have been looking at lightforce HIDs and their loom and this remote switch (switch really buried in their website – not sure yet if it is a suitable relay..) looks like the answer…….

Ivars –

I've used a light bar successfully on my Scout. It has been braced to the steel bar behind the plastic bumper so shake and vibration are minimal, even on dirt roads. The install is Ver1.0, so next time the whole thing would be more refined.
Considering I used some old Cibie Oscar+ lights which are quite heavy, I'm quite happy with the result. Night driving is once again a pleasure.
Cheers, Ivars.

Did you need to space the light bar out much?
What did you use as a spacer (saw one on the weekend with a dozen ¼” washers……..)?
Did you purchase a loom or make up the transistorised relay yourself?
I have been looking at that plate behind/in/under the bumper & thinking about mounting some smaller rectangular lights on a bracket from it behind the grill (replacing the grill with a mesh one from superskoda) – but figure its probably not worth it for the bit of extra light that I would get from lights that would fit – and they would likely be in front of the air inlet or at least put hot air into it…).

[Mysticality]

I have been looking at that plate behind/in/under the bumper & thinking about mounting some smaller rectangular lights on a bracket from it behind the grill (replacing the grill with a mesh one from superskoda) – but figure its probably not worth it for the bit of extra light that I would get from lights that would fit – and they would likely be in front of the air inlet or at least put hot air into it…).

Thats why I'm gonna go with LED.
Less heat, and all this new LED tech is making it worthwhile. They're using LED's as halogen/HID replacements in stock headlight units now. If that isn't promising, I don't know what is.


I put my switches here. Nice and hidden. Spot them in the photo. :p

[wfdTamar]

I need/want the switch somewhere very handy. What about the button on the steering wheel that dims the lights on the steering wheel buttons (left side, bottom right)? Don't need to dim the button lights. Do the newer wheels have that button?

20120717_145519 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Or probably better still, what about using the rear fog lights button (main light switch pulled out twice)? You're not likely to need the rear fog lights. Easy to kill the driving lights. Should be able to work out which wire it is.

[DunlopRS]

Different steering wheel. That would be a difficult one to tap into too (only pulse & not on/off??). I am also a little adverse to doing significant fiddling with the dash/linings unless absolutely necessary…

I like the idea of the rear fog light switch. Any ideas if this could be done without upsetting the car (the electronics that is)?

[DunlopRS]

I put my switches here. Nice and hidden. Spot them in the photo. :p

That's neat. I am sure I would not get the lining back as new...........

[gldgti]

I like the idea of the rear fog light switch. Any ideas if this could be done without upsetting the car (the electronics that is)?

You could probably use a small solid state relay powered directly from the lighting circuit to power the big relay for the lights. SSR's need very little juice to operate, so are quite good for not upsetting circuits with bulb detection/etc.

So, basically you could just mount your little SSR in the trim, perhaps right near the light cluster (out of the way). You could even use te SSR to switch one of those wireless switches that was linked to above, if you were keen. Or, let the SSR switch power for the driving light relay (simplest way would be to switch the ground wire for the coil, you would need only run a single wire from the driving light relay to the SSR, wherever you put it). No comment about whether or not that is good practice

[wfdTamar]

There's plenty of room behind the light switch to mount a relay. I've taken the lower RH dash off twice now so can describe how to do it with busting things if anyone wants me to.