driving lights, how many?

how many watts of driving light power is safe for a d40. i have seen pics where there are 4 lights across the roof, and 2 on the bullbar. assuming they're 100w each, thats 50 amps, without the normal headlights and everything else.
also, i have never had driving lights mounted above the roof, so i was wondering if you get much reflection across the bonnet?

i got 2x9" hids and 2x11" hids above the roof and have no issues with reflection

Don't rely on the full capacity of the alternator - it's only available at high rpm.

If you're asking legally - you're not allowed to have headlights higher than 1400mm. You're not allowed to have more than 6 headlights - which on a Commodore, for example, means TWO driving lights because the normal headlights are comprised of 4 globes.

Technically you can run them, just not constantly - and the battery will recharge.

ericcs said:

how many watts of driving light power is safe for a d40. i have seen pics where there are 4 lights across the roof, and 2 on the bullbar. assuming they're 100w each, thats 50 amps, without the normal headlights and everything else.
also, i have never had driving lights mounted above the roof, so i was wondering if you get much reflection across the bonnet?

Click to expand...

If the lights are too far forward they do light up the bonnet. They need to be far enough back that the shadow from the roof is long enough to cover the bonnet.

^ +1 with what he said.

You can limit the reflected light with some lights, i.e. some Narva's have a block at the bottom of the lens which blocks some of the downward reflection but you definitely don't want reflection off the bonnet.

In some if not all states the lights can not be mounted anywhere where the light itself is the extremity, i.e the top of bullbars, the top of sports bars etc. Where this law applies a bar over the top of the lights welded to whatever they are mounted to is sufficient to pass the law but it's something to be wary of incase one day you meet Mr Gumpy Plod.

With led lightbars now affordable I personally can't see the advantage of mounting spotties on your roof

heres a pic of where mine sit,from what ive been told in QLD they cannot be anywhere above your normal headlights unless they are above the roofline,thats is the exact words from QLD TMR back in feb when i got my nav and was researching it.
so i bolted a light bar on top of my dog box then the spottys ontop of that.

Those lights on top would be illegal in Vic (assuming they are under the height restriction) unless there was a bar going over the top of them making the bar the extremity. Kind of ridiculous law but who knows it might save your lights one day, although that's obviously not the reason for the law.

Same applies to lights that stick out forward of the bullbar or bumper

yea its a bit ridiculas how every state has there own spin on the rule.i think in SA you can have them ontop of the bullbar but you have to be able to see the road 11m infront of the car,it varies so mouch its a real PIA when you move interstate and half your setup becomes illegal

In Vic they have to be installed in pairs too, I'm not sure that is a rule in all states.

not sure,theres a few blokes up here (townsville) that have only 1 or 3,i dont know why as you generally buy them in pairs haha.

I've got three old narva's floating around the shed, the fourth one is now a hand held spot light for the boat

i have 4x 55w hids on the roof just for offroad (still getting around to mounting some for highway use on the bullbar) because there mounted forward on the roof i do get quite alot of glare but like i said offraod its not a problem. i have a light bar to so should be legal everywere im in qld tho so no worries

KraftyPg said:

I've got three old narva's floating around the shed, the fourth one is now a hand held spot light for the boat

Click to expand...

haha nice

looking at the setups you guys run, clearly the alternator is more than strong enough to cope with atleast 6 100w driving lights on top of everything else

Short answer us yes it can, longer answer is check it out and do the sums before you rely on it.

shorter answer, hid's. they use a lot less power than halogen and you get a lot more light output. especially now that you can get them in 100w...

bods said:

shorter answer, hid's. they use a lot less power than halogen and you get a lot more light output. especially now that you can get them in 100w...

Click to expand...

Led

my 11" ones are 50w and 9" ones are 55w and there light output is wicked,im getting another pair of 9s and they are going to be 100w,cant wait to see the output of 100w HIDs

FatBoy89 said:

Led

Click to expand...

they are good for spread but no good for long distance. i guess it depends what type of driving you do, a light bar would be better if you do lots of dense bush driving, but hid's would be better on the highway... that's not to say led's are no good, they just don't have the range hid's do