Narva 225 Spot Lights

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maddogrc

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Messages
1,566
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Location
Perth, Western Australia
Brand: Narva
Model: 225 (blue lense)
Type: Wide/Spot beam combo
Price: $300 posted from ebay

Picture:
l_b23d469d257c447ca2dcba06ef136f24.jpg


Quality:
Pretty decent hard plastic bodies and the lense also seems to be made from a strong clear plastic (think possibly lexan?), but is great as it includes free clear lense covers/protectors. The mounting system is fairly straight forward with a very flexible base when not tightened up, but when tightened up very well they barely move at all. The included wiring harness makes it a breeze to install and also includes a negative/positive wiring switch which means you can wire it up to a cars headlights and it doesn't matter how it is wired. If it's set to positively charged and the lights don't turn on just flick the switch on the little box and it'll set it to the right setting.

Security:
I've once had some little fker try and steal them, but he only got half way and quit as the mounting shaft is around 60-80mm of approximately 8-10mm threaded shaft, and when running a spring washer and 3 locknuts per light with a tiny tiny gap in the bullbar to undo them from they tend to give up pretty quickly. Just mounting them up myself took a while with my bullbar, but it's good to know that just makes it harder for anyone else to steal. I had considered a bit of barbed wire tack welded onto the nuts as 'prevention of theft', but of course thats a bit illegal, haha.

Performance:
I find that until its very very dark these lights don't show their full potential, but when I have been driving on roads through the bush and forests at night these were amazing! I could see for ages and it was a brilliant bright blue/white light. I could see every bug fly past into the light and I could see skip and all his friends far ahead of me and from the sides. I didn't find any vibration in them except during idle.

Overall:
High recommend them as they're a great solid product and there's not much to go wrong when its waterproof (tested that) with a waterproof harness which also makes life so much easier as it is all plug in and go. Instructions were basic, but explained what you needed to do easily enough. Also hard to steal when you use triple locknuts, the bastards give up before they get half way!

Downsides:
One thing...the included on/off switch on the harness has a red LED that stays on continuously, even with the car off, which turns to bright blue when the lights are on. I didn't see that as a good thing to have it on all the time, and yes I know LED's have low consumption, but I installed a switch half way up the on/off switch line which allows me to turn the LED's off, but still use the switch.

Rating: 4/5 Navara Points (would have given 5 if it included HID as standard as they seem to be hot and popular, but the HID version of these lights are around $900)
 
well supposedly there is a slight difference between the clear and blue lense 225's, which i found interesting...

clear:
71700beamimage.png


blue:
71700bebeamimage.png


and then theres clear HID's:
71700hidbeamimage.png


the blues have a bit less spread range and a few meters less total range. must be due to the blue lense? perhaps the the clear lense versions shine further as the blue lense doesnt interfere, but i'm guessing the clear lenses means you'd have a sort of yellowish light instead of a white/ice blue light.
 
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That is a rather interesting comparison. I wonder just how much truth is really in it or if maybe it relates to international tests.

The clear globes show the spread of light greater on the right hand side of the vehicle, with most manufacturers opting for the spot/wide beam combos surely the spread to the left must be greater unless the spot is adjusted way off center.

Personally I hate using a Spot/Wide beam combo, I want wide beams on both sides so I can see what's coming onto the road, what's already on the road will either be gone when I get to it or I can take action to avoid it, what is off the road is the danger but it seems it's normal for most manufacturers to provide two different lens these days.

I guess it comes from spending many hours on country roads at night but when driving I never focus too much on what is directly ahead of me. For starters you open yourself up to the risk of being blinded by some smart arse hitting his high beams too quickly but also you leave yourself open to wildlife coming at you from the roads edge. I use my lights to see the reflection of eyes in the scrub more than the shadow of something on the road which is where a nice wide spread of light works better.

I've got a set of 24Volt Narvas similar to yours laying around somewhere and like you I would rate them pretty well, I'd still prefer they didn't use plastic bodies but that doesn't change their performance.
 
Personally I hate using a Spot/Wide beam combo, I want wide beams on both sides so I can see what's coming onto the road, what's already on the road will either be gone when I get to it or I can take action to avoid it, what is off the road is the danger but it seems it's normal for most manufacturers to provide two different lens these days.

I agree, when purchasing spotties a lot of the time you can request what combo you want. When I went the IPF's I requested 2 floods.
 
Do the 225's come with the same standard cheap Narva black plastic relay block that they used to come with?

Living in the sticks where its not uncommon to be able to keep the lights on for long periods of time we burnt out many of the standard relays due to their cheap construction. The contacts inside would get so hot they'd just deform and stop contacting, or contact too well and they'd never turn off. Some of them we even ran without the plastic shell just to keep them cooler.

I had a major fight with the dealer over the relay when they put my IPF's on, in the end I just gave up and removed the cheap relay and put a decent one in it's place, although space in the D40 engine bay doesn't make that easy.

These things aren't that easy to get any more although there is probably alternatives out there somewhere but essentially they run two separate relays, one for each globe, they are made of stronger material and they don't get as hot when used for long periods. They are bigger than the cheap plastic box and they require a little re-wiring because the positive from each globe goes to it's own terminal. They have a common earth terminal and power in needs to be split onto two terminals but thats simply a small extension cable from one terminal to the other.

There is no branding on the ones I have and although it may not help much the part number is NLR-112 12v and it's a 30A dual relay. They cost us about $20 from our local auto elec about 10 years ago and we've never replaced one in any of our cars, however they do always come out and get replaced at trade in time.

I know plenty of people still run with the standard black plastic cheapo relay but there is no way I'd be going back to them having used these tough buggers.

Pic below is just a guide and doesn't show much but they are about 60mm X 60mm x 40mm (100mm x 100mm inc terminals) full metal construction and all terminals are screw terminals so they can't fall off.

relay.gif


Note: I was going to make this a review in itself but without a brand name it seemed more appropriate to stick it here where I started out asking a question.
 
the narva's have a blue boxed narva brand (also seen them sell narva branded relays at supercheap in a different colour) that is the standard 4/5 pin (not sure, think 5) which is 12v/30A, and it seems to do the job fine. i've had them running for around 3 hours once and they were still operational?

some maths...

100w globes x 2 divided by 12v = 16.67A draw which is just over half the rated capacity of the relay
 
It's not the rated capacity that we found was the issue it was the heat running through the terminals and in an engine bay heat is hard to escape from. The ones we use have alot more space for heat to escape the terminals and ventilate by themselves which the plastic casing doesn't allow. They also spread the same current rating across two relays which means neither one gets as hot.

Narva might have improved the ones they stick in packs these days but those black ones from super cheap deform if they sustain hot temps for long periods of time and considering they still want to charge about $12 for them a full metal construction unit for a few bucks more is well worth it.

Internally a relay is a relay and electrically they are all the same but just like everything if it's made with cheaper components it's likely to fail quicker. I really hope Narva have improved the relay's they provide in packs because 10 years ago they were crap, maybe they just offload the crap ones to Kmart and Super Cheap these days I haven't used an out of the box for years.

As you point out they are over rated but the other use we found for the 24v (60A) versions on the trucks was that where we needed more than one set of lights we were able run one set of lights through each relay instead of one globe through each. Some of those guys who like to keep Narva and the like in business by running driving lights mounted on every available inch of their vehicles can possibly save themselves a few relays
 
I emailed Narva about the new mounts they brought out for the Narva Ultima 225's.

I was happy to pay but they are sending them to me free of charge.

Great customer service.

Dave.
 
They are designed differently to the earlier ones.

Stop's them vibrating as much.

When they arrive Ill post a pic up of them.

Dave.
 
Oh I didn't realise you were taking requests, can I get a shot of a '76 Cortina going supersonic?
 
Mmmmm, no. He asked me a while back for a few photo's so he could make a decision on what camera to buy.

Dave.
 
Well the come with a lock nut.

There just a better design, wont move around as much on crap roads.

Dave.
 

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