Blue offroad foglights?

White fog lights throw the most light.

Tom

which is why yellow ones work the best in fog :-)

Dave Milne, Scotland '91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ

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Ya, there's a certain lense that will reduce glare.

remember those sunglasses from the 80's...blue blockers? they blocked a certain part of the spectrum that would reduce glare....these coloured lenses do the same. But, since fog isn't all the way to the ground (or is LESS at the ground) we mount our fog lights under the bumper to get under the fog and make the best penetration....but the yellow still helps reduce glare.

Ok....no more science books for me!

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Well, the lights on the lightbar are more for: a) lighting the path in front of me for offroading at night and; b) looks

I'm not sure it's justifiable to spend $80+ USD on a pair of PIAA or KC's when I can get 4 of those blue ones for $80 USD (or clear coloured).

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rectangular

Well, are those cheapies plastic shelled?! won't last long going through the bush whether you need them or not! they'll get whacked and cracked!

Same come winter time and with UV exposure.

I went to Princess Auto up here in Canada and they have dozens of surplus gear which included Aux lights....but they were mostly plastic shelled....thought and thought....hurt myself thinking...then thought some more and figured I'd shmuck them on something and crack them.

would rather have the metal shelled ones that cost a few more bucks.

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There's some no-name type stainless steel 6" round ones too ...is it really necessary to buy name-brand like PIAA or KC? Any advantages? These are

55/100 and 55/130. I can get a set of 4 for about $100 USD shipped.

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I wouldn't say it's necessary to spend gross amounts of cash so that you can look cool having name brand stuff. Just be aware that sometimes there's a quality issue between the cheapo's and the nameo's! :p

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Hi Dave:

I personally feel that all things being equal, the white lenses work better in fog than yellow. The yellow lenses substantially reduce the light output of the bulb. See:

The beam pattern on a good fog lamp is what is most important. The low wide beam pattern of a good fog light reflects less light back into the driver's eyes, and the white lights do throw much more light than a yellow light (again, all other things being equal.) :)

Tom

So then, would you recommend round or rectangular for being mounted above the windshield on a lightbar? I think I'll go with the white halogens but now I'm debating the following:

1. 6" round's or rectangular's?
2. rock gaurd covers or not (or the ones that say Jeep)?
3. 55/100 or 55/130?

Anyone know off hand what the stock alternator on an '85 CJ7 can handle light-wise? I have no stereo and no auxillary stuff except for the lights (ie: no winch, etc).

Thanks

griffin did pass the time by typing:

Just a note, check with the local police department. Some areas require offroad lights be covered when your not offroad.

Lights up top probably don't need rock guards and when they do you have bigger problems to wory about. :)

Round v Rectangular.. dunno. I'm partial to the round ones myself.

Power, your probably fine, 63A is what the stock one did. If you need more power they make some HUGE ones.

or

Make sure you use the proper gauge of wire for the load, put a fuse by the battery, and always use a relay for aux lamps.

Have fun and keep the shiny(or mostly shiny with mud globs) side up. :)

For 'on road', is is well worth the extra dollars for a higher quality light. You 'do' get what you pay for up to a point, but I just saw a set of Hella's that were pure garbage!

These Hellas came with the thinnest I have ever seen crimp spade connectors, a crappy switch, a relay that does not match the 'bosch' pinout so you can't use a relay socket but must use crimp spades, (did I say how crappy the spades were?) and to top it of the freaking wiring directions had the power tagged from the input to ground on the relay which is a dead short!

On a light bar, square gives more clearance.

'Some' places require covers on 'off road' lights and for good reason. 'Most' folks up the watts on them above street legal.

For street legal, in most places 55 Watts is the max for a white light on high beam. Those crappy blue ones are allowed higher watts to try and match the light given off by a white beam.

Off road lights only have one bulb so you buy the power you 'want'. I went with 100W in my Hella's and they are great. If I set them aimed up, they are about 3X the output of my stock lights. I do not believe the bulbs come in odd watts, 55, 100 and 200 are common. A 200 W will melt a plastic light though.

The ones that are mixed numbers are replacement high/low bulbs, not driving lights.

And I grew up in North Atlantic 'pea soup' fog. Yellow are the only way to go in fog. They even have all the highway intersection and bridge lights in yellow.

The 85 CJ's have 3 different alternators so you would have to get the numbers off it and check at the parts stores.

A higher alternator can be put in, especially if you have the Delco alternator, but the stock one puts out pretty good.

The lights should be relayed and fused direct to the battery power and they need a dedicated ground wire. The ground is more important than folks realize because add ing all the lights can/will overload the stock ground wire in the vehicle which will cause the lights to draw more power as things heat up.

When I turn on my stock headlights, the volt gauge takes a big hit. When I turn on the Hellas with their direct wiring, the gauge barely flickers.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

griff>

Thank you everyone for the input! I'm going with white halogens ...probably

100W bulbs because they will only be used offroad. I'm still leaning toward 6" round with stainless steel housing because the trails here have alot of low-lying tree brush and they need to be able to withstand a bit of abuse. I'm probably not going to go with PIAA or KC unless I can get a good deal just because of the cost. I'd probably be in tears if I hit a tree and heard the "snapping" sound of $200 of lighting rolling down my windshield. I'll buy the no-name type ones and hope for the best but I'll try and find out about the wiring quality first.

Guess I better check local laws as well.

Thanks again!

No disagreements re the light pattern, or the fact that white lights through much more light than the yellow ones. My experience is that they reflect more back. Still, if they work for you, that's great.

I would resist the temptation to use blue lights for offroading. I think you will look like a giant tuner driving around in the woods.

More significantly, the human eye is not particularly sensitive to blue light, especially at night and you would need a lot more watts to get the same level of apparent illumination. The FnF crowd likes them because they look like HIDs, but blue incandescent lights do not provide better light.

indeed the human eye is most sensitive to yellow, which is why its a popular colour filter for cameras.

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Dave, The original poster has no interest in fog lamps, so the yellow lamps won't do what he wants. He is looking for offroad lamps to put on a light bar on the roof.

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rectangular

oh, misunderstood.

Jeff? This what he posted, quote: "Has anyone tried these?

They have blue, yellow, green, and clear. First off, I'm a little worried that the "Jeep" and "4x4" might mess up the way the light shines. Also, I'm kinda wondering whether the blue light would work well, look good, or look stupid.

What's every>