i am in the proscess if purchasing the alta light bar and now i must decide what light to mount up. i live in new hampshire and my area has no street lights so light output is a big deal for me. i know alot of people go with the hella 500's and i am considering going the same way. can anyone provide me with a candle power or lumen rating on those? also, has anyone had any experience with the rallye 4000's? i am really looking to throw a lot of light as this mod is more practical than asthetic for me. thanks guys

 

Most people run Hella 500's, or I believe the IPF 968's on that bar. The reason being you won't be able to fit anything larger due to clearance issues. Hellas are definetly highly available in case you need a replacement, and cheaper. Everyone who has them seems to be happy with them, including me. I always like as much light as possible. You might be able to look into running some models of Cibie which can be purchased from Daniel Stern lighting (google it). They are supposed to be excellent, very high quality lamps, but they come with a price. Daniel Stern would also be able to tell you everything you need to know about lumens and light output.

 

I really like my Hella 500's. I have 4 on the front of my mini (2 fog, 2 driving) and it really lights the place up. Reasonable priced too!

 

do the 500's throw enough light for very rural driving conditions? do you guys all leave in the stock 50w bulbs? thanks for your time

 

On the very rural backroads of northern indiana, I would say yes. When lit up I can see a very long way ahead. I use two fog light hella 500s to light up the sides of the road to watch for deer while the driving lights light the way ahead. Works out very well with the stock bulbs.

Suck i have to turn them off though when someone is coming the other way

 

Check these out:

If you want HID: http://www.kchilites.com/lights/hid/

or Halogen: http://www.kchilites.com/lights/daylighter/

 

I have a pair of GE 4509 aircraft landing lights in 6 1/2" NAPA light housings, I had them on another car, but took them off before I got rid of it. I've been thinking of putting them on my MINI.

They are 100 watts each. The lamps are halogen sealed beams and cost $13.00 each, the housings were about the same. So, for about $50 I was able to put together a pair of real kickass driving lights. They will make a street light turn off if you approach the street light from the top of a hill.

On my other car I wired them up with 10 gage wire directly to the battery, through a big relay connected to the high beams.

I'm wondering if the MINI's little battery will take the extra draw.

What is the capacity of the Series 2 MINI's battery anyway? And how many amps does the MINI's alternator put out?

Dave

 

mine are the brightest lol. 4x PIAA driving lamps with 35w HID bulbs and ballasts. DUMP out some light. you can see them on pavement on a cloudy day at noon (not raining or really dark, just overcast) 15' in front of the car.

 

Not to put a damper on this party, but there are strict limits as to how many watts are allowed for street use. Most halogen bulbs rated over 60W are illegal for street use. It isn't only about wattage, the more important thing is proper reflector and lens design and the relationship between the filament placement and the focus of the reflector.

Putting in the wrong bulb, for a given reflector design, will yield a poor light output pattern in spite of it having more wattage. Everything has to be designed to work together.

There are many 100 watt driving lights on the market, but they are all for off road use only. They would be extremely dangerous for on coming traffic or if shined onto the rear of a car ahead.

Someone else mentioned Daniel Stern Lighting http://www.danielsternlighting.com/ and I can highly recommend reading the information about automotive lighting that he has available on his site. Pay special attention to the section on proper headlight aiming. I found out that the Xenon lights on my 2002 and 2006 MCS were aimed too low and by just raising them to what is recommended on Stern's site made a huge difference for night driving.

I just came back from a night drive through VT, where the nights and roads are very dark, and found the stock Xenon lights to be more than adequate on the highway or secondary roads.

 

Strict limits on paper maybe, but I haven't ever heard of anyone getting a ticket for running off-road lights on the public roads.

People who run these lights on their cars are generally enthusiasts, who are going to be aware of the importance of proper aiming of their lights and be careful not to dazzle other drivers with them.

Dave

 

I can tell you from very (sniffle, sniffle) personal experience that the states of Virginia and Florida will stop you and hand you a citation for improper lighting, such as, well, putting 100 watt bulbs in PIAA 610s -- not that anyone who drives a Mini would ever do that.

Many, if not most, law enforcement types out there are also car enthusiasts and can recognize what kind of equipment they are looking at as well as any of us can. And you can be using the lights carefully, such as moving down a perfectly dark section of a secondary 4-lane mountain highway with no other traffic at all when you encounter a parked LEO monitoring speed from his favorite hideout. He may even have PIAAs on his personal car -- he may tell you that, while he's filling out the UTT form.

I will agree that you can go a long time without being bothered -- sorta like speeding. But it is clearly possible to get caught, and it is very possible to have to hand over some hard-earned cash as a result.

And I've got PIAAs on my Mini. I still have a set of 100 watt bulbs in my junk box.

We all have to make our own decisions, but we shouldn't make them with an assumption that the law will never be enforced.

 

or for mine which people say blind them in broad daylight if i leave them on (previous night use and dont hit the off switch, the relay is wired to my running lights) I only use them as high beams and never use them with oncomming traffic or is people or cars are on the road ahead of me. The HID kit does outblow the lens, but thats ok as since they are a simple parabolic reflector, most of the light goes to the same spot and the same pattern, and then i have enough excess light that didnt get cutoff that i have a 180deg beam pattern with a 45 degree seemless hotspot in front of my car (i can see forever down the road, see stuff above me and see deer on the side of the road all with one housing.

 

has anybody mounted the hella 700ff's? what are the price on those piaa's soccerbummer?

 

$1200 for KC HID lights?! WAAAY overpriced. You could easily put a 50watt aftermarket ballast in a set of and off-road lights and get the same output. There's no need for a clean cutoff, so I say get a cheap HID kit and hack a set of driving ilghts apart. Make sure and get the 50 watt ballasts, vs the 35 watt. Maybe $100-150 on ebay.

I put a set of ebay HID lights in my other car over 2 years ago (paired with Acura TL projectors - complete retrofit) and they're still holding up strong.