Outer Limits 4x4 Board

will be putting the roof rack basket on soon for when i leave for my trip round oz and would like to have 4 lights installed on it with 1 in each corner.

what do you suggest would be a suitable light to install that would give acceptable lighting in the immediate area of the vehicle but wont draw down on the battery too quick and have the ability to be direction within reason.

i run dual optima 900cca / 75ah batteries.

cheers,
nathan.

How much do you want to spend? High power LED lighting is really bright, and draws bugger-all power. They typically need a controller to supply the correct current.

Compact fluoros give pretty good light, will use a little more power, but probably much cheaper and more widely available.

Personally, I'd be researching these two options.

Cheers,

Scott

LED light bars are the way to go.
Have a bit of a google around - new ones are arriving at ledshoponline.com.au soon. I've got two Jaycar (www.jaycar.com.au) led bars on the sides of me ute, they light up enough to see what your doing say in an evening when cooking etc. They draw around 450ma each, were about $30.00 each from memory and will last a day on a little 7ah sealed lead acid battery. Of course, more leds more brighter.

Another alternative is to find and buy some of the 10w 12v down lights that you can get - though are a bit hard to find sometimes. They are way bright enough for camp, and one of these is roughly the same as a normal front two parking lights (5 watters each) - so this should give you an indication of the amount of current draw that they'd suck.

Or try (I think it is) PIAA camp fluro light. Might not be PIAA - whoeevr it is, they advertise in aus monthly mag all the time. Puts out a great deal amount of light for around 1 amp draw.

If your really worried about flattening your battery, grab a pair of the 7ah sealed lead acid batteries, put them in parallel, and wire them so that they only charge off the alternator/main battery when you either have the ignition on, have a master switch turned on, via a relay, or thru a diode. So that you will only flatten these 7ah batteries to nothing. (The 7ah will be cactus, but at least you'll still be able to start in the morning.)



heaps of whacky ideas....

bushy555 wrote: If your really worried about flattening your battery, grab a pair of the 7ah sealed lead acid batteries

For the price of a pair of 12v 7Ah SLA's you could buy a single 18Ah, which also comes with better terminals. I myself use a pair of 32Ah, but i get them for free