Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Just got a set of Baxter HID spotties for my 79

Never seen or heard of them b4 but was offered an awesome deal to test them out for a mate who will be selling them. I think they will retail at around 400 each, which i beleive is alot cheaper than the lightforce

ill get some pics etc up soon, but has anyone seen these before!

first drive at night was strange as the light is pure white and can get glary/reflecty (im making up words)

but now im used to them they are awesome!

Do you have any links to any web sites on them.

I did a quick google on them and couldn't find anything?

They the one's with the ballast and starter built into the back of them?

yea, they do have the ballast and that on the back are plastic (black and red)

they are good but the mounting is a little dodgy, the increments in height are to great to get right so i shaved the mounting plate slightly.

i cant find any links either??

I think they only come in spot, with spread coming out soon. I'm waiting for them.

They come up on ebay every once in a while.

I'm abso positive that I saw one set go for around $275 maybe three months ago. (Was kinda shocked to say the least!)

The actual housing looks kinda like a Hella 2000 / IPF 900 style, or it did in the pics on ebay.

Certainly seem to be the way to go. However they are only 35 watt as far as I know, and they'd probably have a similiar very small ballast as that of the Lightforce 240HID.

No need to wait for HID lights, I modded my Cibie Super Oscars and added H1 6000k HID globes, put the ballasts behind the grill. Cost the HID kits and a little time. AWSOME lights, now I have to 'fix' my headlights too!

you can see the lights here

http://www.baxters.com.au/HTML/Images/L ... DF/HID.pdf

I have seen them retailing for over 600 each now.

I am unsure of the bulbs in them, but am trying to find out, i know they are 35watt.

And i am extremly happy with them.

The link didn't work for me...

Is this the light at the bottom right?

Anyone know who makes these ones?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... %3AIT&rd=1
They're @ $420 with 2 hours to go.
They look very similar to the Hella Ralleye 4000's but with the balast built into the back of the light.

Just found their site, they're in America. $450 ea
http://www.visionxoffroad.com/product/h ... efault.htm

yea, the black and red ones at the bottom,

has anyone bid on these from outers yet? they seem cheap

I just picked up my 4 HID IPF spotties Now I just have to build the tray that I'm mounting them on

GUJohnno wrote:Just found their site, they're in America. $450 ea
http://www.visionxoffroad.com/product/h ... efault.htm

cheap at $669 for em.

Found this on some web site few weeks ago. Sorry - have lost the link.

---

Driving Lights

I suppose when we look at aftermarket lighting, we have to start at the source and ask ourselves why we need it. What's the point of having to spend extra on lights when we've just forked out tens of thousands of hard-earned bucks on a shiny new vehicle? The fact is that the standard lights on a 4WD are crook. They are not suited to Australian conditions and the manufacturers are unlikely to change just for us. We're a pretty unique market and the majority of 4WD manufacturers reckon that their standard lights are OK.

Well, they might be alright for Tokyo, or London, or LA, or even Sydney or Melbourne. But get them out into the Outback or even rural Australia and we soon find just how bad they really are. Unfortunately, in the whole world-wide scheme of things, we represent a tiny percentage of vehicle sales and no matter how we jump up and down and yell at the guys who build our vehicles, we are not going to get them to provide us with adequate lighting for 4WDing as we know it. Enter the aftermarket.

It wasn't too long ago that the advent of the halogen light revolutionised the aftermarket in lighting. Halogen driving lights were streets ahead of the sealed beam lamps we got as original equipment on our vehicles. They enabled us to cut through the gloom and see much further than the OE lights could.

The vehicle manufacturers soon realised they could give us halogen lights as OE, but they still weren't up to scratch. The aftermarket boomed in lighting and we were soon seeing big racks of halogen driving lights adorning the front of many bush-going 4WDs.

However, the commercial lighting industry was gaining a serious technological edge over the automotive lighting industry and night was being turned into day at sporting venues, industrial sites and in many other applications.

The secret was in the advances made in super-heated gasses which would give off much more light than the humble halogen could ever dream of.

The gas being used was xenon. As the technology became more advanced, the size of the xenon lights got smaller and soon the automotive aftermarket could take advantage of this.

How It Works
These new lights are known as High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights. HID lights produce daylight quality light and brightness, far outperforming conventional quartz halogen lights. A single HID light can produce three to four times the lighting power of a halogen light while only consuming one-third of the power draw.

HID lights don't use a conventional filament; instead they use xenon gas that is initiated by the firing of an intense electrical current (around 18,000 to 25,000 volts). Once the bulb is up to full brightness, which takes about a second, the controller (known as the ballast) then provides a steady 90 volts to maintain the arc.

HID lights provide a 'whiter' light than conventional lights. It is a light that is far closer to natural daylight than any other lighting system. You may have seen this bluish light coming from the headlights of some super-luxury cars. These are HID or xenon gas discharge lights.

The colour of the light source is expressed as its colour temperature. As the colour temperature increases, the colour of the light moves from yellow to white to a blue-white. HID lights provide light at a higher colour temperature than standard halogen lights, which gives them the white or even blue appearance. Where a halogen light may have a colour temperature of 3200 degrees Kelvin, the HID light will have a colour temperature of 4100-4300 degrees K. For reference, the sun at mid-day has a colour temperature of 5250 degrees K.

Apart from the massive increase in light thrown from the HID lights, another big plus is that once ignited, they only draw around three amps - similar draw to a 35-Watt globe. Added to that, they will last a lot longer than conventional lights due to the fact that they have no filament to break. Narva claims that their new Ultima HID lights will last up to eight times longer than a conventional 100-Watt globe. Consequently, you will find that the HID lights are built stronger than the driving lights we're used to so that the entire package of all the light's components will be tougher and longer-lasting.

So does all this sound too good to be true? A light that illuminates three times better than a conventional halogen, draws less power and lasts eight times longer? The clincher is in the price. These lights don't come cheap, and while their popularity is growing and the price is dropping, you'll find that even the most affordable xenon HIDs are in excess of a grand each.

However, this is likely to change in the future. Some high-end luxury cars are now using xenon lights as standard equipment, and projected worldwide HID usage as OE lighting is expected to exceed ten per cent of vehicles by 2008. This should bring the price down to a more manageable level in the near future.

Who's Doin' It?
Here's a quick look at who is making the HID lights available in Australia. They are available from most major 4WD aftermarket retailers nation-wide.

BOSCH
Bosch has recently released its Compass 2000 range which incorporates a xenon HID pencil beam light that Bosch claims will provide 1 lux of light (enough to read by) at 800 metres. and a pencil beam that reaches 1.1 kilometres. The Bosch lights are constructed from die-cast aluminium and are available in pencil and fog lamp beams

CIBIE
Cibie has always been renowned amongst off-road and 4WD groups and it has released its own HID lights under the well-known Oscar banner. The HID Oscars are claimed to have a driving beam which illuminates up to a kilometre in front of the car with its Driving Beam and up to 250 metres with the more spread Cornering Beam.

HELLA
The Predator XGD is Hella's HID driving light. It features a cast zinc housing, mount and ring for corrosion resistance and can be mounted in either the upright or pendant positions. Hella claim that the spread beam Predator has a distance of 655 metres at 1 lux while the pencil beam has a distance of 906 metres at 1 Lux . Hella says that this is the most powerful driving lamp the company has ever produced.

KC HILITES
KC offer HID lights in 150mm 35-Watt configurations in both stainless steel or black. They feature fully assembled pre-terminated harness with weather-proof plug connectors for easy installation plus plug-in terminals for the ballast.

LIGHTFORCE
Australian manufacturer Lightforce offers a unique HID light in that it has its ballast contained within the light. This means that there's no extra mounting except for the light itself. They feature a polycarbonate construction which is claimed to stronger than steel and weighs in a t just 1.72 kg. The Lightforce HID 240 also has a clip-on filter system that can convert the light from a pencil beam to a flood or fog instantly.

NARVA
Narva's new Ultima 175 Xenon driving lights are, as the name suggests 175mm in diameter. They offer 100 lumens per Watt (compared with a halogen which produces 25 lumens per Watt). They also have a glare shield on the top to protect the driver from any stray light coming back in his or her eyes. They can be had in either broad beam or pencil beam in either 12 or 24 volt. Narva claims that the Ultima 175 Xenon can illuminate a street sign up to a kilometre down the road. n

Any Problems?
While the advent of the HID driving light is a boon for Outback and rural drivers, there have been some people who have voiced their displeasure over them particularly in the USA.

Across the pond, where whinging comes only second to litigation as the national pastime, many complaints have been lodged with the National Highway Safety Transport Administration (NHTSA). In fact, so may complaints have been lodged that NHTSA is planning an investigation into HID lights.

According to a NHTSA spokesman, in excess of 1800 complaints have been lodged, mainly concerning drivers being temporarily blinded by oncoming vehicles fitted with HID lights. The spokesman said that this is an extremely high number of complaints. To put the number into perspective, previous issues that drew big numbers of comments included a proposal for speed governors on vehicles in the 1970s which drew 600, and air-bag cutoff switches which drew 707 comments, according to NHTSA.

The complaints follow NHTSA's call for public comment on HID lights in September of last year.

NHTSA could use the comments to overhaul headlight regulations, going as far as banning the lights on future vehicles. It could also take any number of steps to tone down the illumination, or it could do nothing.

However, NHTSA says that there have been no reported deaths or injuries stemming from the use of HID lights.

hi guy im currently promoting my HID's in the misc for sale section.

you can buy the kits and change ur exsisting fog lamps with a fraction of the cost, the kits are water tight to with stand rain and river crossings, it comes with 1 year replacement warranty and the selection of colour at your choice.