Driving light adjustment

Yes frustrating. Im hoping to find another solution though thank you.

I regularly leave home at 2-3am to make it to a hunt at daybreak but thank you. When I can afford to retire and rest I wish to have more choices like that thank you. Regards

I sort of do with two spots and a light bar but dont have the room for a third set. Eventually I might change to the super expensive LED spots.

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Boris, I was suggesting dumping the HID's (as I have) and replacing them with LED's, either pencil beams or a lightbar depending on your requirements. There are some reasonably priced LED's available with performance equal to the "super-expensive" highly advertised brands. It is a market where advertising and buyer emotions run riot.

My needs are modest compared with those who want to turn night into day.

I have a pair of these from Jaycar.

Combination spot and spread, very bright but not so bright they dazzle with reflected light off highway signs.
No poseur value but practical at a reasonable price.Well made, solid mount, mounts and lights have survived 1000's of km of corrugations.

Frank, I guess you didn't see the qualification in the Jaycar blurb for your driving lights - "for off-road use only".

What makes them illegal? Failure to meet ADR's is generally the major reason.

Are my driving lights illegal?

Cheers, Ron.

Ron,

I followed your link and all the relevant subsequent links, including the specific NSW legislation. The way my lights are mounted and operate is 100% legal, not only in NSW but also in all states and territories.

I have written to Jaycar asking them that given the above, why are they for off road use only.

Cheers

I have friends with the superbright led spoptlights, I have a new Narva model led bar and theyre all great but blinding when reflecting off the road signs. I have a yellow film on my light bar to try reduce the glare. I bought the HID spots in 5000or 5500K colour hoping theyre better for the long distance illumination on open roads. Eventually I might change to th super expensive LED spot brands.

Mark C9,
Instead of setting each light off to its own side of the road try having a better result by pointing the left light to the right hand side (fence line)and the right light to the left hand side (fence line). This will give an improved result for seeing to the area out wide but it also makes a super bright area straight ahead where the light beams cross each other.
I haven`t got light bars , I prefer LED spot lights as driving lights and find this set up great.

Scrubby.

Can you install polyairs with a leaf spring suspension? Is it ok to do 4wding with a loaded car and polyairs? I mainly go camping and hunting/fishing with thekids so it may involve traversing.4wding.

Yes you can get polyair's for leaf springs. I have been using polyair's for "hard" off roading for over 12 years without an issue. Generally unless the vehicle is grossly overloaded it shouldn't take to much pressure to get the vehicle to its normal non loaded height.

I think this may be my best option as the polyairs will help with tow bar clearance when traversing ruts as well. I dont like big lifts in 4wd's and they dont solve levelling issues. I often tow a boat or camper trailer too. Thank you

My previous vehicle was a 120 Prado, and before that a Kia Sorrento. I used airbags in both of those with great success and with that in mind agree with HKB's general premise. There is good effect with airbags in coil-sprung rear ends and very few issues.

However with leaf sprung rear ends, especially twin cab utes, you have to be really careful and I think that needs to be made clear to Boris.

You can be loaded to near GVM, perhaps with a bias to the rear as so often happens with touring, but NOT overloaded, and with inadequate springs you can end up in trouble with airbags if they are used to lift a saggy bum.

As you said, HKB, " it shouldn't take too much pressure to get the vehicle to its normal non loaded height." That's the key point. **The springs have to be able to do the great bulk of the work.** If the springs are right then low pressure helper airbags should be ok. But I'd still be careful.

Not having a go at you , HKB or being critical. I just think that the difference between airbags in coils and airbags in leaf-sprung rear ends needs to be emphasised

Personally I prefer not to use airbags at all. In my twin cab BT50 I have spring packs that do the job without air bag assistance. A bit hard around town but comfortable and capable when loaded for touring, which is what I bought the vehicle for.

Cheers

Frank P, I appreciate the honesty. My RC Colorado already has 300kg+ springs but it doesnt take much at all to lift the lights level. Do you think Polyairs would assist with light air pressures in them, in my case? Im thinking I'll not only cross the spotlights over as usual but vary the height of one of them as well, so one shines slightly lower than the other

Boris,

The issue with airbags on a leaf-sprung chassis is they apply a point load to a part of the chassis that is not designed to take it.

I have seen too many utes of the Colorado/Ranger/BT50/Triton/Hilux/Navara class with bent chassis due to an unknown combination of load, springs, airbags and driving conditions.

Having chosen not to use airbags myself I cannot suggest it would be ok for you. There are too many variables that I don't know about.

Your plan with your light adjustment sounds good. Also, at the risk of some inconvenience, you could adjust the lights for a trip when you're all loaded up, and re-adjust them if necessary for unloaded driving at home.

Cheers

Thank you for your advice. It makes lots of sense but I wish these lights were easier to adjust though

Thank you my friend. This is whats great about Explor oz and why I have respect for it unlike Faecesbook. Thats a great reply with substance as were many of the previous replies from others. If I understood Eds method then thats what I said I would try already in an earlier response here. My spots are already crossed left and right but Ill cross them in level as well with some overlap so one spot is slightly higher than the other. This gives me some confidence now, thank you

Pretty much .... lots of rally competitors do something similar, lots of variations for personal taste & driving style.

That said (and this is based on 35 years of rallying experience on my part) if it takes you more than 5 minutes to change the height adjustment of your driving lights you're doing something wrong.

Is anyone really in so much of a hurry to get where they're going, that they can't afford to stop that long and tweak the alignment if necessary ?

My spotlights are very difficult to adjust. It usually needs 5 arms and a contortion act. Im thinking that if the crossing of lights doesnt work then Ill get a bellow polyair. I have 300kg+ springs already but they only work when compressed with weight. I hope a low pressure in the polyair will help

I bought a yellow tint film from ebay and applied it to the led bar. I havent experienced it on the outback road yet because of Covid but think itll be good

Might be easier to get the missus, or one of the kids, to sit on the bonnet and adjust as you yell out to them.