SPOTTIES

Thanks mate good unbiased comment,.

Is hiab your job as well, i used to drive a hiab truck myself.

Baz.

Hiab, You should have contacted lightforce and they would have replaced it from my experience, and I guess you can guess Redback which lights I favour :-)

the lights were fine... but the big ones, on most bullbars, poke out the front , and when you hit something, heaps of smashed plastic. rallye 4000s are not as deep and sit behind the line of the bar, and are steel bodied, and in my mind the output is equal if not better. and if you haggle can come in cheaper.

With you HIAB...my 4000's were second hand when I was given them (owner went 2wd??) that was over 7 years ago and now they are on my third vehicle and over 300 000km!

Not a thing wrong and only ONE globe replacement....I put it down to the best and most stable mount on the market!

I used to work for Cummins and every truck that came into the workshop had either Hella 4000 or Hella predators HID (one had 4 predators in a row....add that up!!)

Now as professional drivers in the worst possible conditions and not one truck ever had lightforce ???

I have previously had Cibie Oscars, Hella 100's, IPF 9000 (now on Dads 4by) but wouldnt trade the 4000s for any of them. They even make the smaller 4000s FF for smaller vehicles now!

Yes I AM biased these lights are fantastic!

My 2c!!

Goodluck with the purchase Red

Matt.

"I used to work for Cummins and every truck that came into the workshop had either Hella 4000 or Hella predators HID (one had 4 predators in a row....add that up!!) "

Seems a bit odd if there that good why would he need 4???

I think some people are missing the point here, Lightforce are lighter (pardon the pun) with the very reason that heavy metal lights on 4X4's travelling at faster speeds than heavy machinery on corrugations have more failures at the mounting point. Its not hard to work out if you have a 700gram light mounted on a bullbar vibrating against a 350gram light the heavy one is more likely to fail.

So I guess as others have said, the choice is up to the individual.

Blaze

"Seems a bit odd if there that good why would he need 4??? "......for more light?

Was this a serious question or tongue-in-cheek?

If you were a truckdriver on the road 24/7 with the appalling standard lights they have...wouldnt you fit the best you could when it all makes your job easier and safer (considering how detrimental eye-strain would be!!) Enough said hey!

As with the mounts...have you seen the base of a 4000...its not just a 2cm square lug with a bolt through it. Its about 15cm by 6cm rectangular base with no extentions or projections to increase the leverage on the light when exposed to vibrations.

Why dont you do the math...I believe force= mass x perpendicular distance from the fulcrum.. so your 350g light sitting on a 10-20cm mounting arm compared to the 700g light whose COG is only maybe 2cm from the fulcrum works out to be about ..... 0.6Nm for the 240 lightforce and about 0.14NM for the 700g light So much less rotational force at the fulcrum and ultimately less vibration of the beam of light!

The lights become a solid part of the vehicle rather than an addition. Hence why I believe they last so long and do not vibrate like others on the market!

But to each thier own...

agreed. i use a pair of narva spread beam spotties. the point you make about focussing on the spot down the road is quite valid. the new design make them a much tougher light than the previous narva.

Good point about the spread and spot beams.
I run 2 spread beams, no spots.
Find the spread useful on twisty roads and spotting roos in the grass at the sides.
Only occasionally miss a spot beam to see more than 200 to 300 metres away.
Find most roads either turn or go up and down and a spot spends a lot of time pointing some where not so useful.

I don't drive at the speeds I used to at night either. Max about 120 km/hr (33m/sec) at night now. Takes about 120 to 140m to stop at that speed, so if I can see 200m down the road, thats all I need. About 80m to 100m to stop at 100km/hr.

www.sdt.com.au/STOPPINGDISTANCE.htm

Used to find a spot useful picking up the reflectors for the next kilometre or two, to get an idea which way the road goes when travelling at higher speeds.

Hi Baz i would go the 4000s i have had them for a few years now no probs at all.Also there is a small version of the 4000s work just as good as the bigger ones

Cheer's Tim

Nudie the Predators are the HID version of the 4000's...I havent had the opportunity to pull them apart but from the outside they look VERY similar in shape. I would contact a Hella Distributor and ask if you can purchase the internals for the predator...Dont hold your breath about them being resonable with cost...think the predators retail in the vecinity of 1500 each??/

They are starting to sell at reasonble cost Zenon filled globes...so maybe just an upgrade from the old QH ones for an improvement in light quality if the predators are out of range?

Goodluck

Matt.

May not be, Predators have an external ballast set up and deliver 25,000v to the light. SWMBO bought me a set about 6 years ago when they retailed for $1900 each. She must have been feeling a bit light headed that day. I had the car in to have the roo bar put on and came back to find the lights on as well. You could have knocked me over with a feather. They have done 250,000km no issues. I did break one mount on the Kalumburu road. Got back and Hella replaced it no charge even though it was years out of warranty. They are the best lights I've ever had. Bright, no eye strain, solid mount, fit behind most roo bars.

Steve

Member No 1, Tim at Belair Rd Auto Electrical has done the conversion on his Hella 4000's Ph 8271 7617

#1..
goto outerlimits, look for threads by bushy555 - hes the guru on these conversions.

if it can be done, he will know.

ta guys