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simong

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
okay so now that i have some money set aside to do this light project what are the differences between the beam types?

I'm not looking at HIDS and i am going to bumper mount them just as many memebers in this forum have done. so what is the best beam. spot,flood,fluted...... I'm confused anyone feel like writing up a idiots guide to AUX lights post :)

once again thanks in advance

also an explanation on wattage would be great as well
 
Like in so many other things in life, there is no one single "best". Otherwise, wouldn't every manufacturer simply make those?

No matter how much I type here, if you want to make an informed decision on what kind of auxiliary lights to get, I'm afraid you'll need to do some reading. And things will get unpleasant right about the time you start to try to pick which lights to buy, as objective comparisons between lights are few and far apart - most recommendations you'll read on the Internet will be more of the "I've always used these and they're the best!" type that don't really say anything useful. Or that at least was my experience when trying to pick a pair of lights for my Jeep.

Wattage is pretty simple though. A watt is a unit of power. Higher wattage light bulb means it consumes more power. Now, how much of that energy is turned into light and how much into heat, that's of course a different story - otherwise things would be way too simple and straightforward, no? ;) But as a general rule-of-thumb, higher wattage bulbs create more waste heat, so it's not a linear increase in amount of light you get. And that extra heat can cause problems over a longer period of time, such as heating your reflector elements so much they start to become less reflective - resulting in an overall loss of light output. So I would not recommend defaulting to high wattage bulbs as a standard operating procedure, but rather you need to look at how you intend to use your lights. (Crawling along a dark trail means a whole lot less cooling from air flow over your lights than zooming along a highway at 140km/h.)

In fact, that's my recommendation for you - start by figuring out what you want out of your auxiliary lights. What sort of use are they for, what sort of roads will you be driving on while using them? Do you want to favor longer range, or is the width of the light beam more important to you? That sort of things. Once you narrow it down and have specific questions to ask, people will be able to give you much better answers.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
but its summer time and i don't wanna read :p thanks for your input i guess this week at work will be figuring out what i want.
 
Yea, as Tony said, it's a very individual preference. I myself have a set of 55 watt halogen floods with a wide beam. I have them aimed just below the hot spot of my low beam headlights so I can run them without blinding oncoming drivers and they are they same brightness as my low beams, but they throw way more light out the sides to illuminate the road side. Helps spotting critters thinking of crossing the road and on rainy nights when the road shines like a mirror* to see the lanes. Currently they are on their own switch so I can still run them with high beams on too (which in PA is illegal...but only if you get caught). The Patriot has awesome high beams, so it's like running the high and low together when I do this.

* as a side bar, anyone else notice how shiny roads have become over the last decade or so? Coupled with less reflective stripe paint during a moderate rain, sometimes the only way I know I'm in a lane is if it's worn with tire ruts!
 
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