hey everyone, what are some good driving lights?
right now i'm leaning towards some Hella 500s.

right now i have HIDs, will the driving beams shine further than the HIDs?

also, how hard is it to wire these lights up? i heard that you have to wire them into the highbeams, so when you pull the lever the driving beams come on. is there anyway to wire them up so they can come on independantly? don't want the HIDs to flash on and off everytime i use the driving beams:p

thanks everyone!

i have a set of PIAA 520's they are about the same size as the 500's.....i have the ion lenses.....the beam goes down the road about AT LEAST 1/4 mile nice focused yellow beam :D

Here is the wiring question answered

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=455028

PS hella 500 drivings will be a very narrow beam shoot way ahead. You will probably have to aim up too high and blind people to get any satisfaction out of them. UNless they mount above the bumper for off road racing.

Actually, any driving light will blind people, regardless of where you mount it. that's why they are usually wired with the high beams. You can wire these up to your low beams if you wish. The accompanying wiring directions are pretty easy to understand and they are snap to wire up. you'll probably need the kartboy brackets to mount these to the stock foglight holes, though.

any other recommendations anyone?

i'm leaning towards some hella 500s since they are affordable.
do any of the FF series come in a driving beam pattern?
these are the FFs i'm interested in http://www.hellausa.com/maineng/NewLook/ProdServ/images/FF300.jpg


also, anyother hella 500 users, is the beam pattern really like this? http://www.hellausa.com/maineng/NewLook/ProdServ/images/500_driving_beam_pat_lrg.gif

i need something that can shine further than my HIDs and act as a high beam replacement.

thanks a lot!!

I think your best bet is to just hand over your WRX to me. That would save you all the trouble.

If you want to wait, I'll probably be installing my fogs within the next month to see if fogs would help any with your issue.

yeah, the 500's are pretty narrow and spottish. But it will depend a bit on how you aim them. The FF1000's put out a wider beam than the 500's but have just as much distance, if not more. i'll take pics tonight from the Festiva, hopefully my crap camera can get something useful.

are the hella 500s useful though, for like, more light down the road when no ones in front of me? do they actually reach 1600ft or whatever i read from rallylights.com?

also would these help in bad weather? we've had some bad snowstorms before, and my hids were useless in it.

thanks!

I bought a set of FF550s at Cherokee's Performance Shop in Fairbanks about 5 years ago. They were (are) fantastic lights, but way to intense for everyday driving. I reserved them for high-beam augmentation only.

The Polycarbonate lenses are pretty well unbreakable, and the housings are leak-free. I swapped the stock 55w bulbs for some 80w KC Daylighter bulbs and they held up fine (no heat issues).

For $115 -$130, I don't believe that there's a better light out there.

Yeah the 500's shoot pretty straight. I doubt that they would be useful in a snowstorm though, unless you swap the bulbs to yellow ones. Much like fog I would assume that you would just light the snow up and not the road.
I have 130W Narva Rally bulbs in mine, and they shoot out about 5x the distance that my HIDs do. But then again, the HIDs are aimed down in a normal driving pattern and the 500s are aimed out farther. I also have some PIAA 004x with 110w PIAA bulbs, but you can hardly tell they are on with the 500s.
RR:D

hey thanks RR. was hoping you would chime in. i remember seeing your pictures after installing the brightstar HID kit.

did you have to do any upgrades to Hellas before using 130 watt bulbs?

i'm probably gonna order the 500s from jcwhitney, along with some yellow bulbs, or the blue bulbs.

thanks.

also, are there any other places to order them from?

Originally posted by AK_2002_WRX
hey thanks RR. was hoping you would chime in. i remember seeing your pictures after installing the brightstar HID kit.

did you have to do any upgrades to Hellas before using 130 watt bulbs?

i'm probably gonna order the 500s from jcwhitney, along with some yellow bulbs, or the blue bulbs.

thanks.

also, are there any other places to order them from?

I did individual relays and thicker gauge wiring for everything. I have a new write up coming with diagrams and pictures. I am just waiting for a custom light bar from www.rallyinnovations.com to house the lights I got from www.rallylights.com. (plug plug plug..) :)

anyway I currently have PIAA 004x's (110W Piaa bulbs) and Hella 500's (130W Narva bulbs) along with the Brightstar HIDs (all this time and no trouble from the man....knock on wood). I have a pair of Hella Rallye 4000s (130W Narva bulbs) that will go on the light bar.:D

so far I happy with everything. I can scorch the road at night, and I don't even have the 9" Hella 4000s on yet :lol: aiming is really important. I found a really good place to aim the lights, this huge parking lot that no one uses...but its kinda sketchy so I can only go with some backup.:eek: I'll be out taking some pix when I can get someone to watch my back.....or I find a better place to take pix.

stay tuned,
RR:D

ps: the 500s cost me ~$70 a pair + the bulbs @$20, the Piaa's list around ~$140 (I think I got them for $100)+the bulbs@$80. BUT the 500's light up about 20x more of the road than the PIAA which cost 2.5x more. ... I love Hellas.

thanks! id like to see some pics.

so whats the best way to aim the 500s? higher than the HIDs or what? i know of a big parking lot i can aim em too:D

also, do you think the hellas can handle 85watt bulbs the way they come?

hows the service with www.rallylights.com? i may order from them, they have the best price on the 500s.

sorry for all te questions...im a newb when it comes to lighting. thanks for all the info Arnie:cool:

Dave (I think that is his name) over there is really nice to deal with. Prices are fair, products are top notch and service is A+. :)
RR:D

No worries on the questions, we are suppose to be here helping each other out:D

I look for a really long or wide as well parking lot, that has a flat even surface that faces a wall. I need to go a take some measurements and compare them to the instructions available at HELLA but..... I park the car perpendicular to the wall about 25 feet away. I aim the DRIVING LIGHTS at either the same level or just slightly above the main headlights. I aim the FOGS about a six inxhes to a foot below. Afterwhich I turn the car in the long direction of the parking lot ( into the darkness thats not lit, in this particular lot ) and check the pattern at about 50-75 yards, the driving lights should be higher than the main beams and much brighter. I always wonder why people aim their driving lights so that they can see them on ground in front of the car....what good are they doing there, they should be reaching out into the night, not feeling the ground in front of you. Sure you can't drive around with them on this way, because you'll blind eveyone on the road, but then again you shouldn't be driving with these on anyway. Your HIDs should be more than enough for city type driving anyway;)

hope that helps, when the write up comes out it will better instructions. :D

RR:D

how are they adjusted? can you only adjust them up and down, or sideways too?

Originally posted by AK_2002_WRX
how are they adjusted? can you only adjust them up and down, or sideways too?

for the 500s
depends on the way that you mount them. If you use the Kartboy adapters which I did (and you don't really have to) you will on be able to adjust them up and down. You can move them side to side by tweaking the frame that holds the braket, or use use shims in the bolt holes with the kartboys. I, fortunately got them to point where I wanted with a bit of tweaking.

for the 004s
Since I made my own brackets, they point up down side to side. :)

RR:D

Im gonna chime in on this and put my 2cents in. I havnt had the hellas, but I DO have Lightforce lights. RMDL170's.

They are 6.6" lights that can be adjusted for all different kinds of conditions, they are pretty much like a Mag-Light where you rotate the face to adjust the beam. They also have filters for different colors and beam patterns...but at 200$ for the set of 2 for JUST the lights, theyre pricy

Here are some pics of my car with the lightbar and lights installed:

http://home.surewest.net/ddman/lbfront.jpg
http://home.surewest.net/ddman/lbcar.jpg
http://home.surewest.net/ddman/lbangle.jpg