VISION X driving lights
June 26th, 2007
VISION X driving lights.
I have recently fitted a set of the VISION X HID-8500C
lights on the Bullbar of the Patrol and let me tell you … I
am blown away by how good they are !!
I have been running a set of 100 watt Hella Rallye 4000
halogen lights for a few years and have been really happy
with them so anything that can beat them has to be pretty
special.
The VISION X lights I fitted have a HID-8502C spot beam on
the drivers side and what they call a HID-8500C Euro beam
[driving beam] on the passenger side this is the same set up
I had with the Hella’s
There are a lot of similarities between the Hella’s and the
VISION X’s … the mounting system is a similar design [the
bolt hole distance is different] so they should be just as
durable, the size of them are the same [the VISION X clear
covers fit the Hellas perfectly] the mounting bolt is the
same as the Hella’s, Roolights, and Cibies so any locknuts
are interchangeable which is a good thing as when people see
how good they are they will want a set too.
The die cast aluminium housing seems even tougher than the
Hella’s so there should be no problem there.
Testing: I wanted to test the difference between the Hella’s
and the VISION X’s so I found a little used narrow bitumen
road between some canefields with a small tree on the right
at 400 metres and a large tree on the left at 500 metres.
Shot with PENTAX K10D at 2007-07-01 I marked out exactly
one kilometre from the end of the road and marked out the
position of the truck and the tripod for the camera, then I
adjusted the lights to shine on the sign at the end of the
road and left the truck running to keep the voltage the
same.
Camera used was the Pentax K10D with the DA12-24/4 lens
sitting on a Manfrotto Tripod with geared head. The setting
used for all the pics were 12mm, F5.6, 8 seconds, iso 100
and opened in photoshop at 5500 [daylight] colour
temperature, smart sharpened at 100 and resized to keep
everything the same except for the differences in the actual
lights.
I then took a photo of low beam, [has 55/60 watt Xenon +50
globes]
high beam, [has 55/60 watt Xenon +50 globes]
high beam with the Hella’s,
Shot with PENTAX K10D at 2007-06-26
high beam with the Hella,s and the 4 x 100 watt no name
brand roof lights on as well.
Shot with PENTAX K10D at 2007-06-26
I then fitted the 2 VISION X HID’s and set the truck and
camera up exactly the same and took a photo then compared
them all on the computer.
Shot with PENTAX K10D at 2007-06-26
The Hellas only just showed the sign at the end of the road
and barely showed the trees
The Hellas and the roof flights showed more light close up
at the sides
The VISION X’s shone very brightly on the sign at the end of
the road, showed up both trees and was a very white colour
like daylight. The two 35watt HID’s simply blew away the
600watts of halogen lights !!
The replaceable polycarbonate clear covers means I don’t
have to worry about stone strikes and the built in ballasts
mean I don’t have to worry about trying to find extra space
for the external boxes like some other HID’s, I just had to
connect up two wires from the previous wiring and I was
done, simple!
The lights are sealed well with the wiring going through a
rubber gland at the rear; officially they are not waterproof
but they are designed to be submerged temporarily so river
crossings should not be a problem.
The power of the HID’s were really shown on the weekend when
I was stopped on top of a hill overlooking a 4WD competition
on the far hill near the bottom of the valley and was trying
to find a road down, I found the road and arrived at the
competition area about ten minutes later, a guy walked up
and asked what lights I had as he was sitting in his vehicle
with the back door open and when my lights lit up the inside
of his car he though someone had pulled up behind him but
when he looked back he saw my truck was on the top of the
hill on the other side of the valley !!
He was just as impressed as I was with them!!
Can’t wait to replace the roof lights with some of the
smaller HID-6500’s, I won’t be able to tell when the sun
comes up !!
Fitted the roof lights on sunday comprising two HID-6500
Euro beams and two HID-6501 Flood Beams.
I set everything up the same as previously and took a pic of
High Beam with the Vision-X rooflights.
Shot with PENTAX K10D at 2007-07-01
Then took a pic with High Beam, Vision-X lights on the
Bullbar and Vision-X lights on the roof.
Shot with PENTAX K10D at 2007-07-01
AWESOME !!! … hard to believe you can get this much light
from only 210 watts !!
.Shane |
BigRed4x4.pdf
