4WD MODIFICATIONS – ELECTRICS & LIGHTS

There are driving lights, then there are good driving lights, reckons leading truck journalist Steve Brooks. ‘Hellava good light,’ is how he describes his Hella Rallye 4000 Xenons.

LEDs – light emitting diodes – now dominate the headlight and driving light arena, having already taken over the flashlight, head torch and camping light business. LED lights are bright, white and directional, and have unprecedented durability.

These days very few people travel without a portable fridge and camp lighting, and that dictates some form of auxiliary battery power, Allan Whiting from Outback Travel Australia reports. The best way to ensure your fridge will run overnight, when the engine isn’t operating, is with a deep-cycle battery. If the fridge is connected to the deep-cycle battery all the time, it will keep the power flowing as long as it has sufficient charge.

No 4WD wagon or ute comes with lights that are adequate for night time bush driving. For that work you’ll need upgraded lighting.

We tested Narva’s Ultima 225 HID lights on two of our 4WDs and found them to be, literally, brilliant.

As small and medium sized 4WD frontal areas shrink and grille areas become smaller there’s often no space to fit large-diameter driving lights.

We all know that auxiliary lights are necessary for safe night driving on bush roads, but do you need to spend up on HID or LED lights, or are halogens good enough?