Halogen Lightforce vs IPF900 vs Hella 4000

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

I am in the market for a quality set of driving lights for my every day 4x4, I do a lot of night driving between towns in North Western NSW and South Queensland.

The general vicinity of where I do my driving is Goondiwindi, Moree, Tallwood, Mungindi, Boggabillla, Garah, Boomi, and then also traveling from Goondiwindi to Gold Coast and to Sydney. Anyone familiar with this area will realise very poor quality roads, and LOTS of kangaroos and wild pigs on the roads at night.

At this stage I do not want to buy HID or LED lights, I want to buy a set of four 100 watt Halogen Lights (two pencil beams and two spread beams). All lights I am considering are upgradeable to HID later on if I choose to do so.

Here are some of the factors I am considering:

IPF 900's - water proof, metal/glass construction, possibly lowest light output.

Lightforce (Genesis) - water proof, biggest light output, biggest light, plastic construction, very light, supposedly 'bullet proof' (very tough).

Hella 4000 - not water proof (from reviews I have read) metal glass construction, some say they are not tough and fall apart on bad roads, other say they don't

Let the discussion begin

[excopau]

I have rally 4000, work awesome, then got the HID kit off ebay and now they are lights like I never seen before, mine are 8 yr old, no problems.

[Mechan1k]

I had the adjustable beam Lightforce 240 Blitz lights on my AU ute ... and they were awesome ... with the combo beam covers on them ... they allowed a centre spot with a flat spread beam on them as well ... and you could adjust the focus on them on as well.

On a straight stretch of road .... even though they were 100w halogen ... i still had a good kilometre of light.

Another thing ... they are strong ... had a chunk of coal come off an overloaded truck coming in the opposite direction ... it hit the top of the Lightforce light and deflected over the roof of the ute (thank god) ... didn't leave a mark on the light at all (I agree with extremely strong .. other lights would have shattered with that impact).

[XR6_661]

Go the Rallye 4000s man. I work for light vehicles on a mine site and we use them on the entire fleet. Very rarely do they need to be replaced, considering the number of vehicles using them.

As for the waterproof, falling apart, etc…..Sounds like a load of bollocks, I haven’t seen any fall apart nor have water issues…And these are used in a mining environment, pit use, rough access roads, etc etc.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Some good points there keep them coming, it is all helping, my heart says Lightforce, but a lot of things are pointing towards Hella

[Hulsty]

Lightforce are overrated. IMO you cant go past IPF 900's myself and a fair few mates have them. Buy used and put a HID kit in straight away, dont even bother with halogen. Mine were $30 for the lights off ebay and around $150ish for a 55w HID kit and they work awesome.

[fanboi]

Lightforce ae the only choice, had them on several vehicles. The ones on my jeep were rolled on top of more than once and never even looked like being damaged.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Lol I work with the transport industry and the Rallye 4000's are probably the worse light you can buy for your money (in this day in age). 15 years ago the Hellas were the ducks nuts. The Lightforce are the pick if your looking for Halogen now. They are reasonably cheap now too for Gensis 210's. Much lighter then the Hella and a better light beam. We have Hella 4000's on our oldest Kenworth and Lightforce 210 HID / Great White LED's on the other. The Lightforce 210 HID's give the best distance (great for cats eyes), while the Great Whites give you a brighter spread (not as long in distance).

For $500 you can get an 18 LED Great White LED bar, that would be your best bang for buck if you ask me. Easy to mount to and give you good airflow.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Some great feed back, but not helping, looks like everyone loves different lights, so far we have Hella is the best to Hella is the worst and same for Lightforce

The fact that Lightforce are tough seems to keep coming up, so may be they are!?!?

Well keep it coming, at this stage it's not helping my decision much but it makes for interesting reading, wish I could try them all and then decide.

Bit hard when you are looking at spending a fair amount of $$$ on lights that I will be stuck with for a few years.

I have some IPF 900's combination beam (one pencil and one spread) on my work vehicle and they are pretty good. nicely made thats for sure, drove another car the other night for about 200km with IPF 900's with two pencil beam, made a nice difference over the single one at long distance, but missing the spread.

[XBROO]

I have the IPF 900s, one wide and one pencil on my Navara, I did a trip to Dubbo from Ipswich at night. And I can't complain about them, I had daylight in front of me for atleast 150 meters and about 30 meters to either side. I don't know what the rest of the spotties are like, but I'm happy with these.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by XBROO

I have the IPF 900s, one wide and one pencil on my Navara, I did a trip to Dubbo from Ipswich at night. And I can't complain about them, I had daylight in front of me for atleast 150 meters and about 30 meters to either side. I don't know what the rest of the spotties are like, but I'm happy with these.

These I have the same combination on my work vehicle, a Toyota Hilux 4X4 with 100watt globes (upgraded from 80watt standard I think) but I believe they can take a 130 watt globe as they are metal construction and can handle the heat, not bad, but out here 150 meters is not enough IMO, I believe the IPF 900's have the lowest light output of all the lights I listed, and they are the only ones I have personal experience with.

I do like them as they are well made and not too badly priced. They are solid, with good mounts and seem to be very reliable, even in the recent floods we had up here. And I like the metal construction.

The Lightforce cost more, have more light, the Lightforce Genesis claim a 900meter beam, 1 Lux at 900 meters from memory, where the IPF are about 1 Lux at 450 meters...not sure on Hella. Just struggling with teh plastic construction and lenses.

I mean they are made from plastic and they still want about $600 retail for the lights, (I can get them for about $425), when really they would probably cost about $20-30 to make At least the others are steel and glass.

My head hurts

[MDS69]

I have the combo kit in the IPF900XS. If I go down this path again of buying lights I would look at something different maybe the lightforce. I had (still have them in the cupboard) a set of Nightstalker that cost me $200.00. I expected the IPF's to out perform the Nightstalkers mainly because of the price difference but they were only marginally better IMO.

I may HID the IPF's yet.

There is a light made in South Australia that is supposed to be good value and good quality
http://fyrlyt.com/home/4575614600

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by MDS69

I have the combo kit in the IPF900XS. If I go down this path again of buying lights I would look at something different maybe the lightforce. I had (still have them in the cupboard) a set of Nightstalker that cost me $200.00. I expected the IPF's to out perform the Nightstalkers mainly because of the price difference but they were only marginally better IMO.

I may HID the IPF's yet.

There is a light made in South Australia that is supposed to be good value and good quality
http://fyrlyt.com/home/4575614600

Nightstalkers have excellent reviews for cheap lights, and they are basically a copy of other lights.

The lights in your link look like Nightforce Genesis copies.

These are the Lightforce ones I am considering at the moment.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400347012...84.m1423.l2649

Someone please convince me to buy either one

[mik]

found a good range of lights featured at this place.
http://www.ozautoelectrics.com/autom...html?limit=144

myself i don't see the point of spending huge bucks on driving lights on a daily driver, lest they get nicked/smashed by a stone, tree branch/debris,animal, etc, when even a cheap set with some decent globes will turn night into day, halogen globes are still cheapish to buy and still throw out a lot of light, and you can generally get halogen globes in servos, in the four driving light config , i`m thinking 2 spots and 2 broad beam would be a nice combo?

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Depends on priorities, where I live driving lights are probably the most important mod along with a decent bullbar and mud tyres, tend to hit at least one Roo every month seems to be the average, this year the average is well over that so far, hit four on the first of January in one night and at least one or two every month after that.

Decent driving lights reduce that to some degree as it gives you half a chance of spotting them, considering my work truck has sustained about $5000 of roo damage this year alone, a decent set of driving lights can greatly reduce this bill. Work truck (4x4 Hilux) has 2 x IPF900's (1 pencil 1 spread), and I want something better for my own car, 4 x IPF 900's has been a consideration as dual pencil beams make a huge difference as they are fitted to another work vehicle. The IPF spread beams are good, but one pencil IPF is not enough down the range for my purpose.

Have hit a few in my own car as well, lucky no panel damage and one cracked indicator lense.

So trying to save $$ on quality lights is false economy out here. If you live in the city and do the occasional trip into the country cheap lights are fine and will probably get you through.

[fanboi]

If you plan on hitting stuff lightforce is the go

[cheap]

Any reason you're not looking at Cibie Super Oscars?

About the same coin as the others. They're awesome lights had mine since 1996 and +350,000 kms, mine look a little faded but still going strong. Driving on the hwy at night I get flashed by truckies even though I'm not in their sights (several KM's and hills away).

Cibie, a quality product which has won races all over the world.

Easy conversion to HID if needed...

[Franco Cozzo]

I had Hella Rallye 4000 compacts (newer 4000 design) on my Focus for a year or so, with 100W globes.

They worked really well, I had two spread beams though.

I changed them out for two BajaDesigns Squadron LED driving lights, for $400 each and they've got good close up spread but don't have anything on the 4000 compacts for visible light at a big distance.

We also fit 4000 compacts to our Victorian Ambulances, they're fairly sturdy light.

LED light bars and spot lights are crap compared to quality halogen lights, especially for distance, HID is still king but decent design halogens are still better than entry level LED.

I've also got a 9 LED Greatwhite LED light bar sitting here and I've installed a 18 LED great white light bar just recently, and a mate had one on his Land Cruiser which he ditched for two big HID spot lights.

I'm interested in trying these on my GMC Sierra, check out page 7:

http://lowvoltage.net.au/PDF/Low%20V...ing%202013.pdf

These are JAS Oceania's own brand.

They have a store in Tullamarine and in some other states too I think. I got quoted $230 each last time I was in there.

[AGS302]

Here is a good review of spotlights done by 4WD Action Magazine
http://www.lightforce.net.au/images/...0161%20LR2.pdf

As for Real World Comparisons My old man took Rallye 4000's off his cruiser and put on Lightforce XGT non-HiD. They are made out of polycarbonate not plastic. Almost double the distance, unbelievably bright.
My mother has IPF XS 900 HiD on her BT-50 and these are almost on par with the Lightforce for distance.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by AGS302

http://www.lightforce.net.au/images/...0161%20LR2.pdf

Look at the LED light output compared to HID and Halogen ones, its lower over all the distances.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by AGS302

Here is a good review of spotlights done by 4WD Action Magazine
http://www.lightforce.net.au/images/...0161%20LR2.pdf

As for Real World Comparisons My old man took Rallye 4000's off his cruiser and put on Lightforce XGT non-HiD. They are made out of polycarbonate not plastic. Almost double the distance, unbelievably bright.
My mother has IPF XS 900 HiD on her BT-50 and these are almost on par with the Lightforce for distance.

That is an excellent read, funny thing is Lightforce claim 1 lux at 900 meters in their sales brochure, while the test showed 1 lux at 400meters Makes you wonder about the other claims they make

The test confirms that the IPF 900's are about the same as Lightforce 240XGT, also shows the Hella 4000 compacts with 1 lux at 300 meters, so confirms your statement above.

Another point is that polycarbonate IS plastic It's just fancy Lightforce sales talk, at the end of the day it's plastic..

Originally Posted by cheap

Any reason you're not looking at Cibie Super Oscars?

About the same coin as the others. They're awesome lights had mine since 1996 and +350,000 kms, mine look a little faded but still going strong. Driving on the hwy at night I get flashed by truckies even though I'm not in their sights (several KM's and hills away).

Cibie, a quality product which has won races all over the world.

Easy conversion to HID if needed...

Will have a look at them now

[warmwindsor]

i love my rally 4000 both spot

[Mechan1k]

Yeah the lightforce's are polycarbonate ... but get a decent rock strike and not a mark left on it ... do it with a glass lense light and you lose the light ... not good at night when that happens.

Also Polycarbonate means much less weight above the mount ... so no movement and judder .. even on the roughest of roads.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

Yeah the lightforce's are polycarbonate ... but get a decent rock strike and not a mark left on it ... do it with a glass lense light and you lose the light ... not good at night when that happens.

Also Polycarbonate means much less weight above the mount ... so no movement and judder .. even on the roughest of roads.

Yeah, the plastic is very tough I guess, seen a few around where the lenses have been scratched form washing perhaps. I am leaning towards Lightforce, just not sure they are worth the $$$.

Must ask someone that has them on their car to have a test of them, because the light test posted above did not give them great light rating, the IPF900's had the same light output with 65 watt globes as the Lightforce with 100 watt globes...wish they would compare apples with apples when they do these tests/reviews

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

May be I just worry too much, and I should just buy them and be done with it

[mitch]

I have a PJ Ranger with the lightforce genesis mounted on a OL steel bullbar. I have used narva and hella 4000s on my GU Patrol, but would have no hesitation recommending the LF lights. I am in mining also and our field service utes have the hella 4000s on them, they are a good light but i think the purchasers are a little lazy and brand bias as they wont look at anything else. A bit like the hilux is unbreakable myth, i would never buy a hilux after having to drive the ones we have at work at the moment.

I ended up with the LF after cross shopping the 4000s because i drive a lot of gravel and thought the poly lens would hold up to rock strikes better than glass lenses, i reckon the spot is just as good as the 4000s and the spread is better than the 4000s. The spread seems to have a narrower illumination but it seems to light the area on the side of the road at skips body and head height a lot more effectively, its saved me a few times, the roos are as thick as fleas were i have to go

The LF are also a lot lighter being plastic which was a selling point for me because all the steel bullbars look like they have a lot of overhang(extra weight for the torsion bars) on a Ranger, which is why i went the OL bar because it sits a little more snug to the bonnet

The LF were also cheaper than the 4000s here so of course that makes them cheaper to replace if skip headbuts them one night, another reason i didnt go HIDs or LEDs.
The only thing i didnt like with the LF was the spot seems to have a dark spot in the middle of the beam sort of like if there is a little sticker in the middle of the lens yeah? But it does reach as far as the 4000s if not further so i soon started to ignore that

Sorry its a bit long winded, but i hope i helped. I will take a photo of the Ranger and see if i can work out how to upload it tommorrow if you like.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Thanks for that comprehensive review, photo would be great

[mik]

good point on the juddering Mechan1k, nothing worse than vibrating /bouncing light beams on a run, decent mount on the spotties is a good thing.

[Outbackjack]

Lightforce (Genesis) - water proof, biggest light output, biggest light, plastic construction, very light, supposedly 'bullet proof' (very tough).


You have answered your own question. I bought a set with my new patrol about 6 months ago. I live in Alice Springs. We have the odd bit of wild life out here. These lights are bloody brilliant. But I would go with the HID's if you can. Once you have driven behind a good set of HID's you will wonder why you have not done it sooner.

[b2tf]

I dont own any of them but I do sell Lightforce and Hella at work and Lightforce would be my pick for a few reasons, namely the choices you have and the after sales support. They are very, very good with their warranty - and that's on the off chance that you ever need to claim something.

Very well put together lights, I have watched a rep take a cricket bat to one and it looked brand new afterwards.