Looking to add driving & fog lights to my front bumper for extra visibility in bad weather. I've heard a lot about both PIAA & Hella lights. What is supposed to make these brands so much better than the stuff available at Wally World and other places? Is a light just a light? I don't mind paying more if it is truly a better product, but I don't want to shell out 3x more than something's actually worth just for a fancy bling-bling "name" on the light covers. So... do you really get what you pay for here, or this simply a case of namebrand/status, like designer jeans were back when I was in high school so many years ago??

Any help and advice greatly appreciated.

 

I have two sets of hella's. one i found in my garage from my dads old YJ project and another i got used, they are both great sets, but i also have another no-name set of lights (used for the back of my roof rack so they are rarely used) but they are still great light just a tad bit dimmer.

 

kc's get really hot

 

PIAAs and Hellas are very well constructed and very rugged. They will stand up to the shaking and other abuse on the trail better than the Wally World ones. The lighting is just a little brighter and their pattern is more consistent. I had a Jeep that I put the cheaper Pep Boys lights on and made it through two mild trail rides before they were shaken apart. My Hellas on my current Jeep have been on it for four years now and are as good as the first day.

 

dont say that (wally world ones) they sell hellas at my local wally world

 

Lighting generally comes down to quality of materials, construction and optical efficiency of the reflector .

Housing material and design determine the life of the unit. If you're only planning on having your rig (or the lights) for a few years, quality isn't much of a concern.

Optical efficiency determines how much light is going into the beam pattern and the reflective degradation.

Cheaper lights tend to have plastic bodies with painted reflectors and poor seals. They tend to have poor optical efficiency and degrade quickly (few years at best).

Better units by PIAA, Hella, Catz, Sylvania, Lightforce, etc will last many, many years and have optimized optical efficiency.

Currently this is what I'm running on my XJ. I admit I went a bit overboard, but all serve specific purposes. The newer HID's, while pricey, are incredible in both color and output. Just be aware they're not legal for road use unless specifically marked as such.

Front
Lightforce 240 HID (multi-beam)
Sylvania 6054 HID (DOT headlights)
Sylvania 1010 HID (DOT fog)
Catz Landmaster twin beam (fog and driving)
Catz SR5 (Pencil)
Hella 4000 (driving)

Rear
PIAA 1500 (fog)
PIAA 60XT (fog)

Rock lights (2 pair)
Northern Industries - (tractor / work lights)

Hope this helps..
Kent

 

wow that is alot! but it would nice to have all of that, are you running a bigger alternator?
I run with a set of Hella 115's (i got for free) and a set of Hella 500's on my roof (only used on dark backroads) and a set of cheapys that came with my roof rack on the back of the rack, and if i try to power two or all 3 you can see them starting to dim (but i do run a 0 guage wiring for my audio that probably doesn't help at all)

 

Yep Mean Green continous duty and duo optima's.