Hellas & Xoskel

[Jack Stilts]

I find myself using the Hellas on my Xoskel less and less.

Why, you ask? Because they put off such a weird, tall beam pattern that they're rendered nearly useless. I'd like to swap them out for pencil beams, but for now, I'm stuck.

Rather than a nice, wide spread, it's a goofy, tall beam that dances down my hood and points awkwardly into the trail ahead.

Is there anything that can be done as far as rotating the bulb, etcetera...? I might get another tab welded across the whole lightcage on the top or bottom - that way I can bolt them there rather than sideways like they are now.

As of now, those are my two solutions. Pencil beams or an addition to the cage. Just want to get some input on them.

 

[Diadaga]

Do you have the reflectors he makes to keep the beam off your hood?

Sent from my mansion in Grouchland.

 

[Jack Stilts]

I thought about those. I cap them so frequently now that I didn't know if they'd be worth it. And I wonder how that would affect the beams on their sides.

 

[Diadaga]

All they really are is little curves of metal that go under the light to keep it off of your hood.

Sent from my mansion in Grouchland.

 

[Mirage]

I'd find a light with a clockable lense or reflector like the KC's (I believe some hella's are). I have 2 100w fogs (useless as fog, I got them for the spread) on the outside and 2 130w driving in the middle and there are no noticeable hotspots on my setup, nice wide spread. That does look pretty bad in the pic, but my opinion is pencil beams won't help you out either, you want a pretty wide spread, floods will get you a lot of close in light, with driving a good middle ground if you do use them at speed, anything long range will be useless except for high speed or desert driving.

 

[Pro-2X]

I think the pattern is set by the lens...that being said, not sure there is any way to adjust yours.

 

[JGBimle]

I might be wrong with this but Id say its how the cage mounts them side ways. Like Mirage said lights that you can rotate might work better. Personally I never thought the beam pattern on the Hellas was very good no matter how I had them mounted and I had 6 of them.

 

[yellowx16]

my beam pattern looks the same just clocked 90 degrees. mine are pro comp 5", so a little different, but definitely changing the mounts would help to make the beam pattern a bit more desirable. if you convert those to HIDs the beam pattern will get larger and fill in the gaps a little bit better too.

 

[drbandkgb]

I would switch to LED's

 

[Jack Stilts]

I would switch to LED's

I'll be honest - Stan's LEDs look so good...it might be time to bite the bullet. Maybe take the Xterraforce route and LED bar the whole Xoskel

 

[AZhiAZiAM]

i got 2 for sale/ trade totron 6"

 

[drbandkgb]

I'll be honest - Stan's LEDs look so good...it might be time to bite the bullet. Maybe take the Xterraforce route and LED bar the whole Xoskel

Dan will sell you a nice 30"

 

[Xterraforce]

Works for me. :happy: I went with a combo bar. The outside 6 inches on either side are flood pattern and the rest are spots. That gives me really good coverage of side, close up and long range.

 

[Jack Stilts]

Dan will sell you a nice 30"

Hmm...anyone have any idea where to get that 30" light bar from? I can't quite remember...

 

[Muadeeb]

Hmm...anyone have any idea where to get that 30" light bar from? I can't quite remember...

XterraPerformanceCom ??

 

[Jack Stilts]

That's the one!!

Jonathan, that LED bar pretty much covers all the bases. I love my aesthetically-correct round incandescents, but I just might have to swap to a light bar. It just makes so much more sense.

 

[Xterraforce]

That's the one!!

Jonathan, that LED bar pretty much covers all the bases. I love my aesthetically-correct round incandescents, but I just might have to swap to a light bar. It just makes so much more sense.

It wasn't an easy decision. The Hellas looked great up there and after seeing them every day for two years it's taken some adjusting. It was hard making that first cut on the Xoskel bar too. I thought about selling it and mounting the bar to the rack but in the end I just like it too much to part with it, even if that meant cutting part of it up a bit. I saved all the tabs in case I changed my mind so I could get them welded back on. After a few night trips with the LED bar though the performance is totally worth it to me.

Another benefit with the way I mounted the bar is that I don't get nearly as much light on the windshield as I used to. The Hellas used to light up my Xterra Nation banner enough that it was distracting. I used them but mainly on gravel roads or other pretty open areas. In order to get a decent spread of light I had them aimed pretty far out and close together. They were good for long range but didn't help that much in the tight trails I'm usually on. The LED bar covers everything and there's no area where it's like one big bright spot. It's a perfectly even spread of light.

 

[GPD605X]

Did you clock your lens? I know some people have had issues with rotating them. I love the LED's, Rigid just came out w/ a curved bar (Saw it on their FB Page). I haven't hooked my KC's up officially yet, I only wired em up to aim them. Hopefully I'll get them wired up soon.

 

[Xterraforce]

The Hella 500FFs have a clear lens. Their light pattern is determined by the reflector design. The problem is there's a little tab at what is supposed to be the top and a notch at the bottom for the part that clamps them in. That makes it impossible to clock them for mounting in other positions without some creative reworking of things. I think the older Hella 500 design like I have on my bumper would be much better suited to an Xoskel bar but I couldn't find any at the time I was installing the Xoskel.

 

[Xterraforce]

Here's the best picture I was able to get with my phone and the Hella 500FFs.

Here's the first and only one I've taken with the same phone, same place and roughly the same time with the LED bar.

As people always say, the pictures don't do justice. Although the phone wouldn't take a clear picture using the Hellas I could actually see quite well with them. As you can see though they were focused at a very narrow point in the distance. The LED bar pretty much covers everything I need to see. The trees in the distance were very well lit. I think the light reflection from having more leaves on the trees in the second shot hurt that perspective in the picture.

 

[TJTJ]

Here's the best picture I was able to get with my phone and the Hella 500FFs.

Here's the first and only one I've taken with the same phone, same place and roughly the same time with the LED bar.

As people always say, the pictures don't do justice. Although the phone wouldn't take a clear picture using the Hellas I could actually see quite well with them. As you can see though they were focused at a very narrow point in the distance. The LED bar pretty much covers everything I need to see. The trees in the distance were very well lit. I think the light reflection from having more leaves on the trees in the second shot hurt that perspective in the picture.

If the phone does an automatic compensation for the light (I think most do) - then the bright foreground light would cause it to stop down, and underexpose the more distant less well lit areas. That would explain the trees (I assume you mean the ones where only the bottoms are visible in the backyard of the house across the street, to the left of the sunporch...), and the lawn right in front of those trees, looking like the light didn't reach them.

Off hand, based upon the massive foreground lighting, it might be a case of the Hellas having fewer lumens, so they concentrated them all into a tight spot that hit a more distant aim point, and didn't waste a lot of lumens on stuff right in front of you....so they primarily augmented the hi beam range...rather than filling in more low beam areas, etc.

The LED bar on the other hand flooded the areas normally handled by low beams...and the pool of light tapered off to a much lower out put by the time it was passing where the hi beams ended, etc.

So for low speeds, the massive flood of the LED bar would make it like day wheeling...but at high speeds, your pupils would be stopped down because of how bright it was right in front of you...reducing your night vision and your ultimate line of sight.

In racing, we've seen that referred to as having enough light to clearly see what you are crashing into, but, not to see what you would have crashed into in advance enough to not crash into it.



Maybe aiming it higher to reduce the foreground light would add range though, this can work.

 

[Xterraforce]

Long range vision is quite good. It just didn't photograph very well. I think one problem with the picture using the Hellas is there wasn't enough light for the camera phone to lock on to a point of focus. It took several tries to get anything but an unrecognizable blur. The outer flood beams of the LED bar provided plenty of light immediately in front so the camera focused easily but obscured the trees 100 yards away somewhat.

I never really thought of the excellent point you make about having too much light close up hurting your ability to see more distant objects. Almost all of my night wheeling is done in the mountains of Tennessee so traveling at speed or even having a straight line of sight more than 100 feet have never been issues. If I ever do have the opportunity to ride in more open areas perhaps I'll cover the flood pattern LEDs and adjust the aim of the spots.

 

[ddddddd]

Here's the best picture I was able to get with my phone and the Hella 500FFs.

Here's the first and only one I've taken with the same phone, same place and roughly the same time with the LED bar.

As people always say, the pictures don't do justice. Although the phone wouldn't take a clear picture using the Hellas I could actually see quite well with them. As you can see though they were focused at a very narrow point in the distance. The LED bar pretty much covers everything I need to see. The trees in the distance were very well lit. I think the light reflection from having more leaves on the trees in the second shot hurt that perspective in the picture.

Hey, do you happen to have a link to the LED light bar you bought? I would like to check it out.