Off-road driving is pretty hard, no matter if you are interested in slow-paced rock crawling, or fast-paced desert running. The terrain is unpredictable at best, with weather elements changing the conditions of the course seemingly overnight.
You can prepare your vehicles all you want for such off-road applications. But if you can’t see the obstacles in your path, you and your vehicle remain pretty vulnerable.
This is why a lot of people who regularly participate in this past time. Invest their time and energy in creating special off-road lighting rigs. That can be then used to illuminate your path in such adverse conditions.
These lighting rigs often consist of multiple spotlights. That offer different intensity of lights, set at different angles. To offer a wide range of coverage at different distances.
However, you can’t simply use any type of light for these applications. Especially when we are talking about modern lighting solutions featuring HIDs and LEDs. What you need are special spotlights meant for off-road use.
Which can sustain the damage done to such rigs during rigorous off-road use. By the general vibrations and wear and tear put of them. These spotlights often feature a handful of powerful LED bulbs. Protected by hardened plastic and metal components.
These bulbs can’t exactly match the intensity of official headlights used by cars. But do offer a powerful lighting solution for situations that need extra lighting. Which is partly also the reason why people use multiple such spotlights in a single rig.
Depending on the brand and price point in question, these lights also differ in build quality and design. But in general, most of them still resemble the off-road rally lights we used to see in rally race cars. For this example, we will focus on OSRAM spotlights.
Wide Beam Spotlights
One of the more basic spotlights available in OSRAM’s range of off-road lights, is the LEDriving Cube MX85-WD. It is a stylish and compact spotlight that comes with its own mount.
While the mount is made of metal, the spotlight body itself features high quality plastic. The body is wrapped around a sturdy aluminum housing. Which houses a stable polycarbonate lens.
All these components are meant for high-stress use. And are tested for the same before they are put on sale. These tests are validated under the IP-Protection Class IP67. This translates to hundreds of hours of rigorous testing in a DIN certified environmental simulation laboratory.
Under these tests, these lights are put under extreme external influences. Such as water, dust, impacts, heat, cold and permanent vibration. These tests are conducted randomly on samples from different batches. To maintain true impartiality and proper quality control. These reliability of these components under such stressful conditions, is what gives the company the confidence to attach a 5 year warranty with such products.
In terms of lighting itself, this spotlight offers two distinct modes. One is a regular beam mode, while the other delivers a stylish X-shape light. In either mode, the spotlight can light up a distance of up to 55 meters. The beam is set at a wide-angle of up to 43.5 degrees. And offers up to 1250 lumens of useful illumination.
The beam has a cool bright white light of around 6000K, which only requires around 12W of power input to run them. The great thing is that the light also features over and under voltage protection. So, the system will automatically break the circuit if the power exceeds the pre-determined limit.
The mount makes the beam adjustable, if only vertically. And also offers a simple way of mounting the light to any existing bumper or rooftop. It also separates the light housing from the vibrations themselves. These factors work together to ensure the light lasts you for the up to 5000 hours of usability the company claims with the product.
Far Field Spotlights
If you want a similar level of performance, but over longer distances. Then the OSRAM LEDriving Cube VX80-SP is a better option to try. It features a similar looking design, but with a thicker housing and a swivel mount instead.
This translates to a wide range of movement, along with a more usable beam of light. The light is powered by 4 powerful, high-performance long-life LEDs. They are housed is larger reflector housings, which can focus the beam for as long as 114 meters.
The individual LEDs are larger themselves, and offer a brighter output of up to 1300 lumens. It is the same 6000K light as other spotlights and headlight LEDs. And comes with a similarly long lifespan of up to 5000 hours.
You even get the same high-quality materials such as the aluminum housing and the stable polycarbonate lens. All of which have been tested and validated under the same the IP-Protection Class (IP67). For extreme external influences regarding water, dust, impacts, heat, cold and permanent vibration.
The only difference between the two lights is the inclusion of an integrated driver and thermal management system. These systems regulate the temperature of the LED spotlight. Thus preventing permanent damage caused by overheating. This works in tandem with the polarity protection. Which inhibits the wrong polarity of the voltage supply and can thus prevents possible damage by automatically switching off the LEDs.
Even with all this extra output and features, the light sips an even more conservative energy input of just 7.5W. Thus making this spotlight at even more attractive proposition. For people looking to transition from heavy-duty 100W+ halogen bulbs. That are traditionally used for off-road applications.
If you too are looking to upgrade your personal lighting rig for off-road use. Then these spotlights make for a good starting point. You can always explore our other off-road offerings for a more comprehensive system build. And create your own version of a 360 degree lighting solution.