The best LED driving lights in Australia in 2024

Fitting driving lights, a light bar or a set of spotties to the front of a 4x4 is essential for anyone wishing to avoid kamikaze kangaroos and wayward wombats once the sun has disappeared, and there are now a plethora of options available to stick to your roof racks or on your bullbar.

There’s no better option than a set of LEDs, with the technology evolving to a point where manufacturers have optimised performance, with units now packing more lumens into even smaller packages.

Jo Banks, Narva’s production development manager, explained: “There have been many areas of improvement over the last few years, the biggest being lumen output and package size. The lumen output per Watt of power has been improving steadily, so now we get more lumens (or volume of light) per Watt of LED.”

Banks also explained that LEDs are now smaller but no less effective. “We now get five Watts in a three-watt chip, 10 Watts in five-watt chip package, and so on.” This means makers can now utilise the same lamp design but adopt a more powerful LED to maximise beam output.

“As a result of the smaller LED chips, lumen intensity (brightness per mm of LED surface) has increased considerably. This makes it possible to focus more for a much longer beam,” Banks added.

Mark Gamtcheff, from Lightforce Australia, explained another benefit of LED technology is the increased thermal efficiency of modern driving lights, which reduces heat and improves output.

“Lightforce has taken advantage of these improvements in LED technology to design lights to be slimmer and lighter, as a smaller heat sink is required to dissipate the heat created,” he said.

“Lightforce has also been able to achieve a warmer colour temperature of 5000 Kelvin, lower than many other LED lights, reducing glare. This reduces eye fatigue and provides more clarity to objects you see on the road.”

Steve Mitchell, lighting specialist at Great Whites, then added: “With LED driving lights you have the ability to achieve a higher Kelvin temperature rating, which allows for a whiter and brighter light output. This helps to reduce strain on the driver’s eyes and can help to combat drowsiness when driving.”

Due to the ongoing development, manufacturers are now finding ways to maintain optimal efficiency yet reduce the weight of the units significantly. Ultra Vision’s Brett Tunley explained: “With the LEDs becoming more efficient, we have been able to reduce the weight significantly.”

He then discussed how light output has developed substantially: “Getting a distance of 1.2km with a 140W lamp wasn’t on the horizon three years ago.”

ARB’s PR and communications co-ordinator, Shannon Diedrich, added the “use of reflectors to aim the light in the direction required (spot vs flood pattern)” has also improved. In addition, there’s now a wide range of LED construction types available to suit a variety of different tasks.

For example, some LEDs produce a greater lumen output but have less concentrated light (intensity) and are suitable as wide-beam driving or bar lights; while others have high intensity, making them great for applications requiring high focus – spot beams and long-range driving lights.

“These improvements in LED design and performance make it possible to build lights with almost any beam pattern and with very high lumen outputs. It is also continuing to reduce the cost of LED lights, especially in the dollars versus output,” Banks said.

In today’s market, punters can get better bang for their hard-earned, however that doesn’t mean quality-made units are cheap, but prices are lowering due to competition and increased demand.

Gamtcheff agreed that the cost of LEDs has softened in recent years, with a huge range of LED lights available in different configurations and of different quality.

“In general, you get what you pay for,” he added. “Pay a bit more for Lightforce and you get the benefit of our expertise built into every light.

“Knowledge in applying high-tech electronics to make them run more efficiently has helped us lead the way in the LED driving-light market. We now have an LED product in the Genesis which is capable of producing 1 Lux at over 1km beam distance.”

Steve Mitchell from Great Whites added: “Quality products will always come at a price, and driving lights are no exception. Great Whites are renowned for high-quality construction and making it through some of the world’s harshest conditions.”

Drawbacks

As well as a lowering-but-still-pricey cost, a drawback of LEDs is that, due to an increase of power, current draw can be excessive. “The larger the LED (Wattage), the likelihood of more power being consumed,” said ARB’s Shannon Diedrich.

But that’s an easy fix, according to Jo Banks: “That’s not hard to fix with a suitable quality harness. This is one of the reasons Narva offers a harness specially designed to power our 215 LED lights.”

Another issue is the Colour Rendering Index of an LED. Lightforce’s Mark Gamtcheff said: “This means you will find a saturated market of underperforming LED product. (So) it’s important that distance and colour temperature are engineered into the design of LEDs.”

As with most aftermarket solutions, an unfortunate but all too common dilemma is brands that cut costs during the manufacturing process – for example, by minimising heat sinks and fins on the light housing.

“Unfortunately, these alterations result in inefficiency in heat dissipation when the vehicle is not in motion, increasing the overall temperature of the light which can lead to premature failure of LEDs. If you run your finger over the fins of a driving light and it sounds tinny, the light is likely a victim of this cost-cutting approach,” said Great Whites’ Steve Mitchell.

Another problem with LED tech is when a light blows. If a HID or halogen bulb blows it’s an easy fix, but if a light in an LED blows, then replacing it is a tedious process. “If an LED blows, the lamp has to be replaced rather than just a bulb,” Ultra Vision’s Brett Tunley explained.

Off-road we go

Heading to a remote campsite is more often than not going to involve treacherous, gnarly terrain, and it’s a reason why a solid, well-constructed LED is of vital importance.

“The greatest benefit of the LED is its durability. One of the main killers of HID and halogen lights is vibration. Driving on corrugated and poor quality roads can drastically reduce the lifespan of these lights, which, when fitted to a 4x4 can present a pretty serious problem,” said Steve Mitchell from Great Whites.

“Good quality LED driving lights are designed to withstand vibration and high-impact scenarios.

“Great Whites were originally designed for the trucking market and as such are built to handle some of the toughest conditions for extended periods of time.”

Ultra Vision’s Brett Tunley enforced that point: “Being a solid-state technology, the electronics don’t have issues with vibrations, like the old halogens. It is also more stable and long-lasting than the HID, which has proven temperamental.”

As well as the obvious benefits – a bright spread of light, long lifespan and reliability – LEDs provide instant bright light, as opposed to HIDs which, despite reaching huge distances with a penetrating beam, take time to warm up.

“That’s why Lightforce engineered the groundbreaking HTX hybrid, which combines the instant brightness of LEDs with the distance and colour temperature of HIDs,” Mark Gamtcheff said.

Life expectancy

It wasn’t all that long ago when traditional HID or halogen lights were guiding four-wheelers to their hidden overnight digs on dark, secluded tracks, but the progression of LEDs is due to many reasons, none more critical than longer life expectancy.

“Premium LEDs have an operating life of up 50,000 hours, so they may well outlast the rest of the lamp!” Narva’s Jo Banks explained. “(But) it is important to note that an LED will only achieve this impressive life if driven by quality electronics and its heat is correctly managed.

“With the cost of LEDs coming down, the driver and heat management are becoming a bigger factor, with some cheap lights taking a few shortcuts that can effect the life of the lamp.”

Mark Gamtcheff backed-up that figure: “The predicted life of an LED chip is 50,000 MBTF hours (Mean Time Between Failures), versus 2000 MBTF for a HID, or up to 1000 MTBF for a halogen globe.”

Just how popular?

LED technology may have evolved to fill a pocket left open by halogen and HID technology, but does this translate to higher sales?

“Here at Lightforce, we’ve found that our hybrid HTX, with the combination of both HID and LED technology, sells the best,” Gamtcheff told us. “Whilst the popularity of LED is definitely increasing, halogen and especially HID still have a strong market share.

“Halogen lights are competitively priced and retain a warmer colour temperature of about 3300 Kelvin, which some drivers prefer. HID lights will always produce the longest beams (over 1 lux at 2km with a Lightforce XGT), which some drivers value.

“LED, however, seems to be filling a gap in the market – whether it be a flood beam for broad close-range lighting, or a driving beam for forward lighting, LED is a technology that is growing in popularity.”

Great Whites’ Steve Mitchell told us that since the introduction of its first LED driving lights in March, 2012, the sales of HID and halogen lights have seen a steady decline in Australia. “This effect can be seen across the board from trucking and four-wheel drive applications, to work lights in the mining and industrial sectors,” he said.

Brett Tunley at Ultra Vision reckons, across the industry, HID and halogen sales have dropped 40 per cent per year for the past three years. “This seems to have levelled off now, but overall the market has expanded with many people buying light bars for smaller vehicles that would never have run halogens,” he told us.

DIY

All of the manufacturers agreed that fitting a set of lights is a pretty straightforward affair for those handy with tools, but it’s recommended that the average punter get the LEDs fitted by a qualified auto electrician – especially when it comes to the wiring.

“The fitment of the physical lights themselves is definitely something the end user can do without the need for an expert fitter,” Narva Australia’s Jo Banks said.

“The wiring up of LED lights is no harder than other lights. Many leading lighting companies supply a range of Plug and Play Wiring Harness which makes the job nice and easy. We supply premium quality harnesses that are tagged for easy installation, A goes to B etc.”

What’s a CREE?

CREE is a leading LED manufacturer and, by producing the technology which achieves increased lumens per watt and greater light intensity, has played a big part in the evolution of the LED. Steve Mitchell explained how Great Whites’ new Attack range utilises this technology and how it produces a greater volume of light using fewer LEDs and less current draw.

“The (Cree) ‘XPL HI LED’, developed in conjunction with Great Whites, is capable of outputting 1250 lumens per LED at an operating temperature of 85°C. This enables the Great Whites Attack LED driving lights to achieve superior performance.”

Ultra Vision, on the other hand, explained how CREE’s dominant position has been weakened by other brands producing excellent alternatives. Strong competition breeds excellence.

4X4 Australia has been reviewing four-wheel drive vehicles, aftermarket products and camping gear for more than 40 years. When looking for the best swags in Australia there are some things that are essential to ensure you sleep soundly under the stars.

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