MU-X build: Narva Ultima light bars and Connect+ fitted

After more than two centuries since nutty professors started producing light using electricity, you might be excused for thinking there couldn’t be anything more to extract from the humble light bulb.

Nothing could be further from the fact, as electric-light technology continues to develop at great pace with new products that produce better and more efficient illumination for multiple uses.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the automotive sector, where the introduction of light emitting diode (LED) technology has seen significant improvements in lighting in both the OE and aftermarket segments.

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Low beam

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High beam

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With all Narva lights activated

One could be forgiven for thinking four-wheel drivers are scared of the dark, as we’ve been quick to adapt and mount the latest and greatest in lighting tech to the front of our vehicles. But in a place like Australia, where you are covering long distances at speed, and big, hoppy things have a tendency to jump out in front of you, it seems that too much light is never enough and we’re always looking for more.

Narva is one of Australia’s leading brands in aftermarket lighting, and the team there is always looking for new technologies and methods of improving its lighting products.

Narva’s latest product is a range of Ultima LED light bars that not only use the best performing LED chips and construction, but also come with clever technology to allow the user to vary the intensity and beam of the light bars for varying driving conditions.

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For instance, when you’re barrelling along a lonely outback road with no other traffic on it, you want the most forward vision your lights can produce with beams extending a long way ahead up the road as well as out to the sides from where those hopping critters like to surprise you from.

Yet when you’re driving along a winding bush track at night, long-distance illumination won’t be such a priority, but the wide beams are still important. It’s a similar tale when you’re on a country road where light reflection off road signs can be a real nuisance when you’re pumping out high-power illumination.

Having the ability to change the balance between your wide-beam lights and main light bar is very useful for these situations, and even more so when you can adjust the intensity of the lights themselves. While other light companies also offer adjustable intensity or power, the way the Narva Ultimas allows you to adjust them individually across the light bars is amazing.

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The new Ultima light bars come in either a 24-inch bar or a twin pack of eight-inch bars, with the eight-inch versions offering the choice of wide or ultra-wide flood beams.

For our Isuzu MU-X, we were looking for a light bar of around 40 inches to run across the front of the Rola Titan tray on the roof. Combining the 24-inch bar with a pair of eight-inch wide-beam bars at each end, gave us the perfect length with the adjustability to set them as best suits the driving conditions.

Connecting the light bars together is done with a joining kit from Narva, while we mounted them using the Rola light bar mounts. Narva also offers a joiner kit to combine two of the 24-inch bars, for a 48-inch combo.

The adjustability comes from Narva’s new Connect+ controller. This unit which mounts inside the cabin where the driver can reach it, allows you to adjust the output of two different light sources through two separate channels. In our case, they are the centre 24-inch bar and the outer eight-inch bars, and we can adjust the output of each to best suit the road we’re on and driving conditions such as traffic, road signs and vehicle speed.

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Each channel is adjustable individually through five levels of intensity, while there are three presets you can set-up for highway, outback, bush, or your own custom settings.

Say you want to limit the intensity of the 24-inch bar because of traffic or road-sign reflections but keep the power up to the wide-beam eight-inch bars, you could dial the 24 back the position to two or three and keep the intensity of the eight-inch bars up to five.

You can have a setting with both channels cranked up to five for those lonely outback highways, and if you think you’ve spotted something up ahead and want even more light, there’s a Boost button in the centre of the controller which, when pressed, blasts both channels up to full power plus 15 per cent for a 30-second burst. After the 30 seconds are up, you do have to let the lights cool back down before you can use the Boost function again.

Connect+ will also be compatible with future lighting products from Narva, as well as the new Ultima bars.

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The light bars themselves feature a diecast aluminium housing with a breather and a hard-coated polycarbonate lens. They use 5W Osram LEDs, 38 of them in the 24-inch and nine in the eight-inch.

At full power, the 40-inch combination we have on the MU-X is claimed to produce a beam that is 90 metres wide and extends out to 1000 metres at 1 Lux, and we have no reason to question that claim.

We were very impressed with the outputs of the lights and the warmth of the light colour when testing them in the bush and on open roads. Having the ability to adjust the balance of the side and centre beams was handy, and we reckon the three presets are just enough to cover most conditions you might encounter. The presets are also customisable, so you can program them to a set-up that works for you.

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The light put out is at an easy-on-the-eyes 5700°K temperature; also reducing that bounce-back from road signs.

Further customisation of the light bars is possible with different colour bezels included in the kit, while the black ‘Stealth’ lens covers which we have on our Ultimas are an optional extra. Clear protection covers are also available.

Pricing

• Narva Ultima 24-inch light bar: $990
• Narva Ultima 8-inch light bar twin pack: $880
• Narva 40-inch Joiner kit: $129
• Narva Connect+ controller: $199 (approx.)

Available from: www.narva.com.au