Thanks for the responses everyone, i will try to respond to them all
If you have to worry about animals crossing the roads, I would consider the side spill. Maybe the pencil beams wouldn't be as useful as a light with a wide area of illumination to the sides. I personally would set 2 lamps to project as far down the road as your speed would dictate, then set the other 2 up in some sort of configuration to let you see animals coming, and around curves. Best of luck and please keep us posted.
That was the idea of the Hella4000 in a Cornering pattern, it only throws 200ish metres, but throws a lot of light to the sides, basically 45 degrees to both sides
what i was considering was the full size 4000s in a cornering and driving pattern, and a pair of compacts as pencil beams, switched separately for when i am in twisty areas and dont need the reach of the pencil beams
Also, with the setup as mocked up in cardboard, I'd be concerned about almost completely blocking off airflow through the grill. Engine cooling (and A/C performance) may suffer badly.
I didnt think of that - although having the bar easily removeable would allow me to remove it to A. Prevent theft, and B. remove it when i dont need it and stop it from blocking the air intakes - i may wind up inverting the little lights on the ends, just to open up the grill area a bit if neccesary
And probably in heavy stop-and-go traffic, when you'd like better A/C performance than an easy cruise down the highway.
more worried about the engine overheating and leaving me stranded than the Airconditioning, but it is nice to have it working properly
Any considerations for lamps that might fit in the blocked stock locations?
i feel they would sit to low, they are really designed for Fog Lights, which shine "under" the fog, driving lights are better mounted as high as possible, to shine down the road, rather than create shadows in dips and bumps
I definitely have to agree with these guys on air obstruction.
Have you ever seen "your mock-up lighting configuration" done before on a street/off road car, or rally Forester?
If so, any possibility finding out if they had any air flow problems (A/C performance or overheating at highway speeds).....or if they did other mods. to resolve the air-flow restriction like hood extractors or higher output electric fans??????
I've spent a while doing Google Image Searches on "Forester Offroad Ralley Lightbars" and will post many of the links in another post
if they allow me to. I did just find the closest configuration that you want to do on a Forester from Sweden and they also warn him about engine temps when the weather warms up......maybe try contacting him:
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f139/custom-made-light-bar-triple-9-lights-106948/
Here's my take on it as I know a lot about air flow dynamics in the HVAC industry and mainly related to hi-rise building construction of how air flows around a structure which causes high and low pressures on the exterior and interior of the structure, but my passion has always been in hi-perf. car mods and tuning so in this instance, this theory would apply.
Here's the technical explanation of what I believe could occur and be a problem:
At idle or light cruise you won't have any problems with overheating or air flow past the A/C Condenser since the ECM will ramp-up the fans (if that's how Suburu works) to control your electric fans. But at 10mph/16kph ++++ things will change quickly as you will start to loose all ram air flow into the front of the upper grill opening where the electric fans can't compensate for the loss of ram air velocity since the OEM aerodynamics has been changed by the obstruction of the very large mass of the new light housings....
I believe with that large mass of lights on the front bumper it will definitely cause problems but could be verified with a manometer like my Dwyer Digital Manometer #475 or any cheap "analogue differential manometer" would work where you would run long 1/4" tubing to measure high/low pressures or + or - differences while driving.......racers do this when modding the front of a race car for aerodynamics.
This is what I think will occur that you should be aware of and consider if no one out there has done the same config. successfully that you want to do and didn't have problems:
1. that large mass will cause a High Pressure bubble in front of all those lights and air will travel around them in the least restrictive path which would be over the top of the housings. At slower speeds it will be a turbulent flow then linear flow as speed increases. Have you ever seen video of how they demonstrate a cars aerodynamics in a wind tunnel with a smoke wand.....pretty cool.
2. You will probably then develop a low pressure center behind the lights which will most like start to cause a "venturi effect" extracting/suck air out from behind the grill.
3. Since the only unobstructed air you will have is going through the lower unobstructed grill; the high pressure air will be more than it used to be in that area because there is now a low pressure behind the upper grill and you will literally start to get high velocity of air going through the lower opening, and coming out the upper grill and over the hood. The faster you go, the more velocity you'll have and the higher the pressure, until you will eventually start pulling/sucking air under this vacuum through the front radiator and a/c condenser which will be a reversion of air flow....I'm pretty sure it could happen.
4. You would need to somehow overcome this reversion by installing hood extractor vents to allow the ram air from the lower grill intake along with the cooling fans to move air back through this area and hopefully the hood vents if placed properly in a low pressure section of the hood, will extract air out restoring air flow through the rad. and a/c condenser. Although, even at high way speeds, there maybe so much velocity through the lower grill and out the upper grill, the hood vent could exasperate the problem and create more of a reversion with negative pressure and suck air instead of extracting and venting the air from the under the hood where high pressure should build.
But you are in the right place asking about lighting from the lighting experts like Scheinwerfermann, Alaric Darconville and others as I'm also needing their help on a lighting project for my Cadillac's.
I'll post all the links in another post of different light bars on Foresters. Many of the links are from the massive forum called "Subaru Forester Org." where they have 34.pgs on the "Official Aux Lighting Thread".
But who knows if they know what they're talking about with lights and I'd stick with these guys here for their expert knowledge and that forum for at least ideas and pictures!
Regards,
Chris
CadChris - i haven't seen a similar setup on another forester, but have seen large hellas on a number of local Rally cars, although i havent paid too much attention to if its blocking the upper air intakes
My Previous Car (a Hyundai Excel) had a pair of Hella Comet 550 lights that blocked most of the upper intake, and i didnt have any heat issues, but these lights are a bit bigger, and the air intake on the forester is much larger
i have messaged the one place that is rallying an SH forester (the current shape) - they are just running led lightbars, but their lighting needs are different to mine (they typically run on a tight spectator stage at night, which doesnt really need long distance lighting)
thank you for digging up a bunch of links, they were removed before i got a chance to see them, but i have spent a lot of time looking through Subaruforester.org and their lighting threads. most of the information there deals with the older foresters (and there isnt many mounting options available for the newer SH models)
I have also asked the guy you linked to if he is having any overheating problems, although his summer temperatures are probably a lot lower than where i live.
There is another thread i will have ask in too, someone who has a setup similar to my intended setup
i will speak to the local subaru specific mechanic too, they might have an idea on if i will have any heat/airflow issues
Echo63, I recommend you choose pencil beams for the 4000's and spread for the compacts. The full size 4000's give a longer range than the compacts while the performance in spread beam configuration is quite similar. With this arrangement you should get solid punch down the middle and good spread out to around 300m. Almost perfect, really. I'd love to have the room to be able to do the same on mine but the bullbar gets in the way.
On the subject of air flow/restriction I have a full steel bullbar, with winch on the front of my current vehicle and two large driving lights plus winch controller sitting on top. I was a little concerned that all this would block the air flow and monitored temperatures closely for some time after fitting. There was not the slightest change from standard.
In the past I had this:
Those lights take up all the space in front of the grille. Same thing - absolutely no problems with engine temperatures or a/c performance. As I understand, on most modern cars most of the airflow to the radiator goes through the lower grille so some blockage in front of the upper one doesn't cause any drama
Hella dont make the Cornering pattern in the Compact (or it would be really simple, i would just have 4x Compacts across the front)
good to hear about you not having overheating issues with the Pajero, or your current car, if i do put 4 lights like in the mockup, i will have to watch the temperature gauge closely for a while, and possibly invert the two end ones.
I vote for the Rallye 4000 with the Eurobeam (driving light). I've seen them on countless on/offroad machines and the durability is decent and light pattern is fantastic.
I like the Compact 4000 HID too but only for serious offroad stuff. They don't come on to full brightness fast enough to be good driving lights and they're spendy.
I also like the Super Oscar but they're also a little more expensive.
I cant afford HID lights, i can get a set of 4 halogens for a little over the price of one HID
for the roads i drive on i will have to turn the lights on and off a bit, which i believe is bad for HID (they are great for Rally lights though, where they are fired up at the beginning of a stage and left on until the end of stage)
my parents have had the same set of Cibie Oscars on at least 3 cars, and they are still in pretty good condition for being over 30 years old, but i havent really seen them lit up. i do prefer the look of the Hellas though
Thanks for all the help everyone - i will get the bar built first, with 4 extra tabs on the bottom so i can invert the lights if i have too, then fit the lights and keep an eye on the temperatures
