vehicle mounted floodlights

[shaneb]

Hello,
i'm new to this forum and so am not sure i'm posting this in the correct section. i have been looking around the site and it seems there are alot of people on here who know alot about lighting and so i'm hoping i can get some help.i am trying to find a lighting solution for my work which involves floodlighting approx 100m sections of the hard shoulder and verge of the motorways while armco installation takes place. I am looking into lighting that can be powered from and located on vehicles so i dont have to tow towerlights. i have been looking at magnalight websites with their LED floodlights and the Golight floodlights with the magnetic and remote control functions and i thought at around $500 they were expensive but after seeing what people are spending on flashlights i may need to change my ideas on pricing. Anyway i need the lighting to be available for 8-10 hours per night so battery powered alone isn't an option and as i say 100m by 15-20m is the sort of area i need to light up. Price is as cheap as possible while not compromising on quality.

Any help and advice i can get will be greatly appreciated

 

[DM51]

Welcome to CPF, shaneb

We have an Automotive section, so I'll move your thread there and we'll hope you get some useful responses. We also have a Fixed Lighting section, which is another possible home for it, but we'll try Automotive first.

 

[Steve K]

Is this for a vehicle with a 12v battery?
You might check at a dealer for agricultural or construction equipement; i.e. John Deere, Cat, etc. They have a variety of work lights and such installed on their machines.

I can tell you that Cat sells some nice LED worklights that can run on a 12v system. Look for part numbers 353-9420 (55 watts) and 332-1023 (17 watts).
Being LED lights, they will last forever and be expensive. There should be some incandescent lights that are cheaper and won't last as long (a couple of hundred hours?).

regards,
Steve K.

 

[kingofwylietx]

I have some 1400 lumen LED worklights from SoundOffSignal mounted on the front of my truck. They will definitely illuminate your stated work area if you get the spot beam pattern (which is what I have). I can get you some beamshots if needed. They can probably be picked up for under $400 a pair.

 

[mobilecentre]

Is this for a vehicle with a 12v battery?
You might check at a dealer for agricultural or construction equipement; i.e. John Deere, Cat, etc. They have a variety of work lights and such installed on their machines.

regards,
Steve K.

Deere use some of the Speaker range on their machines mainly two models an 800 lumens & 2700 lumens both the same size 3 x 5" oval.

 

[irsa76]

What sort of vehicles do you use? I assume a medium, 24Volt, truck and a Land Rover/4x4/van?
Something like this would be ideal imho http://http://www.premierhazard.co.uk/product_nightscan.htm
Not cheap, and limited to what vehicles you can fit it too.
Other wise I'd run large flood beam lights as high up as possible, NOT spot lights as I've found them to be useless when actually working.
To be honest, for the size work zone you're talking about you really can't go past a proper light tower, even the nightscan would struggle to light the scene.

 

[shaneb]

Thank you to those that have replied already.

I am using both 12volt and 24 volt vehicles
I have been looking around the web and wanted to know what people thought of the following lamps:

http://www.magnalight.com/pc-46748-...cord-w-cig-plug--7200-lumens--9-42-volts.aspx

and

http://www.magnalight.com/pc-47261-...dual-magnetic-base--3600-lumen--40-watts.aspx

also does anyone have any experience of Golight Stryker lights

 

[kingofwylietx]

I don't have any experience with those particular lights, but I have been curious if they are actually as bright as stated or if they are over-rated.

I was actually looking at that remote controlled LED spotlight for hog hunting. I just couldn't get over the feeling that it really doesn't put out 3600 lumens from those 4 LED's........with no exterior heatsink and all sealed up like that. I know that you can get 90 lumens per watt.....but there really isn't a heatsink. It looks like it would get very hot, very fast. I have 1400 lumen LED lights on my truck and the entire housing is a finned aluminum heatsink.

 

[mobilecentre]

The raw lumens value is how most products are described, but what most of us are interested in to your point is how much light actually ends up where we want it. Such as on a frog!

 

[Whineyweim]

You might consider something like this:

http://www.tyrilights.com/1010LED16i-2900.html

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

Is traffic flowing by you while you're working, or do you shut down the section of road you're working on? I have in mind a simple effective and fairly cheap solution but it is completely unworkable if you have traffic moving by you.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

I have in mind a simple effective and fairly cheap solution but it is completely unworkable if you have traffic moving by you.

Do tell! Are you sure it's not adaptable to either traffic situation, anyway?

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

Halogen work lights w/ an H3 bulb from wherever for $10/ea, and an HID kit. Cheap and huge lumens. These make great work lights and while there is no legal requirement for worklights and minimal attention paid to engineering a proper beam pattern into a work light, the vast increase in brightness would make careful aim mandatory. EXTREME care in aiming would have to be used so that people driving by on the road aren't blinded.

If there is any traffic driving on said road then I do not recommend this. AT ALL.

A light tower is generally 4x 1000w HIDs, but 2x 35w HIDs being mounted on a truck at essentially eye level and right in your field of vision is much different than 4x 1000w HIDs at 40+ feet in the air and some distance from the road.

 

[-Virgil-]

Halogen work lights w/ an H3 bulb from wherever for $10/ea, and an HID kit. Cheap and huge lumens. These make great work lights and while there is no legal requirement for worklights and minimal attention paid to engineering a proper beam pattern into a work light, the vast increase in brightness would make careful aim mandatory. EXTREME care in aiming would have to be used so that people driving by on the road aren't blinded. If there is any traffic driving on said road then I do not recommend this. AT ALL.

A variant of this that can improve traffic compatibility is a projector fog lamp with an "HID kit"...then mount the fog lamp so the cutoff line is vertical instead of horizontal; that way you can have bright light on the verge and none on the road itself.