Big time! I have a brother in Alaska, he is a Lawyer.

 

I have heard and seen a lot of good things with the Baja Design lights, and if you get the halogen lights they aren't much differently priced than the KC lights. Also they have a wide variety of styles to pick from (fog/cornering, wide driving, driving, spot) so you can get a light that fits exactly what you need.

 

I dunno man, if you are really concerned about safety, I would suggest upgrading the brakes or simply not over-driving your lights. I grew up in the sticks, and having anything jump out at you coming around a corning is pretty much getting hit (brighter lights wouldn't matter). Straight roads are a little different and probably the safety concern you talking about, but when it comes down to it, you can always just drive slower.

 

I was doing 100kph on a dry highway at night, wintertime so should have seen this small deer against the snow but he was running so damned fast out of the ditch that I had no time to do anything. Sometimes stuff just happens. Wasn't outdriving the headlights either.




$10K later in repairs. What you don't see is the damage to the battery, wiring, rad, or the fact that it pushed the body back and the passenger door is stuck shut. Better lights wouldn't have done a bit of good in this case.

 

When it comes to moose, and other larger animals all your stock lights will get is the legs which is very difficult to see at night (especially on a dirt or gravel road it is brown on brown). The aftermarket lights tend to be able to give a good pattern on the road, and at the same time light slightly higher so you can see the eye reflecting back wich is the easiest part to see. I lived in Montana for many years, and with stock lights I never had any issue seeing deer, cows, etc... that were in the road, but I was always afraid of seeing any moose, or horses in the road. I have seen people hit these before and they just come in the windsheild, and there is no way to light them up better without aftermarket lights.

 

I grew up in northern New Hampshire. Moose are definitely hard to see at night. They are very dark and their head is above the normal headlight pattern. Extra lighting is very helpful, but to imply that you have to buy $1000 lights to insure the safety of your family is a bit much.

 

I don't think you need to go with $1,000 lights, but you should look at the optics of the light more than the wattage, or price. Get what works the best for your situation, and not what is the cheapest.

Oftentimes I see people quoting the candle power to compare lights, or bulb wattage, but these can often times distort what is really happening. A laserpen has a very high candle power, however I wouldn't mount it to the bumper and use it just because the beam pattern isn't very usable. Light manufacturers know that this is often used though so they will distort the reflector, or throw a higher wattage bulb in just to make it appear better but in reality it isn't. Also once you go above a 100 watt bulb they tend to have a very short life, and if you hit any signifigant bumps the filaments tend to break.

Hella lights tend to be be very cheap and get moisture behind the reflectors, and also have very poor optics. If it were my vehicle I would either buy the IPF 900xs, or buy a set of hallogen Baja Designs lights with one being a driving beam and the other a spot for a good spread and also good distance.

 

I end up spending a lot of time driving roads in Northern Alberta and BC. When you start dealing with tracts of wilderness on this scale, there can be an obscene population density of large four-legged herbivores. A full grown moose can ruin your entire week, even if you're driving a one ton. When you look at something the size of a JK, a Caribou or Elk can do almost as much damage.

We're not just talking about damage to your grille or fender flares here. When a large animal comes up over your hood and impacts the windshield, that's potentially fatal.

Good auxiliary lighting makes an incredible difference. To my mind, there are three ways good lights will help you:

-Getting light further down the road to give you more reaction time.

-Getting more light out into the ditches so that you have a better chance of seeing Bambi before he makes a dash in front of you.

-Getting a reasonable brightness of light up at the level that you have a chance to see eye shine coming back from a moose.

All of this is completely valid even before we start talking about Wood Buffalo. They're a whole new category of road hazard. Those buggers aren't even smart enought to realize that it will hurt if they get hit by a truck.

They're even harder to see than a moose. And they're BIG

Folks who haven't done a good quantity of night driving in remote areas just haven't had the exposure necessary to see just how much of a hazard wildlife can pose.

 

i ended up going for teh KC skimlights (6") i think they look great on the stock JK. they may be a bit small as it "grows" but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I haven't used them on the trails yet, but looking forward to it. thanks all for your advice!

 

With the KC slimlites which do ya'll recomend on the windshield. the driving or the long range?