Driving lights vs light bars: which should you fit?

Anyone who has driven a country road at dusk knows what factory high beams are worth. They light the bitumen ahead and not much of the scrub beside it, which is where the kangaroo is standing. Extra lighting is one of the few 4x4 accessories that pays for itself in a single avoided animal strike.

The choice usually comes down to round driving lights, a light bar, or both. They do different jobs.

Spot, flood and combo beams

Before comparing shapes, it helps to know the three beam types, because both driving lights and light bars come in each.

• A spot beam is narrow and reaches a long way. It suits open highways where you want to see far ahead.
• A flood beam is wide and short. It lights the road edges and the first hundred metres or so, which suits winding roads and tracks.
• A combo beam mixes the two in one light.

Most people driving a mix of highway and back roads are best served by a combo, or by a pair of lights set up with one leaning to spot and one to flood.

What driving lights do well

Round LED driving lights have deep reflectors, and a deep reflector is what throws light a long distance. If your driving is long, straight and fast, a pair of 7-inch or 8.5-inch lights will show you further down the road than a light bar of similar power.

They need space, though. A pair of large round lights wants a bullbar or a nudge bar to sit on, and they can block some airflow to the radiator on vehicles with a small grille opening.

What light bars do well

LED light bars are wide and shallow. They spread light across the road and into the verges, and their low profile means they fit where round lights won't: in a bumper opening, behind a grille, on a number plate bracket or along a roof rack.

The shallow reflectors mean most bars can't match big round lights for outright distance. A roof-mounted bar can also throw glare onto the bonnet, so mount it as far forward as you can or choose a lower position.

Side by side

Which should you fit?

If you have a bullbar and do a lot of night highway kilometres, start with driving lights. If you have no bar, or most of your night driving is on slower roads and tracks, start with a light bar. If you want both distance and spread, run driving lights on the bar and a light bar below or between them, which is the setup a lot of touring vehicles end up with.

From the Altiq range we stock:

• The Rogue 7-inch MK3 and Rogue 8.5-inch MK3. They're combo beam lights that come with a clip-on cover to turn them into a full flood, so you can change the pattern to suit the trip.
• The Quad V3, a compact, low-profile driving light with a 60% spot and 40% flood pattern. It's the most affordable in the range and suits smaller bars.
• The 22-inch Hybrid double row light bar, which combines wide flood reflectors with 5 degree spot reflectors and comes with side and under mounts.

You can see everything in the Altiq lighting range.

Wiring them in

Driving lights and light bars draw too much current to run off the headlight circuit directly. They need their own fused feed from the battery, a relay, and a trigger from the high beam so they switch off when you dip.

A wiring kit includes all of that. The Altiq Fast Fit dual wiring kit runs two lights and has a relay, a fuse, an in-cab switch, waterproof Deutsch connectors, and H4 and HB3 adaptors that plug into the back of your headlight to pick up the high beam signal. It detects whether your vehicle's high beam is positively or negatively switched, which used to be the part people got wrong. For one light or a single bar there's a single wiring kit.

Staying legal

In Australia, driving lights and light bars used on the road have to be wired so they only work with high beam and switch off when you dip. There are also rules about where they can be mounted and how many you can run, and those differ between states. Check your state's vehicle standards before you choose a mounting position, particularly for roof-mounted bars.

Common questions

Are driving lights better than a light bar?

For distance, usually yes. For lighting the sides of the road and for fitting in tight spaces, a light bar is better. Many people run both.

What size driving lights should I get?

Bigger lights have bigger reflectors and reach further, so fit the largest that suit your bar without blocking the grille. Seven-inch lights suit most utes and wagons, and 8.5-inch lights suit larger bars.

Can I fit them myself?

With a plug-in wiring kit, yes. It takes an afternoon and basic tools. If you're not comfortable with vehicle wiring, an auto electrician can do it quickly.

What does IP69K mean?

It's a dust and water protection rating that covers high-pressure, high-temperature washdown. A light with that rating is safe to pressure wash.