So I’ve been wheeling in the dark with some buddies and driving a lot of backcountry miles at night over the last few weeks. During all the different occasions and different vehicles, I have been observing and playing around with different combinations of lights.
My personal takeaway is that I don’t understand the obsession with all these crazy offroad light setups.
My reason for this thinking: Too much light and your eyes become less dilated, decreasing your night vision. This isn’t a huge issue until you look anywhere outside of your beam pattern. For example, looking down out of your side window to assess a switchback. To say it even more dramatically: the more light you have upfront, the less aware you are of your surroundings.
Now there is obviously a balance as you want enough light (no duh). But good headlights w/ brights and something for width like ditch lights or fog replacements achieves amazing coverage but without negating your night vision.
I will throw in the caveat that I know those running high speed need the long distance throw of big lighting setups. But in general, there are very few people doing high speed desert runs…a whole let less than the amount of people with $3k+ worth of lights on the front of their vehicle
So what am I missing? Why do so many feel that a nuclear power plant worth of LED lights is helpful for an overlanding rig or backcountry cruiser? Is the sacrifice in situational visibility worth the gain in overall brightness?
My personal takeaway is that I don’t understand the obsession with all these crazy offroad light setups.
My reason for this thinking: Too much light and your eyes become less dilated, decreasing your night vision. This isn’t a huge issue until you look anywhere outside of your beam pattern. For example, looking down out of your side window to assess a switchback. To say it even more dramatically: the more light you have upfront, the less aware you are of your surroundings.
Now there is obviously a balance as you want enough light (no duh). But good headlights w/ brights and something for width like ditch lights or fog replacements achieves amazing coverage but without negating your night vision.
I will throw in the caveat that I know those running high speed need the long distance throw of big lighting setups. But in general, there are very few people doing high speed desert runs…a whole let less than the amount of people with $3k+ worth of lights on the front of their vehicle
So what am I missing? Why do so many feel that a nuclear power plant worth of LED lights is helpful for an overlanding rig or backcountry cruiser? Is the sacrifice in situational visibility worth the gain in overall brightness?
