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Installation date:
2/16/02
Finally, an affordable
high-performance-oriented off-road light! Ever since we first installed
the Garvin Safari Rack on our TJ in the fall of '01 we've wanted to
put a set of four lights on it, we just never found a set that we liked
that didn't cost an arm and a leg. The "economy" offroad lights just
didn't offer the output and beam pattern we wanted, and the lights that
did were too expensive to buy 3 pairs of them at once (2 pairs on the
rack with a matching 3rd set on the front bumper).
I was talking with
my friend Dirk of DPGOffroad.com
fame about general XJ and TJ mods and mentioned wanting some new auxiliary
lights for our TJ. He told me about these new 55W lights that IPF recently
released that had a special reflector that put out a combo driving/foglight
beam. Of course I asked how much they cost, since IPF's are generally
pretty pricey, and was surprised when he told me they retail for about
$135 a pair, including a wiring harness. He also said he was currently
running a introductory promo on them for $105 a pair, which was even
better! I got some more info on them and talked it over with Jennifer,
since they were going on her Jeep. She though they sounded great, so
I had Dirk get me 3 pairs in mail as soon as he could.
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The lights
arrived a few days later and I installed them over the weekend.
Like most newer headlights and auxiliary lights, these have a
clear lens with a faceted reflector that determines the beam pattern.
Here's a pic
of the final product, you can see the dual pattern reflector in
the uncovered light on the right. The opaque covers are thick
plastic and snap over the lights to protect the lenses when not
in use or to comply with local lighting regulations.
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The lights looked
really nice, kinda like Hella500's on steroids, but what really impressed
me was the wiring harness! And let me tell you, it is NICE.
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All the connections
and wires already had weatherproof terminals crimped on, the leads
were all precut to length and bundled in rubber tubing, the wires
all ran into a plug that the relay snapped into, and the switch
was a nifty push-button mouse-style switch with little LED's inside
to indicate ON/OFF. Talk about plug-and-play! Aside from plugging
and snapping it all together, the only electrical connection I
had to make was the inline splice that supplies the switch with
12V power, and IPF even included the connector to make the splice!
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The wire leads
from the relay to the lights themselves are relatively short,
so I couldn't mount the relay to the firewall as I'd originally
planned. Not a big deal though, the switch leads are extremely
long, so I just drilled a hole in the header behind the passenger-side
headlight and mounted the relay there.
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I ran the
wires down the side of the radiator and AC condenser, then out
under the grill and back up to the lights behind the bumper. This
routing worked out great and I didn't need to worry about ziptying
any of the wires out of the way.
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I ran the
power and switch leads from the relay along the top of the fender
just inside the "hood lip". The power lead hooked onto the positive
terminal of the battery of course, and I ran the switch leads
up along the firewall and through the plug/grommet that I'd used
previously for some other wiring projects.
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From there
I plugged the leads into the mini-harness for the switch and ziptied
the bundle of wires up and out of the way behind the dash. I ran
the yellow 12V lead behind the center console and spliced it into
a circuit on the fuse block that was only hot when the ignition
was on. The instructions (which are pretty good) say to connect
this lead to the high-beam wire on the headlights, but I personally
don't like having my auxiliary lights dependent on my headlights.
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I wanted the
install to look as clean as possible, so to run the switch wiring
I unscrewed the lower dash knee panel and took out one of the
screws holding the upper dash bezel on. Then I slipped the switch
wire bundle through and bolted the dash panels back up. Now the
switch wiring is nearly invisible as it runs behind the dash directly
from the switch.
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I decided
to mount the switch on the top center section of the dash, just
to the side of the air vents. This would put the switch within
easy reach from the steering wheel. IPF/ARB is out of Australia,
where the vehicles are all right-hand drive, so it wasn't too
surprising when the markings on the switch were upside down where
I mounted it - I figure it was probably designed for the OTHER
side of the dash.
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The IPF wiring harness
really isn't long enough to use with roof-mounted lights, so I just setup
a custom harness for the lights on the rack similar to what I'd done for
our rocklights using one of the existing dash switches I'd put in a few
weeks earlier and a single 30amp relay.
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The power
leads to the lights run into the cowl area through a hole drilled
in the firewall. You'll need to pull off the windshield wipers
to get the the cowl panel off. There are 3 screws on the top of
the cowl and 4 hidden behind the weather-stripping that runs along
the top of the firewall.
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From there
they run out the side of the cowl by the windshield hinge and
up the front support leg of the rack. If you're very careful,
you can run the wires out under the edge of the cowl by the
hinge without damaging or pinching the wires.
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The lights
need to be unplugged to let the rack tilt back so we could take
the soft top up and down, so I picked up a 4-way weatherproof
quick-disconnect plug from PepBoys. The plug ran about $3-$4 and
is working out great so far. The wires leading to and from the
plug are all power leads for the roof lights - there was no need
for me to run separate ground wires down to the body because the
rack itself is grounded to the body at it's mounting points.
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So far we've been
very happy with the new lights. They don't put out near the amount of
light as the 100W LightForce lights on my XJ, but then they're not designed
to compete against those kind of lights anyway. The combo light pattern
of the new IPF's is just about perfect for lighting up dark country
roads both ahead and to the sides, and should work just as well for
lighting up the trails at night. Admittedly, the roof lights are probably
more for show than anything else, but they should help out when leading
nighttime trail runs or setting up camp in the dark.
Unfortunately my
digital camera doesn't work too well at night, but this should give
you an idea of the output of the lights. The garage the lights are shining
on is about 75 feet away. The left pic is of the TJ's IPF headlights
with 80W PIAA Plasma bulbs on lowbeam. The middle shot is of the headlights
plus the IPF 968's on the bumper. The last shot is of the headlights,
bumper lights, and the roof lights all turned on.
Some more photos...
For more information,
contact:
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