Project Polly | 47 match. To cut a long story short I settled on a pair of SCA (Supercheap’s own brand) 50-plus Blue Power, which promise to put substantially more light on the road and as good fortune would have it were on a 2-for-1 sale! Priced at $23.99 each they were particularly good buying, especially considering an equivalent pair from someone like Phillips was well over $100 (I thought perhaps they might be gold lined)…
But Watt There’s More?
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ew globes aside, my good mate Allan Whiting from outbacktravelaustralia. com.au does a heap of aftermarket light testing and reviews – check out his website – and gave Polly a brand new Hella 350 mm long 12 LED light bar. In case you’ve been living under a rock, light bars are the new black in driving lights. Usually seen atop bull-bars or ute roll-bars, they are long, slim and pack an awesome punch. Being LED they
" The only redeeming feature is that like most European vehicles the Transit’s headlights are height adjustable as you drive. " also use much less power than traditional globes and are basically immune to vibration, dust and water, so lifespan should be considerable.
on. Impressively, it comes with a five year warranty and interestingly, it’s made in New Zealand!
Polly’s main limitation is the lack of a bull-bar, Polly’s new light bar – Hella part number 1395 so from his bag of tricks Allan also produced – provides a spread beam and is actually a brand-new style of number plate mounting designed to be used in a pair, in conjunction bracket designed specifically for this light with part number 1396, its pencil-beam mate. bar, plus a bag with a wiring harness, relays, While a pair would be nice, a single spreadetc. How good was that? Being someone beam is the best to have on its own because who is happy to know a vehicle has wiring it provides a wider light beam that is better for but has no idea how it works – and acting on illuminating the road’s verges. Allan’s good advice – I booked Polly into the local auto electrician for what promised to My 1395 spread beam is claimed to be good be straightforward job. After all, what could for 300 m distance and 20° either side of the possibly go wrong? Well… vehicle, with the beam reaching its maximum width at about 200 m. Technically, it draws About 30 minutes after dropping Polly off just 25 watts, runs on anything from 9 to I received a call from the auto electrician 33 volts and weighs only 700 grams. In an asking if I had tried to attach the light to the apparent industry first its whole casing is mounting bracket. I replied I hadn’t, and in made of non-corrosive, thermally conductive, fact I hadn’t even removed the light bar from high performance UV-stabilised plastic. It’s its box. “That explains everything,” my auto also totally sealed and fully submersible; electrician replied. “The bracket is designed the latter fact I’m happy to take their word for a light bar with mounting screws on the