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Light Show
PIAA Illuminates the Way for Off-Road Adventures
story by Steve Temple
photos by Steve Temple and courtesy of PIAA
You don’t know what dark is until you’re hundreds of miles from the nearest Starbucks on a moonless night. Doesn’t matter if you’re winding your way down a canyon, sliming through a bog or playing tag with saplings in a dense forest — dark is dark. People who spend time in any form of wilderness, away from the eerie ambient glow of city lights, really know dark and that’s why you see so many auxiliary lights on 4x4s. No, it’s not because they look cool, which they do — it’s because they’re a necessity.
One of the leading innovators in auxiliary auto lights is PIAA Corporation, a Japanese company with their American headquarters outside Portland, Oregon. While the letters of the PIAA name don’t stand for anything in particular, the company has been cracking the code of high performance lighting for over 40 years.
“Our roots are in Formula One racing,” said executive vice president Richard Churchill. “In road racing, you’re driving at speeds where visibility is critical.” Imagine trying to compete in the 24 hours of Le Mans with stock headlamps. Grand Prix road races may be a far cry from off-roading, but the dependence on high-tech, high-performance lighting is the same.
PIAA Technology, Inc., the American branch, opened in Gardena in 1988 with three employees and only 1,800 sq. ft. of office space, basically the size of a house. With the growth of technology and subsequent growth of the product line, the company now operates out of a 23,000 sq. ft. warehouse and office space in Beaverton. The concentration is still on Formula One-type motorsports, but off-roaders have long recognized and appreciated the styling and efficiency of PIAA auxiliary lighting.
The key is producing 4x4 lamps that give drivers the visibility they need to drive safely without taxing the draw on the vehicle’s battery. Plus, the light housing has to be engineered so the product doesn’t fly apart when it comes in contact with heavy brush. Lenses and wiring mechanisms have to survive deep stream crossings without exploding and/or shorting out. In short, lights which stand up to the heavy demands of off-roading.
The technology is light years ahead of Edison’s original bulb. Auto manufacturers are starting to provide higher-tech lights, but generally speaking, stock auto headlights use the traditional incandescent bulb. For those who opted out of science classes, this conventional light bulb uses a tungsten filament that gives off light when heated by the electrical current. With use, the tungsten evaporates, resulting in a thinning filament that eventually breaks, so your lights go out and you have to replace the bulb.
The next step up the technology ladder is the halogen bulb. Halogens are incandescent bulbs with a thin tungsten filament that gives off much brighter light than the longer-lasting thick tungsten filament. To provide longer bulb life, the bulb contains halogen gas that transports the evaporated tungsten back to its filament before it hits the bulb wall. The filament is regenerating itself every time it’s turned on.
PIAA has taken this technology even further by using a high concentration of Xenon gas under high pressure inside the light globe. This configuration reacts more efficiently with the high-grade tungsten alloy on the filament and produces up to twice as much bulb output without the corresponding higher draw on the electrical system.
PIAA’s plasma ion/ion crystal technology transforms white light into amber with no decrease in the strength of the light. Amber is a much more effective light for fog or foul weather lights because of a significant reduction in reflective glare. The best way to understand the advantage of amber lighting is to recall the last time you flipped on your low beams or auxiliary white fog lights in thick pea soup fog. The only thing you can see is the bright white reflection off the fog bank right in front of your moving vehicle. Scary!
The top of the high tech hierarchy is the HID, or high intensity discharge, technology. Gone is the filament. The light is generated from an electrical charge that ignites an arc between two electrodes in a gas-charged sealed system. HID lights generate about three times the light output of even the halogen bulb, last much longer and use less energy in the process.
PIAA’s latest HID products include the 2100 HID, a compact lamp with a computer designed multi-surface reflector producing a strong driving beam for long range visibility. On the other end of the size spectrum is the 800 HID at 7-1/2 inches in diameter. Designed for high-speed off-road racing, the 800 HID’s housing is stamped steel with chrome trim and a high-strength, adjustable stud mounting system.
The newest PIAA auxiliary driving light, the P-900 Ring Lamp, combines a Super White halogen bulb accented by a L.E.D. halo-ring. The Super White H1 bulb generates the brightness of a standard 100-watt bulb while only drawing 55 watts off the vehicle’s electrical system. PIAA engineers have developed highly efficient bulbs, identified as XTRA, that deliver high watt visibility with low watt draw.
Technology is only part of what PIAA lights are all about. It’s also useful to understand what the company’s arsenal of products actually does. First, fog/foul weather lamps. Fog lights are designed with a sharp vertical cutoff, keeping the beam vertically narrow and focused directly on the roadway ahead of the vehicle. Horizontally, PIAA’s foul-weather lights illuminate a 90- to 120-foot swath in front of the vehicle, depending on the system. This broad visibility alerts the driver to off-road hazards, like wildlife, that tend to lie in wait with a serious death wish. The sharp vertical cutoff keeps the light from reflecting off the fog, rain or snow and back into the driver’s eyes. It also keeps the light from blinding on-coming traffic.
PIAA’s line includes both conventional foul-weather lights and Projector lamps with the wider band of illumination and an even sharper cutoff. The elliptical-shaped Projector Lens concentrates the beam of light coming from a set back bulb and reflector. The beam is controlled with a shield to give it the sharp cutoff.
To increase the range of your vehicle’s high beams, take a look at PIAA’s driving lights. Conventional high beams are good to about 800 feet, which is fine if you’re cruising through an urban interchange or even on actual paved country roads. But during night-time off-road excursions, you need better advance warning of obstacles or landmarks so you know where you’re going and 800 feet doesn’t always cut it.
PIAA’s dichroic driving lamps are a good choice for off-roading with a broad beam pattern, 20- to 35-feet wide, which increases visibility up and down hills and around bends. Again, consider the phrase, “deer in the headlights”— with the broader, longer beam both you and the deer have a much better chance of colliding (or not).
The Cadillac of driving lights is the pencil beam lamp. Usually reserved for off-road racing, the pencil lamps have a narrow beam with maximum distance. This brings us to a brief word of caution. Before you switch on your high powered driving lights on the highway, make sure they’re legal. Some states have restrictive laws; for instance, in California auxiliary driving lights are illegal for anything but off-road use and have to be covered during highway travel.
A cost-effect auxiliary system is a PIAA dual Halogen lighting system that incorporates both a fog and driving lamp in a single housing. These systems are also ideal if mounting space is at a minimum.
No matter how high-tech the lights, though, if they’re not aimed correctly, you may as well be aiming a flashlight through the windshield. PIAA light kits come with the pre-assembled wiring harness and are easily installed. The company also offers a handy aiming guide on its website (www.PIAA.com) that provides guidelines for optimal visibility and minimum glare.
Fog/foul weather lights should be mounted under the bumper about 10 to 24 inches from the ground. To guarantee the lights are aimed properly, park your vehicle at a right angle, 25 feet from a wall. The top of the beam should be four inches below the lamp center.
PIAA recommends that driving lights be mounted above the bumper, about 14 to 30 inches from ground level. Any lower and you’ll lose light range as the beam will hit the ground sooner than intended. Again, using a flat wall and parked 25 feet away, the hot spot of a perfectly aimed driving light will hit the wall 1-1/2-inches below the center of the lamp.
But what about all those trucks we see with lights mounted on the cab or roof rack? There is a purpose in this high mount, especially if the truck just came from the Camel Trophy or Paris-to-Dakar rallies. If your route is through dense brush or involves deep-water crossings, a high mount for pencil, or long-range, beams makes sense. They should be mounted as far forward as possible to eliminate glare off the truck hood and back into the driver’s eyes.
While PIAA has made its mark in the American market with high-tech auxiliary lights, the company is expanding with the introduction of a line of lamp kits for a broad range of motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATVs and snowmobiles. The lamps incorporate the same advanced lighting technology, durable housings and high power/low draw bulbs as PIAA automotive systems.
So if you know just how dark night can get miles from nowhere, you also know the value of sturdy, well-engineered auxiliary lighting. For night driving in the civilized world, you’ve got the visual assist from fellow travelers and actual streetlights. But in the outback, where a misstep can send you over the side of a mountain, turn on a PIAA.
For more information: PIAA Corporation, USA, • 15370 SW Millikan Way, Beaverton, OR 97006 • Telephone: 503-643-7422 • www.piaa.com
Buy PIAA Lights from www.4wheelparts.com.