Baja Designs Lights

Soltek 8" La Paz HID Off Road Lights
MSRP: $590.00
OUR PRICE:

Soltek 8" La Paz Halogen Off Road Lights

Soltek Fuego 4" HID Off Road Lights

MSRP: $433.95
OUR PRICE:

Why should you buy a Baja Designs Soltek Light?

Beams with no sharp cut-offs, or hot spots
Integrated Generation 5 Ballast (HID)
3 Point Vibration Isolation
Highest quality components
Exclusive Quick Adjust, Center Mounting System

All lights are not created equal - Lights that work well on a street vehicle are not necessarily best for off-road. Off road vehicles have more body pitch, more suspension travel, more vibration, as well as face more varied terrain. Other lighting manufacturers offer “off-road” lights that were designed for use on the street, or dirt roads. Soltek™ lights were created for extreme off-road terrain and driving conditions.

Everything you ever wanted to know about lighting technology:

Light Output & Light Distribution

Don’t be misled by lights that are rated by brightness (candlepower). Candlepower ratings only measure light from a single point within a beam of light. A tightly focused beam of light may rate a high candlepower but if that light only falls on a very small area, the light will be less than useful. An extreme example of this would be a laser pointer. While the candlepower would be great, the light would be near useless for illumination. Lumens are a measure of potential light output. All 35 watt, 4200K HID light bulbs produce essentially the same amount of Lumens. A light’s candlepower or lumens measurement is worthless if the illumination is not where you need it. This is where the SolteK lights shine!

The most effective off-road light will provide smooth light distribution without Sharp Cut-Offs or Hot Spots. A “Sharp Cut-Off” is where the light drops off dramatically, creating a horizontal or vertical line into darkness. With the pitch and roll of the vehicle, the sharp cut-off affects your ability to see where you need to see. A “Hot Spot” is an intense concentration of light in a small area. Hot spots can be very distracting while driving off road; your eyes tend to focus on just that bright spot of light bouncing in front of you. No other manufacturer offers the off-road specific light distribution patterns that Baja Designs does.

Beam Pattern Types

Driving Lights (or Euro Beam) are used for 75% of off road driving conditions. Our driving pattern offers good peripheral vision and excellent distance while providing ample light both high and low to compensate for the up-and-down pitch of the vehicle. Imagine being able to see where you need to even while your vehicle climbs, descends, turns, jumps, and bounces.

Pencil Lights (or Spot Beam) provide a longer and narrower beam pattern to illuminate farther down the trail. This is the light for high-speed running. Our spot was designed to provide optimum distance without any annoying hot spot. Additionally, this pattern can be adjusted wider or narrower by up to 4º based on your particular driving conditions.

A combination of Driving and Pencil Lights provides the best overall off-road light distribution.

Light Sources

Baja Designs offers Both Halogen and HID light sources. We adjust the bulb focal point to optimize the light distribution from either source.

Halogen lights, like conventional incandescent lights, use bulbs with a filament. The major difference is that halogen bulbs are filled with a pressurized halogen gas to prolong the life of the filament and allow it to burn at a higher and brighter temperature. They have a color temperature of around 3200K, which makes them appear more yellow in color than sunlight or HID light.

HID (High Intensity Discharge) lighting is a quantum leap forward in off-road illumination. HID lamps produce daylight quality light (4,200K) and brightness (3,200 lumens). A single HID bulb produces the equivalent of 250 watts of halogen lighting power, while consuming only 35 watts of electricity, and generating far less heat. HID bulbs do not use a filament; they fire an electric charge between two electrodes encased in a xenon gas filled bulb. Since the bulb has no filament, vibration does not affect its operating life (approx. 2,000 hours). These factors make HID technology a perfect fit for off-road use.

Baja Designs uses Osram Sylvania’s newest Generation 5 HID ballast and bulb with integrated igniter. The compact ballast and igniter are smaller, more reliable, and lighter-weight than the older Gen 1 and 4 components used by other lighting manufacturers. We mount the Gen 5 combo inside the light housing to protect the components and allow quick and easy installation. Note: Beware of cheap “no-brand” HID bulbs, as they tend to “off-gas” which clouds the inside of the lens.

Light Distribution Methods

Parabolic Reflector and Lens - technology uses both the reflector and lens to aim light. Our La Paz light utilizes a parabolic reflector and lens. The glass lens is fluted for the driving pattern. As a basic rule light output is directly related to reflector size.

Multi Surface Reflector (MSR) - technology allows the engineer to use computer software to design a reflector with multiple surface angles that precisely aim light where it is wanted. This allows better utilization of a bulbs light output. We use this method for our Fuego light.

Lens Material & Protection

We believe in glass lenses! They are virtually scratch proof and best retain their clarity and optics. Polycarbonate lenses scratch and scuff easily, and become hazed from “sand-blasting”. This will eventually reduce light output to an unacceptable level.

Baja Designs offers an optional polycarbonate (Lexan ®) Rock Guard. The design of the Rock Guard provides a tight, fitted seal between the guard and glass lens so that dust does not collect between the two, thereby maintaining maximum light output. The Rock Guard is designed with a convex shape, contrasting with the concave shape of the lens, to provide a space cushion between guard and lens. This engineering maximizes the protection the Rock Guard can give, allowing for substantial debris strikes, without lens damage.

Light Color

The color of light or “color temperature” is rated in Degrees Kelvin (K). Sunlight is the most efficient “color temperature” for the human eye. It measures approximately 4000K-5500K. Don’t be fooled by lights offering higher temperatures than this – they just tend toward the blue spectrum. 6100K and higher HID bulbs produce fewer lumens than the 4200K bulbs produce, and higher “color temperatures” are less useable to the human eye.