Accessorising your car for comfort, safety or convenience has never been easier. There are thousands of additions that don’t cost much but prove handy in many driving scenarios. Seat covers, for instance, tick comfort, safety and styling needs, while auxiliary lights prove their worth in reduced visibility. Both are available from dozens of aftermarket brands, along with a slew of other options that make driving safer and more pleasant. 

What Exactly are Flood Lights?

Flood lights are a type of auxiliary light that you mount to the front of the car for more visibility in low light, or when the weather turns bad, They also prove handy in dust and haze that you’d typically see out in the bush. Flood lights provide beams with a shorter throw but illuminate a wider area in front of the vehicle. This is the opposite of headlights which produce focussed beams that shine further into the distance so you can negotiate roads at speed, or separate spot lights with the same effect. What’s common in all though is the newer tech, with LED flood lights for vehicles now the norm, and the buyer’s choice if you need the best brightness, lower power use, and lights to last a lifetime. 

Where and When are Flood Lights Used?

The main use of flood lights is to get a wider field of view than what your headlights provide. Flood lights have beams shining at an angle of 25 to 30 degrees from the source, with light projected further and in a taller vertical plane than vehicle fog lights. This means they’re more effective at moderate speeds (up to 60km/h) and in extremely adverse weather conditions, including fog, hail, heavy rain, dust storms and snow. All these can significantly hinder visibility regardless of the time of day. 
The lights illuminate more to the sides, and directly in front of the vehicle, making possible obstacles easier to spot. This is their main use, but vehicle flood lights also find many uses for work purposes, such as loading materials and equipment at the back of your ute, or providing ample light while pitching up tents. There’s enough light from a single unit, but pairing two or more brings both more brightness and a wider lit area. 

Comparing Lighting Tech

Just like with other lighting options, there are halogen, xenon and LED flood lights. They differ in lighting output, how much power they draw from the battery, how hot they get and of course how they work. Halogen bulbs are older designs, based around tungsten filaments and inert gases to produce light. They’re recognisable by the yellowish hue. Overall output and visibility is decent in newer versions, but this comes at a cost, with higher power draw as the main disadvantage. Bulbs can also get very hot, are susceptible to vibrations and won’t last on impact. For the money though they’re good options if you rarely venture out of the city or areas with decent street lighting. 
Xenon lights work in a similar way but produce a bluish light when electricity heats ionised xenon gas. They’re some of the brightest lights you can buy, draw about half the power as halogens, and will last quite a bit longer. Not everyone though is sold on the awkward colour temperatures known to blind oncoming traffic or the very high prices. And with LEDs flooding the market in record numbers, they are much harder to find. 
So, why choose LEDs in car floodlights? For the simple reason that they’re compact, can be optioned in housings in different shapes and designs, and produce light when electricity passes diodes or a series of semiconductors. This makes LED flood lights for vehicles much more effective, coming very close to xenon bulbs in overall brightness, but using much less power. Your battery will be grateful. LEDs additionally produce little to no heat (this is reserved for the chips fitted with special heat sinks) so temperature variations and outside factors don’t affect performance. As such, they’re the most durable of the three options, with most types rated for 50,000 hours or more. 

Choosing the Right Flood Lights for Your Car

There are several considerations when buying flood lights for your vehicle. 

Brightness 

Brightness is measured in two ways. Effective lumens refer to the real output you get out of your flood lights after they’ve been for half an hour, as opposed to inflated manufacturer numbers listing raw lumens in ideal conditions. Here you need to consider how light and brightness levels are affected by lens arrays, housings and heat. Bigger numbers are always better, but the brighter the lights, the more you’ll be paying. 

Colour Temperatures

LEDs are sought after for their more natural look, shining a bright white, as opposed to the warm colours in halogens and the cooler colours in xenon bulbs. Colour temperatures are measured in Kelvin (K), and values between 4500 to 6000 K should be easier on the eyes, and cause less fatigue on longer drives. 

Efficiency

If you’re fitting more than a few flood lights, consider how this impacts battery life. To prevent draining the starter battery, consider wiring halogen and xenon lights to secondary batteries. This is the setup you’ll typically find in most utes and 4WDS meant for longer off-roading trips. LEDs are perfectly fine in a standard setup, as they use only a fraction of the power. 

Build Quality 

Determine where and how you’ll be using flood lights. If this is more harsh conditions, ensure the lights have durable housings, either in reinforced thermoplastics or metals, and some way to dissipate heat buildup. Most lights suffer from subpar lenses and covers, so go with polycarbonate offerings, that are additionally water, dust and impact resistant. Also check the quality of the mounting hardware, as this is what keeps the lights put.