Whether you’re intentionally heading out for a night-run or are unlucky enough to get caught on a tricky 4×4 track until dark, driving at night can be difficult. Challenges look more daunting. Tracks can quickly become unfamiliar. You’ll find even just seeing what’s up the road in front of you is a hassle.
If you’re prepared, then driving on and off-road at night can however be a rewarding experience whilst also being a fun challenge. Potentially even making tracks you’ve tackled before that little bit trickier. Regardless, we’ve got your back! Here are our favourite tips and tricks to help you enjoy your next night-time adventure.
Take a mate
Ever heard the saying, ‘strength in numbers?’ This is especially the case when it comes to four-wheel driving at night. Now, to be fair, this is always pretty sound advice for four-wheel driving. A good option for those who might not have 4×4 inclined friends is to have them ride as passenger. It’ll mean you have a helping hand in a recovery situation, and they’ll be able to spot you through technical tracks, if required. Potentially the best thing is that they can provide entertainment on those long, lonely night drives. Did someone say car-spec karaoke? How about a game of ‘spotto’?
The best option however is to have a friend in the car but also to travel in a convoy! Having an extra car or more with you not only gives you all the benefits of what I just mentioned, but suddenly now, you have the ultimate plan B. Four-wheel driving at night with a convoy now means you have more eyes. You’ve also got more recovery options, and most importantly, more light. Speaking of more light, let’s get into that next.
Good quality lights
If you’ve got an older 4×4, then you know just how horrific the factory headlights can be. They’re often referred to as candles. Modern 4x4s are a little better, but still, when it comes to widespread, long-distance vision, they drop the ball. Thankfully for us four-wheel drivers, UK built Lazer Lamps are helping keep us safe when driving at night!
Lazer Lamps cater to pretty much everyone’s taste. Whether you’re after an LED light bar like the ‘Linear’ range, or maybe you’re chasing some serious long-distance performance like the Lazer Lamps ‘Sentinel’ spotties.
A good quality LED light bar, like the Lazer Lamp Linear, will give you a massive range of sizing. They have options from 9.1” right up to 51”. What that means is you can choose a light bar to fit just about every spot on your 4×4. Whether that’s up on the roof for maximum vision, or some smaller side mounted ones for lighting up embankments and possible campsites. Something like the Linear-48 which is the largest size light bar from Lazer will give you a stonking amount of light. 18,000 lumens to be exact. It’ll also give you IP67 waterproofing, low-profile mounting options, 5000K LED colour temperature which will help maximise sharpness and definition on the road, and an aero-inspired design to minimise wind noise.
For those wanting a slightly more subtle option to help them navigate the pitch-black night driving, there’s the Lazer Lamp ‘Sentinel Elite’ spot lights. These epic bits of kit are 9” in diameter so they’ll fit a vast majority of bull bars whilst providing epic street presence. Most importantly, they deliver outstanding spread and throw of light.
Wither over 15,000 raw lumens in total and providing light even up to 742m away, these really will light up everything you need to see to drive safely in all terrain. What I think is most important however is the 52-degree spread of light you get from these spotlights even whilst projecting so far down the road. This means you get great visibility out in front of your vehicle. But also excellent visibility off to the sides of the road to help avoid animal strikes or any form of side-on impact.
Take your time
Our final tip for when you’re hitting the night-time grind is take your time. Make sure you don’t rush and don’t be a bull in a China-shop. However you want to spin it, just relax! It doesn’t matter if you’re heading home late at night on the black top, or just kicked off your night-run. Taking it slow means less stress on your 4×4. More importantly, it gives you more time to react.
Things at night-time can appear from pretty much nowhere. Animals can jump out from dark embankments. Cars without headlights on can surprise you at the drop of a hat. Plus obstacles on and off the road can catch you off guard. Slowing things down, taking your time and using patience to your advantage will mean you’ll conquer the night without anything bad happening!
Three easy tips, that’s it. Take a mate, invest in good lights, and take your time. If you follow these three things, you’ll be as safe as possible, and can enjoy night-driving to the best of your ability.
Most importantly, stay safe, get out there, and I’ll see you on the tracks!
Years ago doing rallying we ran two pair of driving lights, a pair pencil beams and a pair of flood beams.
We set the pencil beams up for maximum range but angled out about 5 degrees so that the insides of the beams were parallel with a black patch down the centre.
This had two advantages, the first showing the actual direction the car was pointing, and the second beyond was if you came quickly on a fog patch the glare reflected to light that centre strip.
With flood beams we had each angled so they just embraced the pencil beam lights, but also had one angled slightly higher and the other slightly lower, which was an advantage in undulating terrain.
Thought this might give food for thought when setting up your 4×4.
Remember when you have driving lights to dip them to not blind on coming drivers when you are on the road. Also DO NOT use your full roof mounted off-road light setup on road!