Nudge, Roo or Bull bar

[wfdTamar]

The thing about the whistles is most people stick them on the front of the car where there isn't going to be a smooth flow of air through them so they aren't going to actually make a whistle.

[brad]

Some people swear by the whistles. Where I drive though, there's no where for the roos to go in a lot of places, so invariably they hop down the fence line or road and change direction into the path of the car at the last moment. I've got a sacrificial car for that I drive in peak roo times thats worth less than a bullbar.

Isn't the idea that the whistles get the roos moving so you are more likely to see them & then you slow down until you pass them?

[DunlopRS]

I have similar issues. Spend a lot of time in roo country. Before this car I have had 4 roo strikes at night plus an emu in daylight (morning twilight - essentially wrote my car off that I had at the time). My solution is not very pretty, but it is very, very effective. It has saved me from at least half a dozen roo strikes in 4 years including one last night (my father is averaging close to 1 a year at the moment - hits that is). The standard lights on the Octavia are woeful - even with nightbreaker globes installed. The eastern greys are not the ones I am worried about, the reds in South Aus that look straight over the top of the car cause me a lot of concern.......

I have a pair of Lightforce strikers, 70w HID 4500K (if I remember right re colour temp) lights mounted on a light bar. They are almost too good - the reflection of road signs can be dazzling.

A city police officer at a RBT site warned me that he could give me a substantial fine for the fitment as they may block the number plate from fixed speed cameras. Country officers don’t give them a second look.

I toyed with putting a light bar behind the grill, but there is not a lot of room and I was never convinced that it would do the job.

Let us know what you end up with and how it goes.

oh - and the roos that are a problem are the ones that you don't see until you are on them - usually hiding just over the crest of the hill in a group of 4.... or the emus that come barrelling out of the scrub on the side of the road at 40 kmph…..



edit - I forgot about the koala I hit - managed to just about pull up before making contact - it ran off - I am not sure who suffered the most shock.......

[wfdTamar]

That was how I was thinking to mount my driving lights. I have a set of chrome Hellas which would go on I think, but look wrong on the car (too old fashioned).

Better ones are my black ones. They currently have dual filament (low and high beam capable) globes, but can be converted to HID. Very chunky and quite robust, but prevent the bonnet opening unless I mount the Unibar forward (which would look even worse). Here they are on my old Vectra:



To get around that obscured license plate regulation the latest Unbars have another mount for the plate at the front edge (you could add that to an old style Unibar easy).



I have two Unbars - one like yours (straight with bent ends) and another with a curve that matches the curve of the Octavia bumper.


Also have one of these - more subtle, better suited to LED lightbars. Can be used upside down so the light bar is under the number plate.



Mysticality has a better thread about lights here:

Mysticality's Light Thread!!

[brad]

DunlopRS - why haven't you fitted HIDs in your projector housings? I did it years back and it transformed the car. They still wouldn't overcome the high beam inadequacy but help when you can't get the big lights on.

I think anything behind the grille would be pretty useless because of the shape of the grille fins.

Anything mounted under the numberplate would be too low unless you are trying to counteract fog.

[DunlopRS]

Brad - have not wanted to mess with the "fabric" of the car while under new car warranty, and I find that the low beam is actually OK. Perhaps I would not think so if I had HID low....

I would say the high beam is the worst feature of the car...

You mention fog - I reaaallyyyy wish drivers would not try to use fog lights as driving lights.......

[wfdTamar]

Also if you read the Mystically thread he keeps blowing up something called the BCM by putting HID's in his headlights.

[brad]

Also if you read the Mystically thread he keeps blowing up something called the BCM by putting HID's in his headlights.

He's probably not doing it right or is using a cheap'n'nasty HID kit.

I run a "CanBus Friendly" HID kit (has a big resistor in it) and it's been fine.

BUT!!!

Over at Briskoda they reckon the CanBus Friendly kits blow the BCM and you should buy a standard kit & code it in. I reckon they are probably right and I've just been lucky.

Brad - have not wanted to mess with the "fabric" of the car while under new car warranty, and I find that the low beam is actually OK. Perhaps I would not think so if I had HID low....

I would say the high beam is the worst feature of the car...

.

I use my high beam as filler for the low beam HIDs - that's all it's good for. I'd change the high beam to HIDs but I flash them quite a lot so HIDs would be useless.

My original HID bulbs (6000k IIRC) were great and had terrific distance. They were part of a $200 kit. My current $15/pr replacement bulbs (4200k) are about 70% as effective. I'm told that the colour temp makes no difference so I can only assume they are inferior in design or quality. Still better than halogens though.

As an aside, wife's Honda has LEDs. They are fantastic! Better than HIDs imo

[wfdTamar]

The way I understood the colour of HID's was the higher the number 'k', the whiter the light, but actually the lower the light output. So even though 6000k is whiter, it puts out less light than 4500k (everything else being the same, i.e. quality). Also is more obvious you've been fiddling with your lights.

[DunlopRS]

Re colour temp - many HIDs start moving into blue light and the effectiveness of the light is greatly reduced (as is often the case "fashion" does not equal real world performance / function). Mine were special order, both for 70w and either 4200 or 4500K or similar - have not got the number with me. IMHO & experience the lower the colour temp the better / more effective (blue is for show only...., even into yellower rather than white light is better – particularly in the rain (some info here HID Bulb Colors & Kelvin Temperatures | HeadlightRetrofits.com - not vouching for accuracy))

If I were to put a light bar behind the grill I would be looking for one of those honeycomb grills as the std is not "transparent" enough (although I have not seen a honeycomb in the flesh so it might not be much better......"

my lights are very deep so they needed to be mounted a long way forward to allow enough clearance for the bonnet to open. I have thought about dropping the number plate and/ or using one of the narrow ones but nothing would be neat or strictly compliant. Perhaps I should look at one of those newer unbar designs…..(or a piece of Al angle – it already looks a bit agricultural anyway!)

wfdTamar - I like the look of the neat lightbar / number plate holder on the territory. About 4 years ago as far as I could tell the LED lightbars may have provided good close in fill but not a lot of good light at distance. This may have changed. Has anyone seen a good quantitative review / comparison of LED lightbars against good halogen & HID lights?
I had the unfortunate desire to head onto a heavily corrugated dirt road today – retreated after about 1 km @ 20 km/hr………. perhaps that scout would have been more suitable…. Did your octavia start as a 103kw??

Must have a look at mystically’s thread again – have not been there for a long time – his experience with electronics problems helped me stay away from messing with the cars systems…..