Yeah Timber West's latest trick to turn a quick profit around here is to use a loophole where they get to decide if land is more profitable as real estate than as a TFL. If they decide to convert a parcel they can strip log it without replanting and just call it landscaping. So now Muir Creek, Forebay, and probably some of Butler and surely other areas are being taken off the TFL and sold off to developers. Anywhere you see really young timber coming out on trucks is likely being stripped and converted. TW knows that their forestry practices are not sustainable and produce diminishing yields each cycle without ever letting any of the wilderness convert back to old growth. I just saw two logging trucks today coming out of that area with full loads of brutally small immature timber, like the largest trees on the trucks were maybe a few 8" trunks and most were closer to 6". Those logs are being stripped and shipped off to China and the land is being left bare because it's not timberland anymore. You'll see it when you're back there.
Welcome!
I love watching Australian off road videos on YouTube.
Different kinds of terrain and scenery over there for sure.
Wheeling is bit different here on the island nowadays than it used to be when the back roads were always wide open.
A lot of FSR's are gated up now but wasn't always like this. A crooked land deal in the 80's resulted in most of our crown land on the island being handed over to private enterprise, which has now led to us being locked out of our own back yards. There are still plenty of places back there you could go for some challenging trails but it's knowing the right ways and times to go in and out and how to stay out of the way of commercial operations. Most Saturdays and pretty much every Sunday and holiday is when you're least likely to have any issues. Go out with some locals who know the area and you'll be fine. Sometimes the timber companies will even be nice and "forget to lock" a few gates for the weekend.
Yep, they sure would. They're very thin with a low enough profile to tuck up just about anywhere.
You'd have to mount them somewhere they aren't going to get trashed on the trail though.
There are a few different ways you can set these lights up to run.
1. "Mad Max Mode".
- Direct unregulated power to the LED modules, activated by an on/off switch in the cab with a fuse inline for proper electrical safety.
Pro's: Cheapest set-up, requires less circuit design and less hardware to complete. Maximum brightness possible without additional hardware.
Con's: Only for off road use. Too bright for on road use without a current limiting voltage regulator. Brightness will vary with the voltage coming in from your battery or alternator which goes from 12.6v when the engine is off, up to 14.8v when the alternator is at full output.
2. "DRL Mode"
A preset non-variable current limiting voltage regulator is installed inline with the power supply to the LED modules in order to regulate and limit the output for safe on road use. Wired to your vehicle's DRL or manual running lamp circuit to turn on and off automatically with your DRL's or manual running lights.
Pro's: Safe for on road use. Still helps a bit off road by casting some light closer to the vehicle where visibility from headlamps is limited. Costs about the same to set up as Mad Max but a regulator will cost about $5 more than a good switch.
Con's: Takes away your control of the lights and nerfs brightness for off road use where more light intensity and coverage is desired.
3. "Dual Mode"
A 3-position switch installed in the cab controls the LED mode, allowing you to have unregulated power for off road use, regulated power for DRL use with either automatic or manual activation and also to turn off LED's completely if desired.
Pro's: the most versatile set up that will give you the most control over your LED lighting.
Con's: The most expensive in terms of hardware cost and labor intensive in terms of design and installation effort required.
To wire these modules in as augmented revers lighting, it is not really necessary to use any voltage regulation. I just used a 5W diode and an audio filter capacitor and ran them right off the existing reverse lamp circuit and they're doing just fine since they are only lit while reversing and the tint on my rear window really requires a bright light back there to really see anything well through it.
I should also note that if you prefer a warm white color temperature from 3500K-4000K, they also offer this product in that option but the price per module is double what the pure white LED's run for ($10/ea). They more closely resembles incandescent light and show off the red end of the color spectrum better than the cool or pure white color temperature LED's and would probably suffer less scattering effect in foggy conditions. I got a set for myself to try out but at that price it's not quite as cost effective to deck the whole rig out with them and I personally prefer the pure white LED light over the attempt at faux incandescent light by an LED. You also suffer some brightness loss with the warm white modules, as they are only rated for 10W max and put out 1200Lm.
They also ship with thin aluminum covers that hide the PCB part of the module if you prefer that look but I find them to be too flimsy for the type of abuse they'd likely get subjected to off road and I elected to run them naked on my test run to see how well they would hold up and so far there's no sign of any damage or degradation.
Here are the technical specifications for the COB LED modules.
Dimensions:
L= 170mm
W= 14.5mm
Th= 2.3mm
Service Type: Outdoor, Rough Service, Automotive, Marine
Modules are completely waterproof, have corrosion resistant gold plated contacts and low profile soft impact resistant bezel and lens.
Substrate: Polycarbonate film PCB laminated to 1mm aluminum die cut sheet.
Color Temperature: Pure White, Min=6000K, Nom=6500K, Max=8000K
Emitters: 76 @ 1/5W each, (19 groups in parallel of 4 emitters in series)
Operating Voltage Range: DC 11Vmin-16Vmax
Max Power Dissipation: 15W
Max Current: 1.25A
Max Luminosity: 2000Lm max continuous below 85ºc
Emission (viewing) Angle: 150º, flood type beam
Other features:
Pass-through power rail activated by shorting the test-point contacts which allows up to 4 modules to be strung together from one power lead.
Modules are flexible enough to be shaped and conformally surface mounted to slightly curved surfaces like body panels and bumpers.
Modules mounted to a sufficient heat sink (large metal surface) can run at peak power continuously without additional cooling or duty cycling.
Yeah Timber West's latest trick to turn a quick profit around here is to use a loophole where they get to decide if land is more profitable as real estate than as a TFL. If they decide to convert a parcel they can strip log it without replanting and just call it landscaping. So now Muir Creek, Forebay, and probably some of Butler and surely other areas are being taken off the TFL and sold off to developers. Anywhere you see really young timber coming out on trucks is likely being stripped and converted. TW knows that their forestry practices are not sustainable and produce diminishing yields each cycle without ever letting any of the wilderness convert back to old growth. I just saw two logging trucks today coming out of that area with full loads of brutally small immature timber, like the largest trees on the trucks were maybe a few 8" trunks and most were closer to 6". Those logs are being stripped and shipped off to China and the land is being left bare because it's not timberland anymore. You'll see it when you're back there.
Welcome!
I love watching Australian off road videos on YouTube.
Different kinds of terrain and scenery over there for sure.
Wheeling is bit different here on the island nowadays than it used to be when the back roads were always wide open.
A lot of FSR's are gated up now but wasn't always like this. A crooked land deal in the 80's resulted in most of our crown land on the island being handed over to private enterprise, which has now led to us being locked out of our own back yards. There are still plenty of places back there you could go for some challenging trails but it's knowing the right ways and times to go in and out and how to stay out of the way of commercial operations. Most Saturdays and pretty much every Sunday and holiday is when you're least likely to have any issues. Go out with some locals who know the area and you'll be fine. Sometimes the timber companies will even be nice and "forget to lock" a few gates for the weekend.
Yep, they sure would. They're very thin with a low enough profile to tuck up just about anywhere.
You'd have to mount them somewhere they aren't going to get trashed on the trail though.
There are a few different ways you can set these lights up to run.
1. "Mad Max Mode".
- Direct unregulated power to the LED modules, activated by an on/off switch in the cab with a fuse inline for proper electrical safety.
Pro's: Cheapest set-up, requires less circuit design and less hardware to complete. Maximum brightness possible without additional hardware.
Con's: Only for off road use. Too bright for on road use without a current limiting voltage regulator. Brightness will vary with the voltage coming in from your battery or alternator which goes from 12.6v when the engine is off, up to 14.8v when the alternator is at full output.
2. "DRL Mode"
A preset non-variable current limiting voltage regulator is installed inline with the power supply to the LED modules in order to regulate and limit the output for safe on road use. Wired to your vehicle's DRL or manual running lamp circuit to turn on and off automatically with your DRL's or manual running lights.
Pro's: Safe for on road use. Still helps a bit off road by casting some light closer to the vehicle where visibility from headlamps is limited. Costs about the same to set up as Mad Max but a regulator will cost about $5 more than a good switch.
Con's: Takes away your control of the lights and nerfs brightness for off road use where more light intensity and coverage is desired.
3. "Dual Mode"
A 3-position switch installed in the cab controls the LED mode, allowing you to have unregulated power for off road use, regulated power for DRL use with either automatic or manual activation and also to turn off LED's completely if desired.
Pro's: the most versatile set up that will give you the most control over your LED lighting.
Con's: The most expensive in terms of hardware cost and labor intensive in terms of design and installation effort required.
To wire these modules in as augmented revers lighting, it is not really necessary to use any voltage regulation. I just used a 5W diode and an audio filter capacitor and ran them right off the existing reverse lamp circuit and they're doing just fine since they are only lit while reversing and the tint on my rear window really requires a bright light back there to really see anything well through it.
I should also note that if you prefer a warm white color temperature from 3500K-4000K, they also offer this product in that option but the price per module is double what the pure white LED's run for ($10/ea). They more closely resembles incandescent light and show off the red end of the color spectrum better than the cool or pure white color temperature LED's and would probably suffer less scattering effect in foggy conditions. I got a set for myself to try out but at that price it's not quite as cost effective to deck the whole rig out with them and I personally prefer the pure white LED light over the attempt at faux incandescent light by an LED. You also suffer some brightness loss with the warm white modules, as they are only rated for 10W max and put out 1200Lm.
They also ship with thin aluminum covers that hide the PCB part of the module if you prefer that look but I find them to be too flimsy for the type of abuse they'd likely get subjected to off road and I elected to run them naked on my test run to see how well they would hold up and so far there's no sign of any damage or degradation.
Here are the technical specifications for the COB LED modules.
Dimensions:
L= 170mm
W= 14.5mm
Th= 2.3mm
Service Type: Outdoor, Rough Service, Automotive, Marine
Modules are completely waterproof, have corrosion resistant gold plated contacts and low profile soft impact resistant bezel and lens.
Substrate: Polycarbonate film PCB laminated to 1mm aluminum die cut sheet.
Color Temperature: Pure White, Min=6000K, Nom=6500K, Max=8000K
Emitters: 76 @ 1/5W each, (19 groups in parallel of 4 emitters in series)
Operating Voltage Range: DC 11Vmin-16Vmax
Max Power Dissipation: 15W
Max Current: 1.25A
Max Luminosity: 2000Lm max continuous below 85ºc
Emission (viewing) Angle: 150º, flood type beam
Other features:
Pass-through power rail activated by shorting the test-point contacts which allows up to 4 modules to be strung together from one power lead.
Modules are flexible enough to be shaped and conformally surface mounted to slightly curved surfaces like body panels and bumpers.
Modules mounted to a sufficient heat sink (large metal surface) can run at peak power continuously without additional cooling or duty cycling.