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LED light bars can escape legal censure if they are classified as work lamps.
LED light bars have become a common sight on four-wheel drive vehicles in rural Rodney but the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) is warning drivers that their flashy set-up may be illegal.
A typical car headlight is 700 lumens. High beam lights are around 1200 lumens, while light bars retailing in New Zealand are available up to 32,000 lumens.
Light bars can be legally fitted to a vehicle provided they are classified as a work lamp and have an independent switch. Generally, they are not permitted to be used while driving on a public road.
Despite this, major retailers are advertising light bars as “driving around lights”. Repco advertises the 22-inch 10,000 lumen Maxi Trac 220 bar as “driving lights for maximum attack”.
“Its time get something better suited to your type of driving, with driving lights that are bright, rugged and give you that extra oomph to both the performance and aesthetics of your 4×4,” the Repco website says.
“It’s no use being the brightest light on the market if you can only throw the beam 100 metres. The MTLB puts out a massive 10,800 raw lumens of bright white light. It’s so bright that if you have the eyes for it you can light up a newspaper from 500 metres away.”
The NZTA says that light bars can technically be fitted to a vehicle for use as high-beam headlamps while driving on a public road, but most are unlikely to comply with regulations.
Light bars are typically a single unit, but to comply with headlamp regulations they need to be fitted as a pair.
The light bars would also have to be certified by one of the NZTA’s list of recognised standard authorities, such as the Economic Commission for Europe or the United States Department of Transportation.
Warkworth’s Scott Sutherland, of Scotty’s Automotive, says he regularly sees LED light bars on vehicles.
“Every young guy in town has got one.”
He says despite being illegal, it is common for drivers to have them wired to their headlights.
“Light bars are easy to remove from a vehicle for it to get a warrant and can be remounted afterwards,” he says.
“They’re not being policed on the road. That’s the problem.”
Scott says despite recent advice from the NZTA that all aftermarket LED lights are illegal, retailers continue to sell them.
He believes light bars have been tolerated by the NZTA as work lamps because they are useful for motorway workers or farmers herding stock at night.
