Tested: Ultra Vision Nitro Maxx 180 LED

Ultra Vision has released what it claims is the most powerful, longest-beam LED driving light on the market, aimed at truckles and those who do a lot of outback night driving.

A pair of Ultra Vision's Nitro Maxx 180 driving lights has a claimed output of one lux at 1.8 kilometres. Because that sort of range isn't required all the time, the lamps come with high-low switching that, at 20-per cent power, reduces that claimed beam length to a more normal 600 metres.

The switching between medium-distance spread beam and the additional long-distance beam is achieved by a special wiring harness that comes with every pair of Nitro Maxx 180s and is operated by a small dashboard button. The Nitro Maxx 180s can't connect to a normal driving light harness.

In addition, the 19 LEDs in each lamp can be ordered with a choice of colour temperature – either 4000 Kelvin or 5700 Kelvin. The company's website clearly shows the difference, with the 4000K setting giving warmer, more natural colour than the slightly bluish 5700K temperature.

What’s a Kelvin?
Colour temperature is by far the most confusing of all light statistics, because it compares the Kelvin absolute temperature scale with the visible light spectrum.

William Kelvin was a physicist in the late 1800s and he developed a temperature scale using Absolute Zero (-2730C) as its starting point, hence eliminating the minus numbers you get if the freezing temperature of water is used as the starting point.

The same bloke heated a piece of carbon, noting that it changed colour as its temperature rose: dim red, bright red, dim yellow, bright yellow, yellow-white, bright white and blue-white. Kelvin temperature points were later added to colour-temperature charts.

Back in the days when light brightness was a function of applied heat the scale had relevance. Back then, the higher the temperature, the whiter the light, but now there are cooler light sources – gas discharge (HID) and light emitting diodes (LEDs) – it's just plain confusing.

Checking out a colour temperature chart, it's obvious that if you evaluate an HID or LED light purely on its colour temperature, more isn't necessarily better. The 'sweet spot' is in the 4000-5500K region, because higher numbers give too much 'blue' cast and head for eventual darkness at the end of the visible spectrum.

Out of the darkness
Back to our test lights. The amount of lighting power and flexibility from the Nitro Maxx 180s doesn't come cheaply, so expect to pay $850-$900 per light. With the new 180s Ultra Vision is targeting 4WD long-distance night-time bush drivers and truck operators.

Construction is a die-cast, 3.45kg, 230mm-diameter aluminium housing, with polycarbonate lens, separate protective clear cover and 4mm stainless steel, U-shaped bracket. A theft-resistant locking nut is standard.

We tested a pair of Ultra Vision Nitro Maxx 180s and were very impressed with their performance. We pointed them down our two-kilometre test road and they lit it beautifully, as well as illuminating our test gravel sections.

Fitting was easy enough, but we did employ an auto-electrician to do the harness installation, bearing in mind the likely current draw needed to give the claimed level of brightness and distance.

They rival an LED/HID Lightforce DL230HTX pair for distance and beam flexibility, but the advantage the Nitro Maxx 180s have over the DL230HTXs is that they're all-LED, so there should be no need to replace the long-distance globes.

However, LEDs use more current than HIDs and we measured current draw for the pair of Nitro Maxx 180s at 27.11 amps on full power, compared with only 4.25 amps on the 20-per cent, spread-beam setting.

Vehicles with truck-sized alternators or 24-volt electrical systems shouldn't have a problem delivering that power for prolonged periods, but lesser machinery might struggle.

If you're in the market for a pair of serious night-blasters the Ultra Vision Nitro Maxx 180 LEDs are worth considering.