Baja Designs Fuego HID Wide-Cornering Light Review

Posted on July 17, 2007
5:30 pm

Originally published in the July/August 2007 issue of Sand Sports Magazine. This historical review covers a lighting system tested on our Yamaha Rhino. Product specifications, availability and Baja Designs’ current lighting lineup may have changed since the original test.

The stock headlights on our Yamaha Rhino illuminated roughly 30 feet of trail and were suitable for only slow nighttime driving. That was not enough light for the type of night riding we had planned for our Rhino project, so an auxiliary lighting system became one of the build’s essential upgrades.

HID lights were an attractive option in 2007 because they produced considerably more usable light than the Rhino’s stock headlights while placing a relatively modest demand on its limited electrical system once the lamps were operating. However, the concentrated beam pattern of a conventional HID driving or spot light could leave dark areas immediately in front of the vehicle and along the sides of the trail.

Baja Designs offered a potential solution with its wide-cornering lens for the Fuego 4-inch HID light. Rather than concentrating all of the available light farther down the trail, the wide-cornering pattern was designed to spread illumination across the foreground and toward both sides of the vehicle. We installed one alongside our driving lights to see how well the different beam patterns complemented each other.

Yamaha Rhino light rack equipped with four Baja Designs Fuego 4-inch HID lights — Our Yamaha Rhino carried four Baja Designs Fuego 4-inch HID lights on an overhead light rack.

Comparing the Beam Patterns

We photographed the Rhino from the same position with three different lighting configurations. Although camera exposure and viewing conditions can affect how lighting photographs appear, the images show the fundamental differences between the stock headlights, the HID driving lights and the wide-cornering pattern.

Stock Yamaha Rhino Headlights

Yamaha Rhino stock headlights operating on high beam — The Yamaha Rhino’s stock headlights on high beam. The useful beam was narrow and ended relatively close to the vehicle.

The factory headlights provided enough illumination for maneuvering at low speeds, but their limited reach and coverage made it difficult to confidently read the terrain during faster nighttime driving.

Stock Headlights With Fuego HID Driving Lights

Yamaha Rhino using stock headlights and Baja Designs Fuego HID driving lights — Adding the Fuego HID driving lights projected substantially more light down the trail.

The HID driving lights made a dramatic improvement in distance and overall brightness. Their focused beams helped us see farther ahead, but there were still comparatively dark areas close to the Rhino and at the outer edges of our field of view.

Adding the Wide-Cornering Light

Yamaha Rhino using stock headlights, Fuego HID driving lights and a Fuego wide-cornering HID light — The complete combination: stock headlights, Fuego HID driving lights and a Fuego HID wide-cornering light.

The wide-cornering light performed as advertised during our test. It filled the darker areas immediately ahead of the Rhino and spread useful illumination toward the sides of the trail. That additional peripheral light made nearby terrain and the entrance to a corner easier to identify before turning into it.

Rather than replacing the longer-range driving lights, the wide-cornering pattern complemented them. The driving lights handled distance while the wide beam covered the foreground and peripheral areas. Together, the two patterns created a more complete field of vision than either one could provide by itself.

Installation and Adjustment

The compact four-inch Fuego housings fit neatly on our Rhino’s overhead light rack. The lights incorporated their ballasts into the housings, which simplified the installation compared with systems requiring separate external ballasts. Their mounts also allowed the lights to be aimed without tools, making it easy to fine-tune the beam pattern after dark.

Yamaha Rhino with an overhead rack carrying Baja Designs Fuego HID lights — A wider view of the Yamaha Rhino and its overhead Fuego HID light rack.

Final Verdict

For this Yamaha Rhino, the Baja Designs Fuego wide-cornering HID light addressed the biggest weakness of the more focused driving-light pattern. It delivered the foreground and side coverage we were missing without sacrificing the longer-range illumination supplied by the driving lights.

The most effective setup was not simply the brightest possible group of lights. It was the combination of complementary beam patterns: driving lights for distance and a wide-cornering light for nearby terrain and peripheral visibility. That lighting principle remains useful when planning a modern UTV light-bar or pod-light system, even though LED technology has largely replaced the HID equipment tested here.

For more background on the machine used in this test, see our history of the Yamaha Rhino, 2006 Yamaha Rhino 660 review and Yamaha Rhino accessories guide.