Hella Lights Illuminating our Adventure

In 2009, I (Coen) was looking for a replacement for our heavily used and burned-out air compressor of the air horn. I contacted Jeroen from Exalto, in the Netherlands. Exalto is a main player in the Marine equipment business.

When I explained to him what we were doing and what I was looking for, he offered us 2 new, 24-volt compressors if I would send him a photo wearing Exalto caps. Well, obviously, I jumped at that deal!

When I asked him if he had any leads for navigation reading lights, he hooked me up with Bastiaan from Hella Marine Netherlands.

Compressor is the little blue compressor sitting in the left

From an Exalto Compressor to Hella Lights

Bastiaan is an avid outdoorsman who likes to run, bicycle and take trips in the woods. He was instantly smitten with our adventure and promised to do his best in getting us some terrific Hella LED lights.

At first I was a bit skeptical when I opened the box and saw such a tiny LED sticking in that lamp. I figured that less than 2 watts would never suffice to read a book. Boy, was I wrong. These little devils prove to be very bright as well as energy-efficient reading lights.

A nifty detail: Because it has a 400-mm, flexible arm we can pull it out of our side windows when we sit alongside the Land Cruiser at night. Energy nitpick as I am, what I love is that four of these lights provides us with all the interior lighting we could ever ask for while drawing only 0.07 Amps at 24 Volt.

From Interior to Exterior Lighting

Throughout the years, Bastiaan has gotten us some of the best in Hella lighting equipment. As we were rebuilding the Land Cruiser frame up in La Paz (Bolivia), he offered to replace the Land Cruiser’s worn off-road lights with the latest in technology from Hella.

That’s how we ended up with four high performance driving lights on the front of the car.

Just recently, when our rear light started to falter, Hella came through once more and the Land Cruiser is now sporting a powerful work/floodlight on the rear: it illuminates a vast area behind us with 6 ultrabright LEDs while drawing only 0.84 Amps, which is the same as just one of our fans.

Thanks, Jeroen and Bastiaan for your support!

Read More: The Land Cruiser’s Ins & Outs