Modern lightbars bring safety to driving snowcats at night

*The original post of this review is published on the Golight Facebook.

As the top-rated training center for back-country snowcat operations and winter survival skills, we at Safety One Training are regularly faced with challenging work environments.

Winter in Colorado brings short days and long nights, often with extreme cold and harsh weather including blowing snow and low visibility. Our snowcat of choice is the Hagglunds BV206, originally designed in the late 70s. There are areas for improvement with Hagglunds BV206, and one of those is lighting.

As delivered, the BV206 offers two headlights that shed light only in the direction of travel and not more than a few hundred feet. As such, many operators attached off-road lights to enhance visibility in low light conditions – this is critical as snowcat operators often work in low-visibility conditions, such as snow and fog.

We recently had the opportunity to implement the Golight Stryker HIDs and the Golight GXL LEDs. The installation process was straight forward and visibility greatly enhanced as a result.

Both lights were delivered with instructions and the necessary hardware, though our unique application required some additional parts including spacers, silicone sealant and voltage step down transformers. The hardware and wiring components that were included were high quality and easy to install. After a few hours in the shop we were left with a professional looking package that provided significantly more light than the factory headlights.

After a day of testing in low light conditions we were impressed by the lights provided by the GXLs and their ability to light structures hundreds of yards ahead in the direction of travel. The Stryker series provided a warm spotlight which was easily controlled with the hardwired remote. The spot lights allowed us to quickly and accurately light subjects that were not directly ahead. This feature is invaluable when working in unknown terrain or when conducting search and rescue operations.

The package of GXL and Stryker lights not only look great but significantly increased the nighttime visibility of our snowcat and search and rescue operations.

If you own a Hagglunds BV206 or a snowcat that does not come with enhanced light structures, try using the GXL LED and Stryker HID to increase the visibility. According to a research at University of Minnesota, not only does the LED light make your snowcat more visible during low-visibility conditions, it also reduces the likelihood of a rear-end accident, and improve crash avoidance and response time.