Enthusiast III
Good thing I'm not building a trophy truck.
Member III
- 2,827
- First Name
- Tom
- Last Name
- Houston
- Member #
8300
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- WØNUT Extra
My frustration with my LED lights is that they ice over and their pattern does not cut off vertically very well, blinding oncoming traffic. Efficiency is great but I am thinkin of adding some resistors inside the housing to melt the ice, killing the efficiency.
Headlights, I run halogens, always will. I like the softer yellow light.
But off road and route finding on the beach I run the least expensive LED floods I can find, the light bar on the roof $68, the cubes $49.
The big advantage for LEDs is the low amps draw. All 3 run off the fog light switch.
Almost everywhere has laws banning the use of auxiliary lights on the road. And anything mounted higher than the headlight centerline must be covered on the highway. In '04? the Liberty came with 4 roof top lights, they came with covers. In the 1970s all auxiliary lights included plastic covers.
In BC, run the highway with a light bar on, $84 fine. But if you have a light bar and it is not covered, $187 fine.
The only exception for lights mounted higher than the headlight centerline is for driving lights on a snow plow truck.
But off road and route finding on the beach I run the least expensive LED floods I can find, the light bar on the roof $68, the cubes $49.
The big advantage for LEDs is the low amps draw. All 3 run off the fog light switch.
Almost everywhere has laws banning the use of auxiliary lights on the road. And anything mounted higher than the headlight centerline must be covered on the highway. In '04? the Liberty came with 4 roof top lights, they came with covers. In the 1970s all auxiliary lights included plastic covers.
In BC, run the highway with a light bar on, $84 fine. But if you have a light bar and it is not covered, $187 fine.
The only exception for lights mounted higher than the headlight centerline is for driving lights on a snow plow truck.
Contributor III
Idk why, maybe because it was big during my childhood, but the Halogens have a certain appeal to me. Just neat stuff.
Member III
Contributor III
My younger brother has 5x rigid cubes on his Raptor- they are VERY bright and the lux is pretty impressive.
Look at Baja Designs too. I believe they have better reflectors and lenses. Get a amber/yellow cover for them while you are shopping.
Pathfinder I
My response is echoing pretty much the same. I have the Mopar upgrade led headlamps for driving. However the color makes harsh contrast in dark wooded areas. I like softer halogen and yellow/amber lights for fog and trails because I can see so much more with less (?).
Member III
I went with led headlights because the factory headlights were much too dim.
I prefer warm color lights, but no aftermarket headlight company offers less than 5000 or 6000 Kelvins. I would like 4000 to 4500, if it was made.
I have a lot of high powered flashlights and most are in the 4000 Kelvin range, natural color. Cant stand the blues of higher kelvins.
I prefer warm color lights, but no aftermarket headlight company offers less than 5000 or 6000 Kelvins. I would like 4000 to 4500, if it was made.
I have a lot of high powered flashlights and most are in the 4000 Kelvin range, natural color. Cant stand the blues of higher kelvins.
I never use my roof bar, and my Rigid Spots on the bumper have an amber filer that helps cut fog/snow/rain a little better. It does still reflect back a fair amount but not nearly as bad as just the straight white/blue light.
Explorer I
- 4,285
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Denniston
- Member #
3030
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- KJ7LYZ
The factory headlights on my Ram are terrible. I need to do some sort of upgrade there.
I have a set of the Baja Designs S2 Pros mounted on the hood at the A piller. Basically ditch lights, but aimed high, so dear lights.
A Rough Country 30" bar on my bumper. Not a huge fan, the light is just a huge flood. It's good for slow trail work but lacks distance.
I also run AuxBeam Pods on the sides of my rack, an a set of Rigid Radiance (orange back lit) on the rear of my rack.
I really want a set of Baja Designs LP6's up front.
When rolling into camp after dark, I have plenty of perimeter lighting to get setup.
Here is a recent camp in the dark,
And with the lights on,
Lighting was very helpful in this camp. Just past the fire about 3' was a 6 foot drop into the Columbia River.
Here is another night camp a couple weeks ago,
I have a set of the Baja Designs S2 Pros mounted on the hood at the A piller. Basically ditch lights, but aimed high, so dear lights.
A Rough Country 30" bar on my bumper. Not a huge fan, the light is just a huge flood. It's good for slow trail work but lacks distance.
I also run AuxBeam Pods on the sides of my rack, an a set of Rigid Radiance (orange back lit) on the rear of my rack.
I really want a set of Baja Designs LP6's up front.
When rolling into camp after dark, I have plenty of perimeter lighting to get setup.
Here is a recent camp in the dark,
And with the lights on,
Lighting was very helpful in this camp. Just past the fire about 3' was a 6 foot drop into the Columbia River.
Here is another night camp a couple weeks ago,
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Member III
- 2,827
- First Name
- Joshua
- Last Name
- Downs
- Member #
20468
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- KK6RBI / WQYH678
- Service Branch
- USMC 03-16, FIRE/EMS
I run some Trucklite knockoffs from Amazon Price was about 90 dollars. I installed them about a year and a half ago. Still going strong. The biggest downfall of most cheap LEDs is the reflectors aren't well designed. On these knockoffs they seemed to do a good job of emulating the Trucklight reflector so you get a good sharp cut off on low beam and on high beam get some serious range out of them. I don't even run any auxiliary lighting on the front of the Jeep.
Dislaimer-I do have experience with actual Trucklights on my motorcycles and while they are good and marginally better than the knock offs I'm not sure they're 200 dollars better.
Dislaimer-I do have experience with actual Trucklights on my motorcycles and while they are good and marginally better than the knock offs I'm not sure they're 200 dollars better.
Member III
- 2,827
- First Name
- Joshua
- Last Name
- Downs
- Member #
20468
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- KK6RBI / WQYH678
- Service Branch
- USMC 03-16, FIRE/EMS
There's a few brands out there you can buy that have the heat traces in the lenses similar to a window defroster. Trucklight and JW Speaker are two of them. It takes a well designed housing/reflector to get that good sharp cutoff on low beam. The trucklights with the bar across the center of the light (when talking about the standard 5x7 lights) are one of those.
Contributor III
This is my setup- a combination of both.
2x 24W 3x3 ditch lights (amber covers in the glovebox) Used for mountain roads at night to catch deer eyes and cut through fog
6k LED headlights (not bad IMO)
7x KC Daylighters with Hella 55W (100w was too much draw for the 1 40A relay I had) Used for either roadside snow recoveries or night time mountain trails.
Advocate III
- 5,584
- First Name
- Michael
- Last Name
- Rose
- Member #
20990
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- W7FSB
- Service Branch
- US ARMY Retired
Member III
