Off Road Lights for night drives!

[Christopher Assal]

Hello team Carnity 

 

Another topic too help with the many thoughts running through my head for my vehicle . This one is Re improving lights or light bars / spots for evening drives!

I have thought about purchasing and fitting a light bar or spots for the car for night drives. Had a couple of small missions in the evening and noticed my old 2014 lights are not as effective as I would like.

What are the opinions of just improving the current fitted lights on the car too LED or HID headlights. I’m sure this would undoubtedly improve what is seen at night. OR is a light bar or spots much much more effective then that first solution?

If so I would love to hear opinions on wether spot lights suffice , light bar would be much better and wether there is a preference in general too LED or HID.

TIA and see you in the sand! 

[Anish S]

@Christopher Assal For night off-roading, light bar and spot is much more effective than trying to upgrade the headlights. Headlights are more suited for on road use. 

There are light bar that have combinations of both spot and flood lights so that you can get a good wide angle brightness. On the other hand, You can also opt for set of cubic led spot and flood lights and install it as per your requirement. e.g for the sides you can use the flood light and for the forward you can use spot light to enhance the brightness.

you can also check the below thread, there might be some interesting information for you

 

[Roy Armale]

The 3 things that are gonna affect your lighting is function (flood v/s spot v/s combo), location (bumper, hood/windshield, roof), and price.

LEDs (especially strips/bars) are cheap and give you the combo. Otherwise you need to do some mixing and matching.

If I wanna super honest, the location is more about aesthetics. The most functional location is a smaller (20 inch) bar on your bumper, you can very optionally support that with a couple of hood/windshield lights for spread (you need to angle them outwards).

The price is more connected with the longevity than performance. You'll find a lot of really bright lights for cheap, but they don't come with proper warranties.

My approach is dualistic:

1. Get cheaper ones and try them out so that if I regret a location or level of brightness I can replace parts without too much crying in the corner.
2. Commit when they break down and I have experience to buy expensive stuff.

I'm also a "balance form with function" person, so I'll admit to sometimes compromising to get a better look. For example, I have roof lights that create a higher drag on the highway, but I love the way they look. Let's face it, if I wanted aerodynamics, I wouldn't have bought a brick with wheels.

My setup is in the pics, I can tell you where I got the lights from if you're interested, but putting 2 of the roof lights on your bumper is more than enough, what I did was overkill for the balanced look.

That said, don't skimp on installation. The wrong angle (especially for roof lights) will give a strong hood reflection and mess up your view, no chance of that with bumper lights that you can probably install at home (that's how i tried my first set but the wiring took a while the first time)

Edited June 14, 2021 by Roy Armale