I’ve ordered a light bar for my 02 TJ that fits around the windshield with 4 mounts for lights. I’m wanting to put 4 KC 6” slim fit lights up there. What’s the general consensus as far as using spot vs the flood/spread pattern above the windshield?
Spot or flood / spread lighting?
- Thread starter BentonJB
- Start date
Personally I would do a mix, if I had the choice.
My ideal setup would have 2 spot, 2 driving, and 2 flood, on separate switches.
I think the driving light would probably be the most useful of the 3. Spots are good for long stretches of road with nobody around. Flood is good for low speed travel and as stationary lighting. Driving is similar to a low plus high beam
My ideal setup would have 2 spot, 2 driving, and 2 flood, on separate switches.
I think the driving light would probably be the most useful of the 3. Spots are good for long stretches of road with nobody around. Flood is good for low speed travel and as stationary lighting. Driving is similar to a low plus high beam
I have the KC slimlite fog lights, and used Daylighter spot lights. They’re quite nice. I’d buy them again. I have the 100 watt bulbs in the fogs, which are almost too bright for on-road use. I have the 130 watt bulbs in the spots
I have the KC spot lights on the windshield bracket wired with their own relay and switch. I recently replaced the headlights with LED's from Amazon for about $100.00 and they really light up the road. The spots are concentrated to light up the road for quite a distance but not with any approaching traffic. They are strictly for off road trail use. I also have a set of PIAA fog lights mounted on the bumper for fog or misty mornings. They can safely be used with approaching traffic. Each light has it's own independent circuit, relay, fuse and switch.
I'm still trying to figure out what I want for off-road lighting. The brush is high right now and I'm trying to add some light from above (probably going to eliminate the hood light bar). I had 2 Warn Halogen Spots mounted by the mirrors, but with the cheap light bar the halogens weren't noticeable. I'm leaning toward getting a low profile ~20in combination flood/spot light and putting it up top in my rack. I could then do some lights to the sides of the front of the rack and then there's lots of mounting options 360, but reverse is pretty bad at the moment. I have some LED reverse lights that aren't terrible, but not really good.
I know the light bars, people don't seem to like too much on this forum, but they seem to be functional from what I've had experience with, but I'm cheap.
I did get the cheaper LED headlights and I've got to adjust them down. Luckily most people around drive big trucks, but occasionally I blind some poor lady in front of me. 1 of my brackets on the headlights is broken and I've just been side tracked to fix it. The halogen headlights I removed were almost useless, I think I could have done better with a reflector and maybe killing a whale and used it's fat to light my way. Though again this probably was due to my misalignment.
They work really good so far. I went with KC Apollo brand; they weren’t as costly as the slim fit.
They look great. Also great license plate.
Are KC halogen? For the few halogen I've tried, I haven't cared for them.
KC has halogen, LED, and some HID options. Most of the round style can come as halogen or LED.
If you’re considering high-end LED lights, also look at Rigid Industries
If you’re considering high-end LED lights, also look at Rigid Industries
I've been looking like Black Oak or something. Rigid looks great, but does seem expensive. I don't care too much round vs bar. I think single row bar fits in the rack better personally. I have a 75W super cheap double row light bar with no LEDs centered in the reflector, spray paint covered and every cheap part you could possibly have made it from and it made the 2 100W Halogens useless. That bar has completely faded and part of me wants to reuse my hood light bar brackets and another part of me just wants to add lights to the rack.
Lighting hasn't been super critical, but when I've gone through brush recently it was mostly over my headlights and I need something mounted higher.
I picked up another cheap light bar recently too that I like the build quality, but haven't checked out the pattern except on Youtube and it looks crappy, but it's an OZ-USA 12" light bar. That may become my reverse light, since I can't see much behind me.
Lighting hasn't been super critical, but when I've gone through brush recently it was mostly over my headlights and I need something mounted higher.
I picked up another cheap light bar recently too that I like the build quality, but haven't checked out the pattern except on Youtube and it looks crappy, but it's an OZ-USA 12" light bar. That may become my reverse light, since I can't see much behind me.
I'm KY born and raised, but I do dream of doing some hunting and off-roading out west.
And yeah Chris, I think some mix of spot and flood is the way to go. I think the light bars, just put out an incredible amount of light for the size. As far as looks, I like the round lights by the mirrors/pillar mount or whatever it's called and I don't like anything over the top of the roof, but if you've got a rack, then I lean toward single row light bars, since they seem to blend in. But that's all relative and it's subjective.
I've been looking at this a lot and actually just wired up my OZ-USA to check out the pattern and it's not bad for a little light. It looks out of place but it took like 5 minutes to mount. I think it's good enough to become a backup light. Of course now the lights I want are rather expensive and then the controls I want to add is making that something that won't happen for a very long time.
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Where would your location of choice be if you happen to go with spot/flood mix? Don't you want the spot lights to move around in order to "spot" things??? I'm just sitting here wondering what options there are....tick
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Where would your location of choice be if you happen to go with spot/flood mix? Don't you want the spot lights to move around in order to "spot" things??? I'm just sitting here wondering what options there are....tick
I would mount it to the bull bar on the bumper
As with anything, how do you plan to use them? Lights are a tool. Flying through the desert at high speed is different than crawling through rocks or timber. Decide how you want to use them and that will dictate what you need.
Edit - and as bobthetj points out, how you want to use them will dictate their location.
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When I do lights, they've gotta be high. I cross brush that is over the hood, so I gotta have something at my eye height or higher. I got a small light over the summer, just because brush completely covered my headlights, making driving difficult. It's all about your terrain. I don't even mess with lights down low.
It's the same way when we add lights to tractors, I usually install stuff above the OEM lights, because part of the year headlights are useless, or maybe you've got a loader or something in the way (not really an issue unless maybe you're running a unimog or maybe a plow).
It's the same way when we add lights to tractors, I usually install stuff above the OEM lights, because part of the year headlights are useless, or maybe you've got a loader or something in the way (not really an issue unless maybe you're running a unimog or maybe a plow).
I've been researching on lights and it's hard to decide what light sets to get. I like to explore my area I live in the desert of El Paso, TX , also I go to NM to camp and explore the trails. Now here is my question, what type of lights would be good to drive in the desert (not at high speed) and drive around the trails in NM that really doesn't have much dust just depends on the area?
Here is my understanding on driving in the desert, snow and fog. It depends on placement and color. I believe amber is the best to go just because white light just reflects on the snow, dust and fog. Being a truck driver in the Army we experiment with different lights since the actually light on military vehicles sucks. So we try to put brighter lights and a lot of them we used KC lites on top of the vehicles so we could illuminate the whole road checking for IED's on the grille we used fog lights amber so when we are driving and picking up dust from crossing the desert we could see better and on the pillar we use spotters.
Do you guys think that would be good setup for the TJ or do you have any other suggestions?
Here is my understanding on driving in the desert, snow and fog. It depends on placement and color. I believe amber is the best to go just because white light just reflects on the snow, dust and fog. Being a truck driver in the Army we experiment with different lights since the actually light on military vehicles sucks. So we try to put brighter lights and a lot of them we used KC lites on top of the vehicles so we could illuminate the whole road checking for IED's on the grille we used fog lights amber so when we are driving and picking up dust from crossing the desert we could see better and on the pillar we use spotters.
Do you guys think that would be good setup for the TJ or do you have any other suggestions?
That sounds like some good research. We don't have much desert or snow here. Does anyone have suggestions for whiteout conditions? I remember we had that happen a few years ago and we don't shut down unless we don't have power, so it was very nerve racking driving on what I was guessing was a road, with massive ditches on either side.
Aren't there lights now that you can just change the color? Or would it be just as well to go white and then have the lens?
Anybody go IR lights with NVGs?