Mimimum light requirements for night overlanding?

I am building out for a long overlanding trip this summer and it's time to think about lights. How much accessory lighting is enough? I was thinking about a 20-40" bar either in a Southern Style light front bumper or mounted to the roof rack. Also, *maybe* some small adjustable square LEDs mounted on the sides of the roof rack (point em forward or point them down for task lighting while setting up...

What's the minimum I can do without screwing myself on a 3 week trip?

 

The minimum you need is just your stock lights. I driven hundreds of miles on dirt roads in the desert with stock lights. The one mod that is helpful is the fog lights anytime mod (assuming you have fogs). Turning on the stock brights with the fogs is nice as the fogs make it easier to see when making tight turns.

Even a decent 20" bar throws an enormous amount of light compared to the stock lighting. Get one with a mix of spot and wide.

I'd prefer lights mounted in the lower grill because it shows road texture and hazards better - BUT that's because I'm never around mud that could cover the low mounted lights! If you encounter mud and already have a roof rack that's a good spot too.

 

Awesome advice. Mounting low does make more sense. Is there really a difference between the $200 bars and the $700 dollar bars?

 

At least one.

 

Pretty sure the minimum for #EAF is something like 1.5million lumens. If you can't light up a football field with you rig don't even bother leaving home.

 

Yes there is a difference, question would be is the difference worth the $500 price difference

Cheaper bars often have the following issues:

• Typically don't output the rated number of lumens, this is often because they quote based on the max lumens the LED can output but their driver doesn't actually properly drive the LED to achieve that output. But they are still stupidly bright so not necessarily an issue.
• Poor sealing, many develop moisture problems. Many folks disassemble the cheap units and reseal them up themselves.
• Potentially poor lighting patterns but this seems much less of an issue these days, the Chinese units seem to be copying the optics of the higher end bars with some fidelity.
• Lower reliability, may fail for reasons beyond moisture.
• Poor heat dissipation, relates to lifetime and reliability.
• No serviceable parts, if it breaks you basically toss the whole unit. Also difficult to disassemble (glues and silicone rather than screws and gaskets).

Many folks though decide that given the potentially huge price difference they are happy to buy the cheaper bar even if they may have to buy a replacement in a few years. In some cases two cheap bars is still less money than one expensive one!

There seem to be a some good middle grade options these days that aren't as eye-wateringly expensive as say BD but at least offer customer service, some sort of warranty and are US based even if the product is still Chinese manufactured. Be aware though in some cases someone is just taking the same crappy $150 bar you can get on Amazon/E-bay and adding some branding to it and then marking it up to $300. So definitely do your homework on the middle grade options. CaliRaised seems to be a popular one these days.

 

I've gone up and down mountain 'roads' (and I use the word loosely) in Guatemala, this decade, in '80's Tacomas that would be considered dead here, with nothing but stock lights. And those are much less effective than your modern OE lighting.

A nice LED headlamp and a couple of lanterns work just fine for chores out of the vehicle.

For a 3 week trip I don't think I'd be too worried about spending money on auxiliary lighting.

 

Yeah. I knew that was going to be the answer :-/ Was trying to save some $ for the metric shit-ton of other stuff I need but probably shouldn't cheap out here. Thanks for the explanation.

 

Yes, this. Lights you can't move (i.e. attached to the vehicle) make it very difficult to see into storage bins and such. You end up needing the headlamp anyway. At that point the vehicle mounted "camp" lights quickly turn into powerful bug attractors more than anything else! That said, if you know there is one spot you work on things a lot (like a tailgate or swingout kitchen station) then some sort of task lighting there can be useful. I know some folks also like to use rear mounted camp lights as supplementary backup lights too.

 

Honestly, I'd prioritize everything else over the additional vehicle lighting. Use your three week trip to evaluate what you really need in this department. The worst thing that happens with "not enough light" is that you slow down - which is probably the right thing to do when driving off road at night anyway!

 

I like that answer a lot. Thanks

 

I'm on board with that thinking. What would be your must-have investments if you were going on this kind of trip and had to outfit a new vehicle? My plan so far is tires (probably Nitto in stock size @ 265/70/17 [are d-E rated tires necessary or just nice to have?]), suspension (thinking Bilstein 6112/5160).

 

So tires definitely the highest priority. You definitely want LT tires, but whether they are load C, D or E is not necessarily a big deal. Usually the stronger the side-wall the more likely it is to have a higher load rating but the load rating really just means how high a pressure the tire can hold safely and a load C tire could have a sidewall the is more durable off-road than a different tire that is load E. All things being equal though a higher load rating is often stronger, for instance for the BFG KO2 the load C versions have a two ply sidewall and the load E have a three ply sidewall. Anyway, plenty of reviews over in the comment section but in general if you are getting a LT tire meant for off-road you should being doing great.

After that I'd honestly say that having a way to deflate and inflate said tires is very important if you are going to be spending a significant time off-road. You don't necessarily need to jump in with a whole on-board-air setup right from the get go but airing down is a very important way to improve traction and ride comfort off road. If you don't mind sitting and waiting a number of economical portable pumps will do the job for now but longer term I'd recommend doing some sort of on-board-air setup. Budget a few hundred dollars and half a day to install.

Suspension is the next priority but be sure you are getting what you want for the long term. I'm not an expert on the Bilsteins but they definitely have a number of good setups.

After that I'd mostly focus on your camping and recovery kit than more truck mods for now.

 

It's pretty amazing how much people spend on mods theyd never need or use. Or maybe use, but not really need. I like your approach and practicality. Saves money and leaves time to find out what you really need. That said... I'll probably go with a 32" Cali raised in the lower grill or super bright LEDs on the fog spots