Why?

cause I like to see where the heck im going when im bombing down a dirt road at 1am

 

Its for the spread and distance. Factory lights you can kinda see the ditches, with my other lights I can see way off past the ditch. Deer like to run, so you can see them before they get to the ditch.

 

There are definitely much more impractical things people bolt to their trucks. MaxTrax, Rotopax, etc

Lights are beneficial for night wheeling and country roads

 

You can never have enough lights.

 

that's an SOS Front bumper isn't it?
dayum,
I had my mind set on the single hoop, but this looks soooo good I might have to spring for the headlight hoops too

 

To see at night, off road, in the desert... There are things hiding in the dark! LOL

It's an addiction, I think? I hardly ever drive at night when camping or vacationing in Baja!


First, it started with two (Hella 100 watt halogen pencil beams).


Next, I added two Kragen 35 watt HID Euro beams, and converted the Hellas to HID.



In 2016, I got turned onto these Cree 60 watt LED lamps... they are insanely bright!



First, I got two spot or pencil beams and replaced my two Hella HID pencil beams:


My final lighting mod, all four Cree LED 60-watt lamps, 2 are pencil beams and two are driving beams:


Turns the night into day!!!

 

I wheeled at night once and thought headlights would be enough. They're not. It wasn’t even close. It wasn’t a hard road either but I puckered my butt from all the shadows. See the issue is when you have a light shining, your natural night vision is ruined. So that light shining better show everything because you can’t see ANYTHING outside of where the light shines.

The extra light really helps see the details you need to see.

And IRT the bro-zillas out there with roof mounted light bars, there is actually a purpose (or was). The issue with bumper level lights are they throw very long shadows and it’s hard to tell a shadow from a deep hole. Having a roof mounted light pointed down gives your light throw a better angle to see behind rocks and disseminate depths of holes. Ive attached my super-duper paint skilz pics to help illustrate this. Not my best work but I think it gets the point accross.

Bumper Level throws long shadows


Roof mounted throws shorter shadows

 

Because I drive back roads and ranch roads before it gets light or after it gets dark and hitting animals or hole/ditch you didn't see costs more than lights. My wife hit and killed a big raccoon on the road, but it made us pay. $1200 in damage and it came real close to being more than that.

 

The darker the shadow, the deeper the hole!

 

I remember doing night vision driver training in the Army a few years back. On an old logging road, maintain a minimum of 30mph, using a night googles...yes it puckered ones butt, especially if you were not the guy driving...

Good info on the roof mounts, there is some logic to the madness.

 

Yes it is the rear is also. All the armor on the truck except the sliders is SOS and I got the sliders second hand before I got anything else. @SOS CONCEPTS makes great products and I have only ever recieved top notch customer service from Eddy. If you need a 10% discount anytime give me a shout I can put you in touch with people who can give it to you

 

What's impractical about maxtrax? If it's for looks on a mall crawler, sure. Otherwise, it's just a piece of your recovery kit, no?

 

Even stupid trends usually start with perfectly good and logical reasoning.

 

The point, obviously, is to conduct an all-out war on the senses. Overwhelming illumination by means of light bars provides a nice compliment to your frame-shaking, atmosphere-filling, windows down insanely loud music and bass.

On a serious note I would love to have a light bar in the woods, and I wish i had some better rear illumination for backing up my driveway. I also totally understand all the folks who say they get a few more seconds of reaction time for an animal crossing the road.

 

I wish people didnt run lightbars when driving on roads. I see them occasionally and while I'm sure they can see great, unfortunately, their light bar is pretty much the only thing I can see and its not pleasant.

 

Ever been to Wendover on a moonless night? May as well be in outer space, it's so dark. Especially helpful when trying to find and navigate the stupid race route in the blind to help at offroad races early the next morning.




Barely makes a dent in the inky black:

 

I’m pretty sure it’s not legal to run a light bar on a public road. If I had one it would be off road use only.

 

Its not.

Neither is speeding IIRC

 

It almost exclusively is illegal. That said, there are some very dark and secluded paved roads in Utah that you would rarely see another car on that the extra light is very beneficial like 89 near Orderville. Just gotta be prepared to click them off. I'd rather have a chat with the local PD than take an elk to the windshield. Narrowly avoided that once already in that exact area.

 

Depends where you’re talking out west. Washington and Oregon are basically rain forests with all the undergrowth. Most roads where I live have 6-7 feet of bushes and shrubs covering any ground between trees so the chances of you seeing a deer or elk is next to nothing