Baja Designs: General Discussion Thread

A white light is going to be far better for terrain recognition in clear conditions. But in poor conditions, an amber light will be far better in cutting through rather than reflect like a white light does. With your BD lights, have you tried using a clear lens? I'm curious to see if you've gotten that perspective with your current light setup. Amber does have it's benefits, but a 5000k white light really does wonders in the correct scenario. Just confirming, you have driving/combo amber for both the Squadron Pros and Onx6+?

 

Correct, Amber on all lights. Ordered a clear driving/combo lens today for the ONX6+ 10".

 

If a 20” onx6 is an option I see no reason not to get one, in a clear combo lens of course. Then you can keep the rest of your lights amber for poor weather conditions. Or switch the onx6 to amber for the winter months but clear should be just fine unless snow is falling. And if the roads are snow and ice how fast are you really driving anyhow? Probably not fast enough to need an onx6.

 

20" in an option but it will require added expense for mounting options, be way more obvious and less sleek. It's not off the table, but if I can make the 10" work I'd just assume save the money and keep the install more subtle.

As for how fast, Lol, you'd be surprised. We regularly run the highways at 65-70MPH + on snow packed roads even with icy patches. True studded tires are legal up here and many run them. Of course you don't use cruise control, your not doing those speeds entering turns, and you're braking way earlier than usual i general, but yeah 65+ on snow packed roads is actually fine. Obviously you can't do that when the snow if falling.

It's the moose I worry about - especially knowing braking hard is not the best option! Much better to just casually decelerate. I remember one time I couldn't figure out what the flashing light was ahead. It turned out it was a moose crossing the road and it blocked the guard rail reflector as each leg passed in front of them. I didn't notice the moose until I practically passed him (and he was off the side). I think with better lighting I would have actually seen the moose way earlier At least that's what I am hoping for. I'm certainly not getting any younger and still like to drive at night to destinations (plus the sun sets at 3:30pm up here in dead of winter so "night" driving is earlier than you'd think).

 

here's the typical winter road conditions that I am referring too. The one good thing about snow is it reflects light back, so you probably need less. Shoulder season like it is now though it's just pitch black....

 

You need a louder horn if you're worried about moose. Specifically a really high pitched one like a hella supertone horn. The hella horn makes wildlife scatter and it's the only thing I've found to get animals to actually run AWAY from my vehicle rather than out in front of it.

 

Can we get a picture of your truck? I wanna see this thing.

 

Both. Amber doesn't glare as much on accumulated snow, and doesn't flash back at you in the rain or snow to the same degree.

 

You know it's not a Tacoma right?

 

Sweet - yeah, that's what makes me tempted to do more power (20") but stay with Amber. I'll probably just stay the season with the 10" and swap amber and clear to see what it's like. I can always upgrade next year and sell my 10" if I decide more is better.... .

 

Yup! That's why I wanted to see it. Didn't know if it would insult you to call it a van...I guess I could have said rig.


Nice rig!!!!

 

so sick

 

Want

 

10" plus the A pillar squadrons are probably fine for a sprinter. Not saying MOAR isn't better, but for the typical speeds I see vans travel offroad in Utah, thats plenty of light.

 

You're probably right, for offroad or trail use, but my goal is for high speed highway travel to get to the cool offroad and remote places. On the backroads and local neighborhood this lighting is fine. In fact, the Squadrons are awesome because it just feels like I'm not in a tunnel and at moderate speeds it's nice to see all around. Cruising at 70+mph on the remote highways, it's not cutting it. I'm looking for more illumination on the far end....curious to see if the clear lens will allow enough light out to get the job done, or if I'll end up with the light bar and 20" ONX6+.

 

Pictures really don’t do a great job but here’s my 40” hi power, 46,600 lumens of pavement melting awesomeness.

 

@NoFear9491 this is what you need.

 

I know that this is a Baja Designs thread, but if you're interested in auxiliary lighting that is also road legal: several companies offer SAE J581 compliant lights that are legal to use as auxiliary high beam lamps. Rigid, KC, Diode Dynamics are just a few.

Legality may not matter on truly empty highways, where you're the only soul around for miles. But if you need something as a bridge gap on semi-populated roads, you might want to consider a set of driving lamps. The pattern is not a true spot, it is slightly diffused to spread to the width of the road (and diffusing lowers the intensity to compliant levels).

I put this set of Diode SS3 driving lights in my front grill (pro, 4000K color) and control the relay with an SPDT switch. Low turns them on anytime, high is tapped into the high beam circuit so I can toggle them with the factory high beam stalk (and of course, center is off).

Like I said, this may not meet your needs for max lighting on empty roads; but if you're looking for a street-legal bump in addition to the large bar, take a look at your J581 options.

 

Nice switch setup. Clean.

Yup, I have the DD SAE pro fogs for around town or nasty weather with oncoming traffic. My goal here with the Baja Designs is like you said, remote driving, with no one else around and legality isn't an issue. I'm sold on Baja designs for this (I was also going to get the BD SAE fogs, but the reviews just didn't cut the mustard...hopefully BD will revist this some day).

Looks like now it's just a matter of if the 10" with clear lens will cut it, or if I go all in and get the 20". As a side note, one of the issues with getting the 20" (aside from needing an actual light bar to push it out and mount it) is where do the fogs go? Right now they are on each side of the 10", but that won't work with the 20". The only bar available has upright tabs for the BD 20" but that's all. I'll need to have tabs fabricated for the fogs, or get some sort of clamp type system to make it all work. I'm not opposed to it, but it's more work and money.

It's all about size . If I did the Squadron racers I could just move the Pros to the bumper and put the racers up to the A Pillar. The XL80's are sweet, but a tad to big for the A Pillar (IMO) and they also won't fit in the bumper step where my lights are now. Trying to keep it simple, yet at that same time get the job done.

 

That's insane and I'm sure much more impressive in person! Makes me want to just dive in with the 20"! Is that just the bar? Looks like a pretty wide spread. It's essentially (4) 10"s together right? What lenses are you using?