Light Bar Options

I am looking at possibly jumping down the rabbit hole of LED light bars fairly soon. I am looking at likely mounting a Yakima Loadwarrior or megawarrior basket on my canopy and then using that as the mounting point for the light bars I plan to install. I am looking to use these for off road/logging road use only (I volunteer with a few SAR teams and often times getting to base camp requires some rather sketchy logging road driving often in the middle of the night.) Ill likely be running a direct line off my battery to a fuse/relay box which will hold individual fuses for each light bar plus control relays. I will then run switches for Right side, left side, front, rear into the cab likely in the little cubby down below the radio in the center console.

I am looking at a single combo beam long bar to mount facing forward something in the 54" size range. A single shorter bar facing reward 24" ish and then side facing flood only worklights perhaps a pair of 7" floods for use primarily to light up base camp as necessary.

My question is I see a lot of extremely expensive light bar setups, Mid range setups, and then the extreme low end setups. I am curious what everyone's experience is and what LED Light bars you all recommend for a setup similar to what I am looking at doing. Also if you think my plan is completely crazy let me know I am open to suggestions but so far this is my current plan.

 

Good plan on side/rear lighting. Always nice to have a 360 approach to vision

This is my personal experience. I am in no way affiliated with any company. Because of the difficulty of getting output shots, it's very difficult to buy based on results. I too am guilty of this (DSL camera is on the works. iPhones don't cut it)


My first ever lights were a pair of Rigid Industries Dually floods that I got on clearance. I mounted them low on the stock bumper. Because I had new upgraded headlight bulbs, they were not the huge improvement I was looking for.

My second set of off-road lights was Lightforce 240 blitz. Great for spotting deer three provinces over, not great for trail driving. Very narrow beam, and the "maglite" feature isn't what it's cracked up to be. I even threw in a 100w hid kit which helped with spread (because focus was waaaayyyy off) I then purchased an auxbeam 20" spot/flood combo. $75 plus shipping. Helped with side lighting, but still not fantastic.

Removed the Lightforce and Auxbeam light bar. Relocated rigid duallies to CBI ditch brackets, and angled outward. Works awesome. Also purchased a Rigid Industries e2 combo and.....

One word........Rigid. 'Nuff said. Shoots farther than the Lightforce, brighter than the headlights and auxbeam, wider spread than the auxbeam.

Worth twice the MSRP imo.

 

They do make nice stuff now to decide if they make nearly $4000 worth of nice stuff. Pricing out the light bars I mentioned above it would be in excess of $3600 just for the lights let alone the wiring and everything else that would go into it. Ill have to think on it but I am not sure I am ready to drop that much on this project.

 

A 20" E2 combo is enough up front. You could even do a 30".

I wouldn't do a rear facing light bar. Go for the sr-q or sr-m. Lots of light output. Buddy has a 6" SR diffusion that is overkill for a backup light........

Just like all the other topics on this forum, you won't be happy if you cheap out. I did, and it cost me twice. Rigid is like buying Kings (which I wish I had done instead of OME) Cheap clones are like buying spacers. You may justify it in your head, but the truth is that they are not as good.

It's your choice. I just want you to be informed about the rigid quality. People don't like the price, but I doubt anyone would not like the output. Maybe a 20" or 30" up front, and do all the side/rear lighting in a cheaper option.

 

We have plenty of options for you that could hit in a couple of different price ranges that will still give you the highest quality that you're looking for. Let me try and break it down for you based off of your area zones. I also put three red stars (***) next to what I would say are your best options depending on your price range. For your front and rear facing bars that you want in 54" and 24", we can or you can custom build the FLEX series to your desired length so that it matches very closely to that rather than going with a 50" and a 20".

EDIT: Oh, and for your switch panel, check out @Iggy 's one that goes in the spot you're thinking and uses standard carling rocker switches. That's what I use in my 2010 and I love it. All of our lights I linked below come with switches but that doesn't mean you can't modify them to your liking. Linky here

Front:

• These three options start at the lowest pricing and work their way up. Our C-Series is our closest offering to a standard light bar. Our FLEX series is our highest performance short-mid range light bar and offers an incredible amount of light control due to deeper reflectors and other design features. These are also unique modular and can be simply built to absolutely any length you'd like by yourself or by us. Our Pro6 line will give you the furthest light throw, but I would not recommend this for you as it should really be accompanied with a short-mid range solution as well such as the C-Series or FLEX.
• ***C-Series 50" Bar - 27,000 lumens | 3,200 lux | 1,131 m distance | $529.99
• ***FLEX Series 50" Bar - 24,357 lumens | 4,400 lux | 1,327 m distance | $2,047.99
• Pro6 50" Tacoma Specific Bar - 18,400 lumens | 6,700 lux | 1,637 m distance| $2,107.99

Side:

• The differences among the C-Series and FLEX remains as stated above. I think your best bet here would actually be one or two pods on each side so you can adjust the lights to illuminate whatever you'd like depending on the situation. To light up base camp, you want a flood pattern ideally or a spread pattern as a second choice.
• C-Series 6" Bar - 3,240 lm | 230 lx | 303 m | $152.99 each
• ***C-Series Flood pattern pods (x2) - 1,080 lm | 55 lx | 148 m | $164.99 for two
• Single FLEX spread pattern lights (x2) - 975 lm | 170 lx | 261 m | $252.99 for two

Rear:

• ***C-Series Spot pattern pods (x2) - 1,080 lm | 380 lx | 395 m | $164.99 for two
• ***C-Series 20" Bar - 10,800 lm | 1,750 lx | 837 m | $252.99
• FLEX Series 20" Bar - 9,750 lm | 1,900 lx | 872 m | $915.99

Estimated total with C-Series 50" front, two pods per side, rear facing 20" bar, and two rear facing pods: $1,277.95
Estimated total with the FLEX 50-54" front, two pods per side, rear facing 20" bar, and two rear facing pods: $2,795.95

More info on C-Series can be found here!
More info on FLEX Series can be found here!

C-Series Example:


FLEX Series Example:

 

If you're looking for bang for your buck, then you can't beat the no-name-Chinese cheap stuff from Amazon/ebay.

$21 Nilight - 60002F-B Led Light Bar 2PCS 36w 6.5" Flood Led Off Road Lights Super Bright Driving Fog Light Boat Lights Driving Lights Led Work Light for Trucks,2 Years Warranty

These guys would work great for your side/ rear lights because A) they are cheap, and B) they will still give you plenty of flood for the short distance.

For your front facing light(s), I'd go with something with atleast 5w/chip, preferably 10w, and has some sort of lens on it(generally gives you better distance vs the reflective cup style). Something like this with the spot/flood combo.

I'm sure you could go really cheap and just ebay special it, $45-50inch anyone?

Or go crazy and get Rigid/KC/Vision X.

The point is, you generally get what you pay for, I generally lean towards the cheap/middle ground and its served me very well so far.

 

It all depends on what you use the lights for.
For what I use them for auxbeam and cheap brands give me exactly what I need and in no way do I need thousands of dollars in lights!
But if I did buy rigid or another name brand I'd bash the hell outta ebay lights being insecure about my 5k in lights