What lights do you mount where and why?

Appreciate the reply Bill, as soon as the wallet allows I would like to convert everything to baja. But she's a pricey conversion. It will happen with time here.

That ELS write up is an interesting one I havnt come across that one yet but I have been following the "zones" to help achieve my goals.

 

But not actually in that tone because I also havent been in this thread in awhile.

 

How big a light can you safely mount on those? I got a pair of those big KC Day Lighters, but I'm worried they might be too heavy for the bracket and bounce around (or worse)....

 

I assume if they can hold a LP6 they should be sturdy enough

 

Well that was an interesting thing I said many years ago.

I'm still on camp underpowered amber. And yes, I know it's a huge compromise.






But holy cow, it has saved my butt in foul weather once or twice.

 

On my 06 Forester I had an 18" @Diode Dynamics driving pattern light bar behind the grille, a pair of SSC2 Sports in the fog pattern as ditch lights, and a pair of SSC2 Sports in flood pattern in the rear bumper. I'd also swapped my low beams, high beams, and fogs for 6500K LEDs. The LEDs were the worst, I'm never doing that again. I loved the DD lights though, I got plenty of light down the road and a decent amount into the corners. At 85 mph, I was close to outrunning the lights I had, but I never did. In hindsight, I should have gone with SSC2 Pros for the ditch lights instead of Sports. The reverse lights were great, especially backing into parking spaces at night. Unfortunately I don't have any driver's POV pictures and the car is gone.


On the 4Runner, everything is stock except for DD SS3 Pro selective yellow fogs and HIR bulbs in the reverse lights. They're both great, the fogs put a decent amount of light into the corners, although not as much as the ditch lights on the Forester. The HIRs are quite nice for reversing at night, but I wouldn't mind more. For a $12 upgrade though, they're well worth it. The stock high beams are anemic, especially compared to the light bar I had on the Forester, so I got a pair of KC halogen Daylighters, both the wife and I having learned that we prefer warmer, lower color temp lighting. I was planning on mounting them in front of the upper grille, but nobody makes a mount to do that easily, so I'm leaning towards mounting them at the A pillars. I'd like a set of proper ditch lights and reverse lights, but I'm starting with the Daylighters and seeing where those get me.


On the Tacoma, I have swapped the original sealed beams for Hella E-Codes with Phillips Racing Vision +200 bulbs, which have made a huge difference. The previous owner added a pair of Hella 500FFs to the bumper, so I've been using them some, and they are nice, but I'll be swapping the bulbs for 100W bulbs and rewiring them with heavier gauge wire and tying them to my high beams so I can flip them on and off with a single switch. I'll also be adding fogs, probably 6" KC Apollo Pros, and replacing the cheapo blue LED reverse lights with PAR36 halogen reverse lights. In the future I'd like to get a pair of Humvee IR lights to mount to the bumper for driving under NODs.

 

Which brackets are those? An LP6 is 4.2 lbs, a Daylighter is 7, but I'm willing to try.

Do you have any vibration of the lights with them?

 

sorry i just found the pictures on the internet, I was just merely saying I have seen people running LP6 (i assumed they were heavy) on their ditch light location. Good luck!

 

They are very solid mounts. I have seen some big lp's on there a bigger concern to weight is can you still open the hood. I would not run anything over a small pod personally. I almost went with lp4's or XL80's but I didn't like the increased blind spot or the fact that they would hit the a pillar/windshield with the hood open.
I ran rigid d series pods before these squadron pros and the squadrons sit a little bit lower and even that was a really nice reduction to the blind spot.

 

I have done some comparisons of the lights I have on hands and wanted to share them here, I feel like they should be relevant in this thread.

 

Iv seen the first video in my search for beam patterns and the videos display great but that ss3 flood shouldn't of even been included completely wrong pattern for comparison.

 

Yea I have personally tested all of their patterns since and feel their flood is the weakest, not much output. Their best is the fog and then possible spot and driving pattern. I also have tested the light force rok40 flood and that’s significantly better than didoes TLR flood in terms of both output and spread. Cheers.

 

Back in 2012 I started out with the ever popular at the time, 7" Hella 500 convered to HID. While they produced a lot of light cheaply, the beam pattern was terrible. I replaced them with:
2 round 7" 120W Ebay lights - these are really bright and concentrated for long throw. I like the "KC" lights on the front grill guard look from the 80s.

Shortly after, is when the (cheap) light bar craze began and I picked up 300W bar for about $40 and it was just as bright as my friends comparable $1200 rigid light. It has some cracks in the lens after all these years, but every single LED still works. Drilled some holes and mounted it upside down. This gives me the spread and does not throw that far

The four 4" lights on the "roll bar" are from ebay lights similar to VisonX light cannons. These have single 25w bulb and deep reflector...these lights are so insanely bright, they wash out the lights on the front bumper. They have great throw and nice spead...similar to the Hellas with the Euro pattern. And again the KC/roll bar look from the 80s that is definitely making a comeback. These were $25 each.

My headlights are the Morimoto XB, which I am not that impressed with, considering the price. They just aren't that bright, but they look great. I ended up replacing my fogs with the Diode Dynamics Elites,now these are bright and worth their price.

Headlights and fogs



Headlights/fog + 7" front bumper . Very narrow, but very concentrated and you can see down most ranch roads in Texas



Everything on. What more can you ask for?


Just the front 7" Rounds.


Four 4" roll bar lights. They actually spread out just perfect at longer distances.

 

Where did you find that? Everywhere I look I get 'out of stock' - and I can't find it on the n-fab site (which now ends up at realtruck.com, which makes me think they are out of business)....

 

I found it on autoparts dot com I think that’s what it’s called, I have ordered it and not received it yet. Fingers crossed. Yea I think nFab doesn’t make a good business because how poor their instructions or lack there of.

 

Hey @Veet-88,

Of Course, If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a PM, and I can help you!

Best,
Bill

Bill Sonevongxay | Forum Sales & Support 
Email: Bill@bajadesigns.com Phone: (760)560-2252

 

got it installed. Very solid product despite nFab not in business anymore.

 

Sweet! So where did you get it from?

 

https://www.carparts.com/Light-Bar/...k=2024-02-16T04:30:36Z&bsft_lx=34&bsft_tv=603

 

Installed Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro Fog (amber) to the factory fog spot. Night and day difference.