light bar location

[ckomai]

For a prerunner where is the best place to put your lights. Bumper mounted in front of the grill or a roof light bar?

 

[Ryan Webb]

i would say both, cant ever have enough light

 

[Brian1]

Start on the bumper with 2-3 lights and then go to the roof when you need more light power. I would run spots on the roof and floods on the bumper.

 

[Maniak]

I've heard that people have issues if the beam isn't tight enough when they are installed on the roof. People are getting glare from the hood.

I installed a couple 6" LED bars (36W each) I got from TWF on the bumper and they are bright.. I used them at truckhaven in October and they were brighter than the pair of 100w 5" lights I had on.

~Mark

 

[ckomai]

ok so gonna start with bumper lights. Any suggestions for manufacturers and wattage? Also should I be welding tabs on or will the tube bar clamps be sufficient?

 

[Maniak]

Most light bars (LED) aren't cheap. TWF (trail worthy fab) does carry a less expensive kind that works pretty well (http://www.trailworthyfab.com/Trail-Series/).

I've only had outs installed for a few months (Installed right before the October Truckhaven run).

I have two 36 watt (6") LED bars. I welded some 1/8"x1" steel to my bumper and bolted them to that. They are really bright. I can barely tell I have high beams on if I have the LED bars on.

Here is a crappy video I made showing how bright they are.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cftOkwcFi_Y


When I shot the video I was only using the LED lights for aux lights and not the 5" 100 watt lights.

Custom Tube bumper with d-ring and lights 1 by maniak_az, on Flickr

These lights were bought to put on the front of the mustang (in the bumper). Now that I know how well they work I will be buying a 20" bar for the explorer and will make a better mount for the LED with some protection. That way I can install the 6" ones on the vehicle they were bought for.

~Mark

 

[ckomai]

ok so if I did a small led bar on the bumper for spot lighting and a longer led bar on the roof for flood would that be good? The reason I ask is because you see alot of people running halogen or HID on the bumper even if they do led bars on the roof. I want to do it right the first time. So my choices are led bumper with led roof or i'll do 3 halogen bumper and led roof bar. Guys chime in on which is better.

 

[FIND]

I would think you would be better off to keep your floods up front and your spots up high personally...

 

[01STrunner]

I second find. You want the floods down in front so the glare doesnt bounce off the hood.

 

[ckomai]

floods front, spot roof, got it. I was going to get 3 6" or 8" halogens for the floods. Are halogens fine. HID's are way more expensive.

 

[Maniak]

The LEDs I have aren't quite a flood, but they are not a spot either..

I know there are 30 degree and IIRC 60 degree LED bars (not sure if TWF can get both).. I've seen pics of how much more light the bigger LED bars send out (same brand as mine) compared to my twin 6" ones. They do shoot pretty far and go quite a bit off to the side and up/down.

As for halogens.. They use lots of amps and are not near as bright as HIDs.. They are cheaper too, but there is a reason for that..

~Mark