glare off hood from roof-mounted LED bar

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Schmutz

Schmutz

10 Year
Joined
Aug 28, 2014
Threads
15
Messages
371
Location
Campbell Hall, NY
I have an awesome LED light bar mounted to the front of my roof rack. I love it! However, it really illuminates my hood. Since my 80 is white, the glare is almost blinding. Other than wearing sunglasses, or painting my hood flat black, do yous have any suggestions for reducing the glare?
 
Mounting the bar a little further back if possible will not cause a glare on the hood.
 
Someone is a couple nightcaps into their nightly ih8mud session..
 
Plastidip the hood, cover the hood in black or a dark colored vinyl, etc...IMHO I've always thought black on white looks good and you never know, maybe if you cover the hood in black or another dark color you might like it and it will begin to grow on you
 
Maybe wrap your hood with some vinyl you like - either a satin sheen or something a little textured like that "carbon fiber look" - I see that wrap all over eBay in every color under the sun.

They even have clear matte wrap - a friend did a wrap of a Porsche SUV in a black, then took it back and had a 2nd layer of the clear matte put on - you have to look for the minor flaws & tight corners to even realize it's a wrap, let alone 2 layers.

I'd try clear matte & if that's not enough, find a darker shade of some wrap & keep trying.
 
Plastidip the hood. Depending on your Winters you might have to refresh it every couple years. And you don't have to worry about wives tossing their purse and keys on it.
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The other problem with a light bar up high is dust, snow and rain. If you are following someone at night down a dusty road the light will be all but blinding, think fog and fog lights. There is a reason driving and fog lights are mounted low, they can illuminate the road and not the inclement conditions. While I like all the light you will get from the bar up high, there will be more times than you would think that it will be a disadvantage.
 
mahogany woodgrain vinyl wrap. What?
 
Having the lightbar set back from the edge of the windshield help a lot. The roof will create a shadow on the hood so you don't get glare. I still get a bit of light that hits the front 1/4 of the hood but it does not affect visibility. To be fair, I also have a blacked out hood center which also helps.

Lightbars definitely light up dust/fog in the air. If a lightbar is your only aux light source then I agree it will be more useful mounted lower but you'll sacrifice a bit of distance. Having multiple lights to throw light differently has worked well in my experience. I have 3 HIDs on the bumper that light up the road well up close but have excellent distance. My roof mounted spot/flood combo LED bar has a much shorter throw than the HIDs, but fills in the dark spots between the HID pattern and has a nice broad throw to give good right and left visibility. Amber lenses also help a lot with the dust.
Ideally, I think a bumper mounted LED to light up the road and sides for short distance stuff and roof mounted HIDs that do better at cutting through the dust and have good long distance throw would be best, but I can't bring myself to putting big round HIDs on the roof. I don't quite outrun my lights in the dark at high speed with the current setup but I guess if I ever grow a pair and start outrunning my lights I'll switch things up and move the HIDs to the roof. :pimp:
 
I have tossed and turned about adding another light up on a rack, once I get it that is, but even setting it back it concerns me. I must say that I am pleased with the amount of light I get from my current setup, which I will transfer to a new winch bumper, hopefully this year. This is just a 32" cheap LED with combination floods and spots with two 130 watt KCs I mounted in the bumper. I wanted to build internal bumper supports for the KCs but I was in a rush, that I knew I would be replacing the bumper soon enough.

That said, there is no such thing as too much light! Ultimately a combination of separately switched - roof mounted (if there was some sort of glare control) and bumper mounted would be ideal.

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Use flat back in vinyl or paint, you will still get shine off anything simi on the hood.

The use of "deflectors" is a different angle but as others have said good luck with windo noise.

I'm only tossing this in here since there seems to be several discussing the "flash back" of white LED in dust / rain / snow ect.

Amber for those situations is awesome, and use white when the situation allows.

Sierra LED Lights | Revolutionary Dual AmberWhite™ LED

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the hood isn't the worst problem actually
light hitting the glass and even coming through to the dash is worse. and you cant flat black the window

I have spent many thousands of miles off road in Baja when good lighting is critical.
get it rite and you will have a much safer more enjoyable driving experience.

also LED's are not all they are cracked up to be. there color temp is very reflective even when aimed correctly
 
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