Let's chat about light bars.

[GOTLOCKED96]

I've been looking at Black Oak light bars.

I plan on putting a 40" single row on my Bowfin Cruisers Rack.

Also plan on putting a 10" on a Slee Shortbus.

They come is Flood, Spot, and Combo.

Also in 3W and 5W. What would you suggest getting?

 

[nukegoat]

I've been looking at Black Oak light bars.

I plan on putting a 40" single row on my Bowfin Cruisers Rack.

Also plan on putting a 10" on a Slee Shortbus.

They come is Flood, Spot, and Combo.

Also in 3W and 5W. What would you suggest getting?

Get yourself a China lightbar and run it

 

[smritte]

For those prices, I would go for Rigid. Mine are from superbrightled. Good output, great warranty, waterproof, Good price. Still, the Chinese crap lights are cheaper. I just hate the quality.

 

[jcardona1]

Get yourself a China lightbar and run it

Word. Never understood the obsession with spending thousands on ultra spec'd out lights barz made out of exotic titanium, liquid-cooled computer chips, wifi hotspots, and gold plated transducers that put out 8 billion lumens of retina-searing laser beams. My $39 chinesium light bar from Amazon has worked great for years. Not as sexy as the boujee brands and 3 LEDs stopped working but I took the money I saved and put it into worthwhile upgrades

 

[Box Rocket]

I have been using a couple lightbars from Arsenal (chinese I'm sure, bought on Amazon) for several years now and they've worked great overall. Hard to complain about the price. I paid somewhere around $100 for my 42" lightbar on my Prinsu rack. Have a 20" in the bumper. Personally I am a huge fan of HIDs which is why I still have 3 HIDs on the bumper. I haven't found a lightbar yet that can throw light as far as an HID. So I use the LEDs to light up all the close to mid-range area in front of the truck and the HIDs for way out there. Driving fast offroad at night it's nice to have an extra second to anticipate turns/obstacles. Would I be outrunning the light from the LEDs? probably not, but I've been spoiled with HIDs for a long time so I'm used to having that distance. When I use just the LEDs I'm always a little disappointed (even when I've used nice expensive ones in other trucks) because I can't see as far.

But as others have said, its difficult to justify the massive gap in price of LEDs from some companies compared to some of the chinese offerings. I'd rather put that money to something else.

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Here's a little video from a year or so back with my lights on. Pretty clear where the LEDs reach to and you can see the three spots of the HIDs in the distance to give you an idea of the difference in throw.

 

[BILT4ME]

I have been using a couple lightbars from Arsenal (chinese I'm sure, bought on Amazon) for several years now and they've worked great overall. Hard to complain about the price. I paid somewhere around $100 for my 42" lightbar on my Prinsu rack. Have a 20" in the bumper. Personally I am a huge fan of HIDs which is why I still have 3 HIDs on the bumper. I haven't found a lightbar yet that can throw light as far as an HID. So I use the LEDs to light up all the close to mid-range area in front of the truck and the HIDs for way out there. Driving fast offroad at night it's nice to have an extra second to anticipate turns/obstacles. Would I be outrunning the light from the LEDs? probably not, but I've been spoiled with HIDs for a long time so I'm used to having that distance. When I use just the LEDs I'm always a little disappointed (even when I've used nice expensive ones in other trucks) because I can't see as far.

But as others have said, its difficult to justify the massive gap in price of LEDs from some companies compared to some of the chinese offerings. I'd rather put that money to something else.

Untitled by Adam Tolman, on Flickr

Here's a little video from a year or so back with my lights on. Pretty clear where the LEDs reach to and you can see the three spots of the HIDs in the distance to give you an idea of the difference in throw.

Are your three HID's spots or pencil beam or what?

Make and model?

 

[Box Rocket]

Are your three HID's spots or pencil beam or what?

Make and model?

Hella Optilux HID 7" spots

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

HIDs definitely outperform most LED bars.
However, there are some exceptions, BajaDesigns to be specific. The throw of a good BD LED will definitely give HIDs a run for the money. Their are some good deals on discontinued models of BD lightbars if you search around.

 

[Box Rocket]

HIDs definitely outperform most LED bars.
However, there are some exceptions, BajaDesigns to be specific. The throw of a good BD LED will definitely give HIDs a run for the money. Their are some good deals on discontinued models of BD lightbars if you search around.

Baja Designs are some of the best LEDs. Believe me I've shopped a lot for a replacement for my HIDs and BD gets the closest from what I've looked at with the LP9. Their BD Lasers might actually have more distance but the beam is incredibly tight since it's a laser rather than an LED. The Lasers pattern is tight enough that you'd need more than 2-3 to get adequate light coverage. But I can see their use on a dedicated race vehicle that can run a lot of lights.

Alas, the LP9 still doesn't have the distance of my HIDs so it doesn't motivate me to spend the money on them.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Rodger that. Your set up looks sweet and is functional. Unfortunately BD discontinued the Stealth 40" bar. It his excellent and just about matches the reach of my Light Force 240 HIDs although with alot more fill in light.

 

[Pascoscout]

I run a KC Highlights 10 inch on my bumper. It's a good bar with a good warranty. It's been on there a few years now and no issues. To me KC kind of fills the gap between ultra expensive bars and the cheap china ones. I do have a couple Rigid cubes in the bumper too and they are nice, but only bought them cause they were highly discounted, otherwise I'd probably have KC's there too.

 

[IdahoDoug]

BoxRocket - I think everyone missed the highlight of your video. So for the visually impaired, near the end he becomes the first person I've ever heard of who's nailed a bat with a car. And I've hit about everything. Great splat sound.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Poor little bat

I don't think LED light Bars will achieve the same long beams like old school spots and pencil beams until they go to full deep parabolic reflectors and not just simple reflectors around a LED chip.
Old school parabolic lights are designed so every bit of light emitted by a globe (filament, or HID arc) is reflected and focused forward

 

[BILT4ME]

BoxRocket - I think everyone missed the highlight of your video. So for the visually impaired, near the end he becomes the first person I've ever heard of who's nailed a bat with a car. And I've hit about everything. Great splat sound.

All that bright light must have blinded him!

He was blind as a.........

He couldn't see.

 

[voodu3]

I have two of these 11" Southern lite LED Light Bar (Includes 60 Watt Single Row Light and Wiring Harness)
In place of the indicators in the valance they put out a ton of light.

 

[cnorm5623]

I've been looking at Black Oak light bars.

I plan on putting a 40" single row on my Bowfin Cruisers Rack.

Also plan on putting a 10" on a Slee Shortbus.

They come is Flood, Spot, and Combo.

Also in 3W and 5W. What would you suggest getting?

Back to your original question though......
I have two light bars that are the flood spot combos. both fairly small like 20" or so one double row on the front bumper and one single row on the roof rack. ( both are Amazon Chinesium and have been running for years) . I like having the up close flood for seeing around me and then the spots for the distance. and as Tim Allen would say. "More Power is More Better"

 

[IdahoDoug]

Mudgudgeon,

I agree that may help but there is another incurable factor limiting LED effectiveness. The frequency of their light output is higher, leading to more light diffraction in ordinary air with its humidity and dust. Longer lightwaves such as halogen go right through those microdroplets. Shorter (LED) lightwaves bounce around in the droplets. So LEDs tend to create a lot of close in dazzle in the air, which is light coming back at you, not going far down the road. Said another way, they have to create enormous output to overcome the loss going through the air to end up with anything downrange. In the rain and in the snow, it's really bad and I'm surprised the DOT has not gotten there s*** together and done some actual testing. Lazy gummint bastards. Try holding an LED flashlight outside tonight up at your eye level. You'll see a bunch of dust motes and microdroplets floating around in front of your eyes. That's the phenomenon. Do the same with an incandescent flashlight and you won't see those at all.

I have a full surround sound LED system on our camping Vanagon and its hard to beat the output/price/battery drain for close up lighting. But downrange they are still sub par unless the output is crazy high and then you have tremendous blowback limiting the actual function of forward lighting. A conundrum....

 

[mudgudgeon]

Mudgudgeon,

I agree that may help but there is another incurable factor limiting LED effectiveness. The frequency of their light output is higher, leading to more light diffraction in ordinary air with its humidity and dust. Longer lightwaves such as halogen go right through those microdroplets. Shorter (LED) lightwaves bounce around in the droplets. So LEDs tend to create a lot of close in dazzle in the air, which is light coming back at you, not going far down the road. Said another way, they have to create enormous output to overcome the loss going through the air to end up with anything downrange. In the rain and in the snow, it's really bad and I'm surprised the DOT has not gotten there s*** together and done some actual testing. Lazy gummint bastards. Try holding an LED flashlight outside tonight up at your eye level. You'll see a bunch of dust motes and microdroplets floating around in front of your eyes. That's the phenomenon. Do the same with an incandescent flashlight and you won't see those at all.

I have a full surround sound LED system on our camping Vanagon and its hard to beat the output/price/battery drain for close up lighting. But downrange they are still sub par unless the output is crazy high and then you have tremendous blowback limiting the actual function of forward lighting. A conundrum....

That makes sense. I have a couple of LED light bars, they definitely or or a lot of light and are good for highlighting critters by the roadside.
I don't like the intensity of the reflection from road signs though.

 

[nukegoat]

Mudgudgeon,

I agree that may help but there is another incurable factor limiting LED effectiveness. The frequency of their light output is higher, leading to more light diffraction in ordinary air with its humidity and dust. Longer lightwaves such as halogen go right through those microdroplets. Shorter (LED) lightwaves bounce around in the droplets. So LEDs tend to create a lot of close in dazzle in the air, which is light coming back at you, not going far down the road. Said another way, they have to create enormous output to overcome the loss going through the air to end up with anything downrange. In the rain and in the snow, it's really bad and I'm surprised the DOT has not gotten there s*** together and done some actual testing. Lazy gummint bastards. Try holding an LED flashlight outside tonight up at your eye level. You'll see a bunch of dust motes and microdroplets floating around in front of your eyes. That's the phenomenon. Do the same with an incandescent flashlight and you won't see those at all.

I have a full surround sound LED system on our camping Vanagon and its hard to beat the output/price/battery drain for close up lighting. But downrange they are still sub par unless the output is crazy high and then you have tremendous blowback limiting the actual function of forward lighting. A conundrum....

Light frequency? You mean color?

Sorry this just seems like total BS. Rain would make everything appear red if this was true

 

[White Stripe]

I decided to upgrade to depo lights with projectors. I can use hid or led or halogen bulbs. Im running hid bulbs right now and its great at night. I have it setup so that the low beam side is both low and hi beam. The normal hi beam side I have led fog light bulbs on a fog light switch. But if I wanted some serious distance of light I could install some high watt hid bulbs in that side. Cost me about as much as installing a light bar of high quality but I use the headlights more than I ever would a light bar. Would like to get some ditch lights.