Opinions wanted: LED offroad driving lights

[themanwithnoname]

Before I do the bumper install on my 2013 LC, was thinking about offroad lights. I find them incredibly helpful in the desert, especially after a long day with a long drive back to pavement.

I've been mounting an ancient set of Cibie Oscars on various trucks for the past 40 years, and they still work, but, I think for this install I'm to upgrade to something newer and LED. The Cibie's are huge, which I love, but dated in function.

So, I've looked at Baja Designs, and ARB, I'm a fan of the flood/spot approach, and I'm not sure who else I should look at, and what models to choose. Even with Baja and ARB, there are quite a few models. Obviously, I'm not racing, and I'm not using these on the street, just want a bit extra coverage in the pitch black desert at night.

Thoughts and suggestions welcome. I did search for relevant threads, but found that if there is info on here, it's spread across hundreds of random threads.

Feel free to shut this down if there's an existing thread that I missed. Thanks!

 

[CT3]

I have LP9 Pros, driving combo, in amber. They produce a lot of light, they look great, and that said I don’t know if I would buy them again.

Lightforce seems to have much better throw/distance and that might be a better match for me. The new ARB lights, despite looking a little odd, also seem to have more variability.

If you’re ever in a position to use these LED lights on a deserted highway or a long backroad, I think there are better options, specially incorporating HIDs. The LP9s are great for the trails where you aren’t looking miles ahead though to be fair.

 

[themanwithnoname]

I have LP9 Pros, driving combo, in amber. They produce a lot of light, they look great, and that said I don’t know if I would buy them again.

Lightforce seems to have much better throw/distance and that might be a better match for me. The new ARB lights, despite looking a little odd, also seem to have more variability.

If you’re ever in a position to use these LED lights on a deserted highway or a long backroad, I think there are better options, specially incorporating HIDs. The LP9s are great for the trails where you aren’t looking miles ahead though to be fair.

Thanks, I was looking at the Baja driving combos, just wasn't sure how much light I need/want. Mainly, I found my old Cibies most useful on long dark trails taking me back to the pavement. In that scenario, I want to be able to see wildlife that may appear in front of me. Wild burros in northern Nevada come to mind.

 

[dudemancool1904]

BD/Rigid/KC all make great products but dont discount HF’s in house brand Roadshock. The product is pretty damn good for the price, in most comparos the main difference is power usage, in race applications the big names seem to use less power vs the Roadshock brand.

 

[themanwithnoname]

Thanks, I was looking at the Baja driving combos, just wasn't sure how much light I need/want. Mainly, I found my old Cibies most useful on long dark trails taking me back to the pavement. In that scenario, I want to be able to see wildlife that may appear in front of me. Wild burros in northern Nevada come to mind.

Edit - mentioning @CT3

Out of curiousity, with your LP9s, did you use the Baja Designs wiring harness? Any issues wiring them up? I usually wire my driving lights into the high beam, haven't looked at the LC200 wiring to see what connectors I need etc.

 

[CT3]

Edit - mentioning @CT3

Out of curiousity, with your LP9s, did you use the Baja Designs wiring harness? Any issues wiring them up? I usually wire my driving lights into the high beam, haven't looked at the LC200 wiring to see what connectors I need etc.

Slee installed them, they are wired to a separate switch under the dash. As you’re saying, I would wire then to the high beams on a dual trigger if I did it again… much easier to quickly turn on and off

 

[ryanCA]

Before I do the bumper install on my 2013 LC, was thinking about offroad lights. I find them incredibly helpful in the desert, especially after a long day with a long drive back to pavement.

I've been mounting an ancient set of Cibie Oscars on various trucks for the past 40 years, and they still work, but, I think for this install I'm to upgrade to something newer and LED. The Cibie's are huge, which I love, but dated in function.

So, I've looked at Baja Designs, and ARB, I'm a fan of the flood/spot approach, and I'm not sure who else I should look at, and what models to choose. Even with Baja and ARB, there are quite a few models. Obviously, I'm not racing, and I'm not using these on the street, just want a bit extra coverage in the pitch black desert at night.

Thoughts and suggestions welcome. I did search for relevant threads, but found that if there is info on here, it's spread across hundreds of random threads.

Feel free to shut this down if there's an existing thread that I missed. Thanks!

i am very interesting as i just finished 110 miles offroad late night lots of donkeys in desert

my FJC has bumper lights that really help (i got the wings from jdm car)

I wish on the 200 i could have more lights without buying a bumper

 

[themanwithnoname]

Slee installed them, they are wired to a separate switch under the dash. As you’re saying, I would wire then to the high beams on a dual trigger if I did it again… much easier to quickly turn on and off

Yeah, that's a fairly simple install. On the JK Wrangler I was able to buy a harness that was all wired up for auxiliary lights tapped into the high-beam circuit. Haven't seen one for the pre-2015 LC200.

 

[LCH21]

I mounted the Rigid SR-Series 20 inch SAE compliant driving light 920414 behind the grill.

I later removed the horizontal slats. The light is bright, but the pattern is more of a narrow horizontal beam than a flood. Horizontal spread is nice, better than the stock high-beams, but vertical spread is more limited than I would like.

Sorry for the poor focus.

 

[bloc]

OP check out @WesSiler posts on his light setup. If you are doing an aftermarket bar his setup would be hard to beat. Though it was quite expensive.


I’m sticking with stock bumper, and wanted very solidly mounted light that was low profile. Also didn’t want to block radiator airflow any more than stock, which ruled out hidden lamps behind the lower slats.

30” rigid bar in the grille after removing the camera and one of the slats. Bolted to existing hardware, other than cutting up the grille and notching the air guide for the auxiliary trans cooler this is 100% reversible. Controlled by a dedicated switch near my right knee. I’ve since swapped the fogs for DD yellow LED models. Between the bar, xtremevision HID lamps and HIR high beams, I’m extremely happy with the light output and, critically, beam placement when needed.

 

[ryanCA]

I mounted the Rigid SR-Series 20 inch SAE compliant driving light 920414 behind the grill.
View attachment 3859913
I later removed the horizontal slats. The light is bright, but the pattern is more of a narrow horizontal beam than a flood. Horizontal spread is nice, better than the stock high-beams, but vertical spread is more limited than I would like.

View attachment 3859915
Sorry for the poor focus.

View attachment 3859916
View attachment 3859917

That looks great

However, I have the OEM grille from Middle East, and it took me a lot of work to buy it, so I don't want to cut it up

Cant round lights be mounted on OEM bumper?

 

[bloc]

Cant round lights be mounted on OEM bumper?

The problem is the OE bumper is just a plastic skin and not very good to attach things to.

Before I did the bar behind the grille I had plans to build some brackets that mounted to the back of the crash bar then protruded through the grille slats to provide solid mounts for round lights, but I think unless this setup is made very stiff (read, thick-gauge metal, and heavy) they would tend to vibrate a lot.

 

[ryanCA]

The problem is the OE bumper is just a plastic skin and not very good to attach things to.

Before I did the bar behind the grille I had plans to build some brackets that mounted to the back of the crash bar then protruded through the grille slats to provide solid mounts for round lights, but I think unless this setup is made very stiff (read, thick-gauge metal, and heavy) they would tend to vibrate a lot.

Oh ok, that makes sense. Reeally a bummer, as I don't want the trash aftermarket bumpers done by bubba

 

[linuxgod]

I have PIAA LP570 LED driving lights. They’re ok and add more light than the factory high beams, but not worth the $500+ I paid. If anyone wants them cheap PM me… I’m looking for a reason to buy something better. The PIAA are very focused, probably because they’re DOT-compliant and street legal, but they just don’t add that much light IMO.

I have Rigid fog lights and they are outstanding… much better than the factory ones but with the same SAE-compliant cutoff. I don’t know about rigid driving lights but if they’re as good as their fog lights you wouldn’t be disappointed.

 

[ryanCA]

I have PIAA LP570 LED driving lights. They’re ok and add more light than the factory high beams, but not worth the $500+ I paid. If anyone wants them cheap PM me… I’m looking for a reason to buy something better. The PIAA are very focused, probably because they’re DOT-compliant and street legal, but they just don’t add that much light IMO.

I have Rigid fog lights and they are outstanding… much better than the factory ones but with the same SAE-compliant cutoff. I don’t know about rigid driving lights but if they’re as good as their fog lights you wouldn’t be disappointed.

for our dessert offfroading seeing distance and bright os key for my usage

i dont need them on street or use them so dot compliance is of no use

any suggestions for me ?

 

[bloc]

In the right application DOT compliant can still be really good. My fogs are DOT stamped and for yellow light down low that doesn't illuminate fog/haze, fantastic. But they absolutely wouldn't get the job done for spotting a large animal on the road.

My light bar is combination spot/flood, and more importantly, is a branded product so they have the resources and care to form the lenses/mirrors correctly to put the light where it needs to be. The cheap aftermarket ones not only have problems with leaks and product support after sale, but just aren't high quality to get the light in the right place.

 

[hoser]

'20-21 HE Grill looks pretty good with a 30" light bar.

 

[Mark W]

Don't by your lights based on Brand. Virtually all of them are made in china in the same factories anyway. If you buy a pallet load they will put your company name on the box and on the lights and you can make all sorts of claims about how yours are better than everyone else's. I have personally held some of the "brag about it" lights in my hands at the same time as I held no name stuff straight out of the Chinese factory, and after complete tear down and inspection they were absolutely identical in every way inside and out. Even the packaging. Even the font on the included paperwork was the same.

If you want high quality stuff, the Chinese merchants can sell you that. If you want cheap s*** that looks like the quality stuff at a casual glance, they can sell you that too.

Decide what you want the lights to do for you and where you want to mount them, how much light you need, how much electrical load you can accept, whether you will need more than one type of light to achieve your goal or if a single unit/pair will do the job... all the things that matter much much more than whatever cool kid brand is stamped on the box. Then look at the different types of lights (there is a lot more to it than "LED or not LED" and decide what you need and THEN worry about the branding if you need to.

The "combo beam" is mainly just a smart marketing ploy. Tech is getting better, but ever since LED lighting hit the market, the biggest handicap was focusing it tightly. So, any attempt at a tightly focused long range beam left a lot of "spillage" in all directions. So the guys in marketing decided to make the bug a feature.
In reality this is not all bad. Most people are better served by a light that spread out in the close range as well as reaching down the road a bit, than they are a pencil beam.

But if you are trying to reach way the hell down the road to give you reaction time at higher speeds, in order to push enough light , the spillage will often light up the foreground to the point that your eye is adjusting to that level of intensity and actually making it hard to see into the black hole that is left in the distance. Most "combo beams" have a hot spot that is at best 30 degrees and don't really give you full 150-180 degrees of spread anyway. You really need a tight hot spot focus and a lot of output up the middle to light up the dark road 300-600 yards ahead of you when you are trying to see through the glare of loosely focused spillage in the 0-75 yard range.

FWIW, 300 yards takes about 10 seconds to cover at 65mph. If you are paying attention that should be plenty. At 3 in the morning on your third day on the Alcan, the further out there that you can pick out the moose stepping into the road, the better.
Of course, sometimes they are standing in the brush waiting until you are close before they step out... wide lighting to spot them as they are lurking matters too!.

It is easy to get suitable close range illumination and wide angle coverage from almost any cheap ass non-lensed, reflector based LED light bar. Just pick a size that works for your rig.

It is also easy to get long range pencil beam lighting, usually using single emitter projector lensing type lights.

Light bars (and units with the traditional round light look) using different combinations of lens and non-lensed emitters can do a better job of creating a "combo beam"... but usually still not as well as separate units will produce.


Mark...

 

[rlynch356]

I have a set of Baja LP9's nice but very pricy and I never use the Dual mode function, it's Full on or off....
I am buying a set of Stedi Lights (AUS Company but made in China I presume, like the rest) for about 1/2 the cost.. quality is great and anyway nice lights for what I need.
LIghtforce, and VisionX make very nice lights as well... IDK pick your price point I guess is my advice and buy the set you think has the best quality - I have had the cheap ones die after less than a year for what it's worth.

 

[ryanCA]

are there large lights by the mirror option for our 200s - like the wrangler boys?