Thoughts on roof mounted lights? (1 Viewer)

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I have a roof mounted 40" single row Morimoto LED bar on my 80. It is a good bar but I just dont know if it works or me. I can't deside if it is the light bar or the roof mounting that is bothering my.

I have it mounted VERY close almost touching the roof and a few inches back from the windshield. I figured this would cut back on glare. I have a little light that hits the top of my upper bumper hope but not much. I think what I see is that when there is dust or even moisture in the air the lights over my head light it up right in front of my face. Is this a common thing? Has anyone else had issues like this?

I am just trying to figure out if I would be better off spending big money on a better light bar like a Baja Designs that will focused the light really tight or if I should forget the roof mount and go ditch and bumper mount. I recently got a baja designs squadron for my motorcycle and love the light it puts out. I can't help but think a set of those as ditch lights would be really nice.
 
I had a couple roof rack mounted light bars over the years and really rarely used them, and when I did, they did for sure light up all the dust and air and some of my hood
like you said. The best use I found for them was when I would wheel at night on more rocky, technical terrain and the lightbar would cast less of a shadow behind the rocks.
Anyway, long story short, I rarely used the roof lightbar, so I ditched it for some ditch lights and have been happy with the ditch light wide illumination fore of the headlights and down.
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I had a couple roof rack mounted light bars over the years and really rarely used them, and when I did, they did for sure light up all the dust and air and some of my hood
like you said. The best use I found for them was when I would wheel at night on more rocky, technical terrain and the lightbar would cast less of a shadow behind the rocks.
Anyway, long story short, I rarely used the roof lightbar, so I ditched it for some ditch lights and have been happy with the ditch light wide illumination fore of the headlights and down. View attachment 2375413View attachment 2375412
Thanks. That is kind of what I am thinking. I might add a set of baja designs squadrons as ditch lights.
 
On our GX470 we have 3 roof mounted "spot" light bars, ditch lights on the A-pillars, a 20" combo, spot/flood in the front bumper and rock lights all around. I also think you get what you pay for so we coughed up the money for quality Rigid Industries lights everywhere.

The bumper mounted light bar is wired to our Hi-beams and it's amazing. Of all the lights I turn on the ditch lights the most. They are great on a dark trail and even good in poorly lit neighborhoods. I rarely turn on the roof lights but they are good for long distance.

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The BD pods are a good light, I have them for ditch lights. I have a 40" LED bar on my Roof rack, it's a good 4" back from the windshield, still have some glare and it lights up all the dust and/or rain/snow. Most of the time it's worthless. Driving and fogs on the front are the most useful.
 
I'm glad to hear what you all are putting down. I was looking into lights today for my 60 series. Living in Moab, I see all sorts of things that are excessive. That's okay I guess, but I'm focusing on practical.
I've lived my whole life off-roading with headlights. My first thoughts are about improving backup lighting. Second is that of ditch lights for those times when you are creasting a steep hill and you wanna see where the F@#$ the trail went.
 
I run 3 x LED Spotlights in the bullbar on my 200 Series, and 1 x 40in lightbar up on the roof, nice and low and back about 2ft from the windscreen to make sure no glare ends up on the bonnet. I don't often "need" the 40in lightbar going and it also lights up the UHF/phone antenna's on the bar as well, which can be slightly annoying at times. I do a lot of night driving on rural and remote roads as a field technician in agriculture, and the 40in comes in handy when driving around on properties with irrigation channels & banks that have to be crossed to get from one place to another. I have also crossed water/creeks at night where all the headlights & spotlights go underwater - its is pretty handy to have that lightbar up here on these occasions as you are blind otherwise. It can also double as a worklight/floodlight onto a large machine that we might be crawling around on in the dark. Kangaroos also take out spotlights in the bar now and then, so its a backup in these instances as well.
 

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