Led light bars and offroad lightning

[aw12345]

On to my next brain fart, I bought a 50" light bar, but really do not want to mount it above the windshield or on the top of the cage, to vulnerable in case of a flop or roll, also as I saw yesterday vulnerable to over hanging rocks and tree limbs. Unless it really causes a ton of glare or severely limits the area it lights up, I really like this spot a lot better. Oh yeah damned things are pretty heavy also, like weight down low if I can help it.
However it goes, only gonna mount it for night runs at the Buttes or Hammers anyway.

picture061 by aartjestaartje, on Flickr



Anybody got input on this?

If all else fails I jimmyrig it tonight and see how much of a difference it makes

[curtis]

Nobody will run trails in front of you.

[aw12345]

It's just nice to light up the desert when roaming around, on the trail it stays of unless needed to light up an area

[4xfiend]

Seems like you'd get a ton of glare with it that low.

I really don't understand the huge light bar fad, but to each his own.

[aw12345]

All I want to be able to see is features in the desert at night to find my way to a trail or back when it's pitch black it's hard to see your land marks. If it gives a ton of glare it will go higher. Led bars light the place up pretty good so yeah they do have a place for roaming around the wide open at night. For trail riding only they are way overkill. Will see tonight how bad it restricts light output and how much glare. Will point it at the wall at the end of the cul de sac, will tell me everything I need to know. Case in point would be TDS, last year, a guy broke his neck and died when he drove into a gulley. Light the place up enough at speed and you have a change of seeing these things in time

[6spdYJ]

FWIW, I saw a smaller bar in the same spot on a gloss black JK today. Your mounting logic seems sound. If glare is an issue, you can shoot the hood with a flat color.

[aw12345]

Just played with the thing, glare is not an issue what so ever. It does limit light output a little.
Took some pics with my tablet

Headlights

headlight by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

KC lights got to aim those a lil better

kc light by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

Bar down low

bar low by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

Bar up high

bar high by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

Might just make low and high mounts and go from there. Definitely like the light it puts out

[alittleoff]

With that length higher is better. What about some kind of protective bar around it? Unless it makes it wider than the top of the roll bar. Or use your mad skills and cut the thing in half and mount them to the "sun visor" area.

Steve

[aw12345]

See above Steve

[alittleoff]

I see. The bar up high looks good. If it's down low you could switch the KC's to a flood pattern.

Steve

[aw12345]

Either way will work for me, will do some night time desert testing

[TipsE-Z]

FWIW, I saw a smaller bar in the same spot on a gloss black JK today. Your mounting logic seems sound. If glare is an issue, you can shoot the hood with a flat color.

X2 and what brand LED bar did you get? I've been thinking of getting a smaller one to mount in place of my KC floods but it seems like there is a huge variety of choices and no one seems to use the same methodology to determine output.

[aw12345]

Position of lightbar is a done deal

About light bars, I like this thing. At the beginning of my cul de sac, which is about 1/2 mile long. taken with my old camera no flash, no manual settings, shot through the windshield. I like it

lightbar (1) by aartjestaartje, on Flickr

Which begets a question, anybody ever taken one apart to seperate the lights out? You look at the thing and they are put together with pods of 4 leds each, pretty sure the whole shebang is wired in parallel. So you could separate them out and light them say in banks of 2 or 4 pods.