Spotties vs Lightbar - Roofrack

[miker]

Hi Fellas. Have a Hannibal roofrack 2.8m (& rooftop tourer + awning :)) waiting here in Bris for the boys to fit once I get the fender to them. I want to put some light on the fromt of the rack & do like the traditional/expedition look of spotties, 2 or 4, but lightbars are also an obvious consideration. Still waiting on ARB's production run of bullbars for fenders but once on will have a existing set of Lightforce spots from my previous TD5 up front for distance. Any experience of pro's & con's?

Miker. PS. The avatar is a file pic!:(

[lambrover]

Personally I would have a light bar on top as it will draw less amps. As you said you have the light force for up front distance.

It would be similar in cost by the time you have 4 lights up there.

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[chook73]

It depends on what you want it for, I have a 40" light bar on the roof and a set of Lightforce 240 Blitz (with HID Conversion Kit) on the bull bar. The HID on the bull bar are awesome for distance on the highway and the LED on the roof is awesome for off road and spotting skippy on the highway.

The HID off road are no chop against the light bar but the light bar would be fine on the highway if I didn't have the HID.

The other thing about the light bar on the roof is that it is very low profile and sits nicely under the roof rack and it is a lot more solid than most spot lights.

As Lambrover said they also draw a hell of a lot less than conventional spot lights so you don't put a massive load on your alternator/battery as you would with 4 x 100w spot lights.

Regards
Iain

[miker]

Cheers. Chook 73, what brand lightbar did you opt for? Chosen for a particular reason? Just about every add now is claiming the best & brightest in Aus.

[chook73]

I went with the rigid as the optics are by far the best IMHO. I liked the idea of lots of small led as eventually you will loose a few and with more smaller you won't notice it as much. Also more smaller led allow a better and more even focal pattern with fewer hot spots.

It's also a great solid unit, been on the car just under 2 years from memory and hasn't skipped a beat.

I also believe you get what you pay for, I bought a cheap Chinese winch and it lasted a year. I wonder how the chep Chinese light bars will last especially on corrugations and sealing in rain.


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[dmdigital]

Chook where did you get the Rigid bar from?

[mattyg]

Hi miker, I would (and I plan to do it soon) put roof mounted lights on my disco.

I love the look o the traditional expedition trucks (4 across the top) but you cannot go past the led light bars for performance.

Sooooo - I plan to use 4 smaller rectangular led spot lights to achieve the trad look but have the performance of led. Best of both worlds!

Matt

[chook73]

Chook where did you get the Rigid bar from?

Snake racing


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[kowari]

I think you can have lights above the line of the head lights, but if you use them the law can ping you if they so wish.( just like after market HIDs and rod holders on the bullbar) so always be polite to a cop if he stops you, cause he could draw up quite a list on some 4x4s

[Natt]

Hi Miker, i only went with the Vision X not so long ago, best lights I've owned so far for the driving i do, I brought 2 with the 60* optics and now maybe thinking i should of gone 1 x 60* and 1 x 10* optics, i still might get another one and mount it in the center ( 10* that is )
The amount of light these things put out just blows me away
Here is a link to the lights i have

Commercial Truck Lighting Transporter Series - Vision X USA (http://www.visionxusa.com/LED-Commercial_Truck_Lighting_Transporter_Series/c1_224/index.html)

Cheers
Natt

[justdrinkbeer]

I'm with everyone else about spending good money on the right product.

Light is emitted differently from an LED chip than a conventional lamp, with the led chip being flat the light is emitted straight from it, hence why looking at even an LED downlight in your house hurts your eyes.

Because the light is being emitted in that manor, the reflector design plays a huge part of the function of the light, if you go to a shop in daylight and someone tries to sell you a LED bar by how bright it looks, walk away.

Stick with a reputable brand, best still have a look at someone else's at night, they aren't all equal.

Best i've seen personally is Rigid Industries, i'll put a 30" one on my roof rack one day, the one thing I do wonder though is with them being such a flood type light, is there much in the way of reflections back to rthe driver from things like the bonnet, bullbar etc?