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Off road light recommendations...

Rugger99

Active member
Joined
Dec 4, 2020
Member Number
3110
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29
Looking for recommendations for decent lights , preferably LED. These are going on a 1991 FJ80 and I want to put two 7" round lights on the front bumper. I goggled and got a bunch of links but I haven't bought a pair of lights in over 15 years and I have no idea what's good and what's garbage in regards to the current lights out there. The front bumper is pretty tight to the body so the lights need to be of a slimmer design as well....hence no KC Daylighters :flipoff2:
 

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I put a pair of small cube lights on my Toyota from Walmart there decent and I put a pair from harbor freight on my TJ that are a combo flood and spot I’d buy those again both have good light quality. I have a set of ridged I split up between two sleds they are flakey I must have got a bad set they were good at first then started acting up after that I’ve went with cheaper lights. I’d stay away from anything on super bright led lights .com put some on my plow truck they fell apart fast absolute garbage.
 
If you just want something that looks the part, any cheap Chinese lights will do.

If you want them to put out light for real. I’m absolutely sold on the Baja Designs stuff. bdkw1 can explain better because he used to work for them but. There’s no smoke and mirrors with their stuff, it is legitimately better than their competition. I’ve tried some other brands trying to save money but I’ll probably never buy anything but BD going forward.

Here’s a few pics from my last race. 4 little BD pods put out more light than that 42” light bar.

JR4X said:
Little guy with zero actual headlights by the time I got in it just in time for dark. I almost didn't do a light bar but decided very very last minute to stick one on there. Glad we did but those little pods are impressive for their size. Gotta admit when they first came in I thought I had bought the wrong stuff because physically they are small. Then we took it outside in the dark to aim and align them, at that point we knew [bdkw1] had not led us astray.

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I have been very happy with Quake LEDs

Home page

quakeled.com quakeled.com

What I have found is theirs are very bright, you can not only shop size, but lumen output too.
You can also choose spot or flood type beams.
 
If want a real product and you are willing to spend the money, another solid vote for BD I've been sold on their products. They're a solid product with great output, we run them on the buggy and have a set that survived the big 60mph end-over in the last buggy and still work fine despite the rig landing on them.

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Niglight and Auxbeam have been decent, higher end Chinesium, definitely not on the same level as Baja Designs or Rigids, but serviceable and affordable.


Been looking at Hella's Value Fit, but I really don't want to drive around with something that says "Value Fit" on it. I've had Hella 500s on a few things and have their H4 conversions in 2 different vehicles, but have never had any of their LEDs yet. One of the Amazon reviews for the Value Fits shows them taking the housing apart and removing the logo. I'm obviously not alone. :laughing:
 
Lee said:
Niglight and Auxbeam have been decent, higher end Chinesium, definitely not on the same level as Baja Designs or Rigids, but serviceable and affordable.


Been looking at Hella's Value Fit, but I really don't want to drive around with something that says "Value Fit" on it. I've had Hella 500s on a few things and have their H4 conversions in 2 different vehicles, but have never had any of their LEDs yet. One of the Amazon reviews for the Value Fits shows them taking the housing apart and removing the logo. I'm obviously not alone. :laughing:
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What an odd product design\marketing decision.

Nobody wants people to know they're a cheap ass
 
there is a guy locally that keeps using his Harbor Freight 48" light bar to teach people a high beam lesson
I get embarrassed for him, it is mood lighting at best

He high beamed me in my ol geo and I didn't even have to squint :laughing:


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adding Ridged Lighting is expensive, but my little 3x3 put out enough that I haven't ever wanted to add more
 
Did anyone say Baja Designs? :flipoff2:

And before “sticker shock”, a pair of Squadron Sports puts out impressive quality usable light for less than excessive pricing.
 
Lee said:
Niglight and...
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You said Niglight. Heh heh
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
there is a guy locally that keeps using his Harbor Freight 48" light bar to teach people a high beam lesson
I get embarrassed for him, it is mood lighting at best

He high beamed me in my ol geo and I didn't even have to squint :laughing:
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The 48" one I put on my plowtruck in front of and at the top of the hood that I got from the Amazon bargain bin has made every hi beam a- hole go to low beams ASAP. Its only drawback is insane reflection off roadsigns.
 
Hella 500 or 700 if you don't want to spend a ton of money. My pickup has 700s behind the grille and Vision X mini light cannons in the bumper, been happy with both.
 
Sticker shock definitely comes with high quality lights. But when you see them side by side to cheaper lights and know they’re going to LAST, it’s worth every penny.

I think I have a 1” or 2” by 10” Rigid flood/spot combo and it puts out easily 10 times more light than my buddy’s cheap 52” Amazon light bar.

The above post stating Baja Designs survived a 60+mph roll over has me sold on them for my buggy. :laughing:
 
Hella 500's is what I always buy. Cheap and easy. Remember folks in the cold areas, LED's will frost over and put out no heat.
 
I have Morimoto, Baja Designs and Diode Dynamics. They are all different beam pattern so can’t totally compare. But no complaints on any one of them for build quality, light output or beam pattern.
 
FleshEater said:
The above post stating Baja Designs survived a 60+mph roll over has me sold on them for my buggy. :laughing:
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We used to keep a front bar from Tavo Vildosala's TT in the showroom. It was bent into a nice V with a 1/2 bolt indentation on top that was 1/8" deep. Still worked. We joked with him that we warrantied lights not bumpers.

The biggest mistruth with lights is output. Just because the emitter will put our X lumens doesn't mean that the light puts out that much. In order to drive them at 100%, you need a good heatsink system. BD circuit boards are printed on .060 copper sheet. They can be run at 100% up to 120* or so in zero wind without derating the power output. As far as I know, no other light is made this way. Ching Chong lights are driven at about 60% usually and derate pretty quickly when warm if they want to live. When you see LED lights strobing on video, now you know why.

Then comes EMI and line noise. No other light has an actual mill spec rating for this. Some of them should have FCC licenses they are so bad.

Even though I'm on the current management's shit list, I still buy them, just have to go around a few people :laughing:
 
No mention of budget…

I’d love to put high quality lights on my rig, but they don’t get used enough to justify the price. Nilight and Auxbeam have been good enough for me so far. If I used them constantly or needed them for specific functional reasons, I’d go higher quality.
 
Chevy_man said:
Someone here recommended these: Diode Dynamics Automotive LED Lighting - Off Road, Bulbs, Headlights, and more
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Roc Doc said:
Another vote for Diode Dynamics.
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Another vote for DD. I have Diode Dynamics on my plow Jeep, my W250, my SxS, and my Wife's truck and they are great with good light output. They are more $ than chink stuff but they are more durable and are made in the U.S. I had a cheap chink light bar on the SxS but the LEDs started burning out within the first year and they got water in them.

I also run Rigids on my F350, a 20" light bar and several 3x3 pods. They are also quality lights with good performance. I have no experience with the BD but have never heard anything bad about them FWIW. I'd also prefer to buy lights made here...
 
I'm happy with the Diode Dynamics on my F150. Yellow SAE fogs and 5" spots. Very happy, and would go with DD or if I have more cash to use, Baja Designs.


bdkw1 said:
Then comes EMI and line noise. No other light has an actual mill spec rating for this. Some of them should have FCC licenses they are so bad.
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Previous job the prior mechanic had put Amazon special LED work lights on most of the loaders. A few were so bad (different styles used) that we'd have to turn off the lights to use the 2 way radio.

Tried a ton of different bandaid, but a couple cases of quality LED lights fixed the issues.
 
I love my Nacho Offroad Technology lights. They are combo spot/flood.

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deadmeat said:
I have been very happy with Quake LEDs

Home page

quakeled.com quakeled.com

What I have found is theirs are very bright, you can not only shop size, but lumen output too.
You can also choose spot or flood type beams.
Click to expand...
yuk :barf: had a couple of their light bars, not impressed.

Baja Designs and Diode Dynamics are what I have. The S2 are really all you need for most stuff.

Also have som KC fog that I'm not impressed with but the Gravity's that ame with my truck are nice (and better be for what they would ahve cost)
 
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