Hello!
I'm working on finishing up an extensive, year long review of a Hidden LED Light Bar setup and decided to write a short post on my experience with a Roof-Mounted LED light bar and why I'm no longer a fan of the setup.
Back in March of 2015, I purchased a Rough Country 54" Curved LED Light Bar 72954 and Rough Country Windshield Mount 70518
to install the setup on my 2011 F-150. I followed the installation instructions and mounted up the power-house light bar to my 2011 F-150.
First let me say this, while I did not do an extensive review of the equipment, the bar and brackets seemed very well made and durable. The instructions were clear, the bracket came with all install hardware and the light bar came with all necessary wiring. I didn't test them long-term, so that's the most I can say on the subject.
The overall look is very "Pre-Runner" (I'll post pictures if I can find them). The light bar is minimally intrusive and does not obstruct view at all (or at least, very minimally). The amount of light this bar produces is absolutely immense. It's like having the power of the sun mounted to the roof of your truck. The first night I installed it, I headed out and hit some back-road gravel. And here's where it started to go wrong.
GLARE
The glare from the this light bar off my hood (Dark Blue, high gloss) was immense, bordering on blinding. I could imagine a brightly colored or white truck being even worse. It made it incredibly difficult to navigate the pitch-dark night despite all the auxiliary light. It became immediately clear to me that if I wanted to maintain this setup, I would need to Plastidip my hood flat black (which I was prepared to do). However, something else put the nail in the coffin for me the next day...
WIND NOISE
It is perfectly reasonable to expect something square and flat mounted to the outside of your vehicle to make SOME noise at highway speed (60-70 MPH). However, the amount of wind noise this light made was completely unbearable. I've run roof racks, roof top tents, cargo boxes, cargo bags...NOTHING made as much wind noise as this light bar. It was deafening. I could barely hear my aftermarket stereo over the noise. If that wasn't bad enough, it seemed to create some sort of natural resonance in the cab that caused a sort of ringing noise that I could not stop. Nothing I did to modify the bracket, light, or wiring made that ringing and wind noise go away. As I've said in other posts, I spend a lot of time on the highway, and I'm not off-road racing this truck, so this light bar had to go. I boxed everything up, returned everything, and went to a Hidden LED Light Bar that (as I'll discuss in a review I'll post tonight) I fell in love with.
TREES
While I didn't have this experience, I suspected I would at some point. A stock 2011 F-150 is a tall truck. Eventually I'm going to do some aftermarket suspension and bigger tires. That makes for a really REALLY tall truck. I have a lot of scratches on my roof from tree branches already, and I could absolutely envision one of those branches smashing into the front of a windshield mounted light bar. I cannot attest to the durability of the Rough Country LED light bar, I'd rather not find out by destroying my equipment (especially something as expensive as a large light bar). Most warranties don't cover tree-related damage.
Your mileage may vary
Roof and windshield light bars seem to be all the rage these days and I see them everywhere, particularly on full size, domestic trucks. N-Fab makes several different light bar mounts that may prevent some of the issues that I experienced, but I was so put-off by this experience that I didn't even want to bother to find out. Perhaps on a different truck with different aerodynamic properties, this may not be as much of an issue, but that certainly was not my experience. I'm not trying to deter people from this set up (they seem to sell like crazy) but I did want to share my data point and be able to reference this experience in future write-ups.
I'm working on finishing up an extensive, year long review of a Hidden LED Light Bar setup and decided to write a short post on my experience with a Roof-Mounted LED light bar and why I'm no longer a fan of the setup.
Back in March of 2015, I purchased a Rough Country 54" Curved LED Light Bar 72954 and Rough Country Windshield Mount 70518
to install the setup on my 2011 F-150. I followed the installation instructions and mounted up the power-house light bar to my 2011 F-150.
First let me say this, while I did not do an extensive review of the equipment, the bar and brackets seemed very well made and durable. The instructions were clear, the bracket came with all install hardware and the light bar came with all necessary wiring. I didn't test them long-term, so that's the most I can say on the subject.
The overall look is very "Pre-Runner" (I'll post pictures if I can find them). The light bar is minimally intrusive and does not obstruct view at all (or at least, very minimally). The amount of light this bar produces is absolutely immense. It's like having the power of the sun mounted to the roof of your truck. The first night I installed it, I headed out and hit some back-road gravel. And here's where it started to go wrong.
GLARE
The glare from the this light bar off my hood (Dark Blue, high gloss) was immense, bordering on blinding. I could imagine a brightly colored or white truck being even worse. It made it incredibly difficult to navigate the pitch-dark night despite all the auxiliary light. It became immediately clear to me that if I wanted to maintain this setup, I would need to Plastidip my hood flat black (which I was prepared to do). However, something else put the nail in the coffin for me the next day...
WIND NOISE
It is perfectly reasonable to expect something square and flat mounted to the outside of your vehicle to make SOME noise at highway speed (60-70 MPH). However, the amount of wind noise this light made was completely unbearable. I've run roof racks, roof top tents, cargo boxes, cargo bags...NOTHING made as much wind noise as this light bar. It was deafening. I could barely hear my aftermarket stereo over the noise. If that wasn't bad enough, it seemed to create some sort of natural resonance in the cab that caused a sort of ringing noise that I could not stop. Nothing I did to modify the bracket, light, or wiring made that ringing and wind noise go away. As I've said in other posts, I spend a lot of time on the highway, and I'm not off-road racing this truck, so this light bar had to go. I boxed everything up, returned everything, and went to a Hidden LED Light Bar that (as I'll discuss in a review I'll post tonight) I fell in love with.
TREES
While I didn't have this experience, I suspected I would at some point. A stock 2011 F-150 is a tall truck. Eventually I'm going to do some aftermarket suspension and bigger tires. That makes for a really REALLY tall truck. I have a lot of scratches on my roof from tree branches already, and I could absolutely envision one of those branches smashing into the front of a windshield mounted light bar. I cannot attest to the durability of the Rough Country LED light bar, I'd rather not find out by destroying my equipment (especially something as expensive as a large light bar). Most warranties don't cover tree-related damage.
Your mileage may vary
Roof and windshield light bars seem to be all the rage these days and I see them everywhere, particularly on full size, domestic trucks. N-Fab makes several different light bar mounts that may prevent some of the issues that I experienced, but I was so put-off by this experience that I didn't even want to bother to find out. Perhaps on a different truck with different aerodynamic properties, this may not be as much of an issue, but that certainly was not my experience. I'm not trying to deter people from this set up (they seem to sell like crazy) but I did want to share my data point and be able to reference this experience in future write-ups.
