Roof Rack Lights: need some help!

[G100]

I am planning on putting two low profile lights on the front of my roof rack. The purpose of these lights is for driving on long dark mexico roads with cows, so I am looking for long range. I don't need anything crazy just something better than my high-beams. Of course a nice 60" led light bar would be perfection but I don't have that type of money, I bought a pair of vision x led euro beam lights, but I tested them out and my high beams reach farther, so they're going back up on e-bay. I need them to be low profile, preferably less then 2.5" high, length adn depth doesn't really matter.

I have searched the web and have come up with these, they are all 55w lights but could I put a higher wattage bulb in? has anyone done this?:

Piaa 2100s

About as much as I would like to pay, can be HID but I don't have $1,000. I like the 15 degree pattern.

Some Jeep lights that I found.

Price is good

KC Highlights Long Range 26 series

Cheap, can get a 130w replacement bulb.

Does anyone have any advice in upgrading the bulb? Is it problematic?

Are there other lights out there that I am missing?

Any help is greatly appreciated cause I need to come to a decission ASAP!

 

[Hilldweller]

I'd never ever buy a blue-tinted Disney bulb; so that rules out anything from PIAA. It's all smoke and mirrors; they're not good lights.

And are you married to the lights being on the roofrack? You'll be able to see the road better if you mount lights on the bumper. Lights on the rack will spill light on the hood; if you get some sort of extreme pencil beam that doesn't spill light, it won't really be putting light around where you need it anyhow. The A-pillar and roofrack are the last places to put lights and then only for some serious high-speed Baja-type action.

That said, if you're not worried about warm-up time, get some cheap HIDs. Something like HIDx, RuggedRidge, etc. Lots of light for the money.
If you want to toggle them with the highbeams so that you can dim them in a hurry, some Hella 4000s would give a nice pattern or Rigid Industry's wonderful Dually D2 LEDs.

 

[YukonRob]

I second the idea of putting them on the bumper. I converted conventional KC lights to HID using a kit and have been pleased with the results. I switch them with a foot switch as well, enabling me to keep both hands on the wheel on those narrow baja highways. I adhere to the prevailing wisdom of not driving at night in Mexico whenever possible but occasionally circumstances arise that require it.

 

[LexusAllTerrain]

I have used in the past these lights to drive at night in Mexico,http://www.shopatron.com/products/p...art_number=5263/353.0.1.1.10544.0.0.0.0?pp=8& and they were very good for my needs, even better then some highly advertize lights.
I know you are trying to keep a low profile light, so after that I have used the Hella 550 on driving pattern and they were a little better then my hibeams!

My .03 cents!

 

[Scoutn79]

I have to disagree with a couple posts to a point.For long range lighting the higher the better, there is a reason the Baja racers put them up there (fog lights need to be mounted low). I agree on the hood glare issue, easy fix tho. Just either put them , and the roof rack, back far enough the light doesn't hit the hood OR use a glare shield, a piece of metal that mounts under the light and keeps the light from shinning down on the hood...I don't know how long these things need to be to effectively reflect the light tho. I think it would be light specific (dia, reflector design, etc.)
Darrell

 

[G100]

Thanks for you guy's input, I must say that you guys are starting to sway me from putting lights up top, it would definately make things move along alot faster for me as I am on a time constraint. I know about the problem with the hood getting lit up and causing blindness, it was bad on my last truck, but I came up with an idea that I hoped would eliminate that problem. I was going to inset the lights in the wind faring hoping that a shadow would be cast on my hood by the two or so inches that sticks out in front of the lights. I attached a rough sketch to get my point across. I too have thought that lights up high can go further easier, is this wrong?, why do baja racers put light up high then? Completely agree with putting them on a foot switch, did that to my last truck, it makes a world of difference, a driving hazard if they aren't.

 

[YukonRob]

...why do baja racers put light up high then?

Many of the baja racer's lights are on removable racks that are only attached at the last pit stop before twilight - this way if the car is rolled during daylight they don't clobber the lights and have a long (and slow) night. The most conveient place for the rack is on the roof of the buggy, also less chance of taking a rock from the car in front of you.

 

[Hilldweller]

Many of the baja racer's lights are on removable racks that are only attached at the last pit stop before twilight - this way if the car is rolled during daylight they don't clobber the lights and have a long (and slow) night. The most conveient place for the rack is on the roof of the buggy, also less chance of taking a rock from the car in front of you.

Right. It's not because it necessarily works better up there, per se. They've also run out of room on the front often since there's so much going on there.
We fall in love with the bling and forget the function.

I traded my Jeep but this is how my lights were when it left me; they worked remarkably like the sun...

 

[Scoutn79]

The higher the lights the less shadowing you get in low spots on the road. Try it with a flashlight...hold the light low and then high up over your head and you'll see a difference. But each vehicle and driver has requirements of their own.
Darrell

 

[Hilldweller]

The higher the lights the less shadowing you get in low spots on the road. Try it with a flashlight...hold the light low and then high up over your head and you'll see a difference. But each vehicle and driver has requirements of their own.
Darrell

True.
But bumper lights won't snag as many tree limbs.

Every operator has to make an honest assessment of their needs and weigh them against the desire to look cool or be practical. It's a fine line and hard thing to do.
Ultimately, lights are just lots of fun too; there are so many...

 

[Rocket Ship]

Couple points, in no particular order to consider. I'll just lay these out and let you decide.

High mounted lights throw light down into holes so you can better see how deep they are. Low mounted lights get "clipped" by the nearest high point, leaving only blackness behind them. This is particularly important if you are approaching a bump at 100mph and need to decide way ahead of time if you need to slow down.

High mounted lights, even with glare shields, will result in more light reflecting off atmospheric particles (fog, dust, etc) and blinding the driver. This is mitigated with an off switch.

High mounted lights are less subject to stone or collision damage than low mounted lights, but more prone to getting hit by a branch (greatly mitigated with proper rack design).

High mounted lights are illegal to use on most roadways.

I've got Hella 500FF's on my roof, honestly, largely for the bling because I rarely have a chance to use them. They are set back from the roof edge and I don't have any glare problems. However, I didn't like the beam pattern as they were aimed closer in to the truck and tended to deliver a "spot" on the ground. Recently I flipped them upside down because of a new roof-rack design necessitated upside down mounts, and I discovered that the pattern is actually better for my needs like this. They have the standard horizontal cut-off that most driving lights have. The reflectors are basically designed to throw light down (onto the hood, or my roof edge in my case) and not much light at all goes ahead of the spot on the ground. However, inverted, the cut-off has the opposite effect. Less light hits the hood (or roof) and more light goes up and beyond the hotspot on the ground. Obviously this is not good for oncoming drivers, but they're illegal to use on roads anyway so... I haven't tested them yet to see if they work as well as I think they will.

I have two of these mounted high on the back of the truck:

http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=4133

Their effectiveness is simply stunning. I've got 100 feet of nice, even, effective light at the back. This is really what we need for slow travel in technical terrain. But, everybody wants the blingy high speed lights for their low speed trucks.

 

[bob91yj]

Desert racers run the high mounted lights to get the distance they need to see. Even spec class racers can get close to 100MPH across a dry lake bed. You'll notice that most also run a set of low mounted lights. Neither location is perfect.

Roger Norman said part of the reason he lost the 2010 Baja 1000 was he couldn't see in the fog at night on the Pacific side of the course because his low mounted lights got knocked off the truck.

I run a set of cheapie 7" HID's on a light bar. I was worried about glare through my sun roof, turns out that isn't a problem...what is a problem is the glare off of my outside mirror mounts. The lights do work great for lighting up the back roads of Baja. I've got them aimed to light up just past the light my low beams throw. I've always run Sylvania Sylstar headlamp bulbs, they really do give significantly more light than a stock bulb.

Recently swapped in some HID conversion bulbs (5000's, white light, not blue) into the headlights, not convinced I really like them yet, but haven't really had much chance to use them either. I've been working on aiming them to get them to my liking and not blind oncoming traffic. I did get to see how they worked just before dawn when leaving our pit area near Erendira at this years Baja 500. No complaints from oncoming traffic or the people in front of me, but I'm not real happy with the light pattern I'm getting in front of me either.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I'll throw in a couple of comments here.

I'm told that painting your hood flat black helps a lot with not only eliminating glare from roof lights, but also from the bright sun during daylight. Obviously, this is not necessarily something that everybody is willing or able to do.

Not every roof mounted light is a driving light. Some people mount "work" lights up there - basicly flood lights. This is to help find and set up camp after dark, to light up a recovery scene after dark, and so on. Depending on what you use, they can draw less power than your headlights, and provide broader coverage.

Regards
John

 

[craig333]

This is a case where size matters. Don't bother with those little bitty lights. I won this light bar at a raffle. Absolutely pathetic. If I didn't use it as a tie down for my kayak I'd take it off.

And btw, those are the same piaa lights in your post.

Here's the hella worklight on my Jeep. Impressive amount of light.

 

[G100]

Came to a decision

Thanks for all the input. And very glad to get craig333's opinion on the exact lights I was thinking about wasting my money on. I have decided I am not going to put lights up on my rack, yet. Maybe never but I like the option so I am going to build my faring so that it is a option one day. I think I am going to get some good lights that I can put on my bumper, I'll probably install them so that I can attach them when I am going on a trip and take them off for my everyday driving. thanks guys, rack should be done next week, check it out on my build thread.