Show me your DITCH LIGHTS or ROCK CLEARANCE lights

[CHAMP:t]

I'm looking into creative ways to implement some ditch lights (or rock clearance if you will) onto my square body suburban. Something to light up my path directly in front, beneath, and behind me.

I know some people just use flood pod lights and mount them to the frame or in bumper with a peep hole, but had anyone used smaller LED's that work well too?

I'm looking for all examples, all ideas, all vehicles. Maybe someone else with different vehicle can use this too. Post em up!

 

[Martinjmpr]

I think LEDs are the way to go anymore. They're cheap and they're rugged. I replaced my factory fogs with LEDs and I love them.
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Tell us more about your 'Burb. You said a square body? What year?

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

After seeing this post I am considering using these for alley/ditch/rock lights/underhood. Small, rugged, and easily moved. Underhood I wouldn't leave them mounted permanently. Rigid Industries makes some of the best lighting of anyone. Yes others maybe cheaper but the optics and rugged quality make a big difference. At $70 each I don't think you can really beat them for the amount of light they provide and the quality.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/163754-Rigid-Industries-Ignite-led?p=2174616#post2174616

 

[jeep-N-montero]

With a square body you have tons of space to mount them.

 

[rayra]

I've got a huge amount of white light out of a pair of inexpensive LED 'Daytime Running Light' strips. They're a sealed plastic strip not much bigger than a popsicle stick. Very low power draw. Saw them here, posted by another member, also as under-hood lighting. It was the topic looking for low-cost mods. The pair was <$8. I would think 3-4 pairs would give one all the ground lighting you could want. They mount easily with double-sided tape and weigh almost nothing. I substituted the red/gray heavier duty 3M double-sided tape and mine are stuck to the inside of the hood right above the radiator. Been there in that heat over a month and still stuck solid and working.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C1YI2XA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Really having a hard time swallowing the pricing from Rigid and other similar companies. http://www.rigidindustries.com/led-lighting/40020. Are the worth a 15-fold price premium?

 

[CHAMP:t]

Tell us more about your 'Burb. You said a square body? What year?

Don't think I have enough posts yet to show any pics, but sure I can talk some about it.

Just got her not long ago, 1986 K20 Suburban Silverado. About a 4" lift (I believe) with 17" Fuel wheels and 37" ProComp tires. Only thing stock on the motor is the block, previous owner went through Everything: bored .30 over (355), port matched vortec heads, forged rotating assembly, COMP cam, roller rockers, aluminum intake, 650 carb... plenty more. Behind that an NV4500 out of a '99 8.1L 1 ton with 12" clutch. That overdrive is a life saver, and I swear she likes the highway better than back roads sometimes. She cruises 70-80... even up to 90 and just purrs. Be nice to her and she'll get over 16mpg even. Hard to believe it at first, but GPS doesn't lie.

Rear end is 14 bolt with Detroit TruTrac and front has hardened shafts in a Dana 44 I believe. Has a 208 xfer case, would prefer the gears of a 205, but I'm not hard on her when in 4x4 anyway. Future upgrade maybe.

All in all, a pretty clean truck. Never was the biggest fan of square bodies, but one look at her, work well done by previous owner and well taken care of: garaged, correct fluid changes, clean, little rust (for a square body), I was sold.

 

[CHAMP:t]

Nope, not allowed to post links yet. Just tried.

 

[Stryder106]

Rayra - I like that setup - think I need to explore that. I swapped out my fog lights for LED pods down low by my winch, added a front bumper 34" LED light bar, a 50" LED lightbar up top, and then 4 pod lights on my roof rack that point at 90 and 45 degree angles to the sides and down. I have the brackets in my rear bumper to add 2 more LED pods for the rear - just focusing on other items right now.

I agree with Rayra on the crazy pricing for Rigid. My fear is that when someone recognizes a $1600 lightbar that can be removed with two allen screws - it will be gone in a heartbeat. Mine cost $125 - I would have to go through 11 of them to equate to a single Rigid - no thanks.

 

[rayra]

I'm wanting to do something like your upper arrangement. I'm intending to run wiring for several things in the large side rails of my roof rack, partly for a solar panel install as well. What I'd like to try is some plug-in mounts in the 6 footings of my Z71 roof rack, so I can move a couple pod lights around as needed, mostly to illuminate a campsite or mobile HAM setup. And mount red lights in as an aid in my amateur astronomy outings. I want to be able to readily dismount and stow the lights when not needed, in keeping with my 'daily driver stealth' goals. The 12v panel mount sockets I've been messing with in my storage platform electrification need about 1-1/2" of surface face and 2" of interior depth, so I'm going to be exploring where I can mount them in. The other idea is to use the smaller Anderson PowerPole couplings, if I can find a small surface mount fixture for just a single pair of them. Then I can use some sort of clamp mount for the lights and just have a coupler pigtail on them to plug them in.

TLDR - I want a modular readily removable lighting setup, with multiple connection points / placements.

 

[chet6.7]

These KC lights look interesting... http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...bo-diesel-37s-and-550hp?p=2136502#post2136502
This member also had the Rigid brand and got rid of them.
Is this the same Rigid company that makes the craptastic shop vacs?

 

[Stryder106]

Here are my upper lights. Note this taken right after I installed them. After several trail runs and messing around with them at night - as I mentioned before the top pods are now turned. The outer ones are at 90 degrees and down, while the inner ones are at 45 degrees and down (but less do to being inboard). My lights are combo spot/flood. I did use plug ins on the pods so that I could remove them or replace them.


Here is my front bumper arrangement. I used the stock wiring for the pod lights, so they are now my fog lights and are activated with my stock button.

 

[theksmith]

I'm looking into creative ways to implement some ditch lights (or rock clearance if you will) onto my square body suburban. Something to light up my path directly in front, beneath, and behind me. ...

the typical approach is to mount multiple downward facing LED pods or DRL modules of some brand. i tried something different on my old WJ and it ended up working pretty well on there... mounting 2 LED work/flood lights on my belly skid, one forward and one rearward (angled down some): https://offroadpassport.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12408&postcount=469

the only problem i had was the lenses on the first set of cheap LEDs eventually cracked (probably from heat and not having vents in the housings). i swapped them out for a thinner pair of cheap ones, and those had lasted several years when i sold it: http://amzn.to/2dYJ2CC - if i replicate this approach on my new rig, i'll likely try these: http://amzn.to/2dxNCIn

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

Rayra reminded me of an itemn I had in my list wish on Amazon. I don't run these, but they were recommended to me by others that do run these as underhood lights. I imagine that you could use them other places.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008JV0ZAM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1QCDVJDETN8U1&coliid=ISXLG4QD8OM2Y

The other day when looking at roof racks I found this model from Rhino that allows you different options on lighting on all four sides.
http://www.gorhino.com/SRM100-Rack

 

[Wally'sJimmy]

When I did the headliner in my truck I used these,



I was thinking about mounting them under the truck, their nice and strong and sealed to keep water out, you can get them in several different sizes. I was also considering adapting a truck bed lighting kit https://www.amazon.com/LEDGlow-8pc-Truck-Bed-Lighting/dp/B008LUXS3M. You can find everything you need on https://www.superbrightleds.com/ if you want to make it yourself, they have almost every LED imaginable.

 

[CHAMP:t]

Nice setup guys, good idea's. TTT