Basics of Auxiliary Lighting for the Off-road Adventure and Camping Rig

[Hilldweller]

Several acquaintances have recently installed LED lights and discovered that radio frequency interference from those lights is wreaking havoc with their CB and Ham radios. Since LED auxiliary lighting is now so popular, it would be helpful if someone with expert knowledge and real life experience could address this issue.

My solution, thus far, has been to avoid all aftermarket LED lighting

When I first started playing with the lights on my motorcycles, MINIs, & Jeeps, I used spectrum analyzers and oscilloscopes from the lab here to chart the PWM duty cycles (when applicable) and also hunt/seek any spurious RF created by the lights. RF, whether transmitted or conducted, can play havoc with modern systems and manufacturers spend good time and money making sure their products are protected from it with OE systems.
Trucklite and JW Speaker lights had no harmful spurious RF. Many of the cheap and stinky HID and LED lights have also been relatively safe.
But I have found some interesting signals generated by many of the cheap HIDs and LEDs that can make a vehicle's computer behave in unwanted ways ---- rolling down windows, activating power steering, opening the trunk, and the usual radio interference.

Have your acquaintances try ferrite chokes and move their grounds. If you can't isolate the problem, choke it. Even the OEs often use a choke.

 

[kojackJKU]

Sounds like building guitar amps..ha ha. Another hobby of mine. Building tube guitar amps use a lot of those principles to get rid of noise in the amp. Even how you twist tie wires, with certain other wires will alter the sound of the amp. WILD really. IF you put to many twists, you will loose tone.

 

[DanCooper]

If you can't isolate the problem, choke it.

Why do I find this solution as a concept so attractive?

 

[Hilldweller]

Why do I find this solution as a concept so attractive?

I think your mind wandered there, Dan...

 

[comptiger5000]

I run all halogens up front on the ZJ. My aux reverse lights are flush mount LED bars sunk into the rear bumper, as the worse color rendering of LEDs is less of an issue for reverse lights and I didn't have a good spot to put halogens where they wouldn't get smashed.

Here's a pic of the front end. The fog lights are 85w IPF 840s. The headlights are ECE housings with 100/55 H4s in them. The 4 driving lights turn on/off with the high beams and are a pair of 130w pencil beams and a pair of 100w IPF 968s (driving pattern and angled very slightly outwards). The setup throws a lot of light, has a fairly wide spread and throws plenty far enough.

The reverse lights look like this. They're the Hella Valufit flush mount lightbars. They're very bright, only draw 18w each and have a pretty wide beam spread. So they make good reverse lights, although they're 6000k color temperature, so they're a little blue for my taste. And I'm kinda surprised I haven't been yelled at by anyone for blinding them while backing up in a parking lot, as they kinda hurt to look at even in broad daylight. They're also wired with a time delay relay (set for a bit under a second) to avoid them flashing on if I shift in/out of park too slowly (they come to full brightness immediately, unlike a halogen, so the flash was like a camera flash at night).

 

[kojackJKU]

I agree, LED color is terrible for most of these lights. I have flush cubes to mount in my rear bumper and a 6 led light for flood duties in the rear. I am going from my truck lites to the super 7s with 100/55w blubs....

 

[Beat Mumenthaler]

Hi Bravo 1792,
Your article is very enlightening!
Would you also have an opinion on where to mount the FFAL, i. e. roof vs. front?
Looking forward to your advice.
Greetings from Switzerland.
Beat

 

[javajoe79]

If there’s anything that’s overdone in this community, it’s lighting. Many people have and use FAR too much lighting.

 

[Zuber]

If there’s anything that’s overdone in this community, it’s lighting. Many people have and use FAR too much lighting.

I'd say not too much, but the wrong kind and poorly aimed. Everyone seems to have their fog lights turned on, except in fog. I can tell that many have low mounted spot lights. In that location they are mostly useless except for blinding other drivers.

Bajadesigns has done some research on best light patterns. They do cater to high speed racers, which is probably not an expedition vehicle off-highway.

I remember one of their results was to mount spot lights up high on the roof and to make sure it did not glare on the hood or near objects. For high speeds the near in lighting should be dimmed to lower the overall amount of light your eye receives. This is to prevent the iris of your eye closing down, then you can see at distance better. They have a good graphic and description of lighting patterns, look at 'the science of lighting'.

 

[javajoe79]

I'd say not too much, but the wrong kind and poorly aimed. Everyone seems to have their fog lights turned on, except in fog. I can tell that many have low mounted spot lights. In that location they are mostly useless except for blinding other drivers.

Bajadesigns has done some research on best light patterns. They do cater to high speed racers, which is probably not an expedition vehicle off-highway.

I remember one of their results was to mount spot lights up high on the roof and to make sure it did not glare on the hood or near objects. For high speeds the near in lighting should be dimmed to lower the overall amount of light your eye receives. This is to prevent the iris of your eye closing down, then you can see at distance better. They have a good graphic and description of lighting patterns, look at 'the science of lighting'.

No doubt but that doesn’t prevent misuse or over use. I’m talking about lights everywhere on a truck that never moves after dark or enough lights in camp that anyone nearby could read a book.

 

[Boatbuilder79]

I have an f150 and the headlights are awful.
I got some led bulbs to put Inthem but am wondering if a light bar on the bumper is worth having.

are the cheap $50 ones any good? They have a lot of good reviews on Amazon.

 

[Betarocker]

I had been running PIAA halogen lamps since 2004 on various trucks. Recently I had one set's beam pattern shine everywhere but have the driving pattern they started with. Originally I thought it was the HID bulbs I retro-ed in, but I put PIAA bulbs back in without improvement. I purchased 2 pair of Baja Designs LP lamps; 1pr 6s with Amber Combo, and 1pr of 9 with White Spot. So far I have only installed the LP6 because thee LP9 was back ordered. I did wire in preparation for the LP9s so I only had to do the challenging work once. Triggered by the vehicle's high beams so I only need to do one action to avoid blinding oncoming traffic, yet I can determine if each pair of lamps is either on or off, or full bright or partial bright. I've been running the LP6s now for a week or so and holy moly they are bright. I can only imagine the LP9s to be insane with 50% more LEDs. There shouldn't be an issue of over driving the light out put.

I guess this leads to seeing many adventure rigs with incredibly high output of (primarily) roof mounted lamps, being bars or pods; suited to Baja 1000 spec Trophy Trucks capable of 120mph off road, but on Sprinters or ProMasters which start getting uncomfortable at 1/2 that speed on pavement. Hood glare, or dust glare, must be awful for the driver. My past truck had cab clearance lights and the minimal brightness could still create an annoying glare on the hood in the (im)proper conditions.

 

[Robert Bills]

. . . I guess this leads to seeing many adventure rigs with incredibly high output of (primarily) roof mounted lamps, being bars or pods; suited to Baja 1000 spec Trophy Trucks capable of 120mph, but on Sprinters or ProMasters which start getting uncomfortable at 1/2 that speed. Hood glare, or dust glare, must be awful for the driver. . . .

No, not at all.