Solution for glare from roof lights?
- Thread starter WagoneerSX4
- Start date
WagoneerSX4
Adventurer
Unfortunately it's as far back as I can place it. It's only about 1/2 inch away from the base of my roof racks.
Buliwyf
Viking with a Hammer
Just need to make a sheet metal scoop to set under the light. They have them for windshield mounted Jeep lights, to get an idea of what we mean. Just make a couple of those, but larger.
A bit like the scoops over traffic lights, but up side down.
WagoneerSX4
Adventurer
That's what I was talking about in my original post when I said deflectors. If the windshield strip doesn't work completely, I'll be moving on to that next. Only problem is it won't be easy to fab up because my light bar is curved. I'll probably have to get a shop to do it for me. That seems to be the only solution that will work 100%.
WagoneerSX4
Adventurer
None available for an SX4.
Mrknowitall
Adventurer
Can you take a profile picture of what you're working with? Since you say SX4, I'm assuming you have the light bar mounted to some sort of cross-bar or basket. Unless you bought some monster that won't fir between the side rails, I would think you cna move it all back. if it IS that wide, might think if you really need one that big- Ideally, the roof would shade out the cowl and hood.
WagoneerSX4
Adventurer
It's pointed pretty much straight out, as level as I could get it.
I actually made my own brackets for it that bolt to the inside of the door frame. It's a 42" curved bar, it doesn't fit between the roof rails, it's the exact width of the roof. I have the brackets as far back as they can go before they hit the base of the rails.
As you can see the light bar almost perfectly follows the shape of the roof and is exactly even with the top of the windshield. So basically none of the light is being blocked by the roof. That's why I think the windshield strip will get rid of most of the unwanted glare.
digitaldelay
Explorer
It's pointed pretty much straight out, as level as I could get it.
See, to me, it looks like its pointing downwards a bit. Can you try twisting it upwards until the glare disappears then see what you are left with?
Jason
WagoneerSX4
Adventurer
I know what you mean, but the actual focused light, like the cut off circle or whatever you want to call it, is actually about an inch further than the wipers as it sits right now. That's actually perfect because my hood slopes down so I get zero glare off the actual focused light. What I'm getting glare off of is just the scattered light that's left over, that's why it's not really that terrible. I mean, I could probably point it 45deg up the air and get the same amount of glare inside the cab. It's just whatever light is being reflected by the imperfect windshield glass. Or even by whatever is in the air whether it be dust, snow, rain or humidity.
ohv
Observer
LED's scatter alot, especially if the bar isn't in a narrow spot pattern. A combo type bar is way too unfocused for a roof.
I've used HID spots along with LED's on the roof, and the HID's were much preferred. If it was at all dusty or raining, the rooftop LED had to be turned off from the reflecting glare. The HIDs were annoying too, but not quite as bad since they didn't light up the entire periphery.
Instead of tinting the windshield, your best bet may be to tint a narrow strip at the bottom of your light bar, to reduce light hitting the windshield and hood.
I still think you should point it further upwards. It should NOT be pointed downwards AT ALL.
I've used HID spots along with LED's on the roof, and the HID's were much preferred. If it was at all dusty or raining, the rooftop LED had to be turned off from the reflecting glare. The HIDs were annoying too, but not quite as bad since they didn't light up the entire periphery.
Instead of tinting the windshield, your best bet may be to tint a narrow strip at the bottom of your light bar, to reduce light hitting the windshield and hood.
I still think you should point it further upwards. It should NOT be pointed downwards AT ALL.
WagoneerSX4
Adventurer
That'd be great! Maybe I'll luck out and I'll find one where the dimensions perfectly match my 42" bar.
It's a combo bar so it has 12 floods on each end and then the middle is spot pattern. It's supposed to be 30deg and 60deg but there is no discernible focus so I'm just going to go ahead and call it a flood pattern bar. But that's exactly what I wanted. A lot of my driving is on back country roads so I wanted that spread to see wildlife before it gets to the road. Or the opposite in tight forest roads where a lot of the time you have low-hanging branches that you need to avoid, so again I wanted light absolutely everywhere. I pretty much have 180deg of light in front of me.
If I can just get rid of that little bit of glare it would be 100% exactly what I want. A lot of the times with my spot beam hella 500FF's on tight winding forest roads I found myself straining to see what was around the corner even though I had the two outside lights pointed pretty far outwards. It's not really noticable unless you're someplace in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no lights, not even any light from the moon if you have tree coverage.
My 20" front bar is a combo bar as well but it seems to be focused a lot better, I just use only that when I'm in a situation where the roof bar isn't optimum.