Ditch light planning

[NeutronJon]

Okay... I have recently switched to night shift at work and pass a lot of wildlife at 2am on the back roads on my way home. I just ordered the ditch light brackets from CBI through Apex Overland (Apex Overland). Got them on sale for $45.

Now I am picking out lights, and am trying to decide between floods and spots. I am leaning towards floods as I want to illuminate as much of the fields on the side of the road as possible to watch for deer. But I also don't want to overrun the beams if I am doing 60-65 MPH either. Thoughts?

Finally, I am working on switches. I've dug through several past forums and found rockers and push style switches that fit the factory blanks, but nothing in the configuration I'm looking for. I'd like to find a rocker that does ON-ON-OFF with an upper dependent and lower independent orange backlighting. The switch throw would allow me to wire ACC ON - ON WITH HIGH BEAMS - OFF as my configuration, with the bottom text "DITCH LIGHTS" illuminated with the console lighting circuit and the upper indicator ON when the lights are on.

Has anyone seen anything like this? I've looked at mictuning, air on board, oznium, and OTRATTW. I'd prefer one that is not oversized so that it looks more OEM. If I can't find it, I'm leaning towards the push style switches from mictuning and will use the push to enable the on-with-high beams function, and a second switch marked override to force all the forward facing extra lights on (planning for two additional LED bars - lower grill and roof rack).

Thanks!

 

[wc11]

There are many suppliers than provide switches that can just pop in but I'm not aware of any on-on-off configuration.
More like an on-off-on (SPDT)

Toyota Switches -Air On Board

https://www.amazon.com/MICTUNING-Toyota-Switch-Connector-Symbol/dp/B0117B1J3W

 

[ZiaMan]

You could actually use a couple relays and tap into both the high beam and fog light circuit to where if you have your high beams on your ditch lights on then use the fog light as independent switch essentially.

Would look at some google searches on 12 volt relays. You will have ground, constant power, wire to lights, and switched power. The switched power will be the leads you tap into the fogs or highbeams.

 

[blackoutt]

If you want a rocker on-off-on the OTRA whatever brand are the most popular but I think they are bulky and ugly. Ch4x4 makes a nice OEM looking push button switch to fit stock blanks, but doesn't meet your wants in function. I think you'll have to compromise somewhere, multiple switches or ugly switch, and a little relay work.

As far as spots vs flood goes I always assumed spot was the best since your other lights head and fog flood around you in an arc pattern, then the spot ditch lights extend out up the sides of the road, ditches, to broaden your collective light pattern. Would be cool to mount the drivers one on Ram ball and swivel around to manually spotlight too.

 

[NeutronJon]

My initial purchase will probably be floods, and I will be adding a 22" combo spot/flood bar in the lower grill and haven't decided on a top bar yet.

I did 12 years in the Navy doing instrumentation and controls work, so the relay wiring is second nature. I'll post diagrams of my final setup for others.

 

[cloudrunner]

My initial purchase will probably be floods, and I will be adding a 22" combo spot/flood bar in the lower grill and haven't decided on a top bar yet.

I did 12 years in the Navy doing instrumentation and controls work, so the relay wiring is second nature. I'll post diagrams of my final setup for others.

Go with Rigid Dually D2's in the driving pattern. They provide a wide beam and also have plenty of forward throw. I love them as ditch lights.

 

[Urbanrunner716]

One thing to consider if you go with floods is hood glare. My 100w hella 500s in the spot/driving pattern throw a pretty nasty glare on my hood. Granted my truck is white and yours is blue, but it's still something to consider. I plan on replacing them with pencil beams at some point. Imo the higher the light is from the ground, the more of a spot pattern it should be to minimize glare. Save the flood bar for the bumper. I can snap a pic if you want to see how bad it is.

 

[kevinpt]

dont go the cheap flood design if you go with floods, i learned that the first time. i now run spots on the ditch mounts and combo/flood like pods on the front bumper

old cheap ones dont even do good at 25 mph

good combo/flood

 

[tannerk15]

dont go the cheap flood design if you go with floods, i learned that the first time. i now run spots on the ditch mounts and combo/flood like pods on the front bumper

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but how are those Pods holding up for you? Saw where you used those on CBI ditch light brackets a while back, and wanted to see if you were still happy with them.

Aren't these the one's you got?

https://www.amazon.com/Auxbeam-PHIL...F8&qid=1482109471&sr=8-3&keywords=led+pod+20w

 

[lstankfoot]

Anyone used the rigid radiance pods?

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[kevinpt]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but how are those Pods holding up for you? Saw where you used those on CBI ditch light brackets a while back, and wanted to see if you were still happy with them.

Aren't these the one's you got?

https://www.amazon.com/Auxbeam-PHIL...F8&qid=1482109471&sr=8-3&keywords=led+pod+20w

that is the ones i use. lights are great, no water problems. only thing i dont like is the paint is starting to fade, im sure i can fix that but i have not taken the time to try and make it look any better but it does not really look bad

 

[blackoutt]

I'm going to try a pair of those Auxbeam phillips spots soon. I've been happy with my Auxbeam combo light bar in the lower grille other than the mentioned fading of the black exterior finish, so I expect that to be equivalent on the pods.

 

[NeutronJon]

dont go the cheap flood design if you go with floods, i learned that the first time. i now run spots on the ditch mounts and combo/flood like pods on the front bumper

old cheap ones dont even do good at 25 mph

good combo/flood

Thank you very much for your comment! The auxbeam floods were in my amazon wish list for christmas and I just swapped it for the 4" spots.

I plan to go with one of their 20 or 32" combo bars mounted in the lower grill location. My state doesn't have a front license plate, so I can take advantage of the full width of the location.

As for the switches, I have decided I'm not likely find one product that meets all my requirements. I think my compromise will be a spots OEM style push switch (12 Volt 3amp ON-OFF Toyota OEM Replacement Push Switch with LED amber lights -Air On Board) with a secondary switch that will alternate the supply from constant on or high-beam switched. This will let me use the constant / high beam switch to supply the ditch lights, as well as the future LED bar in a consistent manner.

 

[tannerk15]

that is the ones i use. lights are great, no water problems. only thing i dont like is the paint is starting to fade, im sure i can fix that but i have not taken the time to try and make it look any better but it does not really look bad

Oh ok, glad to hear they are still working for you! After hearing that, those will probably be the ones I end up going with. I mean you can't possibly beat that price.

 

[JSeligman2828]

Oh ok, glad to hear they are still working for you! After hearing that, those will probably be the ones I end up going with. I mean you can't possibly beat that price.

After doing an extensive amount of research I got spots on the ditch lights (40 w), flood pods (40w) in the lower grille and a 20 inch single row combo bar (120 w) on the front lip of the bumper.

I didn't want to spend on rigid, but i didn't want cheap amazon ones either. My main thing was durability, I wanted to install these once and be done with it. With that in mind, i chose the black oak LED's for the spots and aurora's for the bar and the flood lights. I've recently learned Black Oak LED's and all these other brands basically purchase Aurora Lights and then just brand them and slap a lifetime warranty on them. They do this an upcharge 10-20% to make money.


I found this great website that sells aurora LED's for the cheapest I could find : https://www.mudlifeled.com/

Couldn't have worked out better. Just need to polish and fix my actual headlights now, but i don't even need to do them.

FWIW, I had the shop connect the flood lights on the lower grille to my fog light wand and I did the independent fog light mod. With the hi's, low's, fogs, and flood lights on I can see pretty much everything I need to see and it's all easy to switch on and off while driving. The ditch lights and the bar are just icing on the cake and pretty much only use it when I'm going through the cascades.

 

[Elan_]

As for the switches, I have decided I'm not likely find one product that meets all my requirements.

Do you have a use case that would require you to use your high beams but not your ditch lights? You could use a ON-OFF that would use ON as ACC ON and OFF as linked with high beems.

 

[NeutronJon]

I will generally be reserving the ditch lights for back roads in the country and off-road use. I also work shift work and spend a decent amount of time on the road in the late night and early morning hours, some of which is on the highway where I want to have high beams available without the "extras" to make sure I don't attract the attention of any LEOs who might be sitting on the side of the highway.

 

[nevada]

I recently decided to buy some LEDs. for some of the same reasons.

I went back and forth between spot or flood. I was just wanting the small 4" pods, and those do not come as a combo light.
I ended up getting spots.

my thought is, they will put out so much light, that even though its a concentrated beam, it will throw down plenty of light of close as well. time will tell if im right, as I haven't received them yet.

though, I did buy some outdoor lights for the house. I went with one spot, and one flood for each fixture. basically, the flood lights are worthless. the spot puts out so much light. even when aimed at the furthest point in the yard, it still puts out SO MUCH MORE light right below it than the flood does. this was part of my decision in getting spots for the trucks also. I hope I was right...

 

[HustleHard]

I've got a set of Baja Designs Squadron Sport Driving/Combo LEDs for sale if you're interested. Installed them in my fog light holes of my Demello and realized they were too bright for what I needed. Pulled them the next day and went with the Wide Cornering model. Take a look at them and PM me if you're interested.

https://www.bajadesigns.com/products/squadron-r-sport-pair-driving-combo-led.asp