LED Light Bar Location; Spot or Flood or Both?

[gamefreakgc]

Wanted some feedback from you all that have light bars mounted on the front end/bumper on your 4Runner. I'm looking to add one in the lower half (plastic) part of the bumper by cutting out the cross bars and mounting it at the bottom and removing the front license plate. So it'll be at fog light level. What do you think? Also, I will just mount to a switch in the dash, not with the combination switch.

Also, what do you guys like better? Spot lights (30 degrees), flood lights (60 degrees) or both? I'm leaning towards spot lights since I mostly want it for driving lights or fog lights, but occasionally will use it as flood lights, but I don't wheel much and definitely not at night! Want to know your opinions.

This is what I'm currently looking at, cheap but effective: Amazon.com: 24" Off-Road LED Light Bar - 120W Driving Light Work Light Bar Waterproof Spot Beam Long Distance Lighting: Automotive

 

[Rock_Rat]

Wanted some feedback from you all that have light bars mounted on the front end/bumper on your 4Runner. I'm looking to add one in the lower half (plastic) part of the bumper by cutting out the cross bars and mounting it at the bottom and removing the front license plate.

I don't qualify to answer your post because I don't have an LED bar, however, I was considering the same option at one time. My concern is there's absolutely no protection for it on the front of the bumper whether you're off road or on the highway. I'm definitely considering it above and recessed on the bumper and perhaps behind the lower part of my grill where it will be a little less exposed. I'm curious to see what your responses are in this thread. I'm still weighing out my different options.

 

[Konkordmusk]

I don't qualify to answer your post because I don't have an LED bar, however, I was considering the same option at one time. My concern is there's absolutely no protection for it on the front of the bumper whether you're off road or on the highway. I'm definitely considering it above and recessed on the bumper and perhaps behind the lower part of my grill where it will be a little less exposed. I'm curious to see what your responses are in this thread. I'm still weighing out my different options.

That's where mine is! Works great. Its aimed slightly downward to help with short range vision. I have two spot pods in front of my mirrors for long range.

 

[gamefreakgc]

That's where mine is! Works great. Its aimed slightly downward to help with short range vision. I have two spot pods in front of my mirrors for long range.

Nice, yeah I remember seeing it! I was actually thinking of putting it behind the license plate in the lower bumper, you think that would be too low? I thought about behind the grill like that, you don't lose light output by putting it behind?

Any thoughts between spot, flood, or both?

 

[Dropzone]

don't look to a huge amount of output from that light.
I have gone through multiple light bars trying to find a good one with out bumping up to something like a Rigid
that is surprising that it is not a combo spot/flood

 

[jwhit88]

Im curious to hear what people have to say as well. I recently got a 30" combo flood/spot light LED bar from DDM tuning and was thinking about mounting it to my ROLA roof rack up top. I heard there was some glare from the flood lights off of the hood though? So if that's the case I want to stick the bar on the grill somewhere...

 

[gamefreakgc]

don't look to a huge amount of output from that light.
I have gone through multiple light bars trying to find a good one with out bumping up to something like a Rigid
that is surprising that it is not a combo spot/flood

There's pretty much identical ones that also are combo, I want something that will help with driving though so not sure if I should bother with flood lights or not.

Rigid is nice but I don't have that sort of spare change laying around for those!

 

[snivilous]

In my experience spot beams bleed so much extra light they light up everything nearby too, obviously not as much as a flood beam but you get more distance with the spot plus a lot of flood vs a shit load of flood and a little distance.

My roof top LED bar I used to have wouldn't glare off my white hood, it would though illuminate every speck on my windshield as well as light up a lot of the inside of the truck and sorta blind you so you lost your night vision. It wasn't bad but a bumper bar was better, or something to block the light from going into the cab if you were doing much more than 30mph with it.

 

[Unner]

Snivilous is correct, spots throw enough extra light to make up for their tighter beam. The only issue with mounting down so low is that the lights make a good bit of shadows from down there and it can make it difficult to distinguish objects. Eventually I'll probably sell my bumper mounted light bar and mount one on my roof rack instead to get it higher and maybe some sort of fog light/upclose lighting in an aftermarket bumper.

 

[chewybtc]

If you don't want to break the bank check out my review at the end of my post here

I really like these lights and they are cost effective. The bar i have mounted up in my roof rack does give me a little glare on the windshield if its dirty, but the light output is just amazing, so i will deal with it.

I use the spots up front and haven't had any problems using them as driving lights. I thought they might be to bright for oncoming traffic, but i have yet to get flashed with them on. (i would never drive with a bar on though, way too bright)

 

[JeepKiller]

If you've got other lights like I do then I'd go with flood but if you have only the bar then spot. My Hella 4000s have PLENTY of distance so I like the flood.

 

[gamefreakgc]

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like the consensus is spot is better than flood, I'll be looking at something that close to or completely spot lights then!

P.S. Cree LED's are square, Epistars and others are round. FYI. Crees put out a little more light than Epistars since they are more efficient.