Roof Rack Lights

[dirtbike250x]

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I have been doing some research on here for roof racks and roof rack lights. Im leaning towards the rola rack with a custom lower profile mouting bracket but cannot decide on what lights would work best mouted up there. Can just the standard driving light beam work mouted up high? And what light would work best...I know PIAA is the one known for pretty good quality but other than the metal mounting bracket and wiring quality is the Hellas close in comparison, or what about KC lights?

 

[J-money$$$]

Good luck with any lights that close to the windshield. Your going to get a bunch of glare off the hood... Roof mounted lights should be mounted back far enough so the cab cuts any light off from hitting the hood. And you must use spot lights on the roof. Floods would make it even worse.

Want some good lights? i love my lightforce 170 strikers with a flood filter. The hella 500/700 are basically useless unless you do a hid conversion. I had a set of hella 700's and put a 55w hid kit in them and they were crazy bright. The oriley/kragen Hid's were good for the money.

I still think the quality of the LF lights is hard to beat. They are halogen but seem to work really well

 

[dirtbike250x]

Wow thanks, I didnt even think about glare from the hood. :thumb3: I was looking at the Hellas 500 becasue the price was nice but good to know they just dont have the power. Any more input and opinions would be greatly apprciated.

 

[noneckrex]

rhino line your hood black. My hood had so many deep scratches and guouges that I just put truck bed liner on it. that would def cut out the glare.

 

[the great him]

KC are a good light, but kinda bulky unless you go with the slim lights. i would use KCs before Hellas, but im a big fan of PIAAs, havent tried a set of light forces yet, but i want to, they seam like good lights and everybody who has them loves them. if you look through my pic album you will see some pics of my lights on my roof rack, i never had an issue with glare off the hood, but glare off the windshield made them almost useless, they needed to be set further back.

 

[Baja Runner]

Save your money and mount some to the front of the car. I can't stand roof lights. They don't really work well except for really really really far distance .

 

[t4r505]

I had lights on my roof for awhile but i took them off because they look like crap without a rack but anyways. I had mine back near the sunroof and the glare off the hood wasn't a big deal at all. I had hellas, one pair with hids and one without.

The light is plenty useful if you have the proper environment to be able to use them. They overlap a little with your brights and then provide a smooth continuation of light forward. I had driving lights in the middle and fogs on the outside.

Depending on what you do they might be pretty unnnecesary but if you can use them, they do help.

 

[Pikeman]

I am not having any glare from my lights, but still working on aiming where they need to be. I am currently running the Vision X 4500(4510& 4512) series lights up top. They are a 100w hybrid halogen light that are upgradeable to HID. The outside lights are Eurobeam and the two inside lights are Spots. I do agree the best placemeant for lights is usually on the bumper or combination bumper and roof. As Baja and others have said you can get glare but there are some things you can do to minimize that. A small shield at bottom of light, paint the roof edge or hood with a flat dark color. I read of a guy on another forum with an FJ put vinyl wrap on his hood with the gray Carbon Fiber look and it worked for him. I would say the top 5 Halogen/HID lights in no particular order, PIAA, Light Force, Vision X, IPF, Baja Designs.

 

[Hicntryflyguy]

I am not having any glare from my lights, but still working on aiming where they need to be. I am currently running the Vision X 4500(4510& 4512) series lights up top. They are a 100w hybrid halogen light that are upgradeable to HID. The outside lights are Eurobeam and the two inside lights are Spots. I do agree the best placemeant for lights is usually on the bumper or combination bumper and roof. As Baja and others have said you can get glare but there are some things you can do to minimize that. A small shield at bottom of light, paint the roof edge or hood with a flat dark color. I read of a guy on another forum with an FJ put vinyl wrap on his hood with the gray Carbon Fiber look and it worked for him. I would say the top 5 Halogen/HID lights in no particular order, PIAA, Light Force, Vision X, IPF, Baja Designs.

Where do you get your roof rack? F#$King awesome! :guitar2:

 

[Pikeman]

I got it from Outdoor Logic. Mine is a test fit of one he was making for Jeep XJ's(Cherokee) that I converted to mount on my 4Runner. I put a cheap rattle can job on it but soon it will be powder coated to match my front bumper. He has made a couple other ones and has some cool design ideas for a low profile one. He made a nice one for DLAK's 5th gen.

Thank you for the compliment. I had one of the first BajaRacks and when I saw this one from Outdoor Logic I felt it tied in to the look I wanted better and seemed more functional.

 

[dirtbike250x]

Alright I guess I'll hold off on the lights. I already have PIAA 520s mouted on my SW bumper along with 510 fogs. So instead of looking for some lights to put up there I'll focus on making a lower profile mount for the rack. Thanks for the input guys.