mrblah
Senior Member
bling brands = expensive stuff (BD and Rigid), and then there is everybody else.
Upper Grille Lights???
- Thread starter Jrunr
- Start date
bling brands = expensive stuff (BD and Rigid), and then there is everybody else.
rageandlove
Member
With two light bars in front, you are going to have crazy amounts of light with either brand. I wouldn't worry about output
I think the most important factor is light color if you are going with white. DD for some reason uses 6k white which a lot of people report gives them eye fatigue over long periods of driving. I have a friend that installed, used, and then removed one of their light bars for that reason, and the owner of HotShot Off-road told me that he converts a lot of DD yellow lights to white just to get warmer color temperature for his customers. (I guess the LEDs in DD yellow lights is 4k white underneath the lens.)
BD uses 5k white, which is warmer so easier to look at over time. That made the choice simple for me. Their combo lens also does a nice job at balancing wide and spot.
The 20" BD already throws a ridiculous amount of light. By the time I add a 30" as well, it will be more than sufficient.
rageandlove
Member
I already have a 20" S8 driving/combo in the upper grille.
It fits perfectly/kinda stealth, it's an easy no-drill install with a $20 SDHQ mount, and it's plenty bright for most of what I do on forest roads and trails.
I'm going to add a 30" BD S8 driving/combo in the lower grille at the same plane as the fogs using the Rago mount. Again no-drill easy reversable install, and I can't imagine needing more light. To be honest, while it will be nice to have more light driving in the mountains at night (wildlife etc.) I'm doing it as much to have some fun as anything. #WhyWeMod.
I like the more compact design / symmetry with the top bar too, since I already have one.
If you are set on the ONX6+ maybe just start with the 30" bar and see how it works ... from the reviews I have read, 100% have been along the lines of "I can't imagine needing a brighter light."
mynameistory
New member
The Baja lights are going to be brighter/throw further, most likely. For the 18 inch bar, it's only pulling 80 watts (less than 5 watts per chip, 18 chips). The OnX6 has nearly triple that power consumption in the 20 inch bar, at 18 watts each for 12 chips. Even though the DD bar will have a tighter focus (less wasted/spilled light) due to the TIR optics, the Baja bar will shine further just with brute power and fairly large reflector bowls. And some prefer the extra spill for periphery lighting.
There are only 3 optics for the DD bars: driving, flood, and fog/wide. They do not offer spot patterns, as the driving pattern is cast directly into the TIR optic. A driving pattern is similar to a spot pattern, except it has a slight horizontal spread to light up the full width of the road ahead. A clear lens is placed over a driving optic to leave the pattern unmodified, while the fog/wide optic modifies this horizontal spread further. The flood lens modifies and spreads the pattern vertically and horizontally. You can make your own combo by changing any of the 6 inch segments.
All of the chips used in the Diode light bars are the same 5700K flat white color, regardless if you choose white or amber/yellow. Because of this, the amber lenses have a lot of heavy color filtration in order to reduce any green/blue hues. This makes the amber lights much less efficient, losing about 40% of output from the clear lenses.
The pods are newer, and have a lot of improvements. Instead of two piece optics (TIR and lens modifiers), all of the optics are single castings. Choices are increased to spot, driving, fog, flood, and combo (half driving, half flood) and power levels are sport, pro, and max (SS3 only). The yellow lights have 4000K warm white chips, meaning that their lenses need a lot less color filtration and they only lose about 8% of the output compared to the clear lenses.
Baja has strong pod light offerings as well, but the Diode pods excel when extreme focus is needed (spot, driving, fog) due to the superior optics. As a reminder, the $90 sport spot SS3 (a 3 inch pod) shines further than the $1K Baja XL Laser (a 5 inch laser pod). And fog lights aren't even a contest: each level of the SS3 fog is an incredible upgrade, while the BD SAE squadrons are dimmer than factory halogen lamps.
I chose the DD 30" bar for my roof bar (seen here flanked by Baja S2 pros as ditch/dust lights) mostly because it was the one of the few that would fit in this 3 inch slot.
The biggest benefit over reflector-based bars though, was that it doesn't glare the shit out of my hood and blind me because of that tight pattern control. This control is a lot less important when mounted in your grill though obviously.
As for the color, I would consider the 5700K white to be fairly neutral, maybe a touch colder than the 5000K that Baja uses. The chips in the white DD pro driving lights are 6500K though, and you can definitely see the blue here compared to my roof bar.
That's why I switched to the 4000K driving lights (yellow lamps with clear lenses). Much better.
For grill bars: If you want raw power and don't mind spending the money, go with Baja. If you want tighter focus or street legal patterns, go with Diode. If you want to completely blow Baja out of the water with both power and focus, get an SS5 bar.
rageandlove
Member
I was going to experiment along those lines when I add the 30" BD 'driving combo' ...
The factory setup for the 30" is three banks of LEDs, and each bank has 8 LEDs - 2 wide LEDs and 6 spot. I'm going to get a replacement lens and make the middle section all wide lenses to get more near-field light.
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rageandlove
Member
Hey [MENTION=151737]mrblah[/MENTION] how did you aim the two light bars?
I called Baja Designs and they said to aim the lights parallel to the ground ... 25 feet from wall, measure distance from ground to light bar, put tape at the same distance on the wall, point the lights at the two pieces of tape.
mrblah
Senior Member
thats probably better than what i did. my top light bar is lined up with the high beams and then my lower light bar was aimed right below it. It looks like one big focal point off in the distance. Where I live, I just went to a large empty field to aim mine to where it works for me.
mynameistory
New member
The bars do have TIR optics. However, the design is not as optimized. They have two piece optics instead of one. The TIR block with a driving optic is the first piece, and then the outer lenses are plain (unmodified driving optic), fog/wide (further horizontal spread) and flood (vertical and horizontal spread).
Also, they only come in one color (5700K), and the yellow lights have much darker amber lenses in order to filter out the shorter wavelength light. They lose something like 40% efficiency through these darker lenses, whereas the pods start with 4000K emitters and lighter yellow filters. They only sacrifice like 8% output from the white lights. And the one-piece optics come in spot, driving, flood, fog, and combo.
The bars were their first off-road product and as such, used off-the-shelf parts like generic extrusion for the heatsink, end caps, brackets, etc. The pods are a scratch-built product.
Myself and others have asked if and when they plan on updating the bars to incorporate all of the improvements that the pods have, but I only found one response on social media saying "they're on the drawing board". However, I don't think they're much past the brainstorming phase. They also will probably keep it under wraps until it's ready to reveal, as to not slow down sales on the current design.
mynameistory
New member
I've got a pair of them in my rear bumper. Don't think I have any output shots but I can try to get some soon.
mrblah
Senior Member
Just to add to your post:I've got a pair of them in my rear bumper. Don't think I have any output shots but I can try to get some soon.
i have a pair of the ssc2 (red/white) wired to my plate bumpers via the hitch adapter, got the red backlight. The red was too bright for constant on. So I wired the red to come on with the brakes and white to reverse. Way over kill, but definitely interesting to see people's reaction in the REI parking lot when i reverse.
I have another pair of ssc2 (amber/white) to go up on the roof for chase lights but to lazy to install it right now.
Excuse the shitty quality, i can only do so much with a potato.
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I've got a pair of them in my rear bumper. Don't think I have any output shots but I can try to get some soon.
Thank you! How was mounting them in the bumper? That was one of the placements I was thinking. I like the idea of having them for reverse lights Luis the option to kick them on around camp or things like that.
I’m assuming you pulled the bumper off, did the install then put it back?
mynameistory
New member
These ones are tied directly into the trailer plug, so I don't have independent control over them. They come on with reverse and the backlights are tapped into the left and right brake/turn signal pins. That way I didn't have to run a relay all the way up to the front, add a switch etc.
Install was pretty straightforward. I mocked up their location a few times with the template (they're almost even but not perfect). I cut the bumper on the truck using a Dremel with a cutoff wheel, because I figured it would be easier than trying to hold a huge piece of plastic still by itself. Then I pulled it off to bolt them in and attach the wiring, then reattached the bumper.
I cannot confirm nor deny it is on their list :tape:
rageandlove
Member
OK, 30" light bar added to 20" light bar. Have not had it out anywhere dark, yet.
