Baja Lights not quite what I hoped for

[duracell24]

Apologies for the clickbait title.

Looking for some insight from those who have more experience with off-road lighting. I picked up the BD “Unlimited” kit from a FRF member the other day. For a refresh it’s:
S2 Pros Wide Cornering (outside)
Sq Pro Driving Combo (middle)
Sq Racer Spots (inside)

The S2 Pros Wide Cornering (I have the Amber lens) are great. They light up the areas to the sides of the truck well. No complaints there.

I’m disappointed with the Sq Pro DC and Racers, however maybe I’m expecting too much or bought the wrong lights for what I wanted. They don’t “throw” the light as far as I expected and they don’t light up the area in front of the vehicle at all. All of the light is off to the left and right sides. Maybe I was misled by the diagram on the BD website that shows Driving Combos light up the area directly in front of the vehicle (Like Low beams on steroids) and the Racers to act like High Beams on steroids.

I will attach a picture to show what they look like at night. I have them wired together on one up fitter and adjusted them per a recommendation I saw 4x4LEDLights post a while back.

1. Am I just expecting too much from them?
2. Would a different bracket angle them more to the front of the truck and/or bring them physically closer to the opening in the bumper? (They sit further back than I expected, not sure if this is reducing the throw)
3. They came installed on the bracket “upside down”. I can’t imagine that is making a difference since the lights seem symmetrical. It would simply swap the location of the spots/WC on the Driving Combo, correct?
4. Would a light bar behind the grill do a better job of achieving better light in the front?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Spectragod]

That's pretty much what they look like, BD has a chart of the area said lights will "fill", a bar in the grill will do more, I am currently using a BD 40" OnX6+ on the front of my bumper, THAT will light the area for 500 feet easy, it makes the lights in the fog light area look pretty insignificant.

 

[smurfslayer]

Apologies for the clickbait title.

Looking for some insight from those who have more experience with off-road lighting. I picked up the BD “Unlimited” kit from a FRF member the other day. For a refresh it’s:
S2 Pros Wide Cornering (outside)
Sq Pro Driving Combo (middle)
Sq Racer Spots (inside)

The S2 Pros Wide Cornering (I have the Amber lens) are great. They light up the areas to the sides of the truck well. No complaints there.

I’m disappointed with the Sq Pro DC and Racers, however maybe I’m expecting too much or bought the wrong lights for what I wanted. They don’t “throw” the light as far as I expected and they don’t light up the area in front of the vehicle at all. All of the light is off to the left and right sides. Maybe I was misled by the diagram on the BD website that shows Driving Combos light up the area directly in front of the vehicle (Like Low beams on steroids) and the Racers to act like High Beams on steroids.

I will attach a picture to show what they look like at night. I have them wired together on one up fitter and adjusted them per a recommendation I saw 4x4LEDLights post a while back.

1. Am I just expecting too much from them?
2. Would a different bracket angle them more to the front of the truck and/or bring them physically closer to the opening in the bumper? (They sit further back than I expected, not sure if this is reducing the throw)
3. They came installed on the bracket “upside down”. I can’t imagine that is making a difference since the lights seem symmetrical. It would simply swap the location of the spots/WC on the Driving Combo, correct?
4. Would a light bar behind the grill do a better job of achieving better light in the front?

Thanks in advance.

View attachment 133049

there’s a lot of ambient light in that picture already and no clear “target” to light up.

the corner and wide portion of the combo lenses could be affected by being recessed, but mine were and worked fine.

1a) it depends
2a) possibly, but I think you have optimization to complete
3a) B/D lights have interchangeable, symmetrical lenses, save for the SAE.
4a) Of course!

you said that you aimed per recommendation, but have the lights on a single up fitter.
You need to aim the lights as a respective pair, 3 separate times. IOW, aim the spots only. unplug them, aim the combos, unplug them, aim the w/c. Spots will need to be properly measured for height at the mount and on your aiming target to ensure they’re level. The combos don’t have to be perfectly level and can be aimed down somewhat to cheat more in close light but the light bar will dramatically increase the throw in the short to medium range, especially a good one like the s8.

Honestly, spots down low like this aren’t getting great distance a lot of time - maybe on the street, but off road they’re pretty low. I have s/p spots, rather than racers. yours have an even tighter beam. Honestly, I’d put a set of pro driving combos in their place - giving you 2x driving combo per side and get a set of pillar mounts for your racers.

Optimize the aiming on your lights now first and see if that fulfills your needs. if not, pick up the s8 kit on black Friday. Or, just pick up the S8 kit on black Friday anyway, because... ‘Murica !

I aimed my lights using first a concrete wall in a parking garage, then confirmed by using park with a soccer field or for example a structure off in the distance.

 

[zombiekiller]

it doesnt appear from the pictures that they are aimed properly.

Essentially, if you want fill + distance, you should flip the lens on the driving/combo light, then aim all of the lights independently.

While for headlights, you should measure the height of the center of the headlight, then ensure that the hotspot for the headlight is at the same height 25 feet away, for these lights, you really want the hotspot to be just below the headlight hotspot at 25 ft. The centers of the spots should be your hotspot and the wide/flood lens should fill the shorter distance.

you're going to have a pretty hard time truly seeing the impact of the BD lights on most streets with as much light pollution as your picture shows.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

As some others said, you should aim your lights. With the Baja brackets you can only put the lights in one spot BUT you can still aim them left/right/up/down.

So what I recommend (and what we do at the shop) is you park against a wall and turn your headlights on. Back up about 25' or so. Turn the S2 Pros on. Make sure the spill doesn't go above the low beams. This way you can operate them on the roads without blinding others.

Then do the same with your driving combo, only make sure that the spot pattern is dead center with the lows. This way when you turn them on they'll go further down the road. Also make sure the left/right is even as well.

With the racers, same idea, make em dead center on your lows. I like to aim them so that I give the low beams "eyeballs" know what I mean. A dot on the left/right (same for the driving/combos, don't focus BOTH in dead center horizontally just vertically).

That'll give you the best pattern.

You can upgrade the brackets. Many of our customers do, so that they get a bit more flexibility and they also throw in our harness so they can control each set of lights independently:

http://www.4x4truckleds.com/2017-ford-raptor-triple-fog-light-brackets/

Baja lights are awesome/the best. But these are fogs down low don't forget. You'll light up a LOT but you're not going to light up as much as maybe you hoped. For that you need more lighting on the pillars/grille. XL80s are really bright for the pillars, and will REALLY light things up.

 

[MDJAK]

There are 3 levels of lights for bumper holes. You have the brightest. I gave the second brightest. I liked them when I first installed them. Then I put in the lower grill light which is much brighter. Then I put in a 30” rigid bar on a steel bar in front of grill. Holy hell, it made all the others pale in comparison.

so yes, unfortunately you are expecting more than lights set low can deliver.

 

[SD1290]

There are 3 levels of lights for bumper holes. You have the brightest. I gave the second brightest. I liked them when I first installed them. Then I put in the lower grill light which is much brighter. Then I put in a 30” rigid bar on a steel bar in front of grill. Holy hell, it made all the others pale in comparison.

so yes, unfortunately you are expecting more than lights set low can deliver.

Do you think the lower grill light bar was worth it? I’m debating on getting it on the Black Friday deal

 

[Loufish]

I have the 10" light bar in front of the factory IC. There's nothing wrong with the bar but it is a little low for max lighting. Right now it is not properly aimed so the light isn't all it can be.
When mounting lights there is always some sort of compromise between the ideal mounting location vs where the light can be actually located with out cutting and/or drilling into a brand new truck...
So we mount the lights where we can in building a lighting system to light up multiple areas (BD calls them Zones). You have a great start with a little tweaking and if you want to really complete a really good lighting system I would really think about a set of "A" pillar lights...I've run the XL80's (9600 lumens) with a driving combo lens...and those things will NOT disappoint!

 

[Oldfart]

Since they are all switched together, throw a towel over one side to block it, then a piece of painters tape over all but one light on the other side. It makes it WAY easier to dial in your aiming points. If you have all your lights on at once you can't tell what the hell is doing what. I have a stretch of flat, dark country road with a tree line at the end, it makes a great aiming screen. I prefer to do the set up with headlights off.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

Since they are all switched together, throw a towel over one side to block it, then a piece of painters tape over all but one light on the other side. It makes it WAY easier to dial in your aiming points. If you have all your lights on at once you can't tell what the hell is doing what. I have a stretch of flat, dark country road with a tree line at the end, it makes a great aiming screen. I prefer to do the set up with headlights off.

You spying on us? That's how we align them at our shop. We put painters tape on each side as we line them up