Front Lighting Set Up?? Opinions Needed

[BSP10]

I was sitting around today thinking about front lighting set up(as everyone does when they are bored). My question is why do we see more light bar, beyond grill, pocket lighting, pillar lighting set ups vs. High output lights on the outside bumper. I have attached pictures below tp reference. Obviously you do see people with this set up, but not near as common. Just curious why? Cost? Function? Overkill? Even with bumper upgrades, you dont see it as often, everyone defaults to the tradition set up.

I know there is a recent thread on what to mount LP4s, LP6s, LP9s, etc...thats a discussion for a different time. Just wondering why the actual style/set up isn’t more common.







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[smurfslayer]

Bumper lights are lower, get dirtier faster, get broke easier, and obstructed easier. Not that there’s not a place for them, but I’d be reticent to throw a high output light bar costing 4 digits on there.

I might consider some outside LP’s or wide corner / combos, possibly a pair of inboard combo lights, but I also like the front camera so there’s that.

I think low mount squadrons are more common because they can see street usage with no oncoming traffic. Light up some XL80’s in front of a road sign and your eyes will be seeing spots for several seconds. Contextually, they’re more difficult to deploy for most people. Yeah, cool to have mounted, but using them is another thing.

 

[BSP10]

Bumper lights are lower, get dirtier faster, get broke easier, and obstructed easier. Not that there’s not a place for them, but I’d be reticent to throw a high output light bar costing 4 digits on there.

I might consider some outside LP’s or wide corner / combos, possibly a pair of inboard combo lights, but I also like the front camera so there’s that.

I think low mount squadrons are more common because they can see street usage with no oncoming traffic. Light up some XL80’s in front of a road sign and your eyes will be seeing spots for several seconds. Contextually, they’re more difficult to deploy for most people. Yeah, cool to have mounted, but using them is another thing.

Makes sense. So.....you are saying bigger isn’t better? Haha. Didn’t even really think about the street usage of it. But you are right, to much and the street signs will light you up in return. I might be able to get behind some LP4s on the bumper....but man those LP9s are a lot. And like you said you then have to relocate the camera.

Just trying to find the balance between road and off road and fashion and function......aren’t we all.....

 

[dillard09]

I know sometimes you are limited to where and what you can mount. Single lights can be moved and angled to fill in all the spots and a light bar points one direction. Long story.... but my old ADD stealth bumper hit a pole and bent it and tweaked the frame horn where it mounted a little. So I now have a SVC frame chop bumper. I didnt want the top light mount so I went with a single BD Onx6 30" in bumper. Its a driving combo and puts out lots of light but just didn't fill in the sides much. So I threw up some XL80 in driving combo on the A pillars. Give them a bit of an angle to the sides and now I have lots of light down range and out to the sides. Perfect!
On my jeep JK I have some LP9 on the front bumper and a pair of Sqaudron pros on the A pillar for the same reason. Can point the 4 single lights where I want them. The LP9s are huge and put out tons of light. I got the 9s before the LP6 or LP4s came out. If they were out I would have opted for either 6 due to size.

 

[PorterW1111]

I went with this setup. Kind of best of both worlds. I liked the smaller light up on the bumper for a lot of the reasons mentioned here.

 

[Oldfart]

Just trying to find the balance between fashion and function......aren’t we all.....

I hear you brother, I struggle with that every day!

 

[zombiekiller]

above the bumper line keeps you from destroying lights. I mount my lights so that there is something protecting them.

because, well, my skidplates get used. like a lot.

after experiencing remote trails, after dark, you can never have enough light. you want enough light so that you can drive the truck at your max comfortable speed. What does that mean? the more capable the truck, and the more capable the driver, the more lighting you'll tend to see.

There are also a few highways in Baja that you really need aux lighting to drive safely if you might be on the road after dark.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

So here is our demo truck

And here is how everything works and what everything is for

Our Triple Fog Light Kit (https://www.4x4truckleds.com/2017-f...ght-kit-w-baja-designs-lights-build-your-kit/) is down low. I've got

Squadron Pro W/C
Squadron Pro D/C
Squadron Pro W/C, Amber

As my fogs. I use the ambers when it's snowing out or raining. The Driving/Combos when I'm by myself on the road and need more light (or off-roading). And my regular WC are used when i'm driving on the road. I've got the two sets of WC aimed down LOW so as NOT to blind anybody. You can probably tell that by looking at the photo, as they are aimed down.

In all honesty since I've upgraded to the Morimoto XB LED Headlights (http://www.4x4truckleds.com/morimoto-xb-led-headlights-for-2017-ford-f150-raptor-2015-2017-f150/) I don't use my fogs on the public roads anymore. The Morimotos throw out plenty of light so no need for my fogs anymore. BUT when I go off-roading at night or I'm by myself on a road, I can switch them on/off as I need to.

Next up i'll jump to the A-Pillars. I'm running the Alternative Offroad mounts with some Baja Designs XL80s, but i've got spot lenses in my XL80 (http://www.4x4truckleds.com/baja-designs-ford-raptor-2017-xl80-a-pillar-lighting-kit/)

I went with a spot pattern because the higher up your light, the further you want it to go down range. The lower on your vehicle, the wider/lower it should be. So XL80s for me, because they are bad-ass and I wanted a spot (they don't offer it that way because they figured the XL Racer was fine). and holy crap is it awesome. It throws a lot of light WAY down range.

Then we can jump to the LP9 (http://www.4x4truckleds.com/led-auxiliary-lights/baja-designs/lp9/) which I have mounted to an N-Fab multi-mount (http://www.4x4truckleds.com/n-fab-light-bar-w-multi-mount-led/). Completely overkill i'll be honest, but mannnnnnnnnnnnnn do they light up EVERYTHING. I went with 4x LP9 Pro Driving/Combo because, why not. I figure I'll have 2 complete spots and 2 complete WC with that setup (2 spot and 2 wc in each light). I MIGHT switch out the outer pair or inner pair to Amber, but the way I have it wired is all 4 are on 1 switch (im using an LVJ Motorsports relay system). So if I did that, i'll be throwing amber and white light out which is honestly pointless. You want either or in a driving condition. If it's dusty the amber should be on, as the white will blind you.

So yeah that's my setup and explanation of what it's all for. Some real world on-road uses. Some real-world off-road uses and then just overkill because, why not right I'm not running a Baja race here so it's all just gravy.

 

[BSP10]

So here is our demo truck

And here is how everything works and what everything is for

Our Triple Fog Light Kit (https://www.4x4truckleds.com/2017-f...ght-kit-w-baja-designs-lights-build-your-kit/) is down low. I've got

Squadron Pro W/C
Squadron Pro D/C
Squadron Pro W/C, Amber

As my fogs. I use the ambers when it's snowing out or raining. The Driving/Combos when I'm by myself on the road and need more light (or off-roading). And my regular WC are used when i'm driving on the road. I've got the two sets of WC aimed down LOW so as NOT to blind anybody. You can probably tell that by looking at the photo, as they are aimed down.

In all honesty since I've upgraded to the Morimoto XB LED Headlights (http://www.4x4truckleds.com/morimoto-xb-led-headlights-for-2017-ford-f150-raptor-2015-2017-f150/) I don't use my fogs on the public roads anymore. The Morimotos throw out plenty of light so no need for my fogs anymore. BUT when I go off-roading at night or I'm by myself on a road, I can switch them on/off as I need to.

Next up i'll jump to the A-Pillars. I'm running the Alternative Offroad mounts with some Baja Designs XL80s, but i've got spot lenses in my XL80 (http://www.4x4truckleds.com/baja-designs-ford-raptor-2017-xl80-a-pillar-lighting-kit/)

I went with a spot pattern because the higher up your light, the further you want it to go down range. The lower on your vehicle, the wider/lower it should be. So XL80s for me, because they are bad-ass and I wanted a spot (they don't offer it that way because they figured the XL Racer was fine). and holy crap is it awesome. It throws a lot of light WAY down range.

Then we can jump to the LP9 (http://www.4x4truckleds.com/led-auxiliary-lights/baja-designs/lp9/) which I have mounted to an N-Fab multi-mount (http://www.4x4truckleds.com/n-fab-light-bar-w-multi-mount-led/). Completely overkill i'll be honest, but mannnnnnnnnnnnnn do they light up EVERYTHING. I went with 4x LP9 Pro Driving/Combo because, why not. I figure I'll have 2 complete spots and 2 complete WC with that setup (2 spot and 2 wc in each light). I MIGHT switch out the outer pair or inner pair to Amber, but the way I have it wired is all 4 are on 1 switch (im using an LVJ Motorsports relay system). So if I did that, i'll be throwing amber and white light out which is honestly pointless. You want either or in a driving condition. If it's dusty the amber should be on, as the white will blind you.

So yeah that's my setup and explanation of what it's all for. Some real world on-road uses. Some real-world off-road uses and then just overkill because, why not right I'm not running a Baja race here so it's all just gravy.

Question for the group - 6 XL80s on the bumper vs. 4/5 LP6s?

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

6x XL80 will give you 57,000 total raw lumen
4x LP6 will give you 34,400 total raw lumen
5x LP6 will give you 43,000 total raw lumen

The LP6 also have the back-light feature as well as the side lighting (which is not accounted for in the lumen above, that's an additional 1700 raw lumen per LP6 for the side lighting)