50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

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Charles Kline
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Charles Kline »

The problem is these modern LED lights look like crap in general, the little squares compared to the old school halogen KC lights, and put on an old truck the style clashes in a bad way.

-Charles
Last edited by Charles Kline on Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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MadMax78
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by MadMax78 »

I like the LED technology but think the LED light bars should be left for the newer trucks and buggy's. I like the looks of the old school lights on our rigs. I have 4 KC Daylighters currently. I'm also going to convert them to LED using KCs conversion kits. Anything we can do to lesson the load on our weak electrical system the better for us.


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j10jim
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by j10jim »

I'm going to use my light bar, and my old school round lights. My Light bar will be on the rollbar at the back of the cab. My HID lights will be in/on my cliff hanger bumper. I will say the 50" lightbar puts out a TON of light.
1980 J10/20
Rusty's 4" lift, 2" body lift, old Cliffhanger front bumper, 35" tires, 65 dash w Speedhut gauges.
Xtrusion Overland rack system, Tepui tent, 1/2 decked system.

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Atla
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Atla »

This is an old thread, but it bothers me.

The guy is asking about mounting an LED Light bar, which is not DOT legal to use on road. Sounds like off-road stuff to me. In fact, it's real common for off road. You guys never watch King of the Hammers?

Since when did you guys become so ornery over something so trivial?

You don't like it, I get it, but is showing your disdain helpful in any way?

And Mall Tech Sub Forum? You realize we have a LOT of pristine and even more un-pristine FSJ's that will never go off road right? The lack of posts in this sub-forum ought to show that quick enough.

If this is the sort of responses posters get, this Forum must be the Pirate4X4 Sublet of FSJ world.
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Pablo
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Pablo »

Nothing against lightbars, but you can get LED lights that are in the classic form factors from several major vendors, including KC Daylighers. You don't have to sacrifice classic lines if you don't want to. I intend to buy replacement LED lamps for everything in the vehicle and adapt offroad pencil beam LED's to run inside the pie plates if I keep the rhino grill. I agree that less power draw is a big plus.

One LED shocker is that these suckers still put out some major heat via their heat syncs. The peak temps on the heat sync's can be much higher than the temps associated with regular incandescent bulbs. Best to double check your LEDs so you don't mount them somewhere they cause a fire. Some are not intended to be covered and require airflow, for instance.
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Nikkormat
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Nikkormat »

We need mall tech for DD tech. I like LED lighting, and I like the idea of a curved lightbar under the brow. That one just doesn't look the same as I thought it would.
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j10jim
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by j10jim »

UM...OK I am not going to respond to most of this. Yes the light bars are for OFF ROAD only. The only time I would use it on road is if I were using my truck during Search and Rescue and I needed to see down a dark road (searching mountain roads, etc.). I think you can in some instances combine new style and old style lighting but it really depends on what your going after. The light bar below the brow is my Brother in Laws, mine will be on my roll bar, with round HID's above it. Will take some doing but it will be nice.
1980 J10/20
Rusty's 4" lift, 2" body lift, old Cliffhanger front bumper, 35" tires, 65 dash w Speedhut gauges.
Xtrusion Overland rack system, Tepui tent, 1/2 decked system.

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Stuka
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Stuka »

If there are any more derogatory comments in this thread, it will be locked.
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SJTD
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by SJTD »

I don't get it. He asked for opinions.
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Nikkormat
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Nikkormat »

Ok, just to be clear I support the idea of a mall tech sub forum as an equivalent to the "prissy" tech section on the mother ship. I don't think that this is mall tech, having a big light bar on the roof for flying down a dessert road at 1 in the morning is certainly no an aesthetic only modification.

j10jim, if it hasn't been said already, thanks for sharing. You made my lighting decision much easier.

If I offended anyone with my remarks, I'm sorry. That wasn't the intention.
Gabe, "reformed" Jeep hoarder.
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j10jim
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by j10jim »

Nikkormat, No problem. We all have ideas that seem good, but we need to post them up for other viewpoints. Everyone have a great day.
1980 J10/20
Rusty's 4" lift, 2" body lift, old Cliffhanger front bumper, 35" tires, 65 dash w Speedhut gauges.
Xtrusion Overland rack system, Tepui tent, 1/2 decked system.

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FSJ Guy
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by FSJ Guy »

You could mount it on the roof and set it far back enough so the roof brow acts as a "shade" to prevent the hood from being lit up, too. I think if you put it down by the bumper, (lower than headlight position) you'll have too many shadows. Fog lights belong on the bottom, not search lights.
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Cheap Hobby
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Cheap Hobby »

Zip ties and or 25lb magnets and a long power lead will let you test placement. The LEDS are good for low draw witch is a decimate plus for or rigs. I completely understand the desire for max usable lights the only problem I have with LEDS is the quality of the "white" of the light. There are so many generations of LEDS on the market. The heat can be dealt with. It comes down to this. It is your truck build it for the way you want to use it. How many vehicles due you see with expensive lights that are of no use? Or slow down when they are turned on the first time because they were istalled cause that's what everybody else has?
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will e
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by will e »

Hey welcome to the forum! Good input on the light positioning. And I never thought about the sound they might make at speed.
Before LED's I had mounted some lights up high and found the 'wash out' on the hood to be distracting. I can only imagine it is worse with the brighter LED's.
I have a roof rack and was thinking about mounting an LED light bar to the front of it but it may sit back too far to do any good. My thought is to get a cheap one just to see how well it works.

As far as the OP. I think the light bar under the brow takes away from the lines of the truck. It seems like a good idea but in practice I am not sure I like the way it looks.
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fulsizjeep
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by fulsizjeep »

Didn't see any light bars on any FSJ at Ouray in July. Just sayin...

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SJTD
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by SJTD »

And wasn't j10jim there?

Maybe he "saw the light"?
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'84 GW with Nissan SD33T, early Chev NV4500, 300, narrowed Ford reverse 44, narrowed Ford 60, SOA/reversed shackle in fornt, lowered mount/flipped shackle in rear.
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Maddening
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Maddening »

I apologize if I am wrong here, but I don't believe I am, Mavitr is a dirty spammer. Talks about "his" Dodge light bars in a FSJ forum, (we all have other rigs for sure, but that just adds to the oddness), he talks about how great the straight ones are but has a random link to a curved Chinese light bar selling website (the spam part of his post) stuck in the middle of the text they directly copied from a four year old post on a Dodge Ram forum actually posted from a guy in Texas, not Amsterdam, whose profile there says he is 34 years old... If the dude in that pic of Mavitr avatar is 34 I'll eat my boot... https://www.ramforumz.com/showthread.php?t=190020 :-? Also he did the same thing on a Ford forum spamming tailgate light bars website: https://www.fordf150.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=86070 he is a shill for 10carbest website.
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Stuka
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by Stuka »

Maddening wrote:I apologize if I am wrong here, but I don't believe I am, Mavitr is a dirty spammer. Talks about "his" Dodge light bars in a FSJ forum, (we all have other rigs for sure, but that just adds to the oddness), he talks about how great the straight ones are but has a random link to a curved Chinese light bar selling website (the spam part of his post) stuck in the middle of the text they directly copied from a four year old post on a Dodge Ram forum actually posted from a guy in Texas, not Amsterdam, whose profile there says he is 34 years old... If the dude in that pic of Mavitr avatar is 34 I'll eat my boot... https://www.ramforumz.com/showthread.php?t=190020 :-? Also he did the same thing on a Ford forum spamming tailgate light bars website: https://www.fordf150.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=86070 he is a shill for 10carbest website.
Quite the deduction, and I tend to agree. Not going to ban him just yet, but will remove the post and give a warning.
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tgreese
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by tgreese »

Unless you are going to race the Baja, bumper height migth be helpful.
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j10jim
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Re: 50 Inch light bar, where to mount?

Post by j10jim »

fulsizjeep wrote:Didn't see any light bars on any FSJ at Ouray in July. Just sayin...

Image
Yes I was there. That's my J10 on the right. Didn't have time to get any lights mounts and the jeep ran like crap. I am still working on ideas, and am going to make a template and see how it all looks.

But I really do appreciate all of the thoughts including those that don't like the idea of mixing old and new school. :D
1980 J10/20
Rusty's 4" lift, 2" body lift, old Cliffhanger front bumper, 35" tires, 65 dash w Speedhut gauges.
Xtrusion Overland rack system, Tepui tent, 1/2 decked system.

LONG time member of ifsja.org, FSJ-List and some others...
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