Top products from r/Lightbar

A vinyl film is going to cut a lot of light output, even if it is clear. Vinyl is not a great/good/decent choice for a lens cover.

You could try to apply an actual optical filter meant to shade a theater lamp, such as this: http://us.rosco.com/en/products/catalog/roscolux

I think that the daffodil is closest to selective yellow. The other benefit to using these, is that theyll withstand the heat, and also be optically clear.

The spray paint is also optically clear. It fairly UV resistant, but should be topcoated with this ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ZLQ0JI/?tag=2402507-20 ) to increase the UV and chip resistance. I've had good success with 1 light base coat and two medium-heavy coats of the yellow duplicolor, topped with one medium-heavy coat of that clear. Make sure to clean the glass lens very well, with a paint thinner cleaning. The cleaner the lens, the better the paint sticks.

As far as upgrades go, Im sure the morimotos are an upgrade from a beat up oem headlight, but, despite their popularity, they arent great lamps. Good on you, sticking with 4500k burners, as they are the most efficient. Lightsource does matter, regarding the tint, as HID burners and LED chips produce a much greater quantity of blue light than their halogen counterparts. Good vehicle lighting is generally not inexpensive, though there are some exceptions.

Legally, in the US, you can run 4 forward facing illumination lamps. So 2 low beams and 2 fogs, or 2 highbeams and 2 driving lamps. But not highbeam and fogs, or lowbeam and driving.

Congrats on the lights. I love my BD stuff.

Since you have done such a thorough writeup I thought I should mention, your seals are installed incorrectly. They should look like this when installed correctly.

https://i.imgur.com/O9Oiewj.jpg

That's why that part of the terminal isn't crimped fully around the wire in picture 9. Because it is meant to hold the seal in place around the wire.

I also don't recommend solder for most automotive applications. A proper crimp will last much longer for a lot of different reasons. It's also way faster when you have to do a couple hundred of these, ask me how I know.

Something like the crimper linked below will work for crimping the wire and the seal.

https://www.amazon.com/Delphi-Packard-Weatherpack-Crimper-Tool/dp/B002CCAEJ6

I really like how you documented the process, great writeup and pictures.

EDIT: After looking at the pictures again, it appears as though you crimped down the retaining tangs on the sides of the terminal. These tangs prevent the terminal from backing out the the connector. If you did, these terminal are not secure in the connector and should be fixed ASAP.

It's pretty basic electrical work, but can be a bit intimidating. I made my own harness, but there are way easier ways.

They make easy wire harnesses like these. These are pretty straight forward, with diagrams.

Thanks! I can't see it when I'm in front of the car looking down but I'm 6'5" so I can't speak for normally sized people haha. It's a combo beam with spot and flood. It's this one here. it's not the best but it's surprisingly high quality for he price, I was very impressed.

No. I would encourage you to read this post. Basically, almost everything out there from brands like www.SuperBrightLEDS.com, Diode Dynamics, Rago Fabrication, etc. is from China, and these stores are selling them for much more. Here are some examples:

Didoe Dynamics with flood lens

OZ-USA with flood lens

and

Auxbeam X-Series

OZ-USA

---

Chinese brands like Mictuning, Auxbeam, and Nilight are all good brands, but OZ-USA has the good stuff. You could always get the stuff directly from the suppliers, but that's not practical.

This is the bar! Amazon : Its a 28" 180W which gives me just enough wiggle room to properly mount it but still fill out the space.


Previously, I had the same 4" Auxbeams like /u/REVIGOR had in this post, but they just didn't cut it. Great for something like a backup light, not so great for cruising down dark highways!

Old vs New

I got these from amazon- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NBMT2JW?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf make it easier to find the ones from this post! I’ve only had them on for a day or two but I will update with how they work down the road, so many of these mid range LED pods have issues with waterproofing but these seem very well built and I’m not anticipating any issues with these.

I was toying with that idea as well, although since they are spot beams I decided on staggering them out roughly 45 degrees and 50 degrees on each side that way they just expand the lit area with the headlights. I figured that way in the winter time I can see a huge area and avoid the 5+foot high snow drifts haha.
As for my switch, I'm just using a simple relay harness from Amazon (MICTUNING HD 300w LED Light Bar Wiring Harness Fuse 40Amp Relay ON-OFF Waterproof Switch(1Lead 12ft 14AWG) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WMPGIRU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_sQwUzb2MNPJ2C) but I'm planning on getting an SPOD system after a while. I'm going to need it after I add some more lights!

They are Rigid SR-M diffused lights. I bought them 3 years ago and they still work awesome.

Rigid Industries 98000 SR-M Diffused Back-Up Light Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FS82Y4O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XpGeAbG0XN70G

Same as above. I ran 16 Gauge wire with 30 amp fuses. I wired the fuses inline, but amazon has an addable fuse block that looks great for wiring everything back to.

you can check our amazon store for all of small pods halo ,small size of them.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01304KP84

green and red are some navigation lights i picked up at Academy for 10 bucks. But the real gems are the single white 9watt led. Its all powered by a 12v battery that are used for trail cameras that i re purposed for my lights and fish finder. The power goes into a waterproof fuse box i made. From there one fuse powers the fish finder the other powers my lights. The main switch is built into the fuse box itself. All of it is inside the hull out of the way.

I want a set of both 9” and 7” spot light bars for night driving. Any suggestion will be considered, but I am on a build budget.
The dimensions I put in the picture are roughly how big the lightbar can be, not the exact size of the hole.

The mounting problem is, my steel tubing’s diameter is 1.33 inches and I can’t find a mount made to fit it. The options I’ve seen are 1.25 or 1.5 inches. What should I try?

Style 1
Style 2

I like that bar a lot.. I’ll probably get one soon and try to craigslist my Nilight.

Random but I have a front license plate mount/bar.. does Oz have a sliding mount system similar to the Nilight? Idk if I can mount that bar on my license plate bar because it’s too wide :/

Edit: here is the mount