I've always had the same setup in all my trucks.

Fog lights that come on with the low beams (factory fogs on the X) and then driving lights that come on with the high beams.

I've always had 100w halogen bulbs in the driving lights.

 

More Bass Ad than yours, I don't know. I appreciate the compliment. Lift helps, eighteen inch rims help. If you see what you like, apply it to yours. It should never be done. The pictures of mine are old, if it wasn't covered in ice, and night, I would post new ones. Remember, it doesn't have to be right for someone else. Just for you.

 

Well, they don't all cost that much, and while other brand name ones can cost a pretty penny (although not as much as Baja) a lot of guys are running knockoffs.

Stewart

 

I just ordered a 30" single row light bar. It *should* fit behind my grill and shine out the lowest slot. I'll see how it works when it gets here.

I had a Rigid SR20 on my old 4runner, it went back to the factory twice for getting full of water and that truck was garaged! So I'm trying out a $200 Chinese knock-off bar this time.

 

Come on Zimm, this is a family forum...

 

Haaa. Stupid ipad keyboard

 

 

Me being the odd ball, did some tinkering and testing a little more out of the box.
I knew that LED bars are all the rage and wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to have 1) LED lights used as DRL's 2) That didn't require drilling or mounting brackets, 3) fairly cheap/affordable for anyone to do.
4) Still have a clean look to it. And lastly 5) Can be used on the street daily without being harassed by authorities.

So - my idea focused on putting LED's into the honeycomb sides of the grille.
What I found were these post style LED's, with a projector style lens on it.





Those were a 9watt per unit light.
Reviews. There provide excellent brightness in daytime, and with as many as I had (7 at the time (per side...)) at night were maybe a little too bright for drivers But anything with a reflective surface (like street signs) would easily be lite up from a good distance.

The downside - the quality The lenses are poly-plastic which are good and durable, but are not adequately glued/sealed to the post. So after a while (thanks to driving and vibration of the 7.3) started shaking some of the lenses off after a while. Also - had quite a bit of failures of the LED's after constant use. Found (after tearing a couple apart) that the resistor used for the LED (on the 9watt units) was too small and they were just burning up after a while. Also - the black color (which looks to be a cheap anodize) started to fade and become brown then gold after a while.

Round 2)
So continuing to tinker - I stepped down to un-anodized, 3watt units.
and tried another LED, that is 14cm long - that I put into the grille ribs.
Since I had the grille out, I plasti-dip'd it as well (I wanted to see what it'd look like before I did paint or lined it.)
Here's what I came up with.



Also - as an added precaution this time - I used a touch of super glue with a fine tip on it and ran a bead around the lens to seal it up. If you do it right - you will not even see it, and no one will know it's there!
This came out better than I expected.
So far, the 3watt lights are lasting much longer I'm up to almost 9months without a failure, and pretty much daily usage.

Here's what it looks like now (and after I did the `05 conversion (with some upgrades of their own))



The 8inch light bar on the bumper, I added on last for just that extra long distance light when I need it on the highway or offroad.
It's more than enough for what I need. I may go to the full 20+ in bar down the road to fill in that center space in the bumper - but for now, I don't need it.

 

Pat,

Instead of superglue to seal the lights, try some flowable silicone. It'll resist vibration much better than glue, and provides an excellent seal.




Sent from my XT1060 using IB AutoGroup

 

The biggest thing I see with the cheaper knock off brands are the amount of LED chips in the bar.


You say you have a 30" single bar and only 14 LED's. The one I run in the wifes Expy is a 30" bar with 30 LED's.


I have a chance hopefully in the next week or so that I can actually compare with light output and beam pattern with a cheaper brand light bar, kinda like what you have. I can't wait to see how the two different bars compare with each other.

 

I'll have to try that next time! Didn't know about that product.
(rep'd!)

 

I forget where I found it, but someone did a comparison of the cheap lights vs. the expensive/name-brand ones.
What was found was the fixtures and LED's themselves are the same. The chassis that holds them together will vary from vendor to vendor though.
The main and most significant difference though is the circuitry.
The higher brand ones have a better managed supply to the LED's. On the cheaper ones - the resistors loads are questionable and the voltage regulators (if at all provided) aren't properly heatsink'd.
As far as light output - for the most part they do the same job. Just long term reliability will be the issue.

 

I have taken the Aurora brand and lit up the bar and tossed it into the river for a few minutes of use completely under water.


No problems what so ever, no leaks, no water, kept going like they advertise.