sorry this could be beaten to death but couldn't find any solution in the search.

for all the people on the trail with exp., what kind of lighting is best to mount on the roof rack driving or fogs lights? considering ur going to be in the bush.

thanks in advance.

 

Any light on the roof will reflect on the hood-some pretty badly. Unless you aim them further.

I mounted mine on the bumper, fogs should always be low btw..

 

so driving would be better if i were to mount them to the roof rack?

regardless of placement, im putting some type of lighting up there.

 

I would do driving, beam is longer and smaller-aim them properly!

 

you should mount fogs down low on your bumper and driving lights aimed further down the road up top.

 

I like a pair of fogs down low (under the bumper) and then use those with the stock headlights. The fogs work well to light up to the sides and up close and the headlights can either be off or low or high beam as needed.

 

yea thats what i was thinking to use fogs for. just to light up the general area.. nothing too far. but i do more desert than forest runs. so i guess ill go with driving lights. thanks

 

I run driving lights on my roll bar, fogs on my front bumper. I think that setup works good.

 

My bro had fog lights on the roof rack and ended up painting the hood flat black. It worked well 2 fogs (wide lighting) and 2 driving (long beam lighting)

 

i had 2 fogs on my roof rack for a short while. they were on the outside pointed out. they helped light up what was to the sides of my truck but i driving lights are better and i have since taken them off and replaced them with driving beam offroad lights. the driving lights do illuminate the sides somewhat but not quite as much as the fogs.

 

ive always had those lights on my car but watching the movie, "the mist", the main character had an old land cruiser, (the kind that looks like a tank) anyways it had a light bar ... 4 in all (2 facing forward)and (2 facing outward at a slight angle) ..the lights just pierced thru the fog and look cool doing it.. i dunno know if it was the bad a$$ car or it was the lights but thats where my insipiration came from to upgrade my lights.

 

i had mounted 4 pencil beam kc daylighters on the roofbasket i made on my99 runner, and it lit up the hood and winsheild soo much, especially bad when dusty/dirty, it made it worse than no lights at all. ended up fabbing a light bar and putting them slightly above the front bumper height. MUCH BETTER now with them down low.

 

Are you talking like flood, or spot? I'd say that a spot would be best on the roof to get more distance out of it, and you could save the front bumper for the fogs, or floods.

 

I was wondering the same kinda thing. I've seen 3 types of lights: Driving, Fog and Spots. I would think that a combination of driving and spots on a roofrack (maybe just spots) would eliminate the hood reflection issue, but would you/could you use them for on highway use? My plan for my FJ is to put second drive lights and fog lights on the front end (ARB bumper) and put either drive or spot lights on the roof rack up front and fog lights on the rear (help out backing up manuevers in dark). Anyone done something like this yet??

 

Using spots, on the roof would not eliminate the hood glare, but it would dramatically reduce it.

 

The traditional approach is to have a pyramid effect, with wider angle lights below the bumper, driving lights on top of the bumper and spot lights on the roof. This is a proven formula. It works. It is also designed for more on-road.

My self, I'll never use roof mounted lights while highway driving, they will be set to a switch on the dash or transmission tunnel. I will be Rhino-lining my hood, and most of the truck, and am expecting to drive down campground roads, fireroads, and the like at night. I'm putting floods up there so I'm not SO focused down-range, and with the flat black rhino lining, it shouldn't reflect horribly.