Is there a guide or general practice with regard to supplemental lighting on a Wrangler / Gladiator?

[ORACLElights]

For A-pillar / ditch lights (the ones by the windshield), the general idea is situational awareness and distance. You’re typically using them at lower speeds, off-road, to light up the sides of the trail, obstacles, drop-offs, trees, etc.

Because of that, the usual recommendations are:

• Wide/Combo pattern: most common and most useful
• Spot/Flood: more concentrated light, but still useful if wanting to light up specific areas on the roads or trails

Ditch lights are generally considered off-road only, regardless of color or beam pattern. Even a flood pattern can throw light into other drivers’ eyes if it’s mounted that high. Most people wire them to a separate switch and keep them off on the street. Some lights do offer selectable modes (amber/white, different outputs), but they’re still not something you’d flip on for highway driving. If you want better highway visibility, that’s more in the realm of:

• Properly aimed headlights
• Upgraded aftermarket units
• And in some cases, better fog lights
• Or dedicated driving lights mounted lower on the bumper

Happy to help if you have any questions!

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[D_JT]

Baja Designs has the best explanation and info when it comes to lighting.

https://www.bajadesigns.com/help/lighting-zones/

https://www.bajadesigns.com/els/

 

[In3briatedPanda]

i run a 50" stealth interior and i run 6" slimlites on my front bumper.

When i had apillar 4" spot lights, the glare from my hood made them impractical. outside of the jeep they were great, hard to see when using while driving though.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Interesting to use a company who sells bumper mounted lights as a source for info on if they are worth it..
That's like asking your car salesman if you really need those extra accessories - of course you do!

 

[NC_Overland]

i run a 50" stealth interior and i run 6" slimlites on my front bumper.

I love the idea of that, but doesn’t that limit your vision? I’m only 6’1” and my head almost hits the rollbar and I struggle with seeing some stop lights. Headroom is not great in our Jeeps.

 

[In3briatedPanda]

I love the idea of that, but doesn’t that limit your vision? I’m only 6’1” and my head almost hits the rollbar and I struggle with seeing some stop lights. Headroom is not great in our Jeeps.

the light mounts to a bracket that will prevent you from using your visors. Even if you remove the light bar, the brackets will still prevent the visors from working full title. In my experience. I have to stop before some red lights too or awkwardly look out the front window. I’m 6” even. At night u can see the glare on my hood so it’s a non issue for me at night.

I don’t have the headroom issue you do and these are my gripes.

however, when you turn that white light on when some prick pulls out in front of you (illegal as fuck and I have zero regrets) the sun is illuminated and you can BOTH see the road ahead. If they didn’t see you before, they see you now. It’s awesome on fire roads and double track.

I find the amber setting useless asides of cosmetically pleasing. My slim lites do a much better job in fog/dust/rain

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

You guys have made me think that I should add my yellow aux light covers to my supplies I carry in my Jeep with me for when I run into poor weather. Surprisingly, I never thought about it before I read this. I loved my yellow diode dynamics fog lights I had on my Canyon. They were great in snow and fog.

I’ll only be running amber. Yellow is just ok for me. I have some Baja Designs now and not a huge fan of the yellow but it works. If I need white light I have headlights with brights. Amber improves me depth perception a lot. Also less tiring on the eyes than a bright white light. Less contrast so the rods and cones aren’t trying to overtake each other.

 

[S JEEPN]

Always interesting to see peoples views on auxiliary lighting Most important is where and how you offroad or if you are adding them because you just want or like a certain style. it seems most people that install A pilar lights run the LED pods often with the side shooters for shoulder lighting similar to a set of small floods pointed out a bit very use full for moderate speeds and crawling canyons or winding trails. The pod lights seem to have decent output and look more modern but often cost more for the same output compared to round LED flood lights. A pilar lights in So Cal are too high to call them driving, passing or fog but usually do not get you a citation but if that concerns you get some with covers. The above the bumper lights depending on use fogs, floods or long range spots, a combination or a combo light bar. The only drawback of bumper lights is they may not be high enough to light down into irregularities in the trail enough to see how big a dip or how deep a washout just a dark spot.. The good thing you can fit a pair or two floods, spots or any combination . if not too big the round lights look like they belong so they do not create attention on the road and can be wired to supplement the high beams. If you want all out long range desert lighting some do not like the idea but a large combination LED light bar or one of the rows of Multiple LEDS lights like KC sells mounted above the windshield can not be beat for lighting things ahead both near and far the downside is they can make weird wind noises and if the mounts are not overbuilt they can rattle or vibrate. The really bright lights do have a tendency to make everything outside the lighted area pitch black making it easy to miss distant features and landmarks. I have not had any luck with the gladiator/ 392 over the windshield light bar mounts they all seem to flex to much making contact with the a pilar in the rough so presently have no light bar. I have a couple of 7 inch round spot beams 105 watts each from Amazon bumper mounted they work pretty well but they do not compare with the illumination of a 52 inch light bar above the windshield in the desert.

 

[VA6489]

@Seal
Start here. This describes light patterns.

Where to mount is a different story. Long range light mount it high up avoid Cowl mounted forward facing light as they tend to light up the hood and provide a good amount of glare.
Bumper bull bar mounts, good for a variety of patterners.
Bumper or below are great mounts for Fog style lights.

 

[Seal]

@Seal
Start here. This describes light patterns.

Where to mount is a different story. Long range light mount it high up avoid Cowl mounted forward facing light as they tend to light up the hood and provide a good amount of glare.
Bumper bull bar mounts, good for a variety of patterners.
Bumper or below are great mounts for Fog style lights.

Hi - Thanks, when you say "start here" do you mean this thread, or did you intend to link to somewhere?

 

[VA6489]

Hi - Thanks, when you say "start here" do you mean this thread, or did you intend to link to somewhere?

Sorry the link did nto post.... or I had a senior moment

https://www.bajadesigns.com/help/lighting-zones/

 

[Seal]

Sorry the link did nto post.... or I had a senior moment

https://www.bajadesigns.com/help/lighting-zones/

Thanks! It happens to the best of us!

 

[bd100]

I'm using halogen headlights (we get snow), amber LED fogs, and small 2x1 white driving/combo lights on the bumper, wired to the high beams. And some rock lights facing sideways from the cowl to help read campground site markers and such at night. May upgrade those to D&C Lucid lights.

Start with some driving/combo lights. May be all you need. The halogen headlights plus the driving combo are better than our other vehicles with HID, for example.


Edit: And some rock lights at the back to help with trailer hookup at night, plus tire placement when backing along a shelf road or whatever.

 

[Bakerboy]

@Seal
If your handy.. I made glare blockers for my lights... no problems with the hood glare on ditch lights.
This was a huge help. No glare on hood. They are now mounted with black pipe clamps. They work great and have held up for over 2 years.
https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/glare-shields-or-guards.72330/#post-1184470


Black pipe clamps if they will fit.
https://a.co/d/8JM9XGH

Plastic to make the shields or you can use aluminun
https://a.co/d/fY7iCHU

 

[NC_Overland]

Edit: And some rock lights at the back to help with trailer hookup at night, plus tire placement when backing along a shelf road or whatever.

One of the reasons, I got this bumper was because it had an integrated spot for aux lights. They’re nice for back up too, but I have them wired to the aux switches. I wanted it separate. They make them that work with the factory bumper and come on automatically with the factory reverse lights.

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