truck lighting question

[eagle rider]

Evening y'all- I am in the process of putting a 23" LED work light on the front bumper of my Silverado.  I was thing about wiring it to the fog lights.  So when I hit the fogs the work light comes on as well.  The work light is 1800 watts and 280,000 Lumen.  I would think I'd want it on with all of the lights on as well.  What are your thoughts?

[WNYBuckHunter]

I would not do that. LED light bars, at least in NY, are off road use only and for good reason. I have a 23" bar on the front of my truck. It's blinding bright. You have to remember that these lights are not aimed the same way as a headlight or fogs that have a reflector which directs the light down so it doesn't cause glare to oncoming traffic. Light bars just put out a ton of scattered light. Put it on a separate switch. 

Everytime some jackwagon has his light bar on coming at me I want to yank him out of his truck and punch him in the throat. 

[WNYBuckHunter]

I dug up a few pics from when I put the bar on my truck. Last pic is headlights and fogs. You can see the cutoff line of the light. Second is with the bar on, you can see the amount of scatter up above the headlight cutoff line. First pic is what it looks like with the bar on for oncoming traffic. 

[chas0218]

2 hours ago, WNYBuckHunter said:

I dug up a few pics from when I put the bar on my truck. Last pic is headlights and fogs. You can see the cutoff line of the light. Second is with the bar on, you can see the amount of scatter up above the headlight cutoff line. First pic is what it looks like with the bar on for oncoming traffic. 

Your headlights almost look non-existent in the one picture.

Edited September 15, 2017 by chas0218

[chas0218]

13 hours ago, eagle rider said:

Evening y'all- I am in the process of putting a 23" LED work light on the front bumper of my Silverado.  I was thing about wiring it to the fog lights.  So when I hit the fogs the work light comes on as well.  The work light is 1800 watts and 280,000 Lumen.  I would think I'd want it on with all of the lights on as well.  What are your thoughts?

Personally I would rather have more light behind me than in front. My current truck has plenty of light out front with the low high and fogs on. What I really need is some light in the bed other than my bed light to see what is going

[The_Real_TCIII]

11 minutes ago, chas0218 said:

Personally I would rather have more light behind me than in front. My current truck has plenty of light out front with the low high and fogs on. What I really need is some light in the bed other than my bed light to see what is going

My Sierra has lights under the bed rails, I cant believe it took that long for manufacturers to start putting those in. Its sweet

[Jeremy K]

I would choose to have the led light on a separate switch.

[moog5050]

Yep.  Separate switch.  I have 3 sets of lights all on separate switches.  Helps that the truck was prewired with the switches installed from factory.  two sets are way to bright to use on the road.

[chas0218]

24 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

My Sierra has lights under the bed rails, I cant believe it took that long for manufacturers to start putting those in. Its sweet

Yeah sad part is it's an option still, I think with how cheap LED's can be had and being able to wire into the running lights it should be standard for trucks I mean they have cargo lighting in SUV's and Minivans trucks get the short end of the stick. 

[WNYBuckHunter]

37 minutes ago, chas0218 said:

Yeah sad part is it's an option still, I think with how cheap LED's can be had and being able to wire into the running lights it should be standard for trucks I mean they have cargo lighting in SUV's and Minivans trucks get the short end of the stick. 

You can add the pretty easily and put the switch back by the tailgate. It's on my list of things to do this winter when my truck gets put in the garage. No more salt for her from now on. 

[eagle rider]

Thanks all. Looks like the separate switch is the winner.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[eagle rider]

Step one done.... got the bull bar mounted.  I will mount the light bar tomorrow.