Have you found yourself driving down a muddy, unlit road wishing that your headlights went just a little bit further?
Maybe you have noticed trucks kitted out with flashy lighting bar systems in your neighbourhood.
If you answered yes to either of these questions, you might be thinking about whether an LED light bar is the right choice for you. Light bar systems are useful for so many different activities like off-roading, hunting, outdoor work, or just driving down a poorly illuminated road.
Here are our top 5 reasons why you need an LED light bar, and how to find the right model for your vehicle.
Durability: Rugged Construction Built for Off-Roading
High-quality LED light bars are made for situations in tricky terrain with unpredictable weather.
First, they are resistant to changes in temperature. For drivers in Northern British Columbia (and many parts of Canada), this is very important, since mountain weather conditions can shift drastically.
For conditions where ice buildup is a major concern, heated light bars for your truck or snowplow are an advantage. These turn on automatically when the temperature drops, so your lighting system does not become obstructed.
For drivers in less snowy environments, durability means that dust, debris, and moisture are sealed out of the working parts of the unit with rugged housing materials.
LED light bar material technology continues to improve, ensuring that you get years of use out of your next purchase.
Value: Inexpensive LED Technology for All
This doesn’t mean that you should go out looking for the cheapest light bar possible (we recently wrote an article about why this is a bad idea). However, LED lights have a much lower cost than halogen and don’t require frequent replacements like high-intensity discharge (HID) lights.
The real value of LED light bars doesn’t come from their sticker price, it’s their longevity. They rarely require maintenance and they prevent accidents that lead to other costly repair work.
Style: Giving Your Ride Some Personality
The right light bar can complete an off-road-ready look for your vehicle. There is an incredible variety of light bar styles available online whether you are outfitting your rugged rock-crawling Jeep, or looking for a minimal addition to your all-black work truck, you should be able to find something that you like the look of.
Just make sure that if you are going for a heavily-modded lighting design that you spend more time off-roading than you do on city streets, or you risk earning the “mall crawler” nickname.
Safety: Getting You Where You Need to Go
Hopefully, you are looking into buying a light bar for your truck because you could really use the illumination.
Commonly, drivers start looking for light bars when they are driving in certain situations:
- Poorly-lit backroads
- Off-road environments with no lighting whatsoever
- Working outdoors in low-light situations
Quality light bars illuminate a large swath of the road so that you can identify hazards, whether it be a sharp bend in the road or a deer standing in the side brush. Consider the kinds of hazards that you typically encounter when looking for light bars so that you can choose an ideal beam pattern.
It is also extremely important to realize that not all LED light bars are street legal. High-powered light bars often come with opaque covers (a legal requirement in many provinces) for when you return to busy highways, which keeps other drivers from being blinded by your lights.
Are You Ready to Light Up the Night With an LED Light Bar?
Modern LED light bars have used the best in lighting technology to beat out their competitors.
But the most important thing is: they let you do more while staying safe and in control. Whether you are a weekend warrior exploring beyond where the road ends, or you need the extra illumination to make sure you can do your job the right way, LED light bars are right for you.