Mounting individual off-road lights (not bar) to roof accessory points

[Ed Morris]

I'm considering mounting just single a pair of off-road lights (like Diode Dynamics SS3) to the roof accessory mount points. I see lots of kits available to mount a whole light bar between these points, but none for mounting just an individual light to each point. Has anyone made a bracket for doing such a thing? Or is it a bad idea for some reason I'm not aware of?

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[Boreal]

I'm considering mounting just single a pair of off-road lights (like Diode Dynamics SS3) to the roof accessory mount points. I see lots of kits available to mount a whole light bar between these points, but none for mounting just an individual light to each point. Has anyone made a bracket for doing such a thing? Or is it a bad idea for some reason I'm not aware of?

A few thoughts in no particular order.

Looks. The Rabbit ear look is certainly an acquired taste. While the SS3’s might appear big in hand, they are the size of a loonie once installed up high and appear proportionally underwhelming.

Zone Control. The roof mounting location is perfect for throwing lots of light, long down the road. To throw only two 3” pods up there really wouldn’t help much (don’t get me wrong, any auxiliary assistance is nice, but again, it will be underwhelming in performance). This is why you see 40” or 50” bars, or multiple Daisy chained LP’s/XL80s/SS5’s pods. Lots of light, almost all of the optics are spot with only the outside sets being a combo lens. This long throw also avoids glare off the body panels.

Mounting. The double stud isnt compatible with individual pods out the box. You’d need an adapting plate/bracket.

Wiring. You’d either have to run two individual lines, drilled through the A Pillar or ran along the glass gaps; if you run a single you’d tuck the daisy chain into the windshield gap vs the bar/linked setups that have a single run of line.

Effort. It’s not really worth it. You’ll see some who have done it - but you’ll get way more benefit from a pair of SS3’s mounted as forward facing or ditch lights on the cowl (I’d recommend ditch over FF after testing both). Or if you can setup a set of lights at bumper/head lamp level they will perform even better in the inclement weather than anything roof top.

 

[Rspayde]

Just for the ease of install as stated above you'd be better off mounting the pods on your A pillar mounts. I think the mounting of pods up that high would look pretty awful but to each their own I guess.

 

[Ed Morris]

A few thoughts in no particular order.

Thanks for that reply, you make some very good points. I'm still thinking there might be SOME advantages to just a pair of lights on the roof vs. a whole bar, mainly less wind resistance and associated potential for whistling or other noise. But I'll probably have to give up on the idea unless I can find a mounting plate/bracket on the market to do it, since I don't think a homemade one (by me anyway) would look very good.

 

[GBHeritage]

Guess I will bring this back to life... did you ever find a solution to mounting two individual lights to the roof points? I am looking to do the same thing with some Hellas to have sort of a retro-look, but can't seem to find and brackets on the market. I have a feeling I will have to design them myself...

 

[Ed Morris]

Guess I will bring this back to life... did you ever find a solution to mounting two individual lights to the roof points? I am looking to do the same thing with some Hellas to have sort of a retro-look, but can't seem to find and brackets on the market. I have a feeling I will have to design them myself...

No, I gave up on the idea. Would love to see how yours turn out if you end up doing it, though.

 

[Mean Green]

I ended up with the Ford Performance light bar, but I gave the idea thought… I thought about mounting ditch lights up there, directly on one of the studs. I thought of bending a set of light bar brackets. I also thought about the KC bar and only mounting two or four round lights. In the end I got a great deal on the light bar and could not pass it up.

 

[Oldhippie]

I made brackets and mounted a couple KC Daylighters up there for a more retro look…

 

[BroncoA51]

https://blumak3d.com/
I’ve got the Baja Designs version. They’re great with zero wind noise.

 

[GBHeritage]

No, I gave up on the idea. Would love to see how yours turn out if you end up doing it, though.

thanks for the reply. There was another post with basically the same question, but I’ll be damned if I can find it now. I know there are complaints of wind noise and questionable lighting performance with just two pods, but I think it would look cool in a retro way, plus those caps that cover the points are flimsy at best. I may just mount some lights to the A pillars and be done, but we’ll see…

 

[GBHeritage]

I made brackets and mounted a couple KC Daylighters up there for a more retro look…

Nice! This is exactly what I was thinking… do you have the dimensions for these handy, or a CAD file?

 

[Oldhippie]

Nice! This is exactly what I was thinking… do you have the dimensions for these handy, or a CAD file?

sorry no dimensions…just trial and error bending in vice…they need a little angle to them and watch the wiper…

 

[GBHeritage]

sorry no dimensions…just trial and error bending in vice…they need a little angle to them and watch the wiper…

ha! Thanks for the tips!

 

[bryan@blumak3d]

thanks for the reply. There was another post with basically the same question, but I’ll be damned if I can find it now. I know there are complaints of wind noise and questionable lighting performance with just two pods, but I think it would look cool in a retro way, plus those caps that cover the points are flimsy at best. I may just mount some lights to the A pillars and be done, but we’ll see…

Some notes from the hours and miles we've spent experimenting with roof lights designs before putting our products into production-

• Roof or in front of the hood is the right place for forward facing lights.
• A pillar isn't high enough to put forward facing light in the right place without creating a ton of hood glare which actually makes night driving worse with the lights on. A pillar is the right spot for Deer/Ditch lights that cover Zones 2/6/7 though.
• The right roof light housing shape doesn't create any notable wind noise.
• Light bars are notorious for whistle as air goes under them. They are also aerodynamically terrible.
• The right pair of roof lights will put out more than enough illumination for any real world scenario.
• We all want bright lights but extreme/excessive illumination can eliminate shadow detail in terrain that makes deep ruts/holes/ditches look smooth (surprise!)

 

[bryan@blumak3d]

Heres an onboard R&D video I took when checking for wind noise with our BluMak3D Roof Mounts for Baja Designs Squadrons. There's nothing more than the OEM noise with the soft top.

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