Overlanding, Travel, SUV, & Truck Vehicle Lights | Expedition Overland 'Proven' - Gear & Tactics

Welcome to Proven, my name is Clay and today I'm going to talk to you about

proven

lighting methods here at Expedition Overland, so let's dive into this, it's fun, it's totally mechanical. I like the

lights

. I love lanterns. I love lighthouses. I love light bars, it's something fun for me. I'm not saying you have to go out and buy all this stuff. We have been sponsored by rigid

lights

for years and have been able to add many lights to our systems, but hopefully today you will get enough information from Bleen about what works so that you can make an informed purchasing decision and, in some ways, they will have learned from our mistakes when it comes to lighting systems, so anyway let's talk about why you need lighting.

Your

vehicle

's headlights are enough to

travel

the world, let's be honest, if you want more than that, you can access a wide range of different lights, LEDs, light emitting diode bars right now, if you went out and looked when buying a light bar, you will see a lot of competition which is generally good, it drives companies to perform better and create better products than each other. When I go on a rant for a second it's just to make sure you've got it in. buy real products, there are a lot of counterfeit things, there are a lot of chinese ones, well my light bar is as bright as that one, etc., and maybe it is just as good, but it is probably a scam from engineers and people who have really invested their time and money. in building these light bars and I'll just say I tried to buy from reputable companies, it's good for the industry, it's good for America and the global economies and it's good for you too because you'll get better products, we've always been rigid.

I have been sponsored by Rigid for many years and like Rigid and other companies they use really good components within their LED light bars that go beyond the electronics, we are talking about the powder coating on the lenses, how good they are. are. they cloud over time or let you know they are cloudy, they have very good UV resistance and then the devil in the details when it comes to the electronics, there are really good LEDs and there are really cheap LEDs, cheap LEDs can still They may be very bright, but they may not last as long.

They may have intermittent problems and consume a lot of energy. The high-end light bars you will see, read the specifications. They consume significantly less energy to produce the same amount of light now if you are already working. power management systems and your

vehicle

s, like refrigerators and other things, power management becomes a big issue, even with top of the line bars like the ones we've been running with Expedition Overland, there have been times and nights where way in which we've been running a lot of things and have decided to turn off the lights to compensate for the loss of power to make sure that our other systems such as camera systems etc. still get their power, they still draw if I were to look the different types. lighting around vehicles I would say you have your driving lights and that can be a lot of things, it could be just a 20 inch light bar on the front bumper or it could be a broader range of all types of driving lights. driving we expect.

Driving a racing

truck

indicates that the lights used for driving would then be utilitarian. We use many different utility lights, including rock lights for basic functions around the vehicle. We usually put a Series A light like this under the hood because Toyota doesn't come with under hood lights that are for utility purposes and when you get into the LED stuff, they're really cool, they're small, easy to install, they don't consume much power. energy and give off tons of light, which could eliminate the use of having to have a headlamp, which is really nice when you know that you're in a pinch and you can turn on a light somewhere and not have to have headlamps next, would be camping lights and camping lights are just what they sound like, lights placed in places to enhance life at the camp interior lights in tents or camper areas lights to illuminate the area around you and I would even consider a camping light rock as a camp light because we use them all the time to eliminate lighting around the vehicle when we walk around and it's there great because the light doesn't shine back into your eyes and you can still spill the light on the ground and see what is going on so let's start with the driving lights and the driving lights, you have your headlight, you have an auxiliary. lights you can put in halogen HID or LED if you are going to use a light bar, choose the light bar you want for budget and bumper size.

I run a 20 or 30 inch on my prospector and we run a wide range of LED bars on these different

truck

s, the key thing I'm going to tell you is keep the first light low, we all want the light bar on top and it looks really cool and it's super stylish and everything that means. You feel like a global

travel

er, but it's not the best place for a light bar for your typical use. The front grille is the best place there is and it's low, and the lower the better. There have been many occasions where I have had both light bars. on vehicles that travel through a wide range of weather conditions from rain, snow, fog, you name it and many times I select just the bottom bar because there is actually a top bar on top unless you have a lot of matte on the hood or have the correct color. of the hood or is tilted back enough that the roof of the car shadows the hood.

You get just a ton of hood kickback and other dust and particles in the air. I found that the top mounted lights are really great if you are bombing fast down a dirt road and want to see the road out or if you are moving very slow on the trail, here in front of me is the new rigid adaptation bar , we call it the light bar to control them all because that's what it is. everything has accent lighting capability and then through a GPS feature it can tell how fast you're driving and can narrow the beam down and then widen it as you slow down, fast, slow, it's pretty amazing, it works pretty well and then you can select it however you want, that's why we call it the light bar to control them all, it has a phenomenally good flood for trail work and then it has a really tight long distance beam for moving fast down a trail or dirt road somewhere, but beyond that, our rooftop lights we use for gifts in cities or whatever, if we ever need them, we only did it once it was worthy of having them at that time , but first stick to that bottom bar, from there the sky is the limit, do whatever you want.

I want to, but I would say the low mountains first. Okay, now let's talk about utility lights. For us, we like a lot of light in general and utility lights are found in all of the side lights on our vehicles. Seen these scene lights from Ridgid, they are excellent. I fell in love with them when they first came out because of how they mount flush at the angle they meet and spread. A diffuse light is really good for area lighting because it eliminates a point and the rings of a circle or rings. of light like you have seen in flashlights, it is simply an evenly diffused light that is projected onto the ground and is very easy to work with the best utility lights that do the job of illuminating whatever you need to work or see without glare the scene in your eyes.

The lights are kind of the middle ground in the way they're shaped at an angle, they shine down low if they're low, they're great if they're high, they can be kind of sharp, but it's worth it for the light I get. this is mounted on the side of my re-topper on my prospector and then all the other trucks have them on both sides even when rigid hasn't sent us these lights in a package or whatever upon request we went to a dealer and we buy it anyway, that's how much we like them under the hood, we put rock lights on as a service light and don't use them as rock crawling lights, a lot of people think I'll have it when I'm crawling over obstacles on the road too. evening.

These lights sure is true, but how often do you do that a lot? Even if you have a spotter in front of you, those lights are so bright that they can't see very well unless they are well placed. Many times you end up turning off the light and he uses a flashlight under the vehicle because that's where the lights come from his eyes. Anyway, it's better. I digress, we use rock lights as a service light and put up the ones we like to run the six. six light kit to open up the front wheel wells where we can see the suspension, turn things on, light them up and spill them under the floor and the magic location of a rock light for me in the front wheel wells is that it lights up perfectly enough. that fills that area in front and on the side of either tire, there's a dark spot right there and if you're crawling on a rock or you're getting out to look at something, you can tilt your head and it lights up the area right there.

The next set I always put between the driver's door and the rear passenger's door right there on the C-pillar right behind you instead of at the bottom. It is right in the center of the vehicle. You can turn on the rock lights. Open the door. Look at something in it. from the ground look at something on the road they are very useful and then we put the tail lights as far back as possible and try to kick them so they lean so they kick and spill around the truck that way when you are walking around the vehicle, you have a 360 degree illuminated path around you and you don't need to use a headlight or want to take it out, you just press the switch so you can look around the truck.

Other utility lights we use lights for a different things, we just install a couple of crazy lights on the top of the tundra for powered paragliders, we put this huge spotlight on top and set it to flash through the S pod system so that We can easily distinguish the trucks from the air. I hope to experiment with that here in the future but I think it will work well, lighting systems are designed to work for you and think about what you need, start small and work your way up, prioritize and eventually you will have the lighting.

The system you dreamed of only requires time to prepare the lighting and accessories. Don't forget to look for products like s pod 4x4 or switch pros, etc. We have always used s pod for years. John and Cindy are good friends of ours and they build a great product and that product allows us to use six to eight different switches with a single line carried into the cab, either through rocker switches and an LCD panel, and manage all the lighting auxiliary through a smart device. Devices like that allow you to just manage a lot of power for a lot of different accessories easily and efficiently, especially when you get into the vehicle, you're eliminating a ton of wires coming into the vehicle and it creates a very clean place for all the switches that in Years ago before these things came out, it was a big problem, we were always kind of scratching our heads about where to put all these switches, they solved a pretty big problem, so next up would be camp lights.

Camp lights are designed for your living situation. Indoor tent lights kitchen. lights walkway lights cabinet lights all that a rigid series one series lights are good for that they can be quite bright if you know there is a light that is too bright so we have used for years the national Luna light strips this is older one but they have the LEDs on there this one came with a long extension cord we use them all the time you will see them in our habitat system now they have them to the point where you have a touch panel and you can turn red or low beam white low medium high same with the red ones throughout the caravan and they work great and we still have some with a strap then when the kitchen comes out we can take out a light and put it right above the top so you have a dedicated light when you are cooking red and amber lights, consider them when you are building camp lights in areas that have a lot of bugs.

White lights attract many insects. Red is great because it still allows you to operate around camp. It keeps a low profile because the red spectrum doesn't travel very far, which is why the military has used them for years. It's a hard light to see at a distance and doesn't interfere with your adaptive night vision, so if you're just camping and hanging out, sit under a red light, the bugs won't be as bothersome and if you turn it off, your eyes will still be ready for the darkness around you if I put some type of camp light and Service Light on first, what would it be, let's do this.

I would put one on a rear bumper on a post that we had on our original 100 series.They had our rear bar in the back with the work light, very useful to have them on a pole that you can turn at an angle and place it wherever you want, especially if you can raise it high, it takes it out of your eyes and spreads the light better, which next would be rock lights, after that would be area lights on the side of a vehicle like a scene light like this, that's the priority I would take as camp lights.

I would prioritize a light in the tent and a light over the kitchen and then anything else that you can easily handle with a headlamp and then go from there, but those are the two areas I would prioritize first, this all sounds great, but what? What are the mistakes we have made? Well I will tell you now that the errors are in the wiring and the supports taking the time to correct them and ordering the correct support from the beginning will save you money in the long run. I think the power systems before we had the spods, our wiring was just horrendous and a motor fires without shelter, no. something good and it can come from the accessories we put on it, so make sure you don't do what we did in the past and create a rat's nest so you have a guide who knows what you are doing in a store, set it up or really spend your time learn how to do it and keep it clean and professional that way these things will never bother you again so those are our

proven

lighting methods. and products we have used for lighting please comment below I would love to learn from you keep it civil have a great day and see you next time