Driving lights on a roof rack

[husker77c]

I am getting ready to put a Yakima mega warrior on top of the camper shell of my pickup. I would like to put some additional lighting up there but I have some concerns. The truck is a quad cab long box Dodge ram. Like I said I'm mounting my rack on top of the camper shell which will put the lights behind the cab of the truck. What do you guys think the affect of having lights that far back will be? I'm worried that performance may suffer due to the positioning. Or I may get reflections off the roof of the truck. I was thinking about PIAA driving lights the narrow beam not the fog lights.


Thanks in advance.

 

[Martinjmpr]

I would think that being that far back they would be of very limited use. I would say either put them on the grille or at the very least, on a light bar on the forward edge of the cab.

 

[tarditi]

Pencil beams might be OK back there, but driving lights maybe not so much.
Driving beams belong in the front of the vehicle and they usually have a pretty sharp vertical cutoff.

 

[Coscienceguy]

Also, if you plan on using them on paved roads, that is illegal in some states, I know in Colorado you can't run your roof top lights on maintained roads, paved or dirt

 

[kcisland]

First post here. I have the exact set up you are describing - Yakima Mega rack (with extension though) with Rigid's on a custom fairing. I think the extension helps but so does the quality of light. You could perform an operation by the Rigid's light output and it throws light out for 900ft easily. I have a small cut off line from the front edge of the roof but nothing objectionable. I plan on putting a couple behind the grill to fill that area in.

 

[kojackJKU]

I woud buy a mount for the front of your rig and mount some good lights there. They will perform much better there.

 

[fla_cracker]

you should be just fine....Mounting your lights there is no different than mounting them to a roll bar, position wise. Besides, if your using narrow beam your going for distance, which makes that an ideal location. I had a single cab ford many moons ago with daylighters on a roll bar and they were awesome. Wish I had a pic, but that was before the digital age.

I do agree with one of the other posts about this being an offroad lighting system if you mount them that high.

pic is not mine but a good reference.

 

[kojackJKU]

true. never really thought about that....but yes, pencil beams would work best.