Review: Eyourlife 31" LED Light Bar and Rough Country 70526 Hidden Light Bar Bracket
After a massive blunder with a roof-mounted LED light bar, I decided to do a hidden LED light bar to provide forward mounted, high-power auxiliary light. I purchased a 31" Eyourlife LED light bar and Rough Country 70526 Light Bar Bracket (For Ford F-150 09-14) back in April, 2015 and I figured I've had it long enough and tested it extensively enough to write up a review of the hardware.
Philosophy of Use - or - Why hide something as awesome as a light bar?
Forward mounted auxiliary light is one of the most obvious auxiliary lighting needs; if you can't see where you're going, you're going to make (potentially tragic) mistakes. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I live in the Midwest, so it's several hours of driving to anything worth exploring for the most part, so late night arrivals are a pretty standard occurrence for me. Very quickly I found myself in need of some auxiliary lighting for late-night navigation, and a LED light bar seemed like an obvious choice. Low amp draw, cool running, high power, affordable (from the Chinese market), and huge variety of style and design makes it something that can be adapted to any POU. So why hide an LED light bar?
1) Security - Light bars mounted externally to the vehicle are an obvious target for thieves; a quick snip of one wire and a quick loosening of two bolts and your expensive light bar can wander off. The use of high-security bolts or allen key cap screws may slow down a would-be thief, but the reality is all any security measure ever does is buy you time. The Rough Country light mount that I purchased sets the light behind the slots of the front grille. Hidden here, the only way to directly access the light bar is to pop the hood. So now to steal the bar, you'd have to gain access to the cab, pop the hood, then begin to extract the light bar. Alternatively, one would have to smash the plastic front grille, inevitably drawing attention to the would-be thief. Moreover, hidden conspicuously behind the grille, it's not overtly apparent that there's even anything worth stealing. Only a very close inspection of the front grille reveals the light bar.
2) Low Profile - This can almost be filed under security, but by running a hidden LED light bar, it's one less thing to draw attention to your vehicle. When building an overland rig, it's always tempting to build a big, flashy, attractive rig, and while a well-equipped overland vehicle can border on a work of art, it can also look like a beacon of expensive goods to a thief. Doing a low-profile install (and overall build) allows you to help minimize the "HEY LOOK AT THAT RIG" flash that can bring about unwanted attention.
3) Protection - By hiding the bar behind the front grille, you end up protecting the bar from not only the figurative scum of the earth, but also the LITERAL scum of the earth. Putting the bar behind the grille helps guard it from rocks, water, mud, and filth that could otherwise damage or destroy your beloved light bar. While many of the light bars on the market are IP67 rated (or better) and very well built, why put the equipment through necessary peril?
A Quick Note on Chinese Light Bars
I won't dwell on this point for very long…many people are quick to dismiss the Chinese light bars available on the market through Amazon and Ebay. A lot of people are die-hard Rigid Industry fans that have a very “Rigid or Bust” attitude…AND THAT'S OK! We can all agree that high-end brands like Warn, Rigid, and National Luna all make great gear. I don't think we need more people reviewing the high end gear; what we need are more reviews of the “high value” options. The reality is, most people cannot afford Rigid, Warn, National Luna or Icon. A lot of people that want to get into overlanding and off-roading, in general, are on a tight budget, and I'm hoping to do these sorts of reviews more often to help people identify good, high-value options, so keep an eye out for them in the future.
Eyourlife 31" Light Bar and Rough Country Bracket - a Year in the Life
The Light Bar
The light bar is a 31” single row, 150 watt LED light bar loaded with the very powerful 5-watt CREE LEDs. The advantage of the 5-watt CREEs is that you can have a much slimmer, lower-profile LED bar still generating an enormous amount of light. This makes it great for low profile installs, or space-limited applications. There are plenty of deep cooling fins to aid with cooling of the device. The case seems very solid, the polycarbonate lens cover feels sturdy, and the device OVERALL feels very solid (while remaining very light). The wire running from the unit is well-sealed from the elements and is likely 12AWG copper-clad aluminum (instead of solid copper, likely a cost-saving measure) and comes bare, allowing you to add your own connections. I chose to seal that connection with a Delphi Weatherpack connector to make removing\replacing the bar easy. I wired it up using a custom wiring harness consisting of Weatherpack connectors, a Contura V switch, and a HELLA waterproof relay. You could purchase a wiring harness from Amazon or eBay, but where's the fun in that?
The one thing that surprised me about this bar is that it does not have the standard 8mm bolt holes in the sides to mount - rather, it has two relatively lean studs (6mm) sticking out the sides. These permanently-installed studs do seem kind of weak, and after a year of use, are showing a lot of rust. The included hardware was also badly rusted after a year of use (definitely not stainless steel). While the attachment points never failed, it seems it could be challenging to replace them; likely it would involve disassembling the unit. A thorough cleaning and painting would help prevent rusting. If they were rusted to the point of replacement, it MAY be possible to remove the studs and tap the case to allow for proper bolt installation (although I don't know this for sure).
The light bar has functioned beautifully over the year that I've had it. It has never failed, never blown a fuse, and never caused me any sort of problems. Despite repeated pressure washing, trips into the mud, prolonged usage, and general hard use, the bar has never failed me. Another frequent concern with Chinese light bars is water ingress which can compromise the electronics. The light bar shows no sign of water damage.
As far as illumination, this small light bar has a ton of power. It's light is a cool blue hue (common with CREE elements) and provides good contrast on dark forest roads. It is a combo light bar, so the outer most CREE elements provide flood illumination and the center elements provide spot illumination, to give you a nice hot center with a good flood pattern. It's a straight bar, as opposed to a radius or curved bar; a curved bar would provide even better area illumination, however, this can easily be accounted for with a pair of ditch lights.
Overall
I have to admit, the mounting studs make me nervous. They seem like they would rust through easily with prolonged exposure to the elements or road salt. I'm not sure if they were pressed in or threaded in, which could make replacement challenging or impossible. The studs also aren't a PERFECT fit for the Rough Country mount, since it's drilled out for the standard 8mm bolt. The other downside to this style mount is that it does not allow for the use of tamper-proof bolts, which could be less than ideal for an external vehicle mounting. HOWEVER, much of this is hypothetical; under the conditions tested, other than surface rust, the fasteners did not fail and held strong.
As for performance, the light bar functioned excellently. It generated plenty of light in a good pattern that was very conducive to late-night navigation. I had no failures of the equipment during the test. Upon final inspection, the light bar does not appear compromised in any way. Overall, a decent product.
The Rough Country Brackets
The brackets are made of 1\8” thick, 1” wide steel and are pre-drilled to install to the bolts on top of the hood-snubbers. Two bolts and the brackets are installed. Two more bolts and the light bar is installed. There are two “heights” on the brackets to mount your bar allowing you to accommodate for the different front grille patterns seen on the 09-14 F-150's. They come in a hard, black powder coat finish. Installation is simple, and the brackets are very durable. TECHNICALLY the website description describes these as only being compatible with 30” LED light bars, but I found they worked fine with the 31” bar I bought.
Could you make these brackets yourself? This is a pretty clear YES, BUT, for $20 (at the time of writing this review) it's much easier to order the brackets and save the hassle (especially if you're not the DIY type). They come powder coated and ready to rock out of the box, with no fitting or guess work. Simple.
After a year of use, the brackets show no signs of rust THEMSELVES and still seem plenty strong. There is some rust that rubbed off from the rusting light bar hardware, but some solid cleaning would likely remove it. They performed well and held up very well.
Important note: The two bolts that attach the brackets to the truck thread into plastic threaded inserts. I had no issues with these BUT, I could see over-tightening the fasteners or exceptionally hard use\impacts damaging or destroying these plastic inserts. It would be VERY easy to remove these inserts and replace them with proper stainless-steel bolts. It would make the whole setup much stronger; in fact, that's likely what I'm going to do with my next light bar.
Rough Country makes the claim that this bracket allows the light to flood out unobstructed…IN MY EXPERIENCE (your mileage may vary) that was not the case. Either height setting of this light bar bracket combination led to SOME obstruction of the light. In particular, the field of view was narrowed particularly in the vertical direction. This could be different if you used a different light bar or a different factory grille, but that was not my experience. Now, is this narrowing of the field sufficient to make it unusable? Absolutely not. A tremendous amount of light still escapes the grille and provides a very useful amount of light. Using the factory grille, this is likely the price you'll have to pay for a hidden bar setup. You could circumvent this issue by using an aftermarket grille (which I will likely do at some point).
Overall
These are an excellent, affordable, high-value option that would make even the most avid fabricators think twice about going through the trouble of making their own bracket. They seem to accommodate either a 30" or 31" LED light bar, and seem very solid. Definitely a solid win!
Final Thoughts
After a year of experience with this light bar setup, I have to say, overall, it was a win. I like this setup immensely. I like the low-profile look, the functionality was great and the bar never failed. It provided very good illumination, despite some obstruction by the grille. The studs on the light bar did give me some concern, but they did not fail during the test. Painting them and replacing the included hardware with proper stainless steel hardware should fix the problem. Overall, it has served me very well over the year and I think it makes a great low-dollar, high-value option. The light bar at the time of this review was about $80 (from Amazon) and the Rough Country Brackets run around $20 (from Rough Country), so for $100 plus the cost of wiring, you've got a killer setup.
The Test Continues
While I love this combination, I decided to remove it to make way for a different light bar with some custom brackets. The new light bar was installed 5-16-2016 and testing has begun. I'll write this up once I've taken it on a few trips and feel I have thoroughly tested its durability and effectiveness. I also may experiment with some different front grilles to try to get the best from my setup.
The test of this light bar is far from over; I've got a fellow gear tester in need of some auxiliary lighting for his Cherokee, so he's going to continue to test the light bar to see how it holds up. Once his testing is thoroughly complete, I'll have him write up an additional review on his install and experience with it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my long (but hopefully sufficiently thorough) review. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll be happy to answer them!
View attachment 345796View attachment 345797View attachment 345798View attachment 345799 View attachment 345803View attachment 345804View attachment 345811
These two images serve to highlight how the stock F-150 grille obstructs the light from the hidden light bar.
Hood Open
View attachment 345837
Hood Closed
View attachment 345838
After a massive blunder with a roof-mounted LED light bar, I decided to do a hidden LED light bar to provide forward mounted, high-power auxiliary light. I purchased a 31" Eyourlife LED light bar and Rough Country 70526 Light Bar Bracket (For Ford F-150 09-14) back in April, 2015 and I figured I've had it long enough and tested it extensively enough to write up a review of the hardware.
Philosophy of Use - or - Why hide something as awesome as a light bar?
Forward mounted auxiliary light is one of the most obvious auxiliary lighting needs; if you can't see where you're going, you're going to make (potentially tragic) mistakes. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I live in the Midwest, so it's several hours of driving to anything worth exploring for the most part, so late night arrivals are a pretty standard occurrence for me. Very quickly I found myself in need of some auxiliary lighting for late-night navigation, and a LED light bar seemed like an obvious choice. Low amp draw, cool running, high power, affordable (from the Chinese market), and huge variety of style and design makes it something that can be adapted to any POU. So why hide an LED light bar?
1) Security - Light bars mounted externally to the vehicle are an obvious target for thieves; a quick snip of one wire and a quick loosening of two bolts and your expensive light bar can wander off. The use of high-security bolts or allen key cap screws may slow down a would-be thief, but the reality is all any security measure ever does is buy you time. The Rough Country light mount that I purchased sets the light behind the slots of the front grille. Hidden here, the only way to directly access the light bar is to pop the hood. So now to steal the bar, you'd have to gain access to the cab, pop the hood, then begin to extract the light bar. Alternatively, one would have to smash the plastic front grille, inevitably drawing attention to the would-be thief. Moreover, hidden conspicuously behind the grille, it's not overtly apparent that there's even anything worth stealing. Only a very close inspection of the front grille reveals the light bar.
2) Low Profile - This can almost be filed under security, but by running a hidden LED light bar, it's one less thing to draw attention to your vehicle. When building an overland rig, it's always tempting to build a big, flashy, attractive rig, and while a well-equipped overland vehicle can border on a work of art, it can also look like a beacon of expensive goods to a thief. Doing a low-profile install (and overall build) allows you to help minimize the "HEY LOOK AT THAT RIG" flash that can bring about unwanted attention.
3) Protection - By hiding the bar behind the front grille, you end up protecting the bar from not only the figurative scum of the earth, but also the LITERAL scum of the earth. Putting the bar behind the grille helps guard it from rocks, water, mud, and filth that could otherwise damage or destroy your beloved light bar. While many of the light bars on the market are IP67 rated (or better) and very well built, why put the equipment through necessary peril?
A Quick Note on Chinese Light Bars
I won't dwell on this point for very long…many people are quick to dismiss the Chinese light bars available on the market through Amazon and Ebay. A lot of people are die-hard Rigid Industry fans that have a very “Rigid or Bust” attitude…AND THAT'S OK! We can all agree that high-end brands like Warn, Rigid, and National Luna all make great gear. I don't think we need more people reviewing the high end gear; what we need are more reviews of the “high value” options. The reality is, most people cannot afford Rigid, Warn, National Luna or Icon. A lot of people that want to get into overlanding and off-roading, in general, are on a tight budget, and I'm hoping to do these sorts of reviews more often to help people identify good, high-value options, so keep an eye out for them in the future.
Eyourlife 31" Light Bar and Rough Country Bracket - a Year in the Life
The Light Bar
The light bar is a 31” single row, 150 watt LED light bar loaded with the very powerful 5-watt CREE LEDs. The advantage of the 5-watt CREEs is that you can have a much slimmer, lower-profile LED bar still generating an enormous amount of light. This makes it great for low profile installs, or space-limited applications. There are plenty of deep cooling fins to aid with cooling of the device. The case seems very solid, the polycarbonate lens cover feels sturdy, and the device OVERALL feels very solid (while remaining very light). The wire running from the unit is well-sealed from the elements and is likely 12AWG copper-clad aluminum (instead of solid copper, likely a cost-saving measure) and comes bare, allowing you to add your own connections. I chose to seal that connection with a Delphi Weatherpack connector to make removing\replacing the bar easy. I wired it up using a custom wiring harness consisting of Weatherpack connectors, a Contura V switch, and a HELLA waterproof relay. You could purchase a wiring harness from Amazon or eBay, but where's the fun in that?
The one thing that surprised me about this bar is that it does not have the standard 8mm bolt holes in the sides to mount - rather, it has two relatively lean studs (6mm) sticking out the sides. These permanently-installed studs do seem kind of weak, and after a year of use, are showing a lot of rust. The included hardware was also badly rusted after a year of use (definitely not stainless steel). While the attachment points never failed, it seems it could be challenging to replace them; likely it would involve disassembling the unit. A thorough cleaning and painting would help prevent rusting. If they were rusted to the point of replacement, it MAY be possible to remove the studs and tap the case to allow for proper bolt installation (although I don't know this for sure).
The light bar has functioned beautifully over the year that I've had it. It has never failed, never blown a fuse, and never caused me any sort of problems. Despite repeated pressure washing, trips into the mud, prolonged usage, and general hard use, the bar has never failed me. Another frequent concern with Chinese light bars is water ingress which can compromise the electronics. The light bar shows no sign of water damage.
As far as illumination, this small light bar has a ton of power. It's light is a cool blue hue (common with CREE elements) and provides good contrast on dark forest roads. It is a combo light bar, so the outer most CREE elements provide flood illumination and the center elements provide spot illumination, to give you a nice hot center with a good flood pattern. It's a straight bar, as opposed to a radius or curved bar; a curved bar would provide even better area illumination, however, this can easily be accounted for with a pair of ditch lights.
Overall
I have to admit, the mounting studs make me nervous. They seem like they would rust through easily with prolonged exposure to the elements or road salt. I'm not sure if they were pressed in or threaded in, which could make replacement challenging or impossible. The studs also aren't a PERFECT fit for the Rough Country mount, since it's drilled out for the standard 8mm bolt. The other downside to this style mount is that it does not allow for the use of tamper-proof bolts, which could be less than ideal for an external vehicle mounting. HOWEVER, much of this is hypothetical; under the conditions tested, other than surface rust, the fasteners did not fail and held strong.
As for performance, the light bar functioned excellently. It generated plenty of light in a good pattern that was very conducive to late-night navigation. I had no failures of the equipment during the test. Upon final inspection, the light bar does not appear compromised in any way. Overall, a decent product.
The Rough Country Brackets
The brackets are made of 1\8” thick, 1” wide steel and are pre-drilled to install to the bolts on top of the hood-snubbers. Two bolts and the brackets are installed. Two more bolts and the light bar is installed. There are two “heights” on the brackets to mount your bar allowing you to accommodate for the different front grille patterns seen on the 09-14 F-150's. They come in a hard, black powder coat finish. Installation is simple, and the brackets are very durable. TECHNICALLY the website description describes these as only being compatible with 30” LED light bars, but I found they worked fine with the 31” bar I bought.
Could you make these brackets yourself? This is a pretty clear YES, BUT, for $20 (at the time of writing this review) it's much easier to order the brackets and save the hassle (especially if you're not the DIY type). They come powder coated and ready to rock out of the box, with no fitting or guess work. Simple.
After a year of use, the brackets show no signs of rust THEMSELVES and still seem plenty strong. There is some rust that rubbed off from the rusting light bar hardware, but some solid cleaning would likely remove it. They performed well and held up very well.
Important note: The two bolts that attach the brackets to the truck thread into plastic threaded inserts. I had no issues with these BUT, I could see over-tightening the fasteners or exceptionally hard use\impacts damaging or destroying these plastic inserts. It would be VERY easy to remove these inserts and replace them with proper stainless-steel bolts. It would make the whole setup much stronger; in fact, that's likely what I'm going to do with my next light bar.
Rough Country makes the claim that this bracket allows the light to flood out unobstructed…IN MY EXPERIENCE (your mileage may vary) that was not the case. Either height setting of this light bar bracket combination led to SOME obstruction of the light. In particular, the field of view was narrowed particularly in the vertical direction. This could be different if you used a different light bar or a different factory grille, but that was not my experience. Now, is this narrowing of the field sufficient to make it unusable? Absolutely not. A tremendous amount of light still escapes the grille and provides a very useful amount of light. Using the factory grille, this is likely the price you'll have to pay for a hidden bar setup. You could circumvent this issue by using an aftermarket grille (which I will likely do at some point).
Overall
These are an excellent, affordable, high-value option that would make even the most avid fabricators think twice about going through the trouble of making their own bracket. They seem to accommodate either a 30" or 31" LED light bar, and seem very solid. Definitely a solid win!
Final Thoughts
After a year of experience with this light bar setup, I have to say, overall, it was a win. I like this setup immensely. I like the low-profile look, the functionality was great and the bar never failed. It provided very good illumination, despite some obstruction by the grille. The studs on the light bar did give me some concern, but they did not fail during the test. Painting them and replacing the included hardware with proper stainless steel hardware should fix the problem. Overall, it has served me very well over the year and I think it makes a great low-dollar, high-value option. The light bar at the time of this review was about $80 (from Amazon) and the Rough Country Brackets run around $20 (from Rough Country), so for $100 plus the cost of wiring, you've got a killer setup.
The Test Continues
While I love this combination, I decided to remove it to make way for a different light bar with some custom brackets. The new light bar was installed 5-16-2016 and testing has begun. I'll write this up once I've taken it on a few trips and feel I have thoroughly tested its durability and effectiveness. I also may experiment with some different front grilles to try to get the best from my setup.
The test of this light bar is far from over; I've got a fellow gear tester in need of some auxiliary lighting for his Cherokee, so he's going to continue to test the light bar to see how it holds up. Once his testing is thoroughly complete, I'll have him write up an additional review on his install and experience with it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my long (but hopefully sufficiently thorough) review. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll be happy to answer them!
View attachment 345796View attachment 345797View attachment 345798View attachment 345799 View attachment 345803View attachment 345804View attachment 345811
These two images serve to highlight how the stock F-150 grille obstructs the light from the hidden light bar.
Hood Open
View attachment 345837
Hood Closed
View attachment 345838
