When I was at the SEMA Show in November I came across some very interesting LED lights. They're modular and designed to be assembled into many different configurations. The manufacturer rates them at 1000 lumens each, so just one of these is very close to the brightness of a stock JK low beam headlight.





I introduced a Jeep accessories company to the manufacturer and they decided to test some of the lights. The company is testing two of their preconfigured light bars, and they've sent me five of the individual lights to experiment with.



There are three beam spreads available; I asked for two with 10-degree beams (the ones with silver bezels) and two with 20-degree beams (black bezels). The bezels are interchangeable and come in several colors - Gold, Black, Red, Blue and Silver., I picked black and silver so I could tell the different beam spreads apart for now. Each light comes with a mounting base, I've removed one for the photo.

The lights can be stacked in a bunch of ways, so I'm thinking of a universal mounting system that allows you to pick the number of lights you want and the way they're stacked.

These 20" and 50" light bars come preconfigured from the manufacturer:



A 20" light bar installed the the hood hinges:









I'll be experimenting with the individual lights over the next few weeks; shortly I'll post some mounting ideas I'm working on.

 

I did a quick test after dark last night. This is one LED sitting on the fender with clip leads to the battery. The light from just one LED is impressively bright and I can easily believe the manufacturer's 1000 lumen spec claim - it looks as bright to me as one of the JK's headlights. This is one of the 20-degeee beam lights - the beam is very focused, check out the shadow on the upper left corner of the garage door - that's the shadow of the hood latch on the fender in front of the light. It's very well-defined, which to me says that the beam is well focused and no brightness is being wasted due to poor optics.

I'm very impressed, especially considering the price I believe these will be able to retail for.

 

Very nice, I've been waiting for the right lights for my needs. These might be it.

 

Those lights don't 'seem' to have the 6k-8k lighting color, they look more natural like a standard halogen. Is it actually the case or just the camera's perception of the light?

 

The color in the photo is fairly accurate as judged by the red color of the fender. The color temperature of the lights seems pretty close to the color of halogens, so things look fairly natural when illuminated by them. They're pretty powerful at 1000 lumens, so a very nice level of illumination will be possible with just a few of them mounted in strategic locations on the Jeep. I'm trying out a bunch of locations and will post more photos soon.

 

What features/specs/pricing have you been waiting for?

 

The more I look at them I think they are too small. I'm looking for a 4-6" light that can be mounted upside down for around $100. They would primarily be for foul weather/fog but also the occasional dark highway ride, so I'm leaning towards halogen. I currently run Quadratec LED headlight/fog combo that is impressive and enough light on their own.

 

What a great Backup light ! Compact size, one would do the trick. Camp lighting too, mount on spare tire, or tailgate hinge

 

My first step was to see where the lights could mount as they come from the factory using the standard mounting base. There are actually quite a few places that might be useful.

Several can be mounted on the side of the windshield using the factory windshield bracket screws:





There are 4 screws on each side. The lower two might be less useful because they're close to the side of the body but they could be useful with the 10-degree beams, I'll have to test that in the dark.

The screws on the front of the windshield brackets can also be used:



They can also be mounted using the cowl panel screws:



If you wanted them out on the hood, the tie-down loop can be removed and/or the windshield bumpers can be removed and they can be attached to those holes. For these photo I've just placed the lights on the hood in front of the bumpers that could be removed to provide mounting holes:





The tie-down loop could also be removed to provide mounting holes:



All four locations on the hood used:



I'd be interested to hear what you think of any of these locations.

 

It would be very easy to mount one to the tailgate hinge. I'll give it a try.