Why don’t Long distance trucks use LED light bars??

[Beachman]

Howdee,

We recently drove down to the ski fields and in the 4 days of driving and passing thousands of trucks the thing I noticed was the lack of LED Light Bars on trucks.

Light Bars are definitely the latest craze for 4WD owners,  but my observation on this trip was 95% of trucks were either running Halogen/HID spot lights, 4% were running the round LED spot lights like ARB sell and 1% had a light bar??

Can anyone think of any reason why the long distance truckies aren’t using these bars??

Thanks

[Bird]

Because you get better distance out of HID etc than light bars

[lino6]

Because you get better distance out of HID etc than light bars

Yep distance is what they would be after, especially when trying to pull up 70t, the more time you have the better.

[chester ver2.0]

yep as above on the mine i work at with the duel powered road trains they would not even stop or swerve for a cow you want light punched about 800 to 1000m up the road

An LED bar that probably puts out light to only 100m is of no use

[callmejoe]

All so true.
That's why I run 4, 70watt H.I.D lightforce XGTs.
Clear daylight easily for 800m/1 km.  And still seeing reflector s at 5 km.

I would like to see a light bar do that.

Another problem as been with the ruling of equal amount of forward lights. Which is slowly changing in SOME states.

[Aaron Schubert]

As its been mentioned most LED Light bars lack the distance. A truck wouldn't be able to pull up quick enough to make them useful anyway. They are improving every day though, and I bet it won't be long until they outdo HID's for distance too

Aaron

[Heavensent]

Now that LEDs are the latest craze, less chance of the hold halogens to be stolen, that's my thinking at least.

[Bird]

Now that LEDs are the latest craze, less chance of the hold halogens to be stolen, that's my thinking at least.

yea, numerous lightbars going missing lately...

[Wagon Man]

Most trucks don't need a lightbar as most have to many LEDS on them already.

[Foo]

I run a 22" spread bar and two 210mm HID Lightforce spots. This gives me ample light and when it's foggy, I turn the HIDs off and leave the light bar on.

In the fog.


In clear air.



Foo

[Beachman]

I get the distance thing with HID's, but I would have thought they would have run a light bar in combination with HID spot lights?? 

[callmejoe]

Most trucks are  company owned. So 8 times out of 10 they will get the best deal they can get. Most desk jockey ordering these truck only look at the bottom figure, price. Best one will win.
So spot lights are extra meaning extra cost. 
If you look at alot of truck the spot lights they have on will be cheap nasty ones the the sales teams sell over THERE counter.
 You also run into problems will legal stuff.
A vehicle must have a even number of lights facing forward and no more the 6 driving lights. This including your standard lights.
Some states such as Queensland have changed the ruling to allow odd  numbers in regards to lights bars now. But then cross some borders to WA and THEY defect you for the same thing. So you must allow for all state rules if your truck floats Australia wide.

[Aaron Schubert]

Even if trucking companies decided to spend the extra money on light bars, what do they achieve? Truckies use them when they are moving fast, which is when they don't work very well as they don't have the distance capacity. Even if they did see something up that close, there's no way it they would stop in time anyway

Aaron

[Bird]

I get the distance thing with HID's, but I would have thought they would have run a light bar in combination with HID spot lights??

light bars are overrated.

[alnjan]

great for off road

[time]

great for off road

Yep, that is where they come into their own, crawling along in the dark I don't need to see a km down the track, just the 100m odd in front and the side of the track.

On the road I like to see well beyond my braking distance at whatever speed I'm doing hence HIDs and such.