Buying LED Light Bars for Dummies

With so many LED light bars available on the market today, you're probably at a loss on how to find the most suitable lighting device for your vehicle. Good thing, however, there are clues and information that can clue you in on what you should do to so you can find a good LED light bar. Here are some of them.

Be Sure to Check Out These Specifications

1. Pay attention to lumens, not watts

Throughout the years, we have been trained to determine how bright a light bulb is by identifying its watt rating. For instance, we know that a 100w light bulb is brighter than a 60w light bulb. These days, however, this is only applicable to incandescent light bulbs. When you shop for LEDs, you should pay attention to lumens (which measure the brightness of light), not watts. LEDs are at least six times more energy efficient than incandescent light bulbs. When you compare the two, a 36w LED light bar in Australia has a brightness of 2880 lumens while a 60w incandescent bulb has only 800 lumens.

2. Check the amp draw

You certainly don't want your lighting device to draw more power than it should, otherwise, you'll discharge your car battery easily. As such, make sure to check the amp draw, too, when looking at a particular light bar. The amp draw tells you how much electricity is needed to power up the lights. The greater the amp draw is, the faster your battery will be discharged when the engine is not running.

3. Check the beam pattern

Beam pattern is basically the illumination style an LED bar light 4WD is capable of. You've got three: spot, flood, or a combination of both. Spot beam covers farther distances and it's great if you want to illuminate a specific object. Flood beam, on the other hand, provides wider coverage and it's good for illuminating a particular area, like a campsite, for instance

But if you want versatility, you should go for an LED light bar with a spot and flood combo beam pattern. With such a lighting device, you'll get the best of both worlds. You have a spot light and a flood light in one, which is a huge money-saver since you don't have to buy separate lighting devices.

4. Determine the IP rating

If you want the best LED light bar 4x4, look for a lighting device that has an IP rating of at least IP67. The IP rating basically measures the light bar's waterproof and dustproof rating. Since Australian weather is known for being erratic, you'd certainly want a lighting device that can survive the harsh elements.