How often do you use your lights?

[Kenny]

i go to work at 4am which is when the deer are retreating to the hills - it’s a 20 mile trip and half of it is remote. I usually see 5-8 a day. I put on lights just to widen the lighted area. The lights have paid for themselves many times by showing deer getting ready to throw themselves under my JL.

So I use my aux lights every day. Wonder how often others use them

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[00Sebby]

I know some people use the aux LED bars responsibly... only off-road as intended & legal. However, there are enough DBs out there who don't that I would almost find it embarrassing to have a light bar mounted on my Jeep. Nothing like rounding a curve at night and getting a face full of LED bar and the few seconds of blindness that follows. I travel a lot and I see people running their bars on the interstate even with oncoming traffic. I see people using them in the city. I even see trucks with LED bars on from the air when looking out of the windows of airplanes. They are a good idea and can serve a good purpose but they don't belong on the road.

 

[Stampede.Offroad]

I drive 20 miles through farm country full of deer at 3-4am for work too, but would never even consider turning on some auxiliary lights going down the highway under normal weather conditions.

It would have to be a blizzard with minimal visibility even with the extra lights on for that to even be an option.

 

[spurly]

Gravel roads mostly. My work truck (2015 Ram 2500) has 6 aux switches and I use them all the time because we work in remote places. I wish there was a feature built into the JLs that you could control the aux switches with your high beams.

 

[Fire Burns]

Damn deer are like very large rats. They're overpopulated and dangerous to drivers. I live 5 minutes from my downtown, yet I see 3 to 5 deer on a daily basis as I live on a fast but winding 2 lane rural road. Hate those long legged vermin. Sorry, rant over.

Yes, I use as much lighting as I can, especially at dawn and dusk when those bastards are most active.

 

[jeep364]

Do you guys have favored aux lights for deer 'spotting' on and off road? A wide angle beam on the pass side and a straight beam on the drivers with no fogs on would be somewhat appropriate for rural roads?

Thoughts?

 

[firemk]

We have deer in several areas where we live. Also encounter herds of elk and wild horses in the mountains in NM where we frequent. I will run the light bar until I get a view of any oncoming light then switch off.
It may not be “street legal “ but the extra light has saved my tail more than once.

 

[cosine]

i've used the windshield mounted aux lights a couple of times to spot deer on the roads. that's ONLY when there's no cars in sight. once i see a headlights or taillights the aux lights are off. i've had the aux lights on a few times in bad weather and a couple of times when the surrounding town lost power and its pitch black. they were very useful to spot down trees and power lines. also to spot pedestrians wearing black clothing in the dark. again the are on when there's no vehicle in sight. majority of the times my led headlights does most of the work in lighting up the road

 

[Squibbles]

Even in my 25 year old vehicle they’re rarely used. Even Offroad at night my brights are usually sufficient. I would think if you have the LED lights in your Jeep you don’t really need aux lights. I can’t imagine a lot of people are doing baja racing in their jlur so light bars are a little silly.

 

[Squibbles]

I know some people use the aux LED bars responsibly... only off-road as intended & legal. However, there are enough DBs out there who don't that I would almost find it embarrassing to have a light bar mounted on my Jeep. Nothing like rounding a curve at night and getting a face full of LED bar and the few seconds of blindness that follows. I travel a lot and I see people running their bars on the interstate even with oncoming traffic. I see people using them in the city. I even see trucks with LED bars on from the air when looking out of the windows of airplanes. They are a good idea and can serve a good purpose but they don't belong on the road.

Here in NM it’s not required to have covers on your aux lights when driving on the street. I know CA you can be cited for not having covers. I’m curious how that works with LED light bars. I had covers on my KC lights but accidentally turned them on and pretty quickly they melted to the lights, nothing a small blade couldn’t fix.

 

[TrailTorque]

I wake up early for work same scenario. I use my bar almost every morning.

 

[FitBliss]

I use my Baja's every chance I get off road, but never on road, they are blinding bright, I even have the amber covers just in case someone tries to say I was running them on the roads, would make it pretty easy to prove.

 

[oceanblue2019]

Do you guys have favored aux lights for deer 'spotting' on and off road? A wide angle beam on the pass side and a straight beam on the drivers with no fogs on would be somewhat appropriate for rural roads?

Thoughts?

My deer spotter is .308 Winchester

 

[oceanblue2019]

Gravel roads mostly. My work truck (2015 Ram 2500) has 6 aux switches and I use them all the time because we work in remote places. I wish there was a feature built into the JLs that you could control the aux switches with your high beams.

Yes, would be nice to have the ability to program some of the aux's to come on automatically with the high-beams. Would make country roads easier to use aux lights but also be courteous to oncoming vehicles.

 

[Durango]

Here in NM it’s not required to have covers on your aux lights when driving on the street. I know CA you can be cited for not having covers. I’m curious how that works with LED light bars. I had covers on my KC lights but accidentally turned them on and pretty quickly they melted to the lights, nothing a small blade couldn’t fix.

How it works in CA is that the LEO's rarely if ever see or enforce this...there are so many far more pressing problems for LEO's to address - think about how many people break the law and how few LEO's there are to enforce the laws. I am annoyed when I see some oncoming person with auxiliary lights on, trying to blind me, but now days the stock LEDs aimed per the law, are annoying if the high beams are coming at you and not far away.
That being said, when I drive in the mountains I feel like the stock LEDs do a great job showing me any deer ready to jump in front of me - I just wish FCA would not have the stock driving/fog lights switch off when using the high beams in the position where you don't have to hold the stick back to keep them all on at once...

The only times a deer and I have tangled - once it was during the day so no light would have made a difference, and the other time someone going the opposite direction hit a deer crossing the highway and bounced that deer into the side of my truck as I was passing in the other direction (again, a situation no light could've helped...Grrrr). Since I am retired my remedy (for situations other than those noted) whenever possible is to simply stay off roads where deer may roam during dawn and dusk when they're most likely on the move.

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