There's a common sight on off-road trucks. A row of spotlights and floodlights across the rollbar or along a bar bolted to the roof or clamped to the raingutters above the front doors.
The idea is to put a lot of light as far out into the darkness ahead of yourself so you don't find obstructions by bouncing off them.
Some folks even put lights pointing sideways. Hey, you gotta keep some distance from the trees and rocks to the side or you'll open up a body panel like a can opener to tin.
But personally, I don't like the looks. I have visions of overhanging branches grabbing and re-aiming your lights for you. It's a lot more work keeping a wiring harness together too.
There's at least one company that makes an enclosed lightbar with all the lights inside. It's a lot like those bars on police cars and fire trucks. It comes with lights (a lot!) facing front, back and to both sides. And it costs as much as a new set of those agressive tires you keep wearing down on the highway going to work.
So my mind kicks into gear and thinks back to those police cars. Not all of the ones I've seen have colored outer shells (they call them "domes"). Many companies make them in clear and use colored filters over the lights. And most of them now have what they call "take-down lights"; bright white lights shining to the front. They have "alley lights" too.
And one more thought hits me. Tow trucks have extra break, turn and tail lights in their lightbars. Now have you ever seen the tail lights of a panel door truck like a Suburban or Yukon with the doors open? Only if you have x-ray vision. Then add to that fact, the little detail that they put the spare tire inside so you have to open up both doors (it's even on the left and the right door opens first) to get it out. Not much visibility of the warning features GM put there. Sure there are a lot of other things you can do. Set out flares of course; have the dim interior lights on; yada yada yada and they all help a little.
I have other plans for that spare tire, along with the jack and a few other tools, but that's another set of those tires.
So off to e-Bay I go... Yep. Some people are selling lightbars (some even with fire trucks and ambulances attached to them). $200. and an old JetSonic from Federal Signal is on it's way. I don't like the looks of the speaker housing in the middle and I don't qualify for a siren anyway.
A few more bucks for some extra lights and the conversion to replace the center section with a clear dome and it's on it's way to being an off-road variant of the JetStream.
The changes and additions?
On each side, remove the front rotator (the light that spins aroud). That makes room for a second "take-down" light. That makes 4 lights to the front, each with 50 watt halogen bulbs. Then re-use the reflectors from the removed rotators, one on each side, between the "take-down" light. Point them slightly to the outside. This is like lights in a new concept for police car lightbars, they call them "tactical lights". They are used like the "take-down" lights except they allow the police car to be pointed in a better direction for protecting the police officer (and getting back out on the road in a hurry if needed). To my way of thinking, it lights up the sides of the trail AHEAD of you, not just lighting up what you just past.
I added rear D.O.T. identification lights (the three little ones in the middle) and break/turn/tail lamps in the rear. The rear rotator is still there. In the older JetSonic, it was wired to also double as a stationary flasher. Extra colored filter inserts, along with some black inserts, were added to keep any spillover from the white lights from shining brightly in the wrong directions.
Here's how it is:
The construction pictures:
Next?
LIFT! (maybe this time...)