If you’re out on the trail after the sun goes down, the simplest trail or obstacle can become treacherous if you can’t see what you’re doing or where you’re going. The stock headlights on your Jeep Wrangler are good for driving on the streets, but when you’re contending with the off-road elements, they’re just not good enough. This is where having a quality Jeep light bar can improve your off-road experience.
Having a proper Jeep light bar installed on your Wrangler is paramount to effectively navigating off-road. After all, the trail is full of hazards; being able to successfully navigate those hazards, without getting stuck or incurring costly damage to your Jeep, rests on maintaining adequate visibility in all conditions. This is why having a best LED light bar on your Jeep Wrangler is essential before your next outing.
But there’s a lot to consider when you go shopping for the perfect Jeep light bar. Today, the market is dominated by LEDs, thanks primarily to their winning combination of low power consumption, high output, long service life, and affordability, so weighing different bulb types against one another is all but unnecessary. However, the off-roader still has to take into account factors like the beam pattern – spot, flood, or combination – the level of illumination, and the durability and weather-proof rating of the housing.
If that sounds like a lot, relax. Our staff of experts has gathered five of the best brands in the business that cover a range of price points for your consideration. While we’ll focusing on the popular 50-inch LED light bar, they all have a wide variety of options for you to choose from to best suit your needs.
Lead photo by BoJack/Shutterstock.com
Table of contents
1.Editor's Choice: Rough Country X5 Series LED Light Bars
When it comes to finding the best light bar for Jeep Wranglers, it can be tough to choose between cost and performance. This is where Rough Country shines with some of the best Jeep LED light bars that not only light up your night excursions, but won’t break the bank to get the job done. Their LED light bars are housed in durable die-cast aluminum with an IP67 protection rating, meaning they’re well guarded against dust and water intrusion, and offer more LEDs per square-inch than any other light bar” – a product of its unique X-shaped LED pattern. You have a wide choice of light configurations and LED bar lengths to best suit your needs and mounting options. When you take into account the numerous options that Rough Country offers with their light bar setups, it’s easy to see why our team has chosen to put their Jeep LED light bars at the top of our list.
2. Runner Up: KC HiLiTES C-Series Dual Row LED Light Bars
KC HiLites has been a leader in off-road lighting technology for decades. As the technology for off-road lighting has advanced in that time, KC HiLites has done just that with the multiple lighting options that they offer. Whether you’re in the market for a straight or curved light bar, light pods or even their extremely customizable Pro6 Gravity LED lighting systems. Depending on how much light you’re looking for, what kind of mounting you want, and how big or little your budget is, KC HiLites will likely have a setup to suit your needs. Just like most high end competitors, the KC HiLites LED lights come enclosed in an extruded aluminum housing that is IP 67 rated and black powder coated. Whether you want a spot, flood or combination of both for your light pattern, KC HiLites are some of the best LED lights you can get for Jeep Wranglers.
3. Best High End Light Bars: Baja Designs OnX6 LED Light Bars
Far and away the most expensive Jeep light bar to make our list, the Baja Designs 50” OnX6+ is also the most luminous. Go figure. With up to 39,430 lumens of light from 30 LEDs, this bar is more than enough for most serious off-roaders. As if that wasn’t enough, the Baja Designs OnX6+ comes housed in an aircraft-grade aluminum casing with a billet machined bezel and a hard-coated polycarbonate lens. Its dust- and water-resistance rating – IP69K – is the highest available, and it’s even rated to stand up to pressure washing, or go for a dive up to a depth of 9 ft. Not that you’d ever take your Jeep light bar for a swim. There’s a reason Baja Designs is so revered in the world of off-road lighting, but that reverence comes at a cost – more than $1500.
If the 50″ OnX6+ is a little too rich for your blood, Baja Designs still has a great selection of smaller length LED light bars for your Jeep Wrangler that might be a better fit for both length or mounting locations you’re considering.
4. Rigid Industries Radiance Plus Series LED Light Bars
Similar to the Baja Designs OnX6+, but available for a little more than half the price, the Rigid Industries Radiance Plus Series LED light bar opts for a single row of large LEDs, as opposed to the many two-row designs out there. That contributes to its superb, effective “Broad Spot” optics, which Rigid says “combine the attributes of a spot and flood beam pattern.” At up to 21,384 lumens of illumination, the Rigid Industries Radiance Plus is technically the least radiant of the light bars on this list, but how effectively the light is focused is at least as important as raw output. What’s more, its high-grade aluminum housing and high-impact polycarbonate lens are sealed to provide dust- and water-intrusion protection rated at IP68, reflecting demonstrably better water-resistance than IP67-rated bars.
5. NiLight LED Light Bars
Our list of best best Jeep light bars has already covered the heavy hitters in the LED market, but we also understand that not everyone needs the best in the business. This doesn’t necessarily mean that if it’s not a name brand, it still isn’t a good product. NiLightLED light bars come in well under the price of any other light bar on our list. Their 52-inch LED light bar offers 288-watts of illumination projected out of a die-cast aluminum housing that is IP67 rated for water and weatherproofing. We can’t guarantee how reliable they are, but from the reviews that we’ve gone through, customers seem happy with their purchases.
Is a curved LED light bar better than a straight?
While straight light bars have dominated the LED lighting industry, curved light bars are relatively new and have grown in popularity because of their wide beam pattern. For the most part they are very much the same with variables being mounting and the beam pattern. Traditional LED light bars are limited in the spread of the light projection, where a curved LED light bar will naturally have a wider pattern because of the design.
What makes the high dollar light bars any better than their less expensive competitors?
There could be many features that set the two apart. On the more expensive models, you may find higher quality components in the circuitry, better/lighter housings, different lenses or reflectors that may project the light better, and other features that set them apart. Does this mean you NEED the more expensive light bar? Not necessarily. If you’re racing and need your light to be thrown as far as possible for high-speed night driving, then you might want to invest in one of these units. If you’re looking for more light when you’re out on the trails longer than expected, these less expensive units will likely serve you just fine. There are plenty of videos on YouTube where people have done comparisons between the more/less expensive light bars for you to see the difference in lighting performance.
Additional Resources
- Best Off-Road Lights
- Best Off-Road LED Lights That Won’t Break The Bank
- Best Jeep Wrangler Headlights
Recent Updates
1/25/2022: Ranked products, updated product descriptions, updated product links, added to FAQ, added additional resources
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