Do Offroad Lights/Winches impact Engine Performance/Air Intake

[DallasCajun]

So I’ve been going back & forth on a few options for bumper-mounted Driving/Spot Lights and trying to determine what best fits my needs (and have some appearance value). I’m basically torn between a few form factors such as light bars and the traditional round lights (Baja Designs, Diode Dyn, Rigid, etc). I think I prefer the look of the round lights and given the ability to place multiple units on a bracket with a variation of types (Spot/Driving/Wide, Clear/Amber) typically with greater output than the bars.

But it occurred to me that the BRaptor needs a lot of air and Texas isn’t exactly the coolest climate…so would installing 2-4 lights that might be 7-9 inches tall have a negative impact on air intake and therefore performance? The BRaptor has a different grille with greater intake area specifically to improve performance so I want to make sure that I help maintain if not improve on that performance.

 

[412Brap]

The air intake for the engine on the Braptor is sucking air from the very top right passenger side of the grille. Lights you mount on a bumper shouldn't affect that.

The intercooler is visible so you should be able to determine pretty quickly. If you choose an aftermarket bumper, pay close attention to how the bumper is designed around airflow to the intercooler. Some are better than others. Also, if you buy an aftermarket bumper, the locations for light bar/pod mounts may reduce airflow to the bumper.

 

[TurboS]

G

So I’ve been going back & forth on a few options for bumper-mounted Driving/Spot Lights and trying to determine what best fits my needs (and have some appearance value). I’m basically torn between a few form factors such as light bars and the traditional round lights (Baja Designs, Diode Dyn, Rigid, etc). I think I prefer the look of the round lights and given the ability to place multiple units on a bracket with a variation of types (Spot/Driving/Wide, Clear/Amber) typically with greater output than the bars.

But it occurred to me that the BRaptor needs a lot of air and Texas isn’t exactly the coolest climate…so would installing 2-4 lights that might be 7-9 inches tall have a negative impact on air intake and therefore performance? The BRaptor has a different grille with greater intake area specifically to improve performance so I want to make sure that I help maintain if not improve on that performance.

Good question... one that I have pondered, however I keep coming to the same conclusion that I don't have enough data to determine. Obviously the large lights are interupting smooth airflow to the radiator and engine intake, but is it significant enough that we would notice. Slow speeds shouldn't have any effect since the fans are pulling the air through the radiator. Highway speeds the shutters main purpose is to help with aerodynamics therefore they may be closed at times but how would we know that?
If I was in the market for off road lighting, I would consider across the top of the windshield since I have plenty of garage door height and I would think the higher the light the better the projection. I wonder if big round lights up there increases wind noise?
I still don't have enough data...

 

[412Brap]

Front of my BRaptor looks like this now. Largest blockers to airflow are the winch and the 5 pods under the fairlead. The air intake is pulling from above the left side of the “F” in FORD on the grille. No disruption in airflow there.

For the intercooler, the top half of it sits behind the 5 yellow pod lights. The bottom half of it sits behind the grille in the bumper between the recovery points. The two biggest thing you can do to improve airflow to radiators and intercooler are (a) remove all the shutters from the intercooler (front and rear) and the radiator, and (b) relocate the ACC sensor away from the intercooler

That all said, this stuff will only matter when you are doing high engine speed runs in very hot temps repeatedly.

 

[Ironmike]

G

Good question... one that I have pondered, however I keep coming to the same conclusion that I don't have enough data to determine. Obviously the large lights are interupting smooth airflow to the radiator and engine intake, but is it significant enough that we would notice. Slow speeds shouldn't have any effect since the fans are pulling the air through the radiator. Highway speeds the shutters main purpose is to help with aerodynamics therefore they may be closed at times but how would we know that?
If I was in the market for off road lighting, I would consider across the top of the windshield since I have plenty of garage door height and I would think the higher the light the better the projection. I wonder if big round lights up there increases wind noise?
I still don't have enough data...

Higher is not generally better for lights. It increases reflection/glare and induces more visual fatigue. The bumper is the optimal location for spot lights. Baja Designs has a good discussion and breakdown of light mounting strategies on their website.

 

[DallasCajun]

Good thoughts on the subject; as many times as I’ve been under the hood it didn‘t occur to me that the air box intake was located up there. Hell, I just pulled it the other day to install a harness adapter for my pod backlights.

I guess my main concern is radiator efficiency and engine cooling, especially during those really hot summer days here in Texas. I don’t think it’s a huge concern but certainly thought it was a question worth asking.

 

[JohnGalt]

I agree with conventional wisdom that roof mount lights will generally result in more glare. However with the Raptors textured hood heat extractor and my stealth PPF on my ride I don’t get any significant glare off the hood from my bar

in reality, most people don’t use their lights very much and for very long period of times. I wheel a lot, but I use my lights very little.

I wouldn’t be too concerned about bumper top mounted lights, but I’d decided on having a winch and that pretty much drive me to a light bar. I have seen folks plug up the intercooler air intake with a light bar, personally I’d avoid that.

My biggest concern on air intake was the winch mount on the bumper. The hidden winches generally sit right in front of the intercooler almost completely blocking airflow. It’s bloody hot here in the summer, so I went with a winch plate until I can find a high mount bumper that’s pretty and breathable

my two cents. That’s about what it’s worth!

 

[RaptorusMaximus]

I decided to find good lights that were 4" instead of 6" just to keep air flow interruption minimized. I'm really happy with this set up Auxbeam yellow/white on two seperate switches on a DV8 bar and two spot ditch lights, it throws enough light to scare away a UFO.

 

[Badclam]

So if you pull out the OEM POS Rigid lights, you have room for a lot of usable light. I went with both white and yellow DD SSc2 fog lights, and a SS3 Max Yellow light with the yellow lens taken off and replaced with a clear lens, which changes your light color to 4000k, which is a warm white color that really cuts dust, snow, rain and fog. So I've replaced 2 useless rigid lights for 3 real effective lights without changing the air flow. Then I added a Baja Designs XL 80 which is a very powerful 5000k color driving light. It's to the side of the grill and also doesn't effect cooling. That's a lot of light with no loss of air flow, which was my goal.

 

[ChiliPepper]

I agree with conventional wisdom that roof mount lights will generally result in more glare. However with the Raptors textured hood heat extractor and my stealth PPF on my ride I don’t get any significant glare off the hood from my bar

Boy Howdy, you ever measure the temperature of the engine bay after 2-3 hours of wheeling? Mucho calor! This little guy couldn't stand the heat, so he got out of the "kitchen".

 

[Pete Vito]

Any recommendations for bright low profile front and rear lights?

 

[Ironmike]

Any recommendations for bright low profile front and rear lights?

Why do you need bright lights in the rear? The only two scenarios I’m interested in for rear lighting are reverse lights (which should be diffuse/wide and low brightness due to proximity of the affected terrain), and chase lights (which - again - should be fairly diffuse and only moderately bright). As far as front lights are concerned, there are multiple use cases as well: fog lights, spots/farfield, wide/cornering, and ditch. Mounting locations vary from below/above the bumper, at the A-pillar, and at the roof line. The biggest factor for you is to determine how much to spend, and what kind of (offroad) driving you plan to do.

There are many vendors in the product space across a range of price points. Do you have a budget, or are you more interested in performance over price. Top of the line vendors would be companies like KChilites, Baja Designs, Diode Dynamics, and Project X. But there’s always the cheap stuff on Amazon. I’d recommend talking with a local offroading shop to discuss your options and narrow them down.

I pretty much went the expensive route with a BD setup, though I consider it somewhat minimalist:

 

[95BK9]

I just put a winch on mine My Milage went from 16.4 to 16.2 MPG.