Choosing the Right Jeep Lights

Do You Need Driving, Spot or Fog Lights?

In this Article

• Driving Lights
• Spot Lights
• Fog Lights

Winter has just begun in earnest, complete with wet weather, long holiday drives and a rapidly diminishing amount of sunlight. It is more important this time of year than any other to have the right lights on your Jeep, whether you’re hitting the trails or taking the highway to Grandma’s house. Light bars, spot lights and fog lights can make great holiday Jeep gifts which will light the way for the enthusiast in your life for years to come. Whether you’re in the market for lights for your own Jeep or someone else’s, this guide can help you determine what type of Jeep lights best suit your needs.

Driving Lights 

Driving lights are designed to be a visibility boost to coincide with your Jeep’s OEM headlights. They have a similar light pattern to your high beam headlights and are best mounted on the bumper or windshield pillars.

HID and LED Driving lights are great gift for any off-roader, as they do an exceptional job of lighting the path in front of your Jeep. They are a good all-around lighting choice, providing approximately double the brightness of OEM headlights with a versatile combination of beam length and spread. Aftermarket driving lights, such as those sold by Pro Comp and KC HiLites, illuminate snags, obstacles and woodland critters which may otherwise go unnoticed until it’s too late.

Spot Lights 

Spot lights provide an intensely focused and long path of visibility. Spot beam lights are able to penetrate deeper into a dark night than any other Jeep light design out there and are the brightest lights you’ll find for any vehicle. Their extreme range makes them the perfect lighting choice for expeditions into open areas, such as Moab or desert runs.

For those who consistently off-road in dense wooded areas, the benefits of a spot light are limited, as the driver’s field of vision is blocked by trees and other plant growth. In open terrain though, a quality spot light kit can’t be beat. For maximum performance, spot lights are best mounted high on a vehicle, alongside the roof rack.

Fog Lights

Fog lights are a good gift for any Jeep owner, whether they use their vehicle for off-roading or navigating difficult weather conditions on the roads. Mounted low on the vehicle, fog lights emit a very wide, short beam of light designed to remain below the horizon line. In conditions where visibility is limited due to fog, rain, snow or even dust, fog lights provide road illumination without glaring off the particles in the air and reducing visibility further – as driving lights are liable to.

Some fog lights are amber colored, creating a warm pool of light and further decreasing bright glare off snow or fog. Any driver, no matter where they live or what sort of Jeep they own, can benefit from a quality set of fog lights.

By no means should any Jeep owner consider themselves limited only to one type of light. A combination of aftermarket Jeep lights can be tailored to a personalized field of visibility, meaning the driver gets the most out of each light installed. There are also lighting options which can offer multiple beam patterns at the push of a button, such as WARN’s dual beam lights.

No matter what sort of lighting you choose, it is important that your lights are protected, so don’t forget to add some light covers to the list. Not only do they serve to protect your lights from damage, they are also an extremely simple way to give your Jeep a custom look.