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Do you remember that sticker you used to see on the back of trucks, IF YOU CAN’T SEE MY MIRRORS I CANT SEE YOU? Well, we think that sticker sends the perfect message to anyone who has or is thinking about installing reverse lights.
When mounting reverse lights on the rear of your vehicle, you need to consider the best location for peak illumination of the areas you need to see. If you can’t see that light from your side mirrors, then where is that reverse light pointing? And more importantly, what is the light actually doing?
VEHICLE TYPE
Firstly, what body configuration do you drive? Is it a cab-chassis, a wagon, truck or a ute with a tray or canopy? All these vehicles have different blind-spots by design, which can be made worse after adding accessories such as fridges, cargo barriers and canopies. These accessories limit vision through the back window further, meaning you are now relying solely on door mirrors to see behind the vehicle. Any good truck driver knows this only too well, as side mirrors are their only means for reversing safely.
WHAT CAN YOU SEE IN YOUR MIRRORS?
If you can’t see where you are reversing at night through your mirrors, you need to stop and consider where and how your reverse lights are mounted. In many cases unfortunately, the easy option seems to be the one most people take. For example, utilising existing mounting holes or wiring to install LED camp and reverse lights, rather than take the time to find the best position for the light. By nature LEDs have tremendous light spread… so why wouldn’t you want to capitalise on this rather than settling for the easier option?
What are you trying to light up? How many lights do you need? It’s no good lighting up objects or areas you can’t see in your mirrors when reversing. What you want to see in your mirrors is a focused area of illumination.
If you tow for example, one light mounted in the middle of your bumper will be next to useless as the trailer will absorb the majority of light. Two wide-spread diffusion lights mounted high and wide (on a roof rack for example) would be far more effective at lighting the sides of the vehicle as well as the trailer.
LIGHT PLACEMENT IS THE KEY!
The simple answer when asking about mounting a light is to install them as high and as wide as possible to obtain wide coverage. Think about the lights used at big footy stadiums, they are mounted high resulting in even coverage of the entire field. If they were at ground level, what you would see is hot-spots of concentrated light. This is exactly what you don’t want in a reverse light.
To prove the point, we grabbed a Rigid Industries SRM Diffusion light to highlight just how much difference mounting positions make, until the best mounting position for a reverse light is clear.
To see all LED Lighting options available for your vehicle click on this link If you need help with a custom application email – sales@snakeracing.com.au
Posted by EVAN SPENCE on Jun 11th 2014