Low Profile Flood Lights For My Van

[Bravo30]

I'm looking for a low profile flood light solution for my van. I want them to attach to the roof rack but I don't want them to be too obvious. I don't want a bunch of LED cube lights and bars hanging off of the rack. I've looked at the single row LED bars and they could work but I would have to mount them to the bars and they would be very noticeable. There's 2" of space above the van and below the bar that I could tuck lights into but the angle of the light would hit the van body so you would have a dark spot about 10' around the van. I also looked into telescoping light masts but that's kind of goofy and would require setup etc.

we pretty much drive around forest roads and camp so we're looking for flood lights for when we're out gathering firewood, playing with the dogs or generally working around camp. Ideally I would like something like 10 zebra lights built into the roof rack and nobody knows they're there until I turn them on. Make sense?

 

[Hamilton Felix]

The "nobody knows they're there until I turn them on" is the hard part. I'm sure you can find slim LED bars that will fit and do the job, but it will be obvious they are lights, unless you hide them behind some sort of tinted lens that will rob you of your light. I'd start with function over form, then try to make a good looking installation. But then this is from a guy who just mounts up floodlights that work, and ignores appearance. 😉

 

[Bravo30]

The "nobody knows they're there until I turn them on" is the hard part. I'm sure you can find slim LED bars that will fit and do the job, but it will be obvious they are lights, unless you hide them behind some sort of tinted lens that will rob you of your light. I'd start with function over form, then try to make a good looking installation. But then this is from a guy who just mounts up floodlights that work, and ignores appearance. 

I think with the correct mounts I can mount them in the space between the roof line and lower rack bar. I also think I'm overthinking the "hidden" part. Most people I talk to can't even tell my van doesn't have any windows 😂

I'm leaning towards Baja designs S2 pro just trying to figure out which ones. Spots on the corners then work/scene in between? 8 lights total (4 spots, 4 work/scene)

 

[ameli0rate]

Depending on how dedicated you are, you could mount them to a rail so they're hidden under the rack, but when you want to use them, they slide out 6-12 inches to extend past the body of the van.

There's 2" of space above the van and below the bar that I could tuck lights into but the angle of the light would hit the van body so you would have a dark spot about 10' around the van

 

[Bravo30]

Depending on how dedicated you are, you could mount them to a rail so they're hidden under the rack, but when you want to use them, they slide out 6-12 inches to extend past the body of the van.

That's not a bad idea. Last night I was looking at a light on a telescoping mast that mount to the roof but they were selling for $2,000 and worked off of pneumatic pumps. To complicated and expensive.

 

[Bravo30]

Had a good conversation with a guy on IG with the same issues. He went with Rigid A series lights. There small enough and bright enough to do the job. I'll supplement them with squadrons on each corner. You can check out his van in the link below.


https://instagram.com/sprinter_shevanigans?igshid=f76bqfn9k77j

 

[Mr. Merk]

I believe those are same "rock" lights we installed as bed lights in an '88 F350 I built several years ago for an heir to the largest retailer in the world. They would've been great for use on the outside of the custom rack we had built to haul SUP boards and mountain bikes. The 8' bed was pretty tricked out with a 110 outlet, on-board air, a bed slide with full size spare and Yeti cooler amongst other things.