Ditch lights, spot or flood?

You'd have to toss answers in on the questions that @crashnburn80 asked. However, with no clarifying information and only those 2 options for pattern I vote Spot all day long pointed dead ahead or pointed slightly out.

Also, your budget or brand affiliation (if any) will dictate you options pool.

 

A true flood pattern is nearly useless when mounted on an A-Pillar (commonly referred to as a ditch light). Approx 30% of the output will be sent directly into the hood aka unusable entirely.
Another 40% will be lost lighting up the nearest tree 40ft up. Might not be all bad if you are operating at very slow speeds and want a little bit of light on EVERYTHING.
The rest will be providing a short range bath of light to everything in the near vicinity, but not giving you much (if any) more confidence at speed.

A good rule of thumb is that the higher up on a vehicle you go the more you gravitate towards a spot pattern. There's specific use cases for everyone, but that's a ROUGH guide.

Truth be told I rarely will recommend a flood pattern for forward projecting light. You can cover the "goal" of a flood light with other combinations of light.

 

Also... last small thing. Flood and Driving are DISTANT cousins in terms of light pattern. The verbiage gets blurry, especially when people are looking at (generally) cheaper components.

I agree that both patterns can be great depending on their intended use/speed.

 

Okay, finally at a computer so I can hunt-and-peck instead of feverishly tap my phone screen Also, I am happy to provide as much knowledge as I have and if we come away from this disagreeing that's okay with me too.

Let me get a clarifying point out of the way:

• I answered "Spot" only due to the constraints that I was given of Spot vs Flood. Do I believe that that a spot pattern is the most advantageous pattern that could be mounted in the ditch light position? In most cases, that's a negative.

So there's a bunch of different people we would be looking at here:

Stock Guy

• Stock headlights, stock fogs
• Needs: Distance, width, intensity, pretty much everything...
• Future plans with lighting: Nothing. Stay stock and add ditch lights.

Upgraded Fogs Guy

• Stock headlights, Upgraded fog lights (may or may not be legal)
• Needs: Likely mid/long range distance

Aftermarket Bumper Guy

• Stock headlights, likely upgraded fog lights, and likely a 20-30" light bar
• Needs (all dependent on patterns): Likely edge support between where the fog lights fall off, and where the spot pattern of the light bar doesn't extend to the sides

My Personal Recommendations - I am going to assume that these individuals will not be adding anything later down the road aside from the ditch light addition, and I will only weigh in on products that I have personally had my hands on so that I can provide the most honest opinion possible having seen outputs, patterns, etc. Additionally, I will only be recommending ~4" square pods as there is a larger pool of applicants here:

• Stock Guy - Baja Designs Squadron Pro (or sport) in a Driving/Combo pattern. This light will provide a nice mix of a lot of things. It will provide some more width as well as some more distance, both of which the stock truck is lacking. It doesn't have a laser focused beam anywhere and provides a clean array of light.
• Upgraded Fogs Guy - This one's a little tougher. I'm personally torn between pointing a set of Diode Dynamics SS3s in a driving pattern out towards the ditches, or doing the same aiming with a set of Baja Designs Squadrons in a spot pattern, or Rigid Industries D2s in a Driving pattern. I am only choosing the spot pattern in the Baja Designs due to the fact that these lights do not stay super true to beam pattern. They tend to open up pretty quickly at distance. A spot pattern in a BD light will equate to a driving pattern (or even more open) with a Diode Dynamics, Rigid Industries, or KC light.
• Aftermarket Bumper Guy - So this is where I might recommend a spot pattern. Especially the Baja Designs spot pattern. When aimed out ahead off the truck probably 60 yards that pattern will open up nicely and put a decent spread out there. It seriously all depends on where the owner finds that their current setup has weaknesses. They should have all of their primary bases covered.

Just trying to point out that there is no "solution" for this light goes in this spot every time. As you've even seen yourself there are plenty of times where what you thought you were going to get just didn't make sense in that application. There's a ton of different manufacturers out there, and one pattern from Company A will not necessarily show up the same as the same named pattern from Company B.

...The ramblings of a madman continue...

 

What pattern light bar do you have?
Do you have any plans to upgrade your fog lights?