what exactly are the ditch lights for?

I have done a fair amount of off roading and never needed ditch lights. Are they supposed to replace lights from a normal light bar?

 

I can say they do help for visibility right next to you. My light bar in my bumper doesn't illuminate next to the front wheels. If I stick my head out the window it helps.

I have my ditch lights angled out and down. Most trucks I see have them pointed straight ahead which makes them useless for their intended purpose.

 

I had them on the hood pointing towards the ditch but was getting too much glare on the hood and couldn't really see the ditch when turning hard on trails. I relocated them to the roof rack pointing down and just in front of the tire and I have great visibility on the drivers side when turning left when wheeling and if I have a passenger, they can spot the right turns without getting out of the truck.

But as @chuam said, most just point them forward and run them for looks or to annoy oncoming drivers.

 

I got them thinking they would help with illuminating stuff off the trail to the left and right of the truck but I’m also dealing with too much glare from the hood. I have low profile brackets so the ditch lights are pretty close to the hood and a large amount of the light just hits the hood and goes nowhere. Kind of annoying, won’t make that mistake again if I ever build another truck out.

 

They’re useless, more of a trend IMO. You’re better off with rock lights. I never have any other lights on except for the rock lights when I play on the trail at night.

 

While this is true on rocks (hence the name) they are useless in the midwest where we have clay and mud. They are instantly covered and useless. The higher the better out here!

 

This is one of the only acceptable answers-

 

Mine are angled quite a bit out to the front sides...helps with finding campsites at night. I very rarely use them, though...

 

Every light options you’ll need for any expedition you take

 

Turn them on when you drive in the ditch, Duh..

 

or the opposite, turn them on when you can’t get out of the ditch.

lights before lockers all day is way cooler

 

Out and down is the way to go with Ditch lights. These have been awesome at night on both my truck and SxS. Far more important for me than added forward lighting. I'm not driving fast enough to outrun my headlights when I'm offroad. They allow me to see side trails I've missed in the woods and in the open sandy/rocky areas at night.


You can get an idea of how far outwards they point in the below picture.

 

They're for annoying all of the other RTT owners at the interstate-40 KOA.

 

I don't wheel a lot at night, but when driving out in the boonies, I can see a deer 200 yds off the roadway! Very beneficial!

 

On my buddies ride they point straight ahead but they're I.R. so we can do stupid shit with night vision (I want a set of 940 nM lights for my Taco. No faint red glow like the 855s). You have never seen an uninitiated lose their shit until you quietly flip down a PVS-14 and kill ALL the lights at 70MPH!

 

I think mostly they are for just making your rig look cool - I wonder what percentage of rigs with ditch lights really do hard core wheeling at night on difficult/extreme trails?

 

Lighting ditches

 

Based on above scenarios, sounds to me like the benefit depends on where you are. Desert/open terrain, not so much. I’m
On the east coast. All my night driving is over-grown, tight canopy, tight-growth/tight-shoulder mountain forest roads and beach driving. Been thinking of getting some for those scenarios. Like said above, I’m not outrunning my headlights so go slow in both places. Anyone in same area happy you did it? Probably jumping in just for extra surf fishing light… and gawd forbid I don’t see a turtle hatch marching toward the sea. Be tough to get over that.

 

I don't think that everyone needs them. But, I find them useful in a few situations.

I use them on tight trails at night, and sometimes just in the boonies on back roads. They're nice for keeping an eye on what's next to you.

They're useless if you don't use them. I'll admit that a lot of them are probably installed just for the look. But, I really enjoy mine.

Isn't looking cool the biggest priority?

I do actually use mine, but not necessarily for difficult terrain. I have access to some land that has an old, overgrown easement road that leads to a nice beach. Sometimes I like to drive down there at night, and the ditch lights seem very handy to me in this situation.

 

Mine are used for deer detection on rural back roads. I hit 3 deer with my old ranger I'm not taking any risks with this truck. 4 years in not a single incident yet.

You really need to think about lighting zones and where you want light in what situation. Mine are aimed in a way it widens my highbeam spread to see ditches better at distance. Others put them out further and aim down to see what the tire is doing better and what is going on next to the vehicle.

I have all the lumens on the front of my truck most will say it's overkill and a waste but everyone te is to think you run them all at the same time. I find my use for ditchlights to be my most used light besides fog lights. My roof bar is the least used and primarily is still there only for looks at this point and for it someone wants to play the high beam game.

For tight trails at night I primarily use my bumper mounted 30" bar with a combo beam. Good side spread and the yellow helps with terrain definition I fi d.