Should You Spring For That Rear LED Light Bar?

Adding an off road LED light bar to your truck is a sensible move if you plan to actually go off-roading, or even just drive along poorly lit roads. However, most people add front-facing white lights to give themselves more visibility when looking ahead -- and they completely forget about the taillights. If you've ordered a front-facing light bar, get a red, rear-facing bar as well. You'll increase your safety on the road and improve the looks of your truck.

Much Better Visibility in Bad Conditions

When you're driving in bad conditions, you need to be able to see as far ahead as possible -- and you need drivers behind you to be able to see you from far away as well. In poor visibility, like fog or heavy rain, your three regular taillights might not be very visible. However, a long bar of bright red LEDs will help drivers behind you identify your vehicle. If they know someone is ahead of them on the road, they will be less likely to speed up and potentially rear end you if you have to brake suddenly.

Back up the Other Lights

Even in good conditions, your regular taillights are all susceptible to burning out or being broken by an errant flying rock. That LED light bar serves as a backup for all the other lights. And remember, the LED bar has several bulbs of its own, so even if one goes, the others will still be lit up. You might still face a fix-it ticket for broken taillights, but at least you'll have some lights to begin with.

A More Balanced Look

Another part of the appeal of adding these lights is that they balance the look of the truck if you have front-facing LED-bar lights. If your truck has all of these white lights up front, the three regular taillights in back can look kind of puny. Adding the LED light bar in back just looks better on larger vehicles.

You can get these bars in models that attach to the top of your truck's tailgate, to just below the tailgate, and above the window. The bars are available in different lengths, so you should be able to find one that works well with the model and make of truck that you have. LED bulbs do not require a lot of energy to use, so these should not place a huge drag on your truck's battery power.


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