LEDs blocking air flow

Gallowbraid

Gallowbraid

Adventurist
So one of the industry providers of brackets and LED lightbars introduced several new products via social media over the last couple of days. They have brackets for several popular Toyota products that basically fill the area behind the grill with lightbars:

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That 4Runner one obviously has some gaps on the sides and an open slot up top, but the Tundra version pretty much fills the grill:

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At some point when you're cruising the mall parking lot that electric fan is going to give up trying to suck air across the radiator and some damage is going to start happening I would think. Thoughts?
 
Thoughts? It’s flippin’ moronic.

But, people will buy anything. :coffee
 
I don't think it's that great of an idea either. One of my customers drives a Duramax, body shop put a gas engine lower front valance panel on his truck rather than the one designed for the Duramax. His fan clutch stayed engaged almost all of the time trying to keep the Dmax cool until we figured the problem out.

The Dmax version has a couple of additional air inlets that the gas engine doesn't require.
 
I'm still trying to understand the standard light bar fad let alone this..:dunno
 
Haggis said:
I'm still trying to understand the standard light bar fad let alone this..:dunno
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I'm all for a little additional lighting to give better visibility at night. When it's done right it can be quite useful and adds a degree of safety by upping visibility. On the other hand I've sat in camp and watched a parade of LED lights roll by at 11pm and wondered if everyone but the rear most vehicle had pulled their rear view mirror off yet.

I guess it's like any other hobby or area of interest. Manufacturers are going to make a product to solve a problem, social media platforms are going to make it look cool and people are going to buy it whether they need it or not. I do laugh at the lowered Honda Civics running around Atlanta on weekends now with light bars mounted in their front air dams. I guess they need to light up the speed bumps before they get to them? To each their own, aesthetics are a personal opinion. The products I highlighted above, however, seem like they're going to do more harm than good.
 
travis.diller said:
Light bars are the new spoilers! Street racing out, over landing in. It doesn’t have to be functional it’s just for looks
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Wonder if I can market LED light bars that actually don't have any electronics in them, just an empty housing. Market it toward vehicles that don't leave pavement and never go out at night.
 
I agree with Dave, it's stupid. I don't get the morons who drive around in the day with the things on either, I passed one of them today in his pimpin' SUV so it's not just the overland mallcrawler/bro-dozer crew sporting them. I keep saying I'm going to put my Hella Rallye 4000 compacts back on, I like the light color better anyways.
 
Yep things will get hot when actually worked with that much of the grill blocked....

I was worried a bit about mine (3-9" rounds ) but it went up just about 1 degree according to my gauge. Load fluctuates things Much more
 
Many aftermarket bumpers can have this issue too. No issues with my 4runner, but on the Ford the bottom of the radiator and intercooler is way down into the bumper, and it has openings for air flow.
 
Aftermarket bumpers are notorious for this. The enthusiasm to build something novel in a sea of competition overlooks this critical design component.
 
bob91yj said:
I've NEVER seen anyone actually show a ticket they got for running beadlocks. Having said that, I'm all about the fakelocks, if there really is a chance that you can be cited for beadlocks, the fakelocks reduce the chance of officer friendly noticing that you are running true beadlocks.
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Wait, you can be cited for beadlocks? Why?

On a similar note all those guys that love to have scepter cans, Rotopax, etc on their vehicle with extra fuel...that's against the law here in GA. Fuel must be secured inside an approved container and inside a vehicle. Tied down in a truck bed or trailer (think lawn service) is apparently ok.
 
I'll pile on with my window tint peeve. Let's all reduce visibility to look cool. Nobody cares to look at you or your stuff, get over it.
 
Al Swope said:
I'll pile on with my window tint peeve. Let's all reduce visibility to look cool. Nobody cares to look at you or your stuff, get over it.
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I'm a fan of tint but only to the extent that it protects interior surfaces and blocks the summer sun from blinding me. I've never tinted below the state's legal limit, and I usually do clear UV film on windshields and sunroofs. I've got a guy that does the high quality ceramic 3M stuff that's guaranteed for life so it'll never look like an Autozone DIY home job. I laugh at the guys who pitch it as keeping the interior cooler. Instead of 160 degrees on a summer day my interior is only 152!

Mirrored tint (which I think is illegal everywhere now) and limo tint bother me though along with people who percentage tint windshields without having a medical reason to do so.
 
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