Let There Be Light: Dually LEDs
Being a photographer, it's in my nature to be out late, well past sunset and late into the night. Getting to prime locations often requires some moderate wheeling and after shooting for hours on a mountain ridge, it can be difficult to find your way out. It goes without saying that visibility is critical to getting you and your vehicle off the trails without damage, especially at night. My go-to vehicle for getting off the grid is my 1950 Willys CJ3a, and to be 100% honest the headlights are junk - they barely cut it for city driving let alone the middle of the mountains 100 miles from the nearest street lamp.
What's the remedy? A pair of Rigid Industries Dually LED lights, that's what. With four LEDs total and 1568 lumens per cube, these little lights pack a punch.
Opening the box up, you're welcomed into the Rigid Nation family with a neatly packaged light unit, switch, harness, mount and instructions for install.
My favorite thing about these lights is the simplicity of the install, which are practically plug-and-play. The wiring harness comes with a quick disconnect and inline fuse, crimped-on connectors for both battery terminals and crimped-on connectors for the switch – all you have to do is find a place to install it.
The good thing about my old Willys is there are plenty of pre-existing holes and hardware I can use, so when I started looking for a place to mount I noticed the hardware for the latch on the windshield frame. Luckily, right below this latch was a pre-drilled hole into the firewall.
I simply removed a bolt for the latch and used it to secure my light to the windshield frame. My only concern with this location was that there would be too much light cast on the hood, which could cast a reflection on the windshield. I quickly mocked up the power supply, closed the garage and tested it out. Exactly what I thought: the lights need to be mounted further away from the hood to eliminate reflections.
I decided to move them up a foot or so on the windshield frame, to have it sit just level with the windshield itself. I like the look of this location and can still use existing holes on the firewall if I decide them to move them around later.
After that it was easy to route the lines from the battery over to the dash where I drilled a small hole to fit and mount the supplied red illuminated switch.
Just as I was wrapping up the install, the sun was about to set so I tore up to a local spot in the mountains to test them out! Immediately it was a huge difference over the stock headlights and unlike Loren Healy's Red Dragon, the Willys doesn't see as much speed so I couldn't be happier with the spread of these lights. Check out this before and after shot:
The greatest thing about driving at night is being able to escape from the heat of the day, and with a good set of lights you don't have to worry about finding your way around in the dark. Best of all, the Dually LED light kit retails for only $199.99 MSRP, so not only is it easy-to-install, but it's also a great value.
