Best Lighting Upgrades for Trucks

Trucks are heavy-duty vehicles capable of long-distance travel and serious hauling. As such, they need powerful lighting technology to overcome visibility challenges, from fog and storms to extra dark country roads. The lights on trucks are of two kinds — those that come with the vehicle and upgrades.

While your truck will operate normally with the manufacturer’s lighting system, it can do better with top-of-the-line upgrades that offer effective lighting, even in conditions that compromise your vision. But how do you find the right set of lights to upgrade your truck? Here’s how you find exactly what you need.

Types of Lighting Upgrades for Trucks

When the sun goes down or bad weather settles in, the lights you have equipped will make a difference. Here are some of the lighting components to upgrade for powerful illumination:

• Lightbars: As you shop LED lighting for trucks, keep light bars in mind since they are high-performing accessories designed to enhance your truck’s lighting possibilities. While lightbars are popular on truck roofs, you can also mount them on the bumper or grille. Where you choose to mount lightbars depends on specific areas of the road you wish to brighten.
• Beacons: Driving trucks under the cover of darkness or in low visibility situations requires precautions. Beacon light upgrades offer an extra layer of safety for you and other motorists. Once mounted, quality beacons are an excellent way of alerting other road users of an emergency.
• Work lamps: Considering breakdowns are among the common challenges of long-haul trucking, it’s important to have a work lamp ready for roadside repairs at night.
• Backup alarms: Backup alarms with enhanced illumination are ideal upgrades for trucks due to increased blindspots. With reduced visibility, you want good and bright backup alarms for ample visibility and to alert other motorists.
• Warning lights: Equipping your truck with self-flashing red, yellow and amber warning lights will help maintain safety on the road. You’ll need strong warning lights to alert road users during an emergency.
• LED headlights: Headlights are the most important lighting fixtures on your truck that illuminate your way. You’ll have to confirm federal guidelines regarding LED headlights and acceptable modifications. However, upgrading from halogen to LED headlights offers an excellent lighting experience for off-road adventures.
• Driving lights: Truck high beams are key to extended illumination, but in low visibility, your vehicle’s original high beams may fail to provide enough reach. That’s where driving lights step in as auxiliary high beams that extend the reach of your high-beam headlights. With a driving light upgrade, you can expect effective lighting on dark and empty roads, allowing you to analyze road conditions from a distance.
• Spotlights: Powerful spotlights are some of the best LED lights for trucks that venture off-road. As an auxiliary truck upfit, a spotlight is a crucial and even lifesaving upgrade in extreme circumstances where you must flood light in specific directions. For off-road drives on uneven terrain, a spotlight can be an excellent tool for increased visibility.

Best Lighting Types for Night and Fog

Advancements in lighting technology are a major factor driving the global automotive lighting industry, creating demand for brighter, more durable and energy-efficient solutions. As such, technology plays a big role in determining effective lighting types suitable for increasing visibility.

Since fog and darkness create visibility challenges, your truck requires powerful lighting. While basic halogen lights provide adequate functionality, LED lights offer superior performance. In terms of brightness and clarity, LED lights excel, offering intensity and a degree of coolness that improves visibility.

You can fit a wide range of accessory lights into your truck for improved vision at night or during fog, from fog lights and light bars to driving lights. A combination of powerful fog lights and driving lights would work well in low-visibility situations like nighttime and fog. However, using fog lights with dipped headlights is more effective since you focus light on the area closer to the vehicle.

Depending on state regulations, you may have a little wiggle room when upgrading and adding fog light modifications for enhanced visibility.

How to Choose the Right Lighting for Your Truck

Lights are a vital component of your truck and offer many benefits, including visibility, style, adaptability and reliability. With quality lights, you can enjoy visual clarity while also alerting other motorists of your presence. Different types of lights are suitable for trucks that serve various purposes, but how do you choose the right lighting for your truck to ensure efficiency, durability and vibrancy? Here are things to consider when selecting truck lighting options:

1. Lighting Performance

The three common automotive lighting options are LED, high-intensity discharge (HID) and halogen lights. They utilize different technologies to emit light, which affects intensity, quality and energy consumption. Halogen lights are an older technology offering less power output than the other two while also producing a lot of heat, making them less energy efficient. 

While halogen lights are standard for American vehicles, you can upgrade your truck lights to brighter, more efficient LED or HID bulbs — just ensure the lights you choose are road-legal before installing. However, you can always add LED or HID lights as auxiliary lighting for job sites or off-road use.

2. Quality

Quality is crucial when selecting custom lights for trucks. Since these don’t come preinstalled by the manufacturer, there’s more room for options. Common materials on the market are plastic, polycarbonate, aluminum and stainless steel. All have different quality standards and offer specific strengths. If you’re looking for sheer durability and scratch-resistance, for instance, choose polycarbonate material.

3. Legal Requirements

Automotive lights are subject to federal and state laws regulating placement and intensity levels. Before settling on specific truck lights, consider the legal requirements. Confirm if the product is in compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Find Top Branded Lighting Solutions at Truckfitters

Relying only on standard lights may not offer you the quality and performance you’re looking for. Trucks are reliable, heavy-duty vehicles designed to overcome extensive distances in diverse weather and road conditions, and when fit with powerful light upgrades, they become better equipped to handle tough jobs and low-visibility situations.

Understandably, identifying and selecting the best lighting solutions for your truck can be daunting. As experts in vehicle unfitting, Truckfitters can help you navigate the various options available from top brands, ensuring quality. Our team of experts understands what goes into upfitting trucks and uses top-of-the-line parts and accessories to maintain peak performance. 

At Truckfitters, we serve customers from diverse industries. If you need a stronger and better-performing truck, we’re your one-stop shop with multiple locations nationwide for your convenience. You can also contact us for professional input on the top truck lights and upgrade suggestions!