After spending two hours on the web you finally find the LED light bar you want. It looks great, so you click the “add to cart” button, but you are prompted with a drop-down box that wants you to select a beam pattern. Now the pleasurable task of purchasing a new LED light bar has morphed into a difficult and time-consuming research project that you will surely fail. If this is you, don’t worry as the article below dissects the advantages and disadvantages of the seven most popular beam pattern and provides you with some additional details like definitions and preferred usage.

Spot Beam

A focused and precise light beam that emits light at a 10 degree angle allowing the light to go as far as possible. As indicated, the difference between the two most popular beam patterns, flood and spot is generally on the question of width and depth. LED light bars offering spotlight beams have a narrow, yet focused light which can easily illuminate objects further away but sacrifices side illumination.

• Advantages: Great for distances, slow moving trails, straight country roads.
• Disadvantages: Beam is very narrow which means the obstacles off to the side may go unnoticed.
• Mounting Locations: Great for mounting on roofs, upper windshields, or the front of your bumper. The higher the light is mounted, the better, as this light fixture needs to be positioned in a way that the beam can go as far as its capable of going.

Flood Beam

This beam is wide, wide enough to illuminate the sides of the trail making obstacles easier to see which maximizes your safety. To accomplish such a uniform luminosity, an increased beam width is required with a decrease in distance. Your traditional flood pattern in a LED light bar or LED light pod contains a beam width of 60 degrees.

• Advantages: Great for fast moving trails, curvy back country roads.
• Disadvantages: Distance is the beams major drawback.
• Mounting Locations: Best for front bumpers but it can be mounted on the roof as well. The downside to mounting lights with a flood beam pattern on your roof is that it will create a glare on your windshield and on your hood causing distortion in its true capabilities.

Combination Beam

Wanna have your cake and eat it to? Well then this is the beam for you. This is the most popular beam pattern because it combines both a spot & flood beam pattern making it an incredibly versatile tool to have in your LED lighting arsenal. Essentially, a combo LED light bar functions by having different components assigned with flood and spotlight beam patterns. This can be done through a division of the spot and flood reflection across the length of the LED light bar or by ensuring the rows have split functions among them.

• Advantages: You get the flood and spot pattern which allows you to see far and wide. Great for vehicles that only have room for the mounting of one LED lighting product.
• Disadvantages: Because it contains both the spot and beam pattern you don’t get the full functionality of either beam since the beams are combined. The exception to this is the Aurora Evolve LED Light bar which is equipped with a spot & flood beam, but it allows you the ability to control whether the beam is a spot beam or a flood beam.
• Mounting Locations: This beam pattern is great for any forward-facing location on your vehicle.

Hybrid 3 + 10w Beam

The hybrid beam is a spot beam pattern fortified with Auroras patented optics that allows for the longest beam throw without sacrificing the lighting output. You can check out the collection here.

• Advantages: Longest beam throw in its class, also the widest spot beam pattern available on the market.
• Disadvantages: This is a narrow beam but not as narrow as the traditional spot beam.
• Mounting Locations: This is great for mounting on your front bumper or it can be mounted on the roof or upper windshield.

Driving Beam

The Driving beam produces a light spread of 60 degrees and is noticeable by its sharp diamond shaped light pattern. Biggest difference between this light pattern and a flood pattern is that the driving beam has very defined edges. 

• Advantages: Great to use for auxiliary LED lighting for both cars, trucks and even ATV’s. Aurora offers these beams in smaller lights like the Aurora 10 inch single row LED light bar. Or the Aurora 6 Inch LED light bar.
• Disadvantages: Is best used for on road driving since it is only offered in smaller light sizes which limits the potential output of the light.
• Mounting Locations: This is perfect for mounting on your front bumper or If you have a car, this is great for mounting in the lower grill or in the opening underneath your front bumper.

Diffusion Beam

The diffusion beam produces a softer light which gives the illusion of the light surrounding the obstacle as opposed to other beams which shine directly onto the obstacle which can create a glare.This pattern is produced by having a diffuser over the lens which scatters the light to create a softer light. You can see an example of what a diffused LED light cube kit looks like here.This produces a pattern of approximately 100 degrees wide, with no defined edge.

• Advantages: Great for reverse lights or as fog lights due to their diffused light output.
• Disadvantages: Limited light range
• Mounting Locations: These are great for an extra set of LED reverse lights, whether they be roof mounted or bumper mounted. They also make great LED fog lights which can me mounted on your bumper or custom mounted to fit in your factory fog light location.

Scene Beam

This beam pattern emits a bright light at a unique 120° pattern which makes it wider than the flood beam pattern. The beam pattern effect is produced by the specialized housing that encompasses it. The scene beam light pattern has a visible sharp edge and produces a square or rectangle pattern depending on the LED light housing.

• Advantages: Wider than a flood beam pattern, and available in LED cubes or in single & double row LED light bars. These are great for fork lifts, construction, farming, and landscaping machinery because it emits a lot of light within a limited range which reduces the occurrences of blinding the people working around you. Lastly, because of their short & wide beam pattern they make great ditch or side lights which can help you navigate narrow trails at night. These also make great reverse lights.

• Disadvantages: Limited light range in terms of distance when compared to other light patterns.
• Mounting Locations: The only restrictions to mounting these lights would be that you make sure that there are no obstructions or protruding components next to this light, so you can take full advantage of this 120° beam pattern. Its recommended that they be roof mounted or they can be mounted on the sides of your vehicle as ditch lights.
  • For construction machinery & fork lifts you can mount these LED lights on the roof.

So in conclusion, there is a extensive variation of beam patterns available and it all comes down to your personal requirements.

We hope this guide will assist you with your next LED lighting purchase but if you still have questions you can contact Off Brand Products at support@offbrandproducts.com or by Phone at (484)-513-7746