By Baja Designs Roof Light Bar Suite | 2021+ Bronco
In this article, we’re going to be taking a close-up look at the full suite of Baja Designs roof bars for the brand-new Ford Bronco. There are 8 different options I’m going to take you through all those to help you make your decision on what’s going to fit your build.
The roof is a great location right there above the windshield because it puts the light high up allowing you to shoot light way down the trail and diffuse it off to the sides and because you have either a long bar or linkables you can get 20, 30, sometimes 40,000 lumens of light up there. That’s a ton of light and of course because it’s not low to the ground it’s not going to light up the foreground as much, instead, it makes it much easier to see off into the distance which can be very important, especially for high-speed driving at night.
These light bars also look great, giving your Bronco an awesome, more complete, capable look and it’s easy to install because the Bronco is set up to receive an accessory right above the windshield. It’s even pre-wired and we’ll show you how to access and utilize those wires in our installation guide video on our YouTube channel, which we encourage you to check out. In that video, we also took out the Bronco at night and got some night footage just to show you how bright these lights really are.
VIDEO: ROOF BAR LIGHTS FOR THE NEW BRONCO
Baja Designs
These light bars are designed and manufactured by Baja Designs, the self-appointed scientists of lighting. They call themselves that because of how they approach designing, developing, and manufacturing these incredible lighting systems, and these systems are born literally out of the harshest conditions you can imagine: trophy truck racing down the Baja peninsula, where the racers are entrusting their lives to these lights to not fail in the line of duty because they’ve got a lot more to lose than just one race. These harsh conditions produce a product that Baja Designs can put a lifetime warranty behind and they’re going to outlast and outperform the competition.
Light Bar Suite Breakdown
Baja Designs offers their roof mountable kits in 8 different configurations for the new Bronco but we can break that down into 3 major groupings. The OnX6+ roof bar, the S8 roof bar, and the XL linkable version that we’ve got and installed on our Bronco. Now each of these kits is available with either the toggle switch harness which is a separate switch that could be mounted or you can use the upfitter harness and tie into those OEM auxiliary switches, which I’m assuming almost everybody is going to want to do. Since every light bar mounts, and wires up the same, your main decision is going to be which lights you want.
OnX6+
We’ll start by talking about the OnX6+ light bar. This is going to come in 2 different configurations, the first is going to be the highest level of light output that you’re going to get from any of these Baja Design systems and it is a ton: 46,150 lumens of light pulling on 28 amps which means it’s just about gonna max out that maximum OEM switch on your Bronco. The OnX6+ is going to have an all-clear lens and it’s a driving combo lens that is going to send some light way up the road and some light spread out but overall that is just a ton of light in general. It’s the brightest option so if you’re looking for maximum light output that is going to be your choice. Now, this light bar is going to be on a single switch, but they also offer their OnX6+ bar in a Dual Control version that has a combination of clear lenses and amber lenses.
OnX6+ Dual Control
The OnX6+ Dual Control is going to be set up to be on two separate switches. The two outside yellow lights can be on one switch, we recommend AUX 2, and the center lights are going to be on AUX 1. Now this bar is going to put out about 39,000 lumens if both clear and amber lights are on, so it’s a little bit less light output than the normal OnX6+ but the important thing to know about this bar is the fact that you get more control, it’s like two lights in one.
BAJA DESIGNS RACER BOARDS
The clear lenses are going to have Baja Design’s racer circuit boards which actually drop down the total lumen output produced, but the LEDs, boards, and lenses are designed in a way that actually sends light further down the road, so it’s really designed for high-speed desert driving. The OnX6+ Dual Control might be lower in lumen output but you get a lot more flexibility out of this light and a unique design.
S8
The next offering from Baja Designs is going to be the S8 50-inch light bar. Now, this is a straight light bar again but is a low profile, slimmer design than the OnX6+ giving it a really sleek appearance. Though don’t be fooled by the looks of this bar as it’s still going to put out a ton of light 32,250 lumens and the most popular thing about it is that it features an amber backlight. The amber backlight can either be set up on a separate switch or hooked up to your daytime running lights and the best thing about this option is it costs a couple of hundred bucks less than all the other options in the Baja Designs roof light bar suite.
XL Linkable
The last option here is the option that we’ve chosen for our Bronco build and that is this very unique-looking XL Linkable. Now, this is made up of 8 individual XL Sport pods each of which put out 3,150 lumens for a total of 25,200 lumens output. Though the XL Linkable is the lowest lumen producer of all the options that we’ve covered here today it’s still more than enough for us, as we’ve got 10,000 lumens on our A-pillars and we’ve got lighting in our bumper as well.
CURVED OPTION
This is a spectacular-looking light option that is totally different from most of the other things out there, it also gives you a tremendous amount of configurability thanks to the unique linkable CNC machined aluminum powder-coated connectors that can be loosened and changed to change the curve of the light bar. You can run it straight the way it comes or when you’re mounting it up you can loosen each of the CNC brackets and give it some natural curve either to match the curve of the windshield or curve it a bunch so it sends light all over the place, whatever you’re looking for you can achieve with the XL Linkable.
LENS CONFIGURABILITY
It’s also the most configurable of all the options we’ve discussed here because it comes with four spot lenses, two driving combo lenses, and two wide cornering lenses that diffuse and send the light everywhere. Additionally, you can change any of those lenses anytime you like to other lens types, you can make them all spot and send all 25,200 lumens way down the trail, or you can change them over to the amber lenses or you can go with their Rock Guard lens covers as well which is a simple cover that snaps on and you can go from clear to amber in a second on the trail side.
There are two things that are slightly different about this kit than the other two kits we discussed and that is first the preload bar. What this is is a little rubber foot that sits on the center of your roof and supports the center of this bar. The XL LInkable system is heavier than the other light bars we’ve discussed and so getting that additional center support helps to make sure that this thing doesn’t move or flop around in any way shape or form. It also comes with the lens covers and this is handy if you live in a state where actually having exposed roof bar lights is illegal, now we live in one of those states and we’ve never had a problem, never gotten a ticket, but it’s just nice to know that you can have those in the glovebox and slap them on to get out of a ticket if you run into trouble.
BUY THE XL LINKABLE LIGHT BAR HERE
