Lighting/Photos please

[tower]

Beautiful Rig!

If I get a rack, I need to find one that is no taller than the factory crossbars. I had to raise a soil pipe in my (commercial) garage just to fit those. And I'm still trying to choose which winch bumper I want. Anyway, I should reply to your question.

I had 8 roof lights on my Tahoe (photo below). They were all PIAA 1500's (XT, I think). I like them because they are low-profile. Anyway, the six on the sides and the rear were all fogs. As you already surmised, these will give you a nice spread with a clear cut-off. I used them for 3 purposes: as night time work lights, as lights to look into the window of the car on my side (through all their tinting, to see them rolling joints after they cut me off), and I had all 8 lights flash in an alternating L/R pattern to ward off traffic if I was working a wreck.

I had "driving" lights on the front 2 only. This was because my headlights were already so bright and also flashed at the touch of a button. All the overheads had dichroic reflectors, so they looked amber or white, depending on where you stood (the front spots were amber only) and they looked white or blue when off, e.g. during the day.

My personal feeling is that spots or driving lights have very specific and limited utility. For avoiding overhangs at night, I prefer fogs to spots. The one advantage of spots is that they focus all of the light at a more distant point. For me, if I am worried about overhangs (branches, a cave roof, whatever) I am not racing so fast that I need the longer throw, but I do want to see the entire panorama. Hopefully someone with a different experience will also reply, so you can choose from varying opinions.

Tahoe pic is the only one I could find, but if you look carefully, you can see the side lights just outboard and to the front of the rear ones.