I have installed a Narva Explora 14 inch light bar behind the grille on my RSV, after removing a single slat to let the light get out.
Good points:
- Great spread of light in side streets up to about 60 km/h
- Looks good, sort of like a cop car installation
- Being behind the grille keeps sun off it so probably less yellowing of lens
Not so good:
- Very complicated installation, I bought the one with the number plate bracket and attached it to the alloy crash bar in front of radiator, which meant a total install time of at least a day
- Had to solder the feed wire for the relay to wiring inside the headlight unit
- Had to make a black plastic plate and brackets to blank off the area in front of and below the light bar since otherwise there's quite a large gap given the grill curves forward
- Had to make a bracket to support the top part of the grill since its a bit wobbly once a slot is removed
- Does not have enough long distance punch and the spot part of the beam is quite narrow.
- At the end of the day if we assume that LEDs are four or five times as efficient as Halogens, then 2.6 amps current draw is about 30 watts, so potentially as much light as 1.5 by 100W driving lights, but not as usefully distributed, i.e. more spread close up and less power down the road
- I'm pretty sure a pair of Narva 175s with 100w globes would give a better spread, although nowhere to attach them...
Looking forward:
- Mounting anything behind the grille is going to be a hassle, and will necessitate buying a 40 cm drill bit to get at the crossmember
- Possibly two Narva 14's stacked on top of each other would produce an adequate amount of light, I may consider this since already have one
- Stedi make a twin row 14 inch light bar that is only 85 mm deep so would fit behind grille and which draws 4.9 amps so close to the power of two Narva bars and costs $169 delivered
- Given the amount of work involved I'd be tempted to try LED inserts for high and low beams instead, and just pay the premium for the canbus convertors, and mount these outside the headlight boxes, even if it was $400 all up I imagine it'd be easier overall, although this would be the most if could cost, eg. if buying Narva...
- Or if I could find a nudge bar (which no-one seems to make) this would be the easiest way to attach proper lighting, then could just get a big light bar and be done with it, but would need to keep it narrow so that the prox sensors don't go off all the time...