Lighting upgrade priority for Overlanding?

My 2011 RW is my daily driver/overlanding rig. I'm deep in the rabbit hole of lighting upgrades and hoping to get some feedback/advice from some of you who may have more experience than I do.

My needs for additional lighting are more for finding/setting up camp at night rather than trail riding at night, and more or less I'd love some help with reigning in my appetite for upgrades before I blow too much $$ on excessive lighting I probably don't *need*.

The other concern I have is power. I just ordered a dual battery system (genesis offroad), and 2 group 25 batteries (64 AH each). Clearly the more lights I install/upgrade/run the more energy they will require, unless of course I am upgrading stock bulbs with more efficient LEDs? (complete noob when it comes to electricity, but working on it!). I will be getting a fridge to run full-time and being power efficient is a concern for me with keeping my aux battery topped off.

Upgrades/Additions I'm considering, roughly in this order:
52" Curved light bar mounted at top of windshield (leaning toward nilight or auxbeam for budget/bang for buck)

1 or 2 Flood beams (to be mounted on the back of my roof rack for camp area lighting and to help with reversing at night since I currently cannot see a damn thing). Not sure on brand for these but lightforce looks nice. Actually not sure about mount location with these since I haven't installed awning yet. If they can't double as camp lighting/reverse lights, might opt for license plate LED light bar (vleds LPR reverse light system)

Led light strips/light tape to be mounted to the underside of my OVS 270 Awning for camp lighting.

DD fog light upgrades (this feels like perhaps overkill if I get the curved light bar?)

DD interior light led upgrades (map, dome, door)

 

I’d go with the rear LED bar first. The rear 31” LED is the most used light I have and the most helpful. I have 4” LEDs on the side and am thinking of adding 26” LEDs so that I have the option of lighting it up brighter. The 4” LEDs are helpful when I’m on the side of the road but don’t want to blind passing vehicles - they’re pointed downwards.

If you do or plan to do a lot of night trail riding then the front bar would be second. But if you go with cheaper lights then it’s quite affordable. I have Nilight all around and have not had any problems with them.

 

I personally don't care much for full sized lightbars especially on top of the windshield - it adds another point of wind resistance, noise, etc. and can be expensive. Especially if you're not driving a lot of open roads at night or driving trails at night. I think you'd be better suited running some rock lights for camp lighting. I know you were looking at some of the more budget brands but the Baja Designs rock lights are really well made and just one or two is all you'd need mounted to your rack side + rear. They also have a low draw of 0.40amps per light. Very little risk of draining your battery with that.





You mentioned DD fogs. You could probably just run an SS3 fog or SS3 ditch lights and have more than enough light. I run a set of BD ditch lights and they're brighter than most light bars.

 

I've got the extreme bar in white up front to supplement the hi beams, two lp9s in amber for dusty/foggy/rainy days, two squadron xl's in the fog position, and two caliraised side shooter ditch lights.

All of that and I really only needed the ditch lights and some rear lights. The rest of it looks cool though

 

I probably should have included photos. Here she is. Yes, she's dirty, because we're always driving down dirt roads! Soon I will have a yakima roof rack on the truck cap. I will also be installing a driver side 270 degree awning. Yeah I don't really love the idea of a light bar mounted up top due to wind resistance/noise. Maybe I will just upgrade the fog lights then. It appears upgrading the headlamps is very expensive!

 

I would upgrade the headlights to some LED morimotos or alpharex first then add some strong ditch lights.
Also LED fog lights like SS3 or morimotos XB1.

 

Any recommendations on the ditch lights? These get mounted on the front hood near the mirrors right?

 

Yep I have the cali brackets and got their side shooter pods. Work good, but the BD's put out more light I think, comparing them to my BD fogs the cali raised is a good option but not same caliber of light.

 

I ordered the SS3 Pro Fogs in Amber/Yellow. Gonna see how those do before I spend any more $ on forward lighting. If I do it will be to upgrade the hi-beams with DD LED bulbs.

I'm about to pull the trigger on a Rago ditch light bracket with BD Squadron Sports, per your recommendation.
I have a Gen 2 so cant go with Cali Raised bracket.

Any recommendations on the ditch light pattern/color ?
Since I already have amber on my fogs would more amber be overkill?

Then on the beam patterns unfortunately the BD website doesn't have photos or videos to show the difference. I feel like for my needs its either driving/combo or wide cornering.

thanks for all your help and everyone else's help thus far