LED light bars - Is red light useful?

I have an LED fetish. My Jeep currently has an 18" double row light bar on the bumper hoop and 5" square LED spot lights on the base of the windshield. I have LED headlights, yellow LED foglights, LED turn signals and I have a 43" dual color light bar waiting to be mounted to the top of the windshield. I just bought a winch which included a roller fairlead with two mounting holes for lights. So I was thinking about putting some small 3" square lights down there. I noticed that Rigid has their 3" Dually series in red. Hmmmm...

I know that you can use green, amber and blue filters for different conditions (dust, smoke, snow/fog, etc) but what would red be used for? I have searched and searched the web but I haven't found anything that breaks down what different colors of light would be used for. Maybe it's just to look cool at the bro-dozer show?

Does anybody know or have a convincing guess?

Red lighting is less disruptive to the driver's night vision.

Rally car co-driver's quite often have red map lights for night stages.

Stealth Mode?

Or just a really good way to get pulled over and beat by LEOs. Red or Blue lights on the front of a (civilian)motor vehicle is a no-no.

Be wary of mounting red/blue lights to a street car.
Those are often limited to emergency vehicle use.
Red does not affect night vision as badly as other colors and may have it's benefits if you have to use your winch in the dark...

I kinda guessed that red would be used to preserve low light vision. I have interior lights that I can switch between white and red. How well would it work to use red light to see at a distance? Like using a small red LED to read a map versus using red lights to drive with (with no other forward facing lights)?

I found this small list on Lightforce's website that briefly explains what the different spectrums would be used for:

•AMBER - For highlighting contrast in damp or foggy conditions
•BLACK - Opaque protective covers for lights when not in use
•BLUE - For marine, police and security applications
•CLEAR - Protective cover for the lens, standard with driving lights
•GREEN - Specifically for spotting animals with sensitive eyes
•RED - Most popular for study of nocturnal animals and night hunting of light shy animals. eg. Rabbit, fox and wild boar. (Many animals are unable to see RED due to lack of color vision.)
•DISPERSION FILTERS: Available in clear, red and infra-red for 140 & 170mm reflector sizes. These filters transform the beam into a soft edged flood light, especially useful when boating, camping or using as a general work light.
•INFRA RED FILTERS: Used with 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Night Vision Image Intensifiers with an 840-920 nanometer wave length.

I think it would be cool to be able to shut the lights off and just drive using red LEDs (off road only obviously). I'm still trying to get a good image of the red LED version of the Duallys but I'm pretty sure the LED is doped to make red light as opposed to the LED itself colored red. I think they will look like this when off:

Hopefully that won't irritate the popo and if it does, I could always buy the black snap-on light covers.

Can you tell I'm bored at work?

NGTD wrote: Red lighting is less disruptive to the driver's night vision.

This is the only thing I can think of. I have a super bright red dome light in the P71 for this reason.

Red should always signify the rear of a vehicle unless flashing. Then it is usually emergency. State laws set emergency vehicle laws, so they will be different in each state. Some states will drill you over just having lights that in some way shape or form can be thought of as emergency lights. Other states like mine say in order to consider your vehicle having anything but a simple lighting violation, it must have a forward facing flashing red light with a siren.

If you're going with a classic red LED light, no one will know it isn't white until you turn it on. Just don't use it on the road.

stanger_missle wrote: I kinda guessed that red would be used to preserve low light vision. I have interior lights that I can switch between white and red. How well would it work to use red light to see at a distance? Like using a small red LED to read a map versus using red lights to drive with (with no other forward facing lights)? I found this small list on Lightforce's website that briefly explains what the different spectrums would be used for: •AMBER - For highlighting contrast in damp or foggy conditions •BLACK - Opaque protective covers for lights when not in use •BLUE - For marine, police and security applications •CLEAR - Protective cover for the lens, standard with driving lights •GREEN - Specifically for spotting animals with sensitive eyes •RED - Most popular for study of nocturnal animals and night hunting of light shy animals. eg. Rabbit, fox and wild boar. (Many animals are unable to see RED due to lack of color vision.) •DISPERSION FILTERS: Available in clear, red and infra-red for 140 & 170mm reflector sizes. These filters transform the beam into a soft edged flood light, especially useful when boating, camping or using as a general work light. •INFRA RED FILTERS: Used with 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Night Vision Image Intensifiers with an 840-920 nanometer wave length. I think it would be cool to be able to shut the lights off and just drive using red LEDs (off road only obviously). I'm still trying to get a good image of the red LED version of the Duallys but I'm pretty sure the LED is doped to make red light as opposed to the LED itself colored red. I think they will look like this when off: Hopefully that won't irritate the popo and if it does, I could always buy the black snap-on light covers. Can you tell I'm bored at work?

I bought the same Rigid Industries led light. And I would surely agree and recommend what stanger_missle commented.

Bees and other stinging insects can't see red so if you want to kill bees nests at night , it would work for that. Lol

I shot a pretty detailed email off to Rigid and received a short, uninformative reply. I had second thoughts about buying another set of LED lights "just because". I ended up buying colored polycarbonate lenses for my 18" light bar. I bought red, blue and green. Now I have all of the colors except for smoke haha. I bought 2 8" lenses in each color for $3.99 each, which is a lot better than $190.

Now I just have to remember to take the lenses off when I drive on the road