Before you Buy: 2009-2022 F150 A-Pillar Light Breakdown!

Posted by Jason Locke on 6/24/2022 to Before you Buy

Adding some potent off-road LED off-road lights to your F150 is pretty much a must-do if you're going to head out on the trail or out in the wilderness after dark. However, maintaining a good look and avoiding a bunch of drilling is an absolute must for most F150 owners, which is why A-Pillar light kits seem like they're taking over the world. There are ton of different 2021-2022 F150 A-Pillar Light Kits, 2015-2020 F150 A-Pillar Light Kits, and 2009-2014 F150 A-Pillar Light Kits available, and more and more F150 owners are turning to A-Pillar lighting systems in lieu of other, more traditional options. But why? Why are A-pillar kits suddenly such a thing? Well friends, we're going to be digging deep into just what these kits are and why so many people are flocking to these kits as of late (the TL;DR is that they're pretty good).

What are F150 A-Pillar Lighting Kits?

Before we get into why A-Pillar lights a either good or bad thing, we do need to go over what these things actually are. To be a reductive smartass, A-Pillar lights are mounts and lights that sit next to your F150's A-pillars. The A-pillars of your truck are the front-most supports for the cab on either side of your F150's windshield. Essentially, these kits include brackets that install either on the hood hinges or the fender/body bolt connection and place your choice of light (or the light included in the A-pillar package) either just in front or just to the side of your F150's A-pillars. The mounts themselves are EXTREMELY easy to install, since they use existing bolt locations, and they place the lights in a very handy location, which we'll get into here in a minute.

Why are F150 A-Pillar Lights Good?

When it comes to F150 A-Pillar Lights, there are a lot of things in the "pros" column that help make these lighting systems extremely popular and a good fit on just about any F150 build. A huge benefit is price. A-pillar mounts are fairly inexpensive, and since they tend to only mount smaller 3" cube or 4" round lights, even the lighting components aren't too pricey, especially in comparison to bigger light bars and lighting systems. As we stated earlier, installation of F150 A-pillar mounts are very easy install, and the mounts don't require any drilling. The hardest part of an A-pillar lighting system install is running the wiring, and even that isn't too rough.

While pricing and an easy install are all well and good, the best argument insofar as usage comes from the fact that A-pillar mounts are one of the most flexible light mount systems around. Since they can accept a wide variety of lights, you get a ton of options in regards to beam pattern. You can go with a set of flood beam lights, turn them slightly toward the side, and get excellent side and ditch lighting so that you get visibility on the edge of the trail. You can also go with long-range, narrow spot beam lights and get excellent forward lighting range that's perfect for high-speed trail runs. Secondly, since the A-pillar lights are mounted so high on your truck, you can often see over and past obstacles that would block the beam of bumper or grille-mounted lights. Thanks to all this flexibility, A-pillar light kits are a great practical addition to your F150's lighting suite, not just a budget one.

What are Problems with F150 A-Pillar Light Kits?

There are a lot of good things about F150 A-pillar kits, but they do have some drawbacks. One of the biggest is that you're limited when it comes to lighting power and LED light size. Since the brackets are fairly small and often don't have a ton of room before coming into contact with your open hood, windshield, or the A-pillar itself. That means you'll be limited to using 3" or 4" cube lights, or 4" round lights if you want to maintain clearances, which in turn limits you on power. Granted, we managed to mount Baja Designs LP6s on our 2013 Raptor's Baja Designs A-Pillar Mounts, but clearance was tight.

A secondary impact of the lack of size and power is that A-pillar lights work best as part of a larger lighting suite, especially if you're going to be ripping around off-road at high speeds. Focusing on more powerful lighting systems first and then adding A-pillar lights to round out your beam coverage is generally the best way to go. However, that effort seriously drives up the total cost of your F150's off-road lighting and may not be in everyone's budget.

Our Recommended F150 A-Pillar Light Kits

The other potential issue when it comes to F150 A-pillar light kits is that there's a TON of different A-pillar mounts and A-pillar light packages available for the 2009-2022 F150s, which can make finding the perfect kit for your truck a bit of a pain in the ass. That being said, we here at Stage 3 have put together a few kits of our own to make your life easier. We now offer a 2021-2022 F150 Grimm A-Pillar Bracket & Rigid Dually Kit, 2015-2020 F150 Grimm A-Pillar Bracket & Rigid Dually Kit, and a 2009-2014 F150 Grimm Hood Hinge Bracket & Rigid Dually Kit that package Grimm OffRoad's A-Pillar Brackets and a pair of Rigid Dually Spot Beam Lights that offer nice power, durable construction, and excellent reliability in a small package. We generally prefer spot beam lights in the A-pillars, since a lot of other lighting options (light fog mount kits) give you pretty good area and ditch lighting on their own.

Final Thoughts

A-pillar lights, in the end, are a great way to give your F150 a nice bump in lighting in a variety of different ways. While they're probably best used as part of other lighting upgrades, they still make for an effective, hassle-free off-road lighting system for your F150. If you're looking for other lighting upgrades, check out our 2021-2022 F150 Lighting Upgrades, 2015-2020 F150 Lighting Upgrades, or our 2009-2014 F150 Lighting Upgrades for even more lighting options.

F150 A-Pillar Light Kits: