Baja Designs, a high-end off-road lighting brand, just released a neat new accessory called the Reflex Actuator that lets you aim off-road lights from a switch in your cab. Aptly named, it’s literally just a little 12-volt actuator you install on a single pod or light bar, then run a wiring harness to a switch, and suddenly you can move lights up or down in a 20-degree range on the fly.
Many modern trucks have active headlight aiming, or at least a range of adjustability, to help you get the most out of your lights. This is important because if you’re towing or carrying a lot of cargo or fuel, the back of your truck can sag and leave your lights pointed into the sky. Conversely, if you set your lights up while your truck’s laden, they might not be pointed ideally when it’s empty. The tilting can be more dramatic in smaller off-road cars and UTVs between when they’re fully fueled versus when they’re empty, especially if you do long-haul Baja-style racing.
These little actuators would actually make any light installation easier. Instead of bolting a light up and having to unbolt and re-bolt it in as you try to aim it, using one of these little babies would let you fine-tune from the comfort of your cab whenever you wanted to.
This is definitely a niche product, but it is really cool and innovative. And for accessory dorks like myself, it’s a pretty exciting idea.
Baja Designs lights are very expensive but highly rated. I’ve actually never run them myself, but I see them on nice rigs all the time. The new Reflex Actuators are about $100 for a single light controller, $200 for one that can tilt a larger light bar. Then you can get a wiring harness with a switch for $70 and the linking harness to sync multiple lights for $42.
Yes, if you’re handy, you could re-create this concept with an actuator from Temu and your own controller. But the plug-and-play factor on these is very appealing.
The Reflex Actuators are compatible with Baja Designs LP Series, XL Series, S8, and OnX6+ light bars. You could probably make a little mount to use them with lights from other brands, but it wouldn’t be quite as plug-and-play.
When installed properly, they’re supposed to provide up to 20 degrees of tilt and, as you probably guessed, multiple units can be linked together.
Here’s a little sizzle reel selling them:
Introducing Reflex Actuator – Aim Your Lights On the Fly | Baja Designs
And this video has some BD guys extolling the virtues of the product along with a little more context on how they came to be:
Reflex Light Actuator – Behind the Engineering Aiming Your Lights | Baja Designs University
At the opposite end of the scale of light-mounting innovation … I have a couple of old chrome cop lights mounted onto my 1975 Scout with farm gate hinges. I don’t recommend that—they bounce and shake like diving boards and will be getting removed when the truck comes back out of hibernation this spring. Jokes aside, I love this idea from BD and would totally run these if I had Baja Designs lights on one of my vehicles.
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