mounting roof lights (1 Viewer)

[chris751686]

hey guys,

I want to be able to mount lights on the roof of my 99 lx, but I dont need a full roof rack. I have been trying to find something like a front light bar for my truck, but I have been very unsuccessful finding anything that would work. any ideas about what could work? i have also considered making a custom one but dont know where to start.

any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[spressomon]

Do you have the OEM roof rack atop your rig? If so you might look at using Yakima Mighty Mounts to anchor a light bar to the OEM cross bar...

 

[chris751686]

yes thats what i have, but would prefer the lights to be more forward. Im looking for something like this

ORU Light Bar (fits Toyota FJ w/Factory Rack) - Light Bars - Off Road Unlimited
but will fit the lx

 

[spressomon]

Chris,
It would be relatively easy to fab a light bar using the mighty mount as an anchor...but you'd need, for support, a couple rubber padded feet to rest on the upper edge of the windshield or the roof top. Then bridge over with a welded bar to attach your light bar. Sorry...a picture would be worth a thousand words

I don't believe Thule or Yakima make a regular rack foot other than the ones that mount to the OEM roof rack rails...otherwise you could use one of those crossbar systems as your light mount base that would presumably mount over the front doors...

Or plan to get an aftermarket roof rack...

 

[hoser]

I also have some 1/2 African Outback rails and mounts. I think it can be mounted up front rather than at the rear but I haven't looked at it that closely. This sounds like it would work for how Spresso is describing it. PM me if interested.


Or have Cypher bug his buddy some more.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/100-series...-sliders-roof-racks-etc-what-do-you-need.html

 

[chris751686]

Thanks for the input guys, im pretty handy with metal so i should be able to to make a bar pretty easily. Spresso, the rubber pads are a good idea I was wondering how i could support the front, pads hadnt even crossed my mind!

does anyone have any ideas on how i could attach it to my OEM rack? i was thinking of making a U shape and attaching it to the inside rails of the rack, but I dont know how i could do that without damaging anything, would mighty mounts work for that?

also if you have aftermarket lights, what brand d do you prefer? I like the look of the small rectangular ones, but im not sure which brand makes them.

 

[wildsmith]

I wouldn't mount the lights too far forward or they'll light up the top of your dash and make it hard to see! Hella make some nice slim rectangular lights, FF-75 I think is the model number I'm using.

 

[chris751686]

thats exactly what i was looking for wild, thanks!

 

[SHAGGY101]

You could also throw one of these guys across the top:

Slee - LED Lights

 

[nakman]

As long as there's a mounting roof light thread in process, can anyone share how they ran the wiring up there? Did you go up the B pillar? Drill a hole? what kind of quick disconnect did you use, etc..

 

[wildsmith]

My wiring goes up the A pillar alongside the snorkel and I just used bullet connectors so it's possible to remove the light bar without cutting but I don't expect to be doing that very often, not until the next time I change my mind about what to have up there

Edited to add a couple of pictures:

Set back quite a way from the screen to minimise lighting up the dash and bonnet.

I don't have OEM rails as you can see but this light bar mounts to the forward OEM mounting point.

The yellow arrow is where it mounts, migh make it easier to compare to yours like this:

From what I remember of the OEM rails the front foot has the bolts quite accessible once the cover is off. I wonder if you could make a bracket to pick up on those and fix your light bar to there?

 

[nakman]

My wiring goes up the A pillar alongside the snorkel and I just used bullet connectors so it's possible to remove the light bar without cutting but I don't expect to be doing that very often, not until the next time I change my mind about what to have up there

...

Thanks man, and nice truck!

So are your wires running through the snorkel? How to they leave the engine bay?

 

[wildsmith]

So are your wires running through the snorkel? How to they leave the engine bay?

Not through the snorkel, just zip tied to it and positioned between the snorkel and A pillar. I drilled a hole in the plastic panel that sits between the windscreen and the hood with the wire passing through that into the engine bay.

 

[wngrog]

wildsmith, I love that little light bar. Is that part of a stock roof rack you used to make the roof mounts?

 

[wildsmith]

It's just some 1.5" tube bent and some legs I made. There's black gaffer tape surrounding the foot where it goes into the channel to bolt to the roof, that might be making it look more smoothly profiled than it really is ? Cuts out a surprising amount of noise having that bit smoothed out by the tape. The mounts rearward of that are Rhino feet with Rhino bars for the RT to sit on.