Mounting Front Driving Lights - Stock Bumper (1 Viewer)

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bloc said:
On my 200 that area is an extremely tight gap, and the grille has tabs that snap into slots in the bumper cover. Did they just force it in there? Trim the tabs and slots to fit?
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Looks like the tab was trimmed / replaced with a screw but I dont see evidence of trimming on the grill, so will assume they went with force. I'm pretty detail oriented and there's no bulge or unsightly uneven surface as a result... just did a wiggle test on grill, bumper, etc and not seeing any movement.

To be fair, I told them the could drill straight into the bumper if it was easier... I'm not too attached to my bumper and it's got a few love marks on her already :)
 
Those brackets look great. I wish I had the tooling to make a bend sequence like that. I think a press brake would do it, but a press is one thing that my shop is lacking that I don't really have room for. Start the pity-party now :) Also I think AL would be a good choice here as you could go a bit thicker. But I won't even pretend that I can TIG AL. I've tried, and much learning and practice is needed there. My brackets are pretty solid but do vibrate a bit if you push down hard and let go. I may end up adding a "foot" that connects to the sheet metal brace. But I'm going to run it for a few months and see.

Aside - the connector on these lights is in a bad place. I don't know why they didn't do a pigtail like on some of their other lights. I searched for Deutsch DT series right angle connectors and they don't seem to exist.
 
Moby said:
Those brackets look great. I wish I had the tooling to make a bend sequence like that. I think a press brake would do it, but a press is one thing that my shop is lacking that I don't really have room for. Start the pity-party now :) Also I think AL would be a good choice here as you could go a bit thicker. But I won't even pretend that I can TIG AL. I've tried, and much learning and practice is needed there. My brackets are pretty solid but do vibrate a bit if you push down hard and let go. I may end up adding a "foot" that connects to the sheet metal brace. But I'm going to run it for a few months and see.

Aside - the connector on these lights is in a bad place. I don't know why they didn't do a pigtail like on some of their other lights. I searched for Deutsch DT series right angle connectors and they don't seem to exist.
Click to expand...

@Moby - teach me your ways.... I had to hem and haw to get a tiny John Deere and some sports equipment in my hobbit garage :)

Adapter IS in a strange spot but, fully waterproof and warrantied for life so... suppose not my problem and they are confident that in practice, it's not an issue. I did notice it as well. I was just shocked at how long the harness is... clearly they could be run to the rear of the roof.... and around the spare just for sport. I was worried about the little give in my mount but they put out so much light, I cant catch a "wiggle" from the drivers position. In fact, stock headlights have more bounce to them. I think you'll be good there as well.
 
Haha, no secrets. I have a small house but a large detached 2 car garage. And I have a passion for tools.

On the wiring harness - yeah, it is huge. I'm going to use less of it than I thought I would. I don't intend on using the low beam setting at all. I'm going to use an AirOnBoard switch to match the factory color and a blank in the dash. And as mentioned previously the trigger for these lights will be from the high beam fuse not straight from the battery. So a lot of the harness will be cut down to size because I'm chopping it up anyway.

I added Deutsch connector to the switch. I have a faceplate on order to change from light bar to circular driving lights. Eventually I'll find a good source to match the "soft ramp" of the stock lights when they are illuminated (these switches light up completely when on, and also the lower text optionally when the OEM dash backlights are on via a separate wire). But not a priority right now.

IMG_0205.jpg
 
@Moby - You got a little beyond my simple mind there but consider keeping the low power option... for setting up a camp or otherwise, bright is simply way too much, even in the yellow lens and smaller model. And I love light!
 
I'm going to run a second wire into the cab in case I want the lows. Separate switch and relay though if I do. Their wiring harness is clever - as a software engineer their logic circuit to use a single relay and switch to control three different states is creative and helps with packaging. But it is also complex. I've built circuits with relays before and I prefer that. Although because their switch is 25amp(!) it is effectively a relay.

I'm stripping it down, wiring my switch in, trimming to length and calling it good.

Punched the hole in the fuse box to tap the high beam fuse for the switch. Got to use a chassis punch to make a super clean hole, so that's always a good day.
 
Did a little google and just found out what a chassis punch is.... I'm amped to have logically relayed that info to myself without getting on the PhD circuit. Eh?
 
Moby said:
I'm going to run a second wire into the cab in case I want the lows. Separate switch and relay though if I do. Their wiring harness is clever - as a software engineer their logic circuit to use a single relay and switch to control three different states is creative and helps with packaging. But it is also complex. I've built circuits with relays before and I prefer that. Although because their switch is 25amp(!) it is effectively a relay.

I'm stripping it down, wiring my switch in, trimming to length and calling it good.

Punched the hole in the fuse box to tap the high beam fuse for the switch. Got to use a chassis punch to make a super clean hole, so that's always a good day.
Click to expand...

25a switch... that’s a beast!

I agree with your thought process, you’ll definitely want to keep the low beam option available, should you want it in the future. If it were me, I would go ahead and set it up now while you’re working on the project. I installed some IPF dual beams on my Tacoma’s ARB bullbar. They were triggered by a three-way Carling switch: down (low beams synced w/ OEM low beams), middle (off), up (hi/lo beams synced w/ OEM hi/low beams). I don’t think this style of switch would work with the OEM-style 200 switches, so agreed an additional switch and relay would be required.

It was nice having the low beam option, as they were essentially a pair of additional low beam headlamps during poor visibility conditions. Great off-road too (in conjunction w/ the OEM low beams and fogs) when I wanted to see what was on the ground 5-15’ in front of the truck, and not 100’ down the trail.

Great looking mounts, BTW.
 
All ready for the road trip tonight. Self fulfilling prophecy though. Must get the lights done in case I leave late. Getting the lights done means leaving late.

There's a little bit of vibration in the mounts, I don't think that it will effect the actual output, but I will probably weld on a 1/2" strip to each side of the plates coming through the grill. And I'd probably prefer them push out the the further most opening in the grill. That would mean cutting the feet off of the current mount and fitting feet that would handle the curve in the crash bar and avoid the stock holes. Neither is a big deal and gives me more welding practice. I'm almost certainly going to ditch the remainder of the stock harness. I cut it down as much as I could but there is still a lot extra and I hate sloppy wiring. But for now this is all fine. I'll give a report on how they work after I've had some time with them.

IMG_0206.jpg
 
Lights did pretty darn well. Over ~6 hours of driving with a mountain pass and semi-quiet wide open desert-ish highway. The light to the sides is unbelievable. As in the reflective road signs are unreadable due to the reflection. They pretty much overpower the stock high/low combo. When going over a bump and the auto-leveling kicks in the line from the lows can be briefly seen. No jitter from the mounts that I could tell, but with this much light its probably impossible to tell unless it is major. I'm still going to weld on side pieces to make it an H frame. Because if nothing else, I need a lot more hood time is to get my welds back to respectable.

This is nitpicking a little but I was hoping for a bit more distance light. Beauty of these is that as @KilaCruiser mentions above for ~$75 you can get replacement lenses with different optics. So not a huge deal to switch to pure spot. This alone is a reason to go with BD lights. After ~6 years the lens on my Rigids that I ran on my GX were pretty chewed up.

Or maybe I should hang a second send under the mounts... :steer:

Edit: No error codes with the lights in this position. I didn't use cruise control, or any of the other "automatic" features I never use anyway. Maybe there is a latent issue in there somewhere, but nothing for regular usage.
 
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KilaCruiser said:
6's are on and they were able to use the existing holes on the bumper, behind the grill.

If the mounts work well over the next week or two (cant see why they wouldnt), the guys said they'd be happy to do a run with CNC'd aluminum.

Front camera works fine but you see the lights... Radar/sonar seems to work fine as well.

With regard to the lights, they are comically comically bright.... combo works great. Daytime running function is a nice touch, as is the quality of the harness/switch. View attachment 2498612
Click to expand...
Put me down for a set!
 
I'd be interested as well. My LX grille specs are different so I'd have to verify.
 
KilaCruiser said:
6's are on and they were able to use the existing holes on the bumper, behind the grill.

If the mounts work well over the next week or two (cant see why they wouldnt), the guys said they'd be happy to do a run with CNC'd aluminum.

Front camera works fine but you see the lights... Radar/sonar seems to work fine as well.

With regard to the lights, they are comically comically bright.... combo works great. Daytime running function is a nice touch, as is the quality of the harness/switch. View attachment 2498612
Click to expand...
This looks amazing - if the run comes to be put me down for a set as well!
 
Yeah...update?
 
Sorry for the delay. Shop keeps busy and I haven't been able to sneak in. To machine cut, they'll need to remove mine for measurement so we need a few hours. Headed out for holidays but will shoot them a note and look to schedule for mid Jan. 5 seem right for a first run?
 
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