I want off-road lights. Maybe it's possible to avoid buying an aftermarket bumper to mount off-road lights? Root lights are a poor choice because getting the wiring down to the engine bay is sketchy. Has anyone installed off-road lights on the OEM bumper?
Off road lights on OEM bumper?
- Thread starter fatrap
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
getting an offroad bumper just so you can add lights sounds pretty silly to me. no reason you can't just poke a couple hoes in there and throw 'em in.
If you are serious about offroading, get a bumper so you can add a winch, and most importantly, protect your front end from rocks and debris. If you just want off road lights for the looks, just cut the plastic bumper and go to town however many lights you want to mount on it...I am not even sure what you mean by not wanting to mess with wiring on the engine bay? You will need relays and connection to battery which is in the engine bay anyways.
voodu3
SILVER Star
You can move your turn signals to the corners and put an 11” single row led in the valance. It works for me. YMMV
Last edited:
Azca
If there is a harder way - I will find it...
This was my old setup.
- Thread starter
- #6
Of course there will be wiring, relays, blah blah. What I said was that I don't want to run the wires down from the top of the Cruiser. I can't find a way to run the wires down that makes me happy.
- Thread starter
- #7
Interesting. So you make the (amber) corner parking indicators into the turn signal lamps by rewiring (and thus giving up the parking indicator lamps), then you put an 11" row in the slot where the turn signals used to be? What is the model of the LEDs you installed? How bright are they? Are you happy with how it turned out and how it works off road?
- Thread starter
- #8
LOL I like it. How bright were the two round lights? (They don't look like LEDs to me). How bright was the LED panel?
Azca
If there is a harder way - I will find it...
They were KC Daylighters. The light bar was a cheapo. The combination put out a god awful amount of light. My brother ran a Baja Designs light bar on is Tacoma and bragged about how much light he had until he saw mine. The bumper above is long gone, I have a set of Baja Designs LP 9s I am putting on the rig before this winter, looking forward to seeing how the light compares. I am hoping they are equal to what the old setup was, if so, I will be happy.
- Thread starter
- #10
Well I like it. Why did you get rid of that bumper?
- Thread starter
- #11
And how do you attach that winch????
Azca
If there is a harder way - I will find it...
Got a 4x labs bumper. This one was holding me back.
As for the winch, bought a cheap HF winch plate and mounted below the frame rails.
And where I am today...
As for the winch, bought a cheap HF winch plate and mounted below the frame rails.
And where I am today...
Mark W
Yep, I really don't really care that much I guess.
Whether you want to put lights on or whatever, that does not really matter. The OEM '80 series bumper should be the first thing s*** canned when you by the rig. On or off road it provides all the protection of a wet paper bag.
Mark...
Mark...
- Thread starter
- #14
Why do you think it doesn't protect? You mean off road or paved roads?
Mark W
Yep, I really don't really care that much I guess.
On road or off road. That pretty much covers it. Roads are paved... or not paved. Still roads
The factory bumper is stupid flimsy. The factory bumper mounts are very stupid flimsy. Bumping into ANYTHING at any speed AT all will damage the bumper. If you hit anything much larger than a squirrel or a smart car at anything over about 5 miles an hour, you are probably gonna damage more than the bumper... increase that to 10 or so and it starts to get expensive. 15 mph... Insurance companies are gonna start looking at totaling it out on you.
The OEM front bumper is worthless. It protects nothing. And the rear... plastic shrouds to cover the end of the rear cross member.
Mark...
Last edited:
voodu3
SILVER Star
These are the lights I have ***NEW**** 2017 F250/F350 Double Hidden Grille Mount LED Lights (Includes two 11" LED Light Bars, two hidden grille mounts, and wire harness) - https://www.southernliteled.com/new-2017-f250-f350-double-hidden-grille-mount-led-lights-includes-two-11-led-light-bars-two-hidden-grille-mounts-and-wire-harness/
@slow95z found some cheaper ones that work too.
They work great and stupid bright. It took a few tries to get the tabs on the valance where I wanted them but other than that it was easy install. I’ll see if I can find a pic to show the light output.
I've had a set of Diode Dynamics Fog Lights mounted on my bumper for about 3 years now (temporary mounting/test which is apparently permanent now) using the top mounting bolts for the bumper, just outside the front grill area. Single bolt mount has worked great and I can return to OEM in a few seconds with no modification.
Not necessarily. You can do some clever relay work to keep both functions. Did that for a customer and got started down the road of making a universal module/box to put on the market but lost steam
