Towncivilian Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 I'm trying to mount a pair of Hella 500FF lights on my stock roof rack. Is there a way to mount them without drilling into the crossbar, maybe some sort of bracket that goes around the rail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OfftourRoadie96 Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Andrew (01silverpathy) did a custom light rack with stuff you could buy at a local Lowes or Home Depot .......check out his Members Ride section 01silverpathy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 Yep, I've read that before. Not sure I want to fab up a custom bar. Would Yakima Mighty Mounts (horizontal, vertical, or universal) work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 I like my 10 dollar light bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 I like my 10 dollar light bar. Got any more details of its construction? Or a few more pictures would suffice probably, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nunya Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Curious why you don't want to drill the cross bar, they are easily changeable ain't they (like wd21 bars?)? I'd sugges a setup a little Closer to the front of the roof anyway compared to using the roof rack as being that far back is gonna loose a little bit with them glaring off the roof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 Yeah, they are easily changed. Finding another crossbar would probably be the hard part, but I never use them anyway. I'll just make a light bar then if it'll reflect a lot from the roof/hood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Well the nice thing about my mount is that both my roof cross bars are still usable (I carry canoes/kyaks/ladders) And also the wiring would be very exposed and not very clean looking if you just drilled through the roof bars. Also the cross bars are not level they curve which may mess up the light pattern. And it would just look funny with the roof bar wayyyy up forward and the other way back. Just my opinion. There are pics and such starting on the second page of my build thread around post 29. Link to the thread was in offtourroadie's post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 (edited) Yep, I saw both pics of the bar area and it doesn't look too difficult to duplicate. Guess a pal and I will have a crack at it tomorrow, will post back with results! Edited March 6, 2011 by Towncivilian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 No look on the second page of my build thread there are 10 pics of the light setup, a few of the rack and the rest of how to run the wires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 (edited) I have all the wiring done, I just need to make the rack and mount the lights. I only saw two or three useful pictures of the bar itself in the entire thread, but it's enough to get the idea. Thanks! Edited March 6, 2011 by Towncivilian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TooQForYou Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 I just drilled through my roof rack. The curvature of the bar isn't a problem, just adjust your lights to aim correctly. I don't have any problem with light reflecting off the hood. The only problem I do have is that I have to shut the sunroof shade 'cause light will come in through the sunroof and is annoying, even with the lights forward of the sunroof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Well, a bit ghetto, but for $18: Bought a 6 foot angled steel bar, cut it around 40 inches, widened some holes and there's the bar. Secured with the stock tie-downs (and it doesn't seem extremely sturdy that way). Road vibration, bumps, etc are easily visible when driving cause the light shakes. Anybody have any ideas on how to improve this? I need to take the bar off to paint it anyway. The lights are 2 Hella 500FFs with some 100w "xenon" bulbs in them. Took me 30 minutes to realize I had to upgrade the 5A fuse to a 20A before the lights would actually light up. I had to make all my own wiring, and every wire is red. Heatshrink color determines the wire's function though, and it's not difficult to figure out anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ugabulldog66 Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 yeah my light bar only costed me $15 tops. it has worked really well for years now. the set up looks alright my man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverPath Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 (edited) Looks good man, just paint it black now itll help blend it some. Vibration, what about using some rubber mounts? Edited March 7, 2011 by SilverPath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Well, once it gets painted it should look better. Really just wondering whether I can minimize the road vibrations and whatnot affecting the light (some sort of rubber grommet?), and also questioning the sturdiness of the stock tiedowns. They seemed fine for a short 2 minute stint of highway driving at around 60-65 mph, but dunno how it'd hold up long term. Perhaps I'll take a tiedown to Lowes or something and try to find a lengthier bolt to use rather than the tiedown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Exactly what I did pretty much, except I took another piece of that steel and made a box out of it and hid all the wires inside for a cleaner look. I will try and take some pictures tomorrow of what I did to help with virations. But basically I took some more angled steel and bent it up at a 90* angle and bolted it to the light bar and then used two more bolts behind it to help snug things down....helps ALOT! I will try and get pics up between school and work. Rubber groments may help a bit, even just some rubber o rings for a hose may help. Also you NEED to change out to bolts. I took the tie down into lowes and got a fine threaded bolt to match and bolted it down to the rack. You can get it alot more snug with a ratchet then you can with the looped things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Got half of it painted (ran out of time to finish). Will need to finish painting some other time. I also got some bolts that fit the stock slider things that the tie-downs screw into. I couldn't quite grasp what you meant by adding more steel to reduce vibration though, a picture would help a ton here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Okay just got some pics...basically i took some of that metal and cut it in half....then bent a 90 degree angle on it and made kinda an l shape with it. Then I bolted the upwards part to the light bar, and used two more bolts back farther to bolt it to the roof rails. Pics show it better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 I see, that makes sense, thanks a ton for the pics. The added metal helps reduce vibrations and increases stability, right? Looks pretty easy to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Pretty much and as stated before a rubber gromet may help. My lights shake a bit but only at slow speeds like driving through a neighborhood....and it does not really bother me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Sounds good then. Once I've got the bar all done I'll post some pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 (edited) Wiring: The light aiming is really crappy. They top out right at the area between fogs & brights. I'll try to get a picture of the light output after aiming them. There's still quite a bit of vibration, but I can live with that. Edited March 13, 2011 by Towncivilian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 (edited) Terrible cameraphone shot of light output on a garage door 4 feet away: They don't look that blue in person. But anyway that's just about where they top out at. What should I do? Somehow raise the bar so I can aim the lights farther? Edited March 14, 2011 by Towncivilian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01silvapathy Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 You could try washers and longer bolts? Mine sits so high up that I had to aim em down since I dont really need to see up in trees And dude, why would you ever want to make animal noises such as "duck, horse, dog, hen" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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