It's been busy with school and all, so I haven't gotten a chance to do a write up for installing the light bar.
Well, here it is!
Supplies
- The Light Bar: 120W Cree LED combo spot/flood. (Light bar link). So far, no complaints. No LED's have gone out, no moisture behind the lens, and I live in central PA at Penn State (plenty of snow/rain).
- Wiring Harness: 40Amp Mictuning harness (Link to Harness) This one has a second "pig tail" for additional lights later (I'm thinking ditch lights via CBI brackets ).
- I didn't like the switch that came with it, so I also ordered a rocker switch to go along with it. This fit perfectly in the preexisting holes, and the light in the switch for my Hella fogs went out, so I bought a couple of them!
- To mount it to the truck, I used two OUTDOOR L-Brackets from Lowes. Make sure they are "outdoor" because they face the elements (i.e. salt, rain, etc). They were roughly 3 3/4".
- Small hacksaw
- Metric Socket wrench set
Price:
Fog $77.99
Harness $17.99
Switch $10.95
L-Brackets $6.08
Total $113.01
Installation
First, you have to cut out the plastic section of the bumper directly below the grill. I used a hack saw, and kinda f***'d up the bumper, so be careful as you cut.
The middle is held on to the physical bumper via two 10mm bolts, I them off after I cut the entire thing out, but that's up to you.
Next, drill another hole about an inch down from the pre-drilled hole on the L-Brackets.
Now, pre-drill two holes into the lower radiator support on each side. The two larger holes on the end were just about the perfect distance apart (roughly 24").
BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN DRILLING. THERE IS ONLY A COUPLE INCHES BETWEEN THE BIT AND THE RADIATOR.
Passenger side:
Driver side:
Note the condenser pipe location on the drivers side.
Using a hack saw, cut small blocks of the lower lip out where the L-Brackets are. Roughly 1.5" in, and 1" wide. This will allow the supports of the light bar to attach to the L-bracket, and brings the bar slight farther forward.
And then the same on the other side.
Wiring
Now, run the wiring harness. (Sorry I didn't take any pictures, I decided it was a good idea to do it at night and in the rain.)
BE CAREFUL WHILE WORKING AROUND BATTERIES/ELECTRICITY.
It's fairly simple. Poke a small hole in the rubber grommet (rear drivers side of engine bay), and feed the switch end of the harness through, without the switch attached. Then run the wires up to one of the switch covers, and connect the switch. Next, run the wires down to where the light bar will be, and organize (wire ties) the relay, fuse, and extra wires on the drivers side near the battery. Connect the negative (black) wires for the switch and relay to the negative terminal battery, then the positive (red) wires to the positive terminal of the battery. (The harness comes with instructions)
Connect the light bar with the harness.
Final Installation
Using the supplied mounting bolts from the light bar, attach to the L-Brackets, and tighten the bolts up well.
Test the system out, and voila! 7500 lumens!
Driving back from skiing through a pitch black state forest, this came quite in handy.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO HAVE OTHER FOG LIGHTS ON AT THE SAME TIME (Not like you could see them, these drown out my low beams)
THE STANDARD ALTERNATOR ONLY PUTS OUT ROUGHLY 35AMPS AT IDLE, 10 OF WHICH WILL GO TO THE LIGHT BAR, THE REST TO YOUR HEADLIGHTS, DASH LIGHTS, BLOWER FAN, HEAD UNIT, ETC... Eventually, I will relay the system so that only the Hella Fogs or the LED bar can be on at a time, which I will post here when I do. In the meantime, I just have to be aware of which is on. (Thanks to
@
csp
and
@
Unner
for trying to help
here).
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by TOY2G
And for the love of God it's a 4Runner not 4èRunner.
|
'97 Toyota 4Runner SR5
171000 miles young