Light Bar Install

[cas5259]

After seeing what small light bars can do, plus almost nailing a deer on dark road, I decided to take the pinnacle of 90’s lighting technology to the modern age, hah. I didn’t want to put in a big honkin bar up top, so here’s what installing a rough country 20” dual row bar in the bumper looks like.

One note is that I will be using these as driving lights, so I wired it to come on with the high beams.

Measure twice, drill once. Those air holes make it tough to line up a good spot to use the supplied mounts. These are M8 rivnuts to match the supplied hardware.

Brackets bolted up solid. They came with rubber isolators, guessing to dampen vibration.

Quick test and confirming aim.

Trimmed bumper plastic to fit. Sanded the flat surfaces a bit with a die grinder and then hit it with a bit of propane torch to smooth it out. You can’t tell it was cut unless you really looked for it.

Bumper on. Looks good!

Wired up the battery side connections, relay mounted with the body ground.

High beams in non-DRL are negative switched. The wire in the middle is the one you want to tap into to switch the relay. I soldered to this wire because I was out of small gauge t-taps. Here’s a shot of testing the high beam function after depinning the supplied crappy switch.

Before.

After.

Fairly stealthy install.

 

[Kanoe]

One note is that I will be using these as driving lights, so I wired it to come on with the high beams.

That looks very nice.

Did you leave a provision to run the high beams with the light bar off? I find in some situations like certain snow nights I like the high beams alone. It's nice to have the option.

 

[ledlow]

Very clean install…good job.

 

[cas5259]

That looks very nice.

Did you leave a provision to run the high beams with the light bar off? I find in some situations like certain snow nights I like the high beams alone. It's nice to have the option.

Yeah, I ordered an OEM fog light switch that I will hook up in series to control whether or not it comes on with the high beams, it just hasn’t arrived yet.

 

[3bears]

nice install...need to do that but on a fat lip....wonder if any write ups on that.
Its also good that you have it on switched power..i have seen several cars that are in a parking lot and have their light bar on, and no one in car.

also agree with Kanoe....there are many times I can not use one ( on other rigs) due to snow falling or thick fog

 

[revox92]

Very neat installation! I'm going to show this to my neighbor for his incoming TR4 project. Still waiting for it to return from tire mounting and balancing.

 

[thenightman]

It's almost like they designed the front bumper to be perfect for a light bar. They look so good there.

 

[Ed_C]

nice install...need to do that but on a fat lip....wonder if any write ups on that.
Its also good that you have it on switched power..i have seen several cars that are in a parking lot and have their light bar on, and no one in car.

also agree with Kanoe....there are many times I can not use one ( on other rigs) due to snow falling or thick fog

I fit a Harbor Freight 14" bar behind the grille of my '02, just did some minor grinding behind the "slats" since it contacted the bar. I was able to utilize two existing holes so no drilling required.
Since my foglights were no good and already bypassed the DRLs I rewired the OEM foglight circuit to turn on only with the highbeams and use the stalk switch to turn the bar off, since the light bar is overkill for suburban driving and daytime flash-to-pass

 

[cl4Rk]

I fit a Harbor Freight 14" bar behind the grille of my '02, just did some minor grinding behind the "slats" since it contacted the bar. I was able to utilize two existing holes so no drilling required.
Since my foglights were no good and already bypassed the DRLs I rewired the OEM foglight circuit to turn on only with the highbeams and use the stalk switch to turn the bar off, since the light bar is overkill for suburban driving and daytime flash-to-pass

Sounds good. Got any photos?

 

[3bears]

I fit a Harbor Freight 14" bar behind the grille of my '02, just did some minor grinding behind the "slats" since it contacted the bar. I was able to utilize two existing holes so no drilling required.
Since my foglights were no good and already bypassed the DRLs I rewired the OEM foglight circuit to turn on only with the highbeams and use the stalk switch to turn the bar off, since the light bar is overkill for suburban driving and daytime flash-to-pass

the upper grille above bumper or the lower section toward bottom of bumper between fog lights ?

thanks for adding pictures to original post

 

[cas5259]

I fit a Harbor Freight 14" bar behind the grille of my '02, just did some minor grinding behind the "slats" since it contacted the bar. I was able to utilize two existing holes so no drilling required.
Since my foglights were no good and already bypassed the DRLs I rewired the OEM foglight circuit to turn on only with the highbeams and use the stalk switch to turn the bar off, since the light bar is overkill for suburban driving and daytime flash-to-pass

Yea let’s see some pics.

 

[Ed_C]

Sounds good. Got any photos?

the upper grille above bumper or the lower section toward bottom of bumper between fog lights ?

thanks for adding pictures to original post

Yea let’s see some pics.

Sorry, I couldn't find my imgur password/email info LOL.

I cut some predrilled/angled shelf brackets (just needed the straight sections) to situate the bar further in. The two innermost marks were other existing holes while the more outer ones were the bar's mounting spots.

 

[Ed_C]

Open the images in a new tab to see the huge versions, should be able to see the cuts I made.







I cut out the solid spots behind the "T" emblem because I planned to install a LED pod behind it, not necessary with the bar.

 

[3bears]

Open the images in a new tab to see the huge versions, should be able to see the cuts I made.







I cut out the solid spots behind the "T" emblem because I planned to install a LED pod behind it, not necessary with the bar.

looks good. what size light bar is that? I also see you put painters tape on grille but does not look like you did any cutting to grille, which I would like to avoid if possible

 

[Ed_C]

looks good. what size light bar is that? I also see you put painters tape on grille but does not look like you did any cutting to grille, which I would like to avoid if possible

It's a 14" Harbor Freight Roadshock spot/flood, had a 20 or 25% off coupon at the time.

I had the tape on the grille just to mark the centerline and sides of the bar. I did have to trim some areas in the back of the grille where the bar was hitting, if I used longer brackets to mount it further in I probably wouldn't have to. I also unnecessarily cut off one of the center vertical bars directly below the "T", was for the pod I originally planned to use.

 

[shadow247]

I put a 20 inch single row bolted to the bumper. Cut out the grille to fit.

 

[Devbot]

Chiming in with mine. Been meaning to swap out the bar with a better one for a while now but I've been lazy and busy with more important mods/repairs

 

[3bears]

thanks all for all the ideas...im gonna have to mount above bumper. I get so much snow here anything low will be covered or blocked.. even on my bumper I will have to clear off,,,, my sons taco and his wife rig have them mounted low and behind grilles and stuff and mounted this fall...they get so covered and packed with snow and no easy way to clear they are worthless. did not know that....nor did my son ...till the last big snow.