sulkinator

Hello all! I live in a rural area in East Texas where all of the roads are windy, hill, and not lit at all. Even with my high beams on it's hard to see. I would like to mount a light bar somewhere on the car with as little modification as possible. I don't want to drill in the roof or any major parts. Im willing to drill in the area below the windshield, front bumper, etc. I would absolutely love to install cross bars and mount a light bar on a cargo basket. I don't know, this is all just a thought. Does anyone have any input?

Huskydog

As little modification as possible - get a license plate light bar mount (or make your own), its just a plate that bolts behind the front license plate with a shelf/"L" on top. You mount the light bar right on that. I've read you need to use self-tapping screws for the license plate and screw them into the steel reinforcement bar behind the bumper cover to keep the light from bouncing. The con to this set up is the low mounting location.

Mount it behind the grill - get a honeycomb style grill (so the light shines through better) and mount it behind it. I have never had the bumper/grill off, but there's usually some bolts/holes you can bolt to, maybe take a piece of perforated steel to span 2 good points and mount the bar on that. This is more work, but hides the light bar.

Mount of roof rack - i was looking into that for my SUV (never got around to it). This is fairly easy as well, but more expensive to by the racks. If you get circular roof rack cross bars, there are a ton of Jeep light bar brackets that will clap on. If you go for oval (depending on size), i've read yakima mighty mounts will clamp on. Otherwise just drill into the cross bars (depends on the racks, some systems have slide channels you just need to find the right nut/bolt combo to mount in the channel).

Also just thought of magnetic light bar mounts - gives you options of where to put them (on the hood rally style!), and easily removable as long as you wire your light with a plug/connector. Good luck. PS i have limited actual lighting experience, just read a lot on mounting while researching adding lights to my non-ES vehicles.

sulkinator

Its not that they’re not bright, it’s that the roads are very hilly and curvy and i can’t see over a lot of the hills even with the high beams on.

sulkinator

I really like all of these ideas, i really like the idea of them being magnetic so i could just throw it on when i’m driving at night... that might be what i do.

Tootsall

Just be sure to check that auxiliary lights are legal for on-highway use. Some jurisdictions don't want you to be blinding oncoming drivers even if they're further away than the regulated "high beam" distance. The higher the lights are mounted the more likely you are to blind oncoming drivers before you can see them from the driver's seat, especially over hills and dips in the road.

KMiles

I had a similar problem seeing down a long tight driveway while backing up at night. These lights are incredibly bright and could be mounted to your front license plate and connected to your high beams for additional light:

https://www.vleds.com/shop-products/...erse-72-w.html

sulkinator

Thanks all! I ordered a license plate mount with a light bar mount, it’ll be here tomorrow. If y’all are interested i can take some pictures of the install and the final product. They wouldn’t be super high on the vehicle, just above the license plate.

sulkinator

This was really easy! Took maybe 30 minutes, just common hand tools.

jkayca

Here I was thinking you would have a giant light bar strapped to the roof of the car . How much extra light does it actually throw and how is it wired in?

sulkinator

It was insanely easy to install. I screwed it into the existing license plate screw holes and tucked the wires in the grille. i connected it to the battery terminals and ran the switch through a grommet that goes to the interior. Those particular lights ended up not being super bright and i’m not super sure how i feel about the overall look with this car so i ended up taking it off. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask!