Help Installing LED light bar

Levi_Xterra

Bought an X
Location
San Antonio,TX
So my Ironman 4x4 light bar comes in today. I was going to take it to an off road shop to have it professionally installed but they are wanting to completely rip me off. I haven't installed one before so im looking for any tips/advice or videos that y'all have regarding installing one. It's a 20 inch bar which im going to mount on the wind deflector in front of the stock roof rack. Thanks
 

yellowx16

Need Bigger Tires
Founding Member
Location
Rochester, NY
I'd make some kind of mount to mount to attach the light bar to out of steel rather than attaching it to the plastic. not sure if you were going to do that anyway, but the wiring should be pretty simple. You will probably need a relay, and a switch and some wire.
 

maillet282

If you bleeding, Imma fix you
Moderator
Location
Ontario Canada
first off how big of a light bar are you talking about. I know that offroad gorilla sells a mount that uses the second gen air dam holes to mount a 43" light bar to the truck

here is his website http://www.offroadgorilla.com/

if its something smaller I am of no help sorry

hope things work out for you and when they do, post up some pics
 

NMTerras

Suspension Lift
Location
New Mexico
To begin with, if you mount on the wind deflector in front, I suspect you're going to get a fair bit of glare on your windshield. But that doesn't stop a lot of people. You have a couple of options for routing your wires - either drilling your roof under the roof rack attachment up front, or running wires through the rack to the back, where you can enter through the grommet under the hatch on the driver's side. I did the former on my gen1, the latter on my gen2. I suspect there are other options, but those are the two I know of. Some people are leery of drilling a hole in their roof, but the wiring part is a lot easier from there down the a-pillar and behind the dash. coming in from the rear means you have to run wire all the way back to the rear, then back to the front. either way, on the gen2 you run your wires through the firewall on the driver's side to get to the battery.

Here is the roof in back, driver's side. you can see that 1) I don't have a stock roof rack and 2) I ran both my CB cable and light wires back through the grommet under the hatch in back.



Sorry I don't have a pic of the grommet and entry point in the back. It's pretty obvious when you open the hatch.

Here is the firewall on the driver's side. Pretty easy to get to, actually. A lot easier than the gen1.



Here is how I set up the power to the lights. Went with a Blue Sea distro block, from which I also run my locker. Firewall entry is out of frame to the right (driver's side). I zip tied wires behind the bundle running across the firewall





Switches inside



Lights



I have a bar on top now in addition to the two spots. All are run back through the rack to the rear, in through the grommet driver's side under the hatch, behind the molding on driver's side, through the firewall as shown. That's the least invasive way, although you end up running a lot of wire (all the way back, all the way forward).

If you don't wire through a distro block, make sure you put an inline fuse in there!

Do you have a wiring harness, or are you wiring from scratch?

Here's a decent wiring diagram for guidance:

Wiring-Diagram_zps437d1936.jpg
 

Levi_Xterra

Bought an X
Location
San Antonio,TX
To begin with, if you mount on the wind deflector in front, I suspect you're going to get a fair bit of glare on your windshield. But that doesn't stop a lot of people. You have a couple of options for routing your wires - either drilling your roof under the roof rack attachment up front, or running wires through the rack to the back, where you can enter through the grommet under the hatch on the driver's side. I did the former on my gen1, the latter on my gen2. I suspect there are other options, but those are the two I know of. Some people are leery of drilling a hole in their roof, but the wiring part is a lot easier from there down the a-pillar and behind the dash. coming in from the rear means you have to run wire all the way back to the rear, then back to the front. either way, on the gen2 you run your wires through the firewall on the driver's side to get to the battery...

That's an awesome set up. I'm wiring from scratch so ill probably go get a distro block. I'll probably do the set up you have to avoid excessive roof drilling. The bar should be here this afternoon and I'll see how much wiring i need to get and all of that. Thank you so much, it is incredibly helpful!
 

Tay-Lo

I'm the king of junk food!
Location
Upstate SC
I ran mine through the passenger door gasket and haven't had any problems. I might have pictures uploaded but it'll be a bit till I can look.
 

Levi_Xterra

Bought an X
Location
San Antonio,TX
Still not 100 percent sure which method I'm going to go with. The bar just got here and has even less wiring than i expected it to have. I'm trying to find a cheap wiring harness that will work, y'all know any good ones?
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
I wired all my roof lighting back along the inside of the factory rack and dropped it into the grommet that goes between the hatch and body. Lemme dig up the link to pictures.
 

NMTerras

Suspension Lift
Location
New Mexico
I wired all my roof lighting back along the inside of the factory rack and dropped it into the grommet that goes between the hatch and body. Lemme dig up the link to pictures.

Remember though, this is a first gen. OP is a second gen. grommet is in a different location (actually higher up and easier to use for running wires in from the roof)

Also, while I like the way you knitted your conduit to the OEM roof rack, seems to me since you drilled holes in to secure the conduit, you could have just run the wires through the rack...
 

Prime

Shut up Baby, I know it!
Admin
Location
Denver Adjacent
Remember though, this is a first gen. OP is a second gen. grommet is in a different location (actually higher up and easier to use for running wires in from the roof)

Also, while I like the way you knitted your conduit to the OEM roof rack, seems to me since you drilled holes in to secure the conduit, you could have just run the wires through the rack...

Point conceded.

On running wires, it wasn't worth my time to try and go through the rack rails. In that position they are invisible from the ground.
 

Tay-Lo

I'm the king of junk food!
Location
Upstate SC
.....I see no conduit used......

Whats on the ceiling is conduit also comes in flex conduit (I see it all the time at work).....I had to look at the thread cause I was all like..WTF he used conduit for it?....prime used wire loom

conduit-restaurant-by-stanley-saitowitz-squ0801030.jpg
 
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