Home grown light bar

[JACKED88]

Thinkin about buildin myself a home grown light bar.

 

Tha bar will mount to the bed rails just behind tha cab. I already have some grab rails on my truck so I should be able to use the front two mounting holes for them and only have to drill 1 more hole on each side to mount tha bar.

Planin to use 1 1/2" square tubing and 3/16" plate or 1 1/2 angle for tha mounts. (if angle is used, one side would sit on top of tha bed rail and the other side would go along the inside edge of tha rails and likely give tha bar more stability)

 

Imagin that. I just so happen to have a pic of my rough drawing. (shown with plate mounts since my angle iron brain fart came later)

 

So what yall think???

[aerocorey]

I think it'll be sweet. I don't havee those fab skills, so I'll go a different route. I've seen this before. It looks good. Take a roof rack from an XJ, cut it down so the side rails are only just long enough to hold one bow (just a few inches), and put the end caps on both sides. Clip in a bow, attach lights. Done.

[Carl'sMJ]

I'm interested to see what you come up with... keep us posted. I've been looking into fabricating a very similar design to mount some rear facing work lights. My idea would not come up higher than the cab though... it would run about the same height.

[JACKED88]

I'm interested to see what you come up with... keep us posted. I've been looking into fabricating a very similar design to mount some rear facing work lights. My idea would not come up higher than the cab though... it would run about the same height.

No problem. I'll let ya know how it turns out.

I pulled out some material today and clamped a few pcs togather just to git an idea of what its gonna look like. Its exceptable if you don't mind it looking like you installed a roll bar thats too tall for your truck.

I'd prefer tha cleaner look of top mounted lights but somehow I seem to always end up driving my truck through tha woods and under low hanging tree limbs/branches and don't wanna have to worry about rippin my lights off in tha process.

I'd like to have this bar done in a few weeks but its not exactly on my priority list. We'll see.

 

Robert

[Wildman]

Man.........I seen this topic heading, and I was thinking something else :doh:

 

Like this.........http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/

 

Other wise........I like your idea of the lights under the top bar :brows:

[JACKED88]

Man.........I seen this topic heading, and I was thinking something else :doh:

 

Like this.........http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/

 

Other wise........I like your idea of the lights under the top bar :brows:

Dude ...... git out of your chair and step away from tha bong. :rotf: LMAO!!!

 

Thanks!!! I think its gonna work and look pretty good. Since I already have tha material, I'm gonna try to git it fitted this weekend.

 

L8R!!!

Robert

[Carl'sMJ]

Any updates on this? :popcorn:

[CWLONGSHOT]

IIRC Pat or his brother also did this...

 

As asked.. any pics??

 

CW

[socal1200r]

I think it'll be sweet. I don't havee those fab skills, so I'll go a different route. I've seen this before. It looks good. Take a roof rack from an XJ, cut it down so the side rails are only just long enough to hold one bow (just a few inches), and put the end caps on both sides. Clip in a bow, attach lights. Done.

 

I'd like to see pics of this setup, with lights attached. Should be plenty of XJ roof racks at the bone yards. I'd be concerned that the cross bow wouldn't be strong enough to support two or more driving lights, and the lights would "bounce" around? I just thought of something that would kill this idea here in VA. I think the vehicle code says that additional lights that are above the driving lights have to be covered, and can only be used for off-road purposes. If I had a light bar on the front, or mounted lights on the bumper, they only have to be covered to pass inspection. If I was planning on using the MJ off-road on a regular basis, that would be one thing, but since I plan on doing most of its driving on the street, maybe a light bar up top isn't such a good idea, at least in my case.

 

But I'm liking what I'm reading in this thread, keep those ideas coming!

[JACKED88]

I think it'll be sweet. I don't havee those fab skills, so I'll go a different route. I've seen this before. It looks good. Take a roof rack from an XJ, cut it down so the side rails are only just long enough to hold one bow (just a few inches), and put the end caps on both sides. Clip in a bow, attach lights. Done.

 

I'd like to see pics of this setup, with lights attached. Should be plenty of XJ roof racks at the bone yards. I'd be concerned that the cross bow wouldn't be strong enough to support two or more driving lights, and the lights would "bounce" around?

We used one of tha bows on my sons ZJ for 6 lights. We added a pc of 1"x 2" aluminum angle all tha way across for additional support. With tha bow being ... bowed but wanting tha lights to be level we put spacers under the angle in the center and at both ends raising it up off tha bow just enough to mount the lights to it. Worked out pretty well and no, they don't bounce.

Although we "I" could have done a cleaner looking instalation, you know how kids are always in a hurry so this is what he/we came up with. Still not bad for a rush job.

 

Wish I could say my light bar is coming along nicely but I'd be lying if I did. To be honest I havent had tha time to do much with it. I did however pick up another light for it. Two down ..... three to go.

As for using a shortened version of an XJ, ZJ or whatever roof rack for lights on a MJ ...... It would work just fine assuming you don't mind drilling holes in your roof to mount it.

[socal1200r]

Like they say, pictures are worth a thousand words...those pics help a lot, thanks! The more I think about it, I'm inclined to keep the lights on the front bumper, or a light bar of some kind. Don't want to drill into the roof on my MJ to mount the rails and run the wires inside, so it looks like I'll keep any add'l lights I might get to the front. But great pics!

[Carl'sMJ]

What about the MJ bed mounted light bar originally posted? Any progress here?

[JACKED88]

What about the MJ bed mounted light bar originally posted? Any progress here?

Nope. Not yet. It never was exactly on my priority list. That and I'm kinda hung up on how I'm gonna mount it to tha bed drilling as few holes as possible. I had already figured on using the bed rail mounting bolts but its gonna need more than just those. Thinking about welding two 1 1/2" wide pc of flat steel to the front side of tha light bar uprights. Those pcs will go down between tha bed and tha cab with a bolt going through them and through tha front of tha bed. That should make it rigid enough to stop most forward/backward movement and will have only drilled two holes in tha front wall of my bed. Side to side movement should be minimal anyway.

I'll let ya know when I git back on tha light bar. Right now my attention has been focused on gathering all tha materials needed to build a 5'x14' utillity/atv/hog trap trailer.

 

Speaking of hogs ......... :wall: I've only caught 5 in tha last 3 weeks. I'm thinkin I'd help if all tha oak trees werent droppin acorns like automatic feeders. :shake:

[JeepcoMJ]

IIRC Pat or his brother also did this...

 

As asked.. any pics??

 

CW

 

he built a back rack for the bed, but no lights on it.

 

he did, however, fabricate an aluminum basket to go on his kayak rack, and put 4 "jeep" labeled fog lights on it...

 

Image Not Found

[JACKED88]

Thats pretty nice lookin. Somewhat taller than what I'm wantin to build but it obviously works well for him.

One of my sons just got a kayak. I don't have a frickin clue why. :dunno: I havent seen it yet but I hope its one you sit "on" and not "in" so his dumb as-s don't drown himself. :shake: (same son that slammed his ZJ into tha curb and tree) :dunce:

[Carl'sMJ]

IIRC Pat or his brother also did this...

 

As asked.. any pics??

 

CW

 

he built a back rack for the bed, but no lights on it.

 

he did, however, fabricate an aluminum basket to go on his kayak rack, and put 4 "jeep" labeled fog lights on it...

 

Image Not Found

 

Any pics of the back rack that he built?

[JACKED88]

OK, its time to get back to work on my light bar. With winter on its way and daylight saving time coming up its gonna be getting dark by 6 o-clock. Gotta have good lights to run my traps at night. Nothing worst than walking up to a trap with little piglets inside and unknowing a pissed off mother on the outside thats about attack your a-ss while your standing there in the dark. Not happenin!!! I want enough lights to make it look like daytime out there.

 

Its been a while so in case yall forgot what I'm building .........

 

I've got the angles I want figured out so all I really need to do is tack weld it together for proper fit and final welding. And yes, I am going to weld a pc of flat steel to the uprights that will go down between the bed and cab. No holes will be drilled in the front wall of the bad. Those pcs will be bolted below the beds floor level into the the part of the bed (or should I say side of the bed) that wraps around behind the cab. :huh???: Yeah I know ..... pix will be easier. I'll take some in a few days.

 

Meanwhile ....... I was doing some front right running light repairs today and decided to go ahead and replace my bumper mounted fog lights with a couple of the spot lights I bought for the light bar. The new spots came with wimpy 55 watt bulbs so already knowing I wanted um to be brighter I had already replaced the 55's with 100's.

WOW!!! What a difference. Now I need to bypass the relay that only lets you run your fog lights when your headlights are on dim.

Once the light bar is finished and if I'm satisfied with its lighting performance, (and I think I will be) I'll probably go back to fog lights on the bumper.