adding lights to a roof rack | Ford Explorer Forums

  • Register Today It's free!

adding lights to a roof rack

jason

Well-Known Member
Joined
July 20, 1999
Messages
238
Reaction score
0
City, State
At the moment I'm living in Marlboro,NY
Year, Model & Trim Level
91 XLT
I want to add a Conferr roof rack or which everone has tabs to add lights.It's just that how do you run wires to the interior do have to drill holes in the roof and where is the best place to mount switches over head?
 






I ran the wires from a switch under the steering wheel to the right on the plastic pannel up to the roof out the back. I hid the wires under the plastic trim that run down the interior roof. They come out the crack at the top of the back hatch and connect to the safari rack lights. This is just one way of many to do it. Hope this helps.
 






Roof Rack Lites

I can possibly help a bit here ;) I have 6 lites on my "Surco" aluminum safari Rack: 2 fwd facing 150W driving lites, 2 100W halogen "alley" (side) lites, a rear facing white halogen to assist with backing, and a rear facing halogen amber Dust/ Emergency light (It can be switched either to flashing or steady amber). First of all, I reccomend using relays just as you would for front mounted fog/driving lights. The wiring harness comes up the "B" post (the one between the front and rear doors) on the passenger side,behind the interior plastic trim, then has "bullet" crimp-on connectors inside the car then out thru the door opening, behind the top weather strip, and up to the rack. I have 6 #12 wires, side by side. at first I had a slight water leak, but then I filled the area around the wires where they pass behind the upper weather strip, with silicon and ...end of problem. Also one of the 6 wires is an "insurance" ground that goes to a screw into the body metal, just inside the trim on the B post, near the top. I have had this set up on my truck for about 5 years with no problems. The bullet connectors make it easy to remove the rack, to convert to ski racks for winter, bike racks for summer etc.

As for the switches, I built a custom console for these switches and my communications gear. See the photo Rick took under Truckhaven 2000, " Ray Hutchjinson's Communications Center" you probably wouldn't need to be that elaborate, but with 7 aux light circuits, etc. I needed to do something!

Hope this helps
 






Thanx for the quick responses.Can't wait to get started!And Ray do you need a copilot hehe?
 






Featured Content

Back
Top