Cheap and easy roof lights!

[Gadget X]

Ok, just put the ex back on the road after a 3 year hiatus, and decided that I needed some more lights!
I started with a 10 foot piece of 1 1/2 inch angle iron:

Then I cut 2 pieces about an inch or so wide off the end:

Next, I cut a piece of the angle iron the same width as the factory roof rack.
I then mounted the two 1 inch pieces to the front of the factory rails using M6-1.0 X 12 mm screws:

Next, I mounted the 4 foot or so piece to the short ones using 1/4 X 20 screws and lock nuts:

Next, I mounted 2 pairs of auto part store special driving lights to the "cross bar":

After that, it was just a matter of running the wires to a relay, heat shrink tubing them, and putting in the switch! Also found a place for the switch just above the side mirror controls on the door!

Here's what the final product looks like, even though I just ran the wiring in the door, because this is just temporary until I build the safari rack!

What do you think?

 

[Gadget X]

Sorry, not sure why the pictures aren't showing up. I'll have to fix that when I get home!

 

[Gadget X]

Now they show up! Muuuuch better!

 

[Blue91Ex]

nice! looks like a cool and simple idea, do they sit too low so the roof line cuts off the beams? i have heard some people having issues with this, my roof basket sits pretty high so i dont have any issues (same lights as yours) but they are aimed just shy of low beam distance. also that is a great spot for the switch, wouldnt have thought of that, mine are all on the plastic panel under the steering column, very easy to route wires and out of the way.
truck looks great btw, did you build teh brush guard yourself?

 

[Produce Man]

Do you notice a shadowy effect from the roof lights? I've heard upper lights should be mounted as close to the windshield/driver as possible. Extend your roof rails by cutting a j/y rail in half and add to the existing rail.

 

[Gadget X]

Blue91ex, no the roof doesn't seem to cut the beams off any, and no, I didn't build the brush guard, I actually found it at the pull apart for 10 bucks! It was on a b-II! I am planning to build a new front bumper with a brush guard on it and a rear bumper with a swing out on it when I make the safari basket.
Produceman, no I haven't noticed a shadow effect, but when I build the safari rack, they will be mounted farther forward. This was just a quick "temporary" fix!

 

[Blue91Ex]

here a link to my roof basket if ur looking for ideas, made mostly of hardened steel 1/2" flat stock, sturdy as hell, lights are aimed nice and low for seeing rocks and stumps etc at night on logging trails. hardly any light blocked by the roof and if i aimed them closer to stock low beam they wouldnt have any.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=404399

 

[Gadget X]

Good job on the roof rack, blue91ex! I'm probably going to do something similar to that, but I'm going to have mine a little closer to the roof, and extend forward a bit more. I like the overall design of yours, though!

 

[Blue91Ex]

thanks! see the issue with mine was it was a shop class project, which means, limited design opportunity, i couldn't just go use whatever material i wanted since i already had a relatively large project (brush guard) and the piece of expanded steel was already cut pretty much to that size so i went with it. i also would have made it shorter but i didnt know what it woudl look like either way.

I have considered taking it back off and cutting the supports shorter, but i found with the hight i had, it matched up nicely with the front roof rack crossbar, which had a stripped bolt and is unremovable without drilling it out.

oh and if you notice from the pics, the sides all (but the back) taper in at the top, the front more-so than the sides, the side taper was actually an accident, but i centered the slightly smaller, top "rectangle" over the bottom and welded the supports in liek that, i think it worked pretty well.

but again, thank you for the compliments! the use of the smaller hardened flat steel for the framing worked very well, its light enough (without the cross bars, them are heavy suckers!) to comfortably carry with one hand, and very sturdy, no twisting or bending even when it isnt attacked to the crossbars. if you have any questions about it for ideas i'd be happy to answer them.