Lights and Brush Guard

[gsibble]

Ok. I am gonna get a 5.5" lift for my explorer to start my migration to make a huge, bad-A** offroad machine. Next, I need a brush guard and some lights. I have two options that I need to decide between:

Get a really nice smittybuilt brush guard where I can fit 2 like 9" lights and 2 smaller lights beneath it like some Micro FFs

or

Get a smittybuilt front bumper that I can put a Warn winch on and then get a light bar for the roof

If i get the first option, I will not be able to put on a winch!! What company makes a new bumper/brush guard that can handle a winch AND some big lights?

I want to get 2-4 Hella 4000 Ralie (2 Euro/2 Pencil) and put them on there. Where can I get a light bar if you think that will be better? Thanks a lot!

 

[mattadams]

Or do both... I have the winch plus 14 lights . 6 on the roof, 6 on the front brush guard, 2 in the rear bumper. I had to get a conferr roof rack, not a light bar... light bars only support 4 lights, heh heh. It required some custom welding to get 6 on the front though!

 

[gsibble]

Guard

Hey Matt! I say your explorer with all your lights; pretty slick. Anyways, who makes the new bumper/guard on the front? You can really fit a winch AND lights on it? Where can I buy one tonight? Hehe, thanks a lot.

P.S. I just bought the Superlift Superrunner 4" system =) YAY!!!

 

[mattadams]

its a warn winch mount with the headlight guard... I can't remember the official name of it... I think tis called a combo mount? Anyways it got holes drilled for more then one kind of winch, so I put one one set of lights udnerneath the winch. Then I put 4 tabs on the headlight cover parts, one on top, one on bottom... I still have room for at least 6 more lights on the brush guard if I wanted to put them above the winch mount (even with the hood)

 

[gsibble]

Stuff

Hey Matt. I was wondering: how did you get the wires from the under the backseat of your ex to the lights on the roof? Did you just drill a big hole in the roof or what? And also, when you say you put tabs on the warn combo, what do you mean? Did you drill holes for the lights or what? And also, do you think I can fit my Hella 4000s in the standard lighting spots on your brushguard? Thanks so much!!

 

[mattadams]

by tabs I mean basically pieces of steel that stick out about 2 inch inches, abotu 1 1/2 inches wide, with a hole drilled, welded to it. No I dont think your Hellas 4000's could fit in that spot... theres just enough room on either side for my PIAA 520's which are 6" lights.

 

[mattadams]

ok I was thinking about it on the way to work today, I think you could possibly fit the 4000's in there, but they'd be pretty close to each other, and you'd have to drill your own holes. You might be better off putting them where I have my big PIAA's (the PIAA 80 Professional Rally lights - next to the headlights) as they are pretty deep.

 

[gsibble]

Thanks

Heya Matt. Thanks for the thought dude. Its really helpful.
What I think I am going to do is get either the Warn Combo or the Smittybuilt (new bumper) and let that just act as the holder for the winch, and then probably put on some PIAA fog lights. Then, on a fon-ferr roof rack, ill put 2 Hella 4000s Euro beams (driving) on the outside and then 2 4000 pencils on the inside That should be able to light up anything, AND ill be able to pull up that damn stump I have wanted to for so long. What do you think? The other option is getting a really nice looking smittybuilt Euro brush guard, putting fog lights or maybe 4000s on it, and then getting the Warn multi-winch system. I would like to have a winch permanently, but it isnt a big deal. Thanks a lot dude!

P.S. Do you know where I can get some 4000 HIDs for real cheap? They look soooooo sweet and id love to have the xenon.

 

[mattadams]

George, either way sounds like it would work fine... don't know much about good deals on Hellas to be honest with you... By the way, winching out big stumps isn't the best use of a winch I've found . Actually I've used it for pulling up small stumps and bigger, completely dead stumps, but a friend of mine with a 4-runner and a winch was winching out a fairly large, still alive stump (top was cut off of course) and actually ended up twisting his frame a bit... that certainly isn't what the winch is designed to do . I like multi-mount winch, but was talked out of it (thank goodness) as it lowers the front and rear clearance of the vehicle (if you get the rear mount for it). It would be handy sometimes to have a winch in the back though...