lights on roof rack?

[tac0meat]

i have got a pair of cheap pepboys driving lights, they are 55 watt with a lifetime warranty and do pretty good for 20 bucks, i want to mount them on the roof but was wandering if the roof rack can hold them and how to wire them up. i heard somewhere that the roof rack isnt strong enough to hold them, i already have some large lights on me front bumper so that isnt an option. i just tneed these lights to light up the area right in front of me and kinda off to the side.

 

[mattadams]

tac0... reminds me of a funny line from beavis and butthead, but theres children reading, LOL.

For about 9 months I had 4 PIAA 80 XT's in my stock roof rack, no problems encountered. I just drilled four holes in my stock roof rack, got some big washers, and installed em! The only reason I really went with the conferr rack was beacuse I wanted SIX lights and I could only fit four on the stock rack. Plus it was fairly difficult to keep them properly aimed on the roof since you couldn't get them to the torque you wanted without squishing the plastic. But if there mainly for appearance rather then utility, you shouldn't have a problem (or you'll just have to continually re-aim them). It wasn't the most rigid thing in the world but I did hit tree branches occasionally with the lights and never had a problem with the lights breaking or bending the rack.
Here's some pics!
Using stock roof rack:

Using conferr roof rack with light attachmetns:

By the way, to run the wires, I drilled three holes (I originally wanted to do one, but kept adding lights!), put grommets in the holes, ran the wires through, and siliconed it to be watertight.

 

[tac0meat]

cool! thanks matt, right now im probably gonna just run the wires through the door jamb(i havent been able to bring myself to drill holes throuhg the body of my baby yet).
BTW-that is one nice setup!

 

[DarkFox1]

I have thought about that idea too, mounting some lights on the roof rack, thanks for the pics guys.. I was wondering ohw that would look.. unfortunatley I can't validate a purchase of lights on my roof due to the 95% lack of offroading in my daily life.. a purchase of lights would be a waste of money... since you couldn't drive onthe road with them and thast where I am most of the time

 

[tac0meat]

ok i just installed the lights on the roof rack. installation was pretty easy the hard part was running the wires so that it looked clean. its a little cheasy right now but its close enough for now. my other problem was the fact that there is no ground on my roof, whats the deal? i tried every hole and screw up there but none seemed to be a ground, i eventually gave up and just ran a ground wire down to the door jamb. but why wouldn't there be a ground up there on the roof? im looking at adding 2 more up there and if the roof had a ground it would be alot easier.

 

[mattadams]

Originally posted by tac0meat
ok i just installed the lights on the roof rack. installation was pretty easy the hard part was running the wires so that it looked clean. its a little cheasy right now but its close enough for now. my other problem was the fact that there is no ground on my roof, whats the deal? i tried every hole and screw up there but none seemed to be a ground, i eventually gave up and just ran a ground wire down to the door jamb. but why wouldn't there be a ground up there on the roof? im looking at adding 2 more up there and if the roof had a ground it would be alot easier.

That is correct sir! No ground on the roof! I had to run my wires down to the doorjam as well.It's a pain, especially when 6 lights need six ground, which can be reduced to 3 at best .

 

[tac0meat]

matt, you wouldnt happen to know why would you? does it have somethin really wierd to do with static on the roof rack or somethin? this doesnt make much sense because its like all the metal up there is totally isolated from the rest of the body. BTW- just curious matt, do you have 6 seperate switches for your six pairs of lights?

 

[mattadams]

Originally posted by tac0meat
matt, you wouldnt happen to know why would you? does it have somethin really wierd to do with static on the roof rack or somethin? this doesnt make much sense because its like all the metal up there is totally isolated from the rest of the body. BTW- just curious matt, do you have 6 seperate switches for your six pairs of lights?

I'm not sure why... and I think that if you drilled a bit you'd be able to find a good ground, I decided running the wires through the roof to the doorjam was an easier solution. If you feel really ambitious, try to figure out how to take out the rivets and then re-reviet with your wire using that rivet as a ground. As I recall, those rivets are grounded, don't quote me on that though since it's been over a year since I have my voltmeter up there. The problem with the rivets though is they are surround by rubber (or plastic, whatever that is!) and that's nto where you'd want a ground, you want a good metal-to-metal contact. Your choice of a grounding spot I think is just as important as where your pulling your power from... get a lesser quality grounding spot, the lights won't be as bright.
As for the switches, as of now yes every set is independantly switched (7 switches including the set in the rear). If I could do the wiring over again (which I may someday do) I'd do it a bit different though... on my F-150 I'm actually going to have 8 sets... two sets in the airdam, two sets on the brushguard, three sets on the roll bar, and one set in reverse, but only 5 switches (going to switch the two sets on the brushguard to the same switch, as well as 2 of the 3 sets on the roof to the same switch). Food for thought .