Lighting project

[lfhoward]

Hey Jeepers,

Someday (hopefully soon) I’ll be able to spend some quality time with Jeepy and accomplish a project that’s been on my back burner. That is... off road lighting!

I now have a great steel roof rack with light tabs on my Jeep, fabricated by AtTheHelm.

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And I have LED lights to go on said rack.

Front:

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Rears:

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They came with wiring harnesses, and I got a pair of matching switches:

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The roof rack is now on the Jeep and it’s great.

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Next is the lights. I’ll install the rears first, because they will be backup lights for camping (whenever it’s ok to camp again). These are the steps I plan to take next:

- Test the lights on the bench with a 12 volt battery (done)
- Replace the switches in the wiring harnesses with the new (done)
- Measure the length of the wiring I’ll need in the Jeep to go from the battery to the switches, and to the lights. (I plan to take the rear harness underneath the interior trim and out from behind a tail light, up to the lights in the tailgate area. The front wiring will go up behind the windshield’s plastic trim.)
- Extend length of wiring harnesses as needed
- Test fit the wiring, install switches on center console
- Install the lighting on the roof rack, and connect the wires
- Zip tie & secure wiring, run inside black plastic conduit

 

[tommudd]

Good start
at least your light bar will be back far enough , should be better than up near windshield

 

[lfhoward]

ATH designed his rack that way specifically I think. It shouldn’t reflect off the hood and night blind me.

The trick will be keeping the lights from disappearing from my Jeep as I live in the city and park on the street. They’re not Rigid or Baja Designs or anything that special, but it would still suck if they got stolen. I am thinking about making them easily detachable and only putting them onto the Jeep when I plan to go camping or off-roading. I got lights that at least have waterproof pigtail connectors so they can be uncoupled when needed. I also got “security screws” that I can undo with a special Allen key. Anyhow, the Jeep wouldn’t look as cool on a daily basis with them off but I’d still have my lights.

 

[lfhoward]

I probably just have to put this sticker from Pixel Decals on it and it would be totally fine.

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https://www.pixeldecals.com/shop/Offroad-Decals/Other-Offroad-Decals/Warning-Do-Not-Screw-With-My-Decal?

 

[LibertyTC]

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[tommudd]

But if they happen to see a sucker or candy bar on the seat, they may just try to get it

 

[lfhoward]

But if they happen to see a sucker or candy bar on the seat, they may just try to get it

These days if thieves see hand sanitizer or chlorox wipes, they'll bust your windows for them.

 

[lfhoward]

Ok, back to the topic at hand: off road lighting!

The lights and harnesses check out on the bench. I am going to have to do some modifications of the wiring harnesses, though.

Here are the rear pods. These things are bright!

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The harness for the rear lights isn’t long enough from the on/off switch to the lights (center console to rear of the roof rack). I’ll need to splice in probably 5 feet of wire. It’s 16 gauge, so at 25 feet we could be looking at a bit of voltage drop (see chart below).

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However, the LED’s measure about 4 amps of current once they are warmed up. This is probably still ok for the length of wire I’ll have. (Keep in mind that 25 feet of wire from the battery to the light is actually 50 feet because electrons do a round trip.)

Rear light amps:

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It’s weird that the wiring harness came with a 30 amp fuse and a 10 amp switch. That’s a recipe for a fire if I ever saw one. I’m going to use a 10 amp fuse and my switch is rated at 40 amps. To those of you who do electrical work— would you worry about having a relay with only 4 amps of draw? The light manufacturer did not bother with a relay.

Now to the front light bar. The dang thing is bright too. This photo doesn’t really do it justice.

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The wiring harness is plenty long from the battery to the light bar, but too short for the run to my switch on the center console. I’m going to have to splice in some wire there, but there is hardly any current to worry about for the switch since the harness has a relay.

I read that 40 inch light bars draw about 17-20 amps, which is too much for my multimeter to test. There is a 30 amp inline fuse and 14 gauge wiring. It is definitely drawing some current because my poor little bench battery out of an APC power supply went from 13 volts fully charged down to 9.5 volts with the lightbar on! Granted, this is a little battery with not much juice in it, but that seems like a significant load. I won’t want to run the lightbar for long with the Jeep’s engine off, that’s for sure.

Off:

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On:

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Anyhow, looking forward to doing this project. It will be my reward for making it through this crazy semester and grading all my final exams.

 

[Billwill]

Yeah for 4 Amps draw a relay is should not be needed but for the Light bar looks like you will need a large relay.

I see your meter can go up to 10 A....this usually is marked as "fused" ie. there is a fuse inside the meter! If you are wary of trying to measure current higher than 10 A and maybe damaging the meter then add a fuse of 5A or 8A in series with the meter lead so that should blow before the meter 10 A fuse can get a chance to blow to protect the meter.

Or try borrow another meter.
Or fit a relay in any case!

If the amps drawn are anywhere near to 8 amps I would fit a relay!

 

[lfhoward]

I did some measuring on the Jeep to estimate the length of wire runs I’ll need to install the lights. For each length I overestimated slightly to give myself a margin of error. I’m writing the measurements down here so I don’t lose them.

For the rear light pods, starting on the roof and ending under the dash at my DIY fuse block:
20” bracket to center of roof rack -16” for existing lines to light pods
24” center to side of roof rack
10” roof rack to back of roof
24” roof to top of tail light
36” tail light to rear door
36” rear of rear door to bottom of door
70” to front of front door
24” to top of glove box
32” to center of dash
24” to switch on center console
To battery
24” to center of dash
32” to fuse panel under dash

For the front light bar
34” cord on light bar, loop back on itself & affix to rack
6” center of bracket to side of rack
32” rack to top of windshield
30” to engine compartment
36” to battery

Does anyone know how to remove the side trim on the windshield without breaking it? I see a push button clip at the base but don’t know what holds the long thin part in place:

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[profdlp]

Great looking setup. Can't wait to see the final result.

As for the potential thieves, I've always wondered at the possibility of spot welding the stuff on there. Of course, the nitwits would probably just break everything trying...

 

[Homeward_Bound]

I did some measuring on the Jeep to estimate the length of wire runs I’ll need to install the lights. For each length I overestimated slightly to give myself a margin of error. I’m writing the measurements down here so I don’t lose them.

For the rear light pods, starting on the roof and ending under the dash at my DIY fuse block:
20” bracket to center of roof rack -16” for existing lines to light pods
24” center to side of roof rack
10” roof rack to back of roof
24” roof to top of tail light
36” tail light to rear door
36” rear of rear door to bottom of door
70” to front of front door
24” to top of glove box
32” to center of dash
24” to switch on center console
To battery
24” to center of dash
32” to fuse panel under dash

For the front light bar
34” cord on light bar, loop back on itself & affix to rack
6” center of bracket to side of rack
32” rack to top of windshield
30” to engine compartment
36” to battery

Does anyone know how to remove the side trim on the windshield without breaking it? I see a push button clip at the base but don’t know what holds the long thin part in place:

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Remove the pop rivet and gently pull up the side. Held on by clips.

 

[lfhoward]

Thank you! I haven’t started wiring yet so this info comes at a good time.

the clips: do you pull straight up vertical or pull sideways towards the center of the windshield?

 

[Homeward_Bound]

Thank you! I haven’t started wiring yet so this info comes at a good time.

the clips: do you pull straight up vertical or pull sideways towards the center of the windshield?

Should be able to pull it straight up. Just go easy.

 

[lfhoward]

Thanks Homeward_Bound!

I should have some movement on this project soon. I am fabbing up a pickup truck spare tire winch for under my M116A3 camping trailer this weekend. I have this dream of doing an off-grid boondocking camping trip next month if I can. Of course, aux lighting would be handy for that as well...

 

[Dave_too]

Hey Jeepers,

Someday (hopefully soon) I’ll be able to spend some quality time with Jeepy and accomplish a project that’s been on my back burner. That is... off road lighting!

I now have a great steel roof rack with light tabs on my Jeep, fabricated by AtTheHelm.

You must be registered for see images attach

And I have LED lights to go on said rack.

Front:

You must be registered for see images attach

Rears:

You must be registered for see images attach

They came with wiring harnesses, and I got a pair of matching switches:

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

The roof rack is now on the Jeep and it’s great.

You must be registered for see images attach

Next is the lights. I’ll install the rears first, because they will be backup lights for camping (whenever it’s ok to camp again). These are the steps I plan to take next:

- Test the lights on the bench with a 12 volt battery (done)
- Replace the switches in the wiring harnesses with the new (done)
- Measure the length of the wiring I’ll need in the Jeep to go from the battery to the switches, and to the lights. (I plan to take the rear harness underneath the interior trim and out from behind a tail light, up to the lights in the tailgate area. The front wiring will go up behind the windshield’s plastic trim.)
- Extend length of wiring harnesses as needed
- Test fit the wiring, install switches on center console
- Install the lighting on the roof rack, and connect the wires
- Zip tie & secure wiring, run inside black plastic conduit

Nice rack, by the way. Sadly no longer available.

 

[lfhoward]

Never did get the lights installed. Living in the middle of a city and worrying about people ripping them off just didn’t seem worth it to me. The good news is these lights will get used by another JeepKJ forum member!