[henno]

I have a 20" single row LED light bar sitting here, as well as a Royce loom. They've both been sitting here for an age and I haven't installed either because I have been procrastinating as to how best to mount the light bar to the front (stock) bumper. The light bar was chosen because it's a nice fit on the bar for its size, I just haven't worked out the best way to secure it (everything seems like a compromise).

Is there an AZ "best practice" for this, before I quit over-thinking it and just go drilling holes? The last thing I want is some shitty, wobbly, vibrating mount that sucks. I thought maybe a few bits of sandwiched ally flatbar might do the trick, but I don't want it to slowly cut through the plastic over corrugations either. I have a heap of UV stabilised EVA foam sticky strip stuff (for the kayak) that could go between the flatbar and the bar, I guess.

Or, considering that my bar is already beaten up to all hell and held together by tech screws, should I just drill the damn thing in and stop worrying about it? It'd probably be nice if if was secure enough so that some local gronk wasn't easily able to rip it off the bar and sell it to Cash Converters for $20.

Or, should I fab up some mounts that poke through the grill and mount it there?

Or, do what I do every weekend: something else... and leave the lights in the shed.

The light bar looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/o5aChKL.jpg

Wow, this post is 600% longer than it needs to be.

[Scrawny]

Does your bumper have the metal frame under it like the earlier Vits do?

[henno]

There's metal there, but there is a bit of a gap... I think. I thought about drilling until I hit the hard stuff, but I don't want to distort the bar to the point of stupid once I screw it all together.

If I push the top of the plastic it moves a good 10mm I reckon.

[greenzook89]

henno wrote:

There's metal there, but there is a bit of a gap... I think. I thought about drilling until I hit the hard stuff, but I don't want to distort the bar to the point of stupid once I screw it all together.

If I push the top of the plastic it moves a good 10mm I reckon.

What if you could remove the bar and fab/buy something to work as crush tubes?

[henno]

Not a bad idea. I might pull the whole front bar off and see what I'm really dealing with here. The mounts on the bar are moveable inwards and outwards, so there is some wiggle room which is handy.

[fordem]

Look behind the grill in front of the radiator you'll see two tapped holes (about an 8x1 thread I think) - I used 1x1x1.8" angle bolted there and trimmed so that the angle tapered to clear the bumper skin to mount a pair of Hellas - there was minimal distortion of the bumper skin and the angle made for a very rigid mount so there's no noticeable vibration on the Hella beams in the rough stuff.

[henno]

fordem wrote:

Look behind the grill in front of the radiator you'll see two tapped holes (about an 8x1 thread I think)

Thanks fordem, that looks perfect in fact.

fordem wrote:

I used 1x1x1.8" angle bolted there and trimmed so that the angle tapered to clear the bumper skin to mount a pair of Hellas - there was minimal distortion of the bumper skin and the angle made for a very rigid mount so there's no noticeable vibration on the Hella beams in the rough stuff.

I think I can picture it. You mounted the angle on the top and through/under the grill and on top of the bumper skin?
Did you trim it down (taper one leg of the angle) until it slotted between the bottom of the grill and the top of the bumper skin, so that there was only maybe a 10mm vertical leg for the rest of the length? (Almost like a flatbar, with a small supporting ridge down one side)?
Did you also secure that to the bumper or was it more than rigid enough along its length?

[fordem]

You have the basic idea - but it goes below the bumper skin, so the bumper skin is sandwiched between the lamp and the angle. The lamp looks like it's bolted directly to the bumper.

The vertical leg of the angle is upwards and tapered almost the full length - to within an inch or so of the end - and the edge of the bumper skin is slotted to clear it. It is rigid enough to support the Hella without being attached to the bumper.

[Joe]

Another option

[suzukiboy]

How about buying a cheap nudge bar (second hand off whatever vehicle) from eBay to mount lights/led light bar.

I brought a nudge off a Nissan Pulsar with 4 light tabs to fit onto my Suzuki Baleno.

[atari4x4]

Joe wrote:

Another option

saved me having to post the same pic, essentially turning the soup kitchen into an XY GTHO.