Light Bar Behind A/T Grille

thewhitestallion · October 5, 2015

Well I have been wanting a light bar on my truck for a while, decided to go with a Cree 180W spot / flood LED light bar from ebay, cost me a whopping $60 shipped. We will see how it holds up. if it doesnt hold up well then ill get a diff light. I will say though, for $60 it's pretty bright and cant wait to be able to use it on the trails to see how far it actually throws the light!

JUSTINASS · October 5, 2015

looks great!

i have been thinking of doing the same to my A/T...

oh and nice F-Body in the garage!

dbcooper748 · October 6, 2015

Well I have been wanting a light bar on my truck for a while, decided to go with a Cree 180W spot / flood LED light bar from ebay, cost me a whopping $60 shipped. We will see how it holds up. if it doesnt hold up well then ill get a diff light. I will say though, for $60 it's pretty bright and cant wait to be able to use it on the trails to see how far it actually throws the light!

do u have a link to where u purchased? Thanks

Willie will · October 6, 2015

What wiring harness did you use?

thewhitestallion · October 6, 2015

looks great!

i have been thinking of doing the same to my A/T...

oh and nice F-Body in the garage!

Thank you! I have kind of neglected it the past couple of years cause it was at my parents house. Now that I have her at my house I am going to start doing some TLC and I really would like to stick a cam in it in the near future, and heads too if I can swing it.

Do you have anything done to your 4th gen?

do u have a link to where u purchased? Thanks

I bought it off of ebay, it is an epistar light bar, the leds are made by cree, allegedly. I was able to use the light bar tonight and it is pretty bright, I don't feel as if I am loosing too much, if any, light from it being behind the grille either.

here is a link to the one I have, but like I said, it is nothing special (i.e. rigid) but it is bright. only thing is to wait an see if it will hold up to the weather and not let moisture in.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/32inch-180W-CREE-LED-Light-Bar-Flood-Spot-Combo-Work-Offroad-Driving-Lights-288W-/262080575884?hash=item3d0538398c&vxp=mtr

What wiring harness did you use?

I did not use a pre-made wiring harness for a few different reasons. One is because they never give you enough wire. it's like they make the harness as if it's going on a honda civic or something. for instance my TRS HID kit I put on my truck I bought the wire harness from TRS thinking everything will fight nice and it saves me from having to cut / splice / worry about the relay and capacitor. well there are a few wires that are just a little too short, and it pisses me off. I could go in and cut and splice to make them longer but I did not.

This is how I wired all my stuff up and maybe this will help someone else who is looking for this information. it is really easy, just time consuming. Just take your time and double check all your work. I am just a backyard mechanic that works on cars every now and then. the whole install prob took me about 5 hours, but took my time, I was not in a rush to do anything. honestly the part that took me the longest was measuring; for my switch and the light bar placement.

here is a small write up on how I wired everything.

You will need some 14ga wire and you can use 16ga wire for you switch IF you are using a relay. butt splices, wire cutters, zip ties, and connectors to connect the wires to the relay and the "O" connectors for you grounds.

1. I ran a power wire from a fuse that has power whether the truck is on or off and it was on the drivers side of the dashboard (you have to pull that panel really freaking hard to get it off btw) to the power in terminal on the switch. I used 16ga wire for this as it has very little amps running through it.

2. then I grounded the switch since it has a small led light that turns on when my light bar is on. if your switch does not have a light then you do not need to ground it (I don't think). 16ga wire

3. then I ran the power out wire from the switch through my headliner, down the drivers side a-pillar, through the dash, and out of a grommet located on the floor in front of the drivers side seat. you have to pull the door jam trim off and pull the carpet back to see it. I wanted to go through the firewall with the rest of the wires from the inside of the truck but that was just too much of a PIA to do. this way is much easier and you cannot tell. once that wire is outside of the truck I ran mine down the frame rail up into the engine bay, down the drivers side front fender under the radiator support cover and to my relay (which is located there). I of course placed wire loom around the entire wire outside of the truck to keep it from being chaffed. 16ga and 14ga (only because I ran out of 16ga wire)

3. find a bolt to ground a wire to ground the relay. 14ga

4. run a wire to the + side of the battery and place an in-line fuse that is close to the batter, mine is about 6" - 12" away from the battery and then run that to where ever you place your relay. Also I used a 15 amp fuse for my light bar, follow the instructions on your light bar to figure out the fuse. but if yours does not have any like mine then just look up OHM's law. 14ga

5. place the + wire from the battery to pin 30. 14ga

6. place the power out wire from your switch to pin 85.

7. place the ground wire to pin 86. 14ga

8. place the + wire going to the light bar to pin 87. 14ga

9. If you are using a 5 pin relay like I did (it was laying around in my garage) then leave pin 87a empty, it does not get used.

10. I placed heat shrink over pin 87a and over all the other pins because my relay is just laying under the radiator cover and not bolted to anything and I did not want it to accident touch some metal and short it out. BUT it also helps weatherproof the relay.

JUSTINASS · October 6, 2015

Thank you! I have kind of neglected it the past couple of years cause it was at my parents house. Now that I have her at my house I am going to start doing some TLC and I really would like to stick a cam in it in the near future, and heads too if I can swing it.

Do you have anything done to your 4th gen?

Sadly after owning it for 15 years...I just sold it.

It had very few mods done to it - exhaust / suspension upgrades. Never did dig into the motor.

Sold it to local guy here in DFW that is part of the LS community. He is currently doing a few mods like intake /cam/ heads /etc.

Angelef9 · November 14, 2015

Hello truck looks nice.. Do you have pics of how you mounted the light bar?? Any special brackets you used??

thewhitestallion · November 14, 2015

Hello truck looks nice.. Do you have pics of how you mounted the light bar?? Any special brackets you used??

Thank you. I used a 3' x 6" piece of aluminum that I bought from Home Depot. I painted it black so you cant really see it, I then bolted the piece of aluminum to the radiator support bars. I then bolted the light bar to the piece of aluminum.

It was very easy to do, the hardest part was measuring, I measured and measured and then measured again just to be sure. I centered the light bar on the piece of aluminum before I mounted the aluminum. Then I centered the aluminum to the grille. I also used a level to make sure it was level.

To make sure the light bar is in the gap before I took the grille off I used a flat edge to mark the radiator support where the grille opening was. Once I had everything mounted up it was perfect. I did not have to make any adjustments and did not have to re-drill anything. again very easy but even more tedious.

Angelef9 · November 14, 2015

Thanks im gona try it on mine..

Tattooo · November 15, 2015

Looks great

Ryan698 · November 18, 2015

When mounting there any issues with it being in the way of the rad? Also did you use the mounts that came with your bar?

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thewhitestallion · November 20, 2015

When mounting there any issues with it being in the way of the rad? Also did you use the mounts that came with your bar?

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No issues, just make sure if you mount to the radiator support that your drill bit is not long enough to puncture any of the radiator fins when you drill through the support. As far as airflow to the radiator i have not had any overheating issues and my fans do not appear to be coming on any higher or more frequent than before. however, i do not have any statistical data to back that statement up. i am sure it affects the airflow, but i dont think it affects it too much.