LED Front Light Bars & Pods

CrimsonWall23 · February 4, 2015

So I got a 30 inch light bar I am going to put behind the grill on my 14 SLT Sierra. I went ahead and bought a harness and plan to run it through the grommet and put it like the OP on the rubber beside the tilt lever. 3 questions....1.) how did you guys mount the lightbar and what did you use? Pics of possible 2.) Is the grommet on the driver side the best place to run the harness through? 3.) will I have to cut the switch off and rewire it to fit it through the grommet and rubber piece? Main thing I'm worried about is not breaking anything when taking the grill off and how I'm going to mount it

Wormydog1724 · February 10, 2015

_{Are the diagonal brackets 2"x2"?}

TheTunaHunter · February 10, 2015

Anyone seen hood hinge brackets? Like these:

Mike1220 · February 10, 2015

Anyone seen hood hinge brackets? Like these:

T-rex grilles has them. Haven't seen anyone with them though

AdamC93 · February 10, 2015

T-rex grilles has them. Haven't seen anyone with them though

Oh whoa these are neat. I've only seen these on jeeps.

TheTunaHunter · February 10, 2015

T-rex grilles has them. Haven't seen anyone with them though

I actually reached out to T-Rex a couple months back and they replied that it's for 2500/3500 vehicles only. Not sure if I feel like being the test subject. Any reason to think the hood hinge assembles/contours are the same?

Oh whoa these are neat. I've only seen these on jeeps.

After deciding I didn't want a roof mounted light bar ,I found those on a Tacoma/Tundra Site. One of the members started a whole side business making the brackets. After several revisions and lots of forum input he's got what seems like hundreds of satisfied customers. Might have to do some tinkering in the garage/shop if nothing shows up before summer.

Edited February 10, 2015 by TheTunaHunter

Mike1220 · February 11, 2015

I actually reached out to T-Rex a couple months back and they replied that it's for 2500/3500 vehicles only. Not sure if I feel like being the test subject. Any reason to think the hood hinge assembles/contours are the same?

After deciding I didn't want a roof mounted light bar ,I found those on a Tacoma/Tundra Site. One of the members started a whole side business making the brackets. After several revisions and lots of forum input he's got what seems like hundreds of satisfied customers. Might have to do some tinkering in the garage/shop if nothing shows up before summer.

I don't think that the hinges are any different. I think I looked under the hood once and where it looks like those would mount to, we have the spot. So I think they would work. But I can't tell for sure since

A) I haven't seen anyone with them

B) I've never seen them in person yet

C) I don't want to be the one who guarentees something that I'm not 100% sure on

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

henrypbui · February 11, 2015

I actually reached out to T-Rex a couple months back and they replied that it's for 2500/3500 vehicles only. Not sure if I feel like being the test subject. Any reason to think the hood hinge assembles/contours are the same?

After deciding I didn't want a roof mounted light bar ,I found those on a Tacoma/Tundra Site. One of the members started a whole side business making the brackets. After several revisions and lots of forum input he's got what seems like hundreds of satisfied customers. Might have to do some tinkering in the garage/shop if nothing shows up before summer.

Are these mounted to the underside of the hood hinge side or to the top of the body hinge side?

Edited February 11, 2015 by henrypbui

Spurshot · February 11, 2015

I think they'd be the same for a 1500. The 2500/3500 might have a slightly different hood contour.

The thing about those and the roof mounted lights is that the hood becomes a large reflector and reduces your night vision, unless it's flat black. White would be the worse case. Darker colors might be ok. That's why headlights are on the front of a vehicle.

TheTunaHunter · February 11, 2015

Are these mounted to the underside of the hood hinge side or to the top of the body hinge side?

I think they'd be the same for a 1500. The 2500/3500 might have a slightly different hood contour.

The thing about those and the roof mounted lights is that the hood becomes a large reflector and reduces your night vision, unless it's flat black. White would be the worse case. Darker colors might be ok. That's why headlights are on the front of a vehicle.

I don't think that the hinges are any different. I think I looked under the hood once and where it looks like those would mount to, we have the spot. So I think they would work. But I can't tell for sure since

A) I haven't seen anyone with them

B) I've never seen them in person yet

C) I don't want to be the one who guarentees something that I'm not 100% sure on

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think I'm going to give these a shot, so I'll let you know how it goes. I already have a set of LED pods/harness floating around the work bench , so worst case I'll just return the brackets. If they install clean and I'm dealing with a reflection I'll just wrap my hood flat black, can't be that expensive and have been thinking about it anyway. Thanks for everyone's input, really a plethora of knowledge on this sight!

Edited February 11, 2015 by TheTunaHunter

PirateDiesel · February 11, 2015

I've got them on my jeep using rigid's Dually XL's with spot beams and have a roof mounted rds rigid bar which is also a spot beam. No reflection issues at all: 1) Because the lights have the spot beams and are not diffused, and 2) they are angled properly. Any diffused beam pattern ie Driving lights are going to reflect off the hood. Put those out front.

Spurshot · February 11, 2015

I've got them on my jeep using rigid's Dually XL's with spot beams and have a roof mounted rds rigid bar which is also a spot beam. No reflection issues at all: 1) Because the lights have the spot beams and are not diffused, and 2) they are angled properly. Any diffused beam pattern ie Driving lights are going to reflect off the hood. Put those out front.

Sounds like your lights are tight with minimal "spillage". Also what color is your hood?

Paulmart · February 11, 2015

So I got a 30 inch light bar I am going to put behind the grill on my 14 SLT Sierra. I went ahead and bought a harness and plan to run it through the grommet and put it like the OP on the rubber beside the tilt lever. 3 questions....1.) how did you guys mount the lightbar and what did you use? Pics of possible 2.) Is the grommet on the driver side the best place to run the harness through? 3.) will I have to cut the switch off and rewire it to fit it through the grommet and rubber piece? Main thing I'm worried about is not breaking anything when taking the grill off and how I'm going to mount it

I did this about a month back and found that it is actually pretty easy. I do have a few reccommendations though.... Buy a wireless remote/harness. Then you don't have to bother running wires through into your cab or mounting a switch. Also, you can program your remote to your garage door opener for a cost of around $50 CAD. It was a no brainer to me.

As for mounting the light, I just drilled holes in the cross braces that are behind the grill and mounted to that. The light I bought was a curved 33", and it just happened to line up perfectly to the spot in my grill.

Taking off the grill isn't actually that hard. I just watched a youtube video and had it off in less than 20 minutes. 4 bolts on top, 2 on either side by the wheel well, then 4 underneath (2 of those are a bitch to get at). I've had it off twice now, so its getting easier.

Hope this helps.

Paulmart · February 11, 2015

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with Lightforce 170 HID lights. I really can't find a whole lot on them, but I'm kinda interested to see how they would stack up to Dually D2's.

Spurshot · February 11, 2015

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with Lightforce 170 HID lights. I really can't find a whole lot on them, but I'm kinda interested to see how they would stack up to Dually D2's.

I think they're a Australian company. I'd guess they will be brighter than a D2. But they'll require a warm up time. So they won't be good at on road use where you would shut them off for oncoming traffic, then restart them. That's where a LED works better.