LED light bar inside grill

badge171 · February 25, 2018

Has anyone installed a in grill light bar (led) , and wired them to go on with there high beams on the 2017 Silverado, DS5 high intensity LED bulbs???? Wondering if it would work out. Low beams are live-able with the aftermarket 35w . But the high beams still are terrible. No I don't want to re-wire the fog lights . I am kinda looking for distance lighting in the high beam mode. Would it be putting to much of a draw on the system, overload the wire gauge size?? Just an idea I have been kickin around

Edited February 25, 2018 by badge171

Jon A · February 25, 2018

Yes, that's the only way to do it IMHO. I don't know about the newer trucks, but on the 2014's tapping into the white wire (if I remember correctly) behind the headlights can be used as a trigger for the lightbar solonoid on its harness. With the switch on, it'll only come on with your brights and dims quickly so you can use it on the highway without bothering anybody.

badge171 · February 25, 2018

Ya thinking I might buy a bar. But the 14 has a different light than my 17 . Led . Thanks thou . Any suggestions to a quality light bar??

wforrest08 · February 25, 2018

I think I read on here somewhere if your 17 has the active grille shutters you have to “mod” or remove it to fit a light bar behind the grille? Don’t quote me on that though...

badge171 · February 27, 2018

Think your right. I just contacted Rough country , They tell me there light bar will not fit behind the grill with the active shutters,. I need to remove in order for fitment.

Crstfr · February 27, 2018

On 2/25/2018 at 3:25 PM, badge171 said:

Has anyone installed a in grill light bar (led) , and wired them to go on with there high beams on the 2017 Silverado, DS5 high intensity LED bulbs???? Wondering if it would work out. Low beams are live-able with the aftermarket 35w . But the high beams still are terrible. No I don't want to re-wire the fog lights . I am kinda looking for distance lighting in the high beam mode. Would it be putting to much of a draw on the system, overload the wire gauge size?? Just an idea I have been kickin around

man.. .. to the high beams?... no thanks... i use my high's often, .. plus the output on my HID's are super bright!... actually brighter than the HIDs on this 2018 loaner i have~.. ... i have mine hooked up to a wireless harness, and i use the homelink buttons to turn it on and off~.. easy and clean looking.. no drilling or extra buttons.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Crstfr

Ryan2017Z71 · November 26, 2018

I was able to get the Rough Country LED Light Bar to fit. I did need to modify the grille some but in the end everything fit and I still have the active shutters.

Newellhole · November 26, 2018

18 minutes ago, Ryan2017Z71 said:

I was able to get the Rough Country LED Light Bar to fit. I did need to modify the grille some but in the end everything fit and I still have the active shutters.

Do you have any pictures of what you did to do this? I started a thread yesterday looking for info on exactly what you have done here, looks awesome. Although your grille is slightly different than mine I’m more so looking for info on ways to mount it inside there.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Newellhole

Ryan2017Z71 · November 26, 2018

Thanks, I am happy with it. I added nylon spacer between the brackets. I got the spacers from Lowes; the picture with the white bags are the spacers and longer bolts I purchased. The spacers were white, so I spray painted them black. I did have to trim a small section of the shutters to allow for the bolts to fit (picture 2). I also removed the shroud from the grille. I tried trimming it to allow it to fit around the brackets but realized it was only held in place by six clips. I also had to add a second hole in the Rough Country bracket that mounts to inside of the frame. The active shutters has an alignment pin that interfered with the bracket. I did have to cut out the vertical sections in the grille to let the light bar fit.

There is one section of the grille that is up against one of the bolt heads and I thought about trimming the grille more, but I was able to get it to fit.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have more questions. I'll be glad to help out.

Edited November 26, 2018 by Ryan2017Z71

Newellhole · November 26, 2018

7 minutes ago, Ryan2017Z71 said:

Thanks, I am happy with it. I added nylon spacer between the brackets. I got the spacers from Lowes; the picture with the white bags are the spacers and longer bolts I purchased. The spacers were white, so I spray painted them black. I did have to trim a small section of the shutters to allow for the bolts to fit (picture 2). I also removed the shroud from the grille. I tried trimming it to allow it to fit around the brackets but realized it was only held in place by six clips. I also had to add a second hole in the Rough Country bracket that mounts to inside of the frame. The active shutters has an alignment pin that interfered with the bracket. I did have to cut out the vertical sections in the grille to let the light bar fit.

There is one section of the grille that is up against one of the bolt heads and I thought about trimming the grille more, but I was able to get it to fit.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have more questions. I'll be glad to help out.

Thanks a lot! This is super helpful, going to do this in the spring picking up the parts soon. Finally some decent pictures lol.

14cris · November 27, 2018

man.. .. to the high beams?... no thanks... i use my high's often, .. plus the output on my HID's are super bright!... actually brighter than the HIDs on this 2018 loaner i have~.. ... i have mine hooked up to a wireless harness, and i use the homelink buttons to turn it on and off~.. easy and clean looking.. no drilling or extra buttons.

How’d you wire it to the homelink buttons?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Crstfr · November 27, 2018

wireless harness off amazon..

https://www.amazon.com/Northpole-Light-Control-Harness-Driving/dp/B01M02ZFT8/ref=sr_1_7?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1543334578&sr=1-7&keywords=wireless+light+bar+harness

tag98 · March 23, 2019

looking to do this to my truck, did u have to fabricate and additional brackets?

Edited March 23, 2019 by tag98

Darksky · March 24, 2019

Old thread, he may not see your question. However, I have more or less the same kit. It appears to me that all he did was add the spacers, use longer bolts and slightly mod the shutters. The brackets appear to be the ones supplied with the RC light bar.

Great innovation by Ryan.

Ryan2017Z71 · March 25, 2019

On 3/24/2019 at 3:32 AM, Darksky said:

Old thread, he may not see your question. However, I have more or less the same kit. It appears to me that all he did was add the spacers, use longer bolts and slightly mod the shutters. The brackets appear to be the ones supplied with the RC light bar.

Great innovation by Ryan.

You are correct. I didn't need to fabricate any new brackets, just used the RC kit. I did have to add an additional hole in the flat plate but that was all I did to the RC brackets. Just take your time.

I will admit that mounting the flat plates isn't easy because to get to the nuts on the backside, you have to bend you arm in ways that it wasn't meant to bend.