Keeping your lights on straight?

Does everyone else with a light bar have the same issue I have? It seems my offroad lights are always out of whack on my light bar, because someone always knocks them around (even I do it sometimes, as they stick out a lot). I've tightened them down a lot, but it seems inevitable they get a good whack somewhere, and they are all mis-aligned when I turn them on. Most of the trucks at work have aux lighting attached, and it seems like pretty much every single truck with them has at least 1 light out of whack. Is it just the curse of add-on lighting?

 

What Kind of brand of lights are you running?

I'm running hella 4000, and They hold their alignment pretty good.

 

My Piaa 525s on my Bull Bar Hold Real tight

 

I have a pair of Lightforce 240 Blitz on an N-Fab bar. Part of it might just be they stick out more than other lights, and I've actually been eyeing the Hella's lately. I am interested in their variety of beam patterns. The Blitz 240's are BRIGHT, though!

The Lightforce hold pretty good when you first crank them down, but they start getting bumped, and they work a little loose I think and then they just move constantly, and if I don't get out a wrench and tighten them back down, they are all over the place.

 

Try adding some loctite to the thread on the bolts.

 

The same thing is happening with my Hella 700 lights. I'm on rough roads pretty much as often as I can. I'll give the loctite a try

 

I might try the Loctite then. I used lock nuts on them, but that didn't seem to help--both the horizontal and vertical bolts are often loose. I admit though, they stick out a lot and I run into them myself fairly often. I kind of want to mount something in the grille instead, but that seems like a lot of work...

 

I have some Hella and PIAA on the front and they haven't moved on me yet after 6 months or so, including rough trail runs. I did strip out one of the vertical lock down bolts on one of the PIAA lights while tightening it down, which I replaced with a bolt/nut I had laying around and its been fine.

As far as the lights on top, I haven't had them on for long, but they're just some cheap Harbor Fright lights and they haven't moved at all on me either, although with the cheaper/plastic mounting, I know I'll have to fix them eventually, but they were added for being very cheap and easily replaceable for when they break on low limbs, etc.

I just used the mounting bolts/nuts that came with it and a lockwasher. I have the top lights on a removable bar, which I originally didn't use lockwashers on due to not having any at the time. That didn't last a single trail run before one nut completely came off and the other was mostly off.

So, best I can suggest is to use lockwashers and make sure the washer is actually fully compressed plus torqued down good enough.

 

If you loctite them, use the weaker of the 2 (I can't remember if the red or blue is weaker). If you use the stronger one, you'll never move them again. I'd try lock washers first before loctite.

I've got a set of PIAAs on my grille guard and haven't had to adjust them since I got them (about a year).

 

Home depot sells a locking nut, Its has an oval look to it, Or you can also get nylocs (nuts with the nylon ring on the inside.)

 

The lights I have came with nylocs. I figured that would suffice, but...


...they are 9.5" in diameter and stick out a few inches in front of the light bar. It's pretty easy to plow into them!

 

Blue is the weaker of the two and should be plenty strong for almost every bolt on the truck (until you start getting into drivetrain/engine internals). Red requires a lot more force and many times, heat, to remove.

Just as a side note, an old gun smith tip is you can use fingernail polish instead of loctite if you run out/misplace it. (Not quite sure smiths would have nail polish instead of loctite, but "dont ask, dont tell" seems to be good enough for me.) Not sure how much I'd trust it, as I've never done it, but sometimes its better to use something like that than to do with out.