30" LED bar and BAMF mount write up

Well I figured with all of the help I've gotten from reading TW threads I should try to help everyone else out and contribute as well. So I did an installation that's a pretty common one for TW, and I tried to remember to take pics as I went, as well as some good output shots at the end. I used a behind the grill mount from BAMF. Installation is pretty quick and straight forward. First you have to remove the grill, which is 2 screws and 5 of those plastic christmas tree captive fastener things that everyone loves, and 6 pop tabs along the base of the grill that you simply have to pull on. I felt like I was going to break the damn thing the first time I took it off. No pics of this, but there's quite a few threads here and in the install instructions for a Grillcraft grill (which I plan on adding next).



Install of the BAMF setup was pretty easy. You just replace 2 of the radiator support bolts with the BAMF hardware and then once it's in place, mark the 3rd (center) support hole. Take the bar off, drill a hole, and remount with all 3 mounting points. Don't tighten at this point, you'll want to be able to move the bar up and down still to get the right height for your application. You can see in the picture, I have one horn still hooked up. I removed them both and haven't had time yet to relocate and hook them back up. Keep in mind you will need to move the horns to use the BAMF mount. Here's the LED lightbar I will be using. It's a 30" 180w bar with 18 x 10w cree LEDs from Ebay.







I didn't use BAMFs LED bar drop down brackets, as they will only fit a 20" bar give or take and I wanted more. So I found a LED bar that mounted on the body, as opposed to mounting on the sides. Here it is mounted up. 30" LED bar on BAMF mount







Whew that was easy huh? Too bad that was the easy part. Now comes the less fun part. Wiring. It's not hard but it does take time. Here's the diagram I used to wire my bar.



Excuse my shitty MSPaint. I used a standard automotive relay, an OTRATTW switch, an inline fuse holder with a 30a fuse, a add-a-fuse kit with a some odd 2 or 3a fuses that plugged into out existing fuse panel inside the cab, assorted female spade terminals (for the switch and relay spades) and ring terminals (for grounds), a spool of stranded 12ga wire, heatshrink, and a soldering iron for this stuff. By the way, do yourself a huge favor and find a good soldering iron, not a piece of shit like I used.



Here's some of the assorted wire harness parts I made for this.



Fuse holder and ring terminal that I attached to the positive battery terminal.



From my wiring diagram, you can see there's only 1 wire run through the firewall. People seemed to think that this was tough, but with the wire I used, a good push popped it right through the rubber grommet that was there.





This is where it comes out on the other side in the foot well.





Then you can pull the fuse panel cover, and reveal the inner fuse panel.





If you look at the diagram on the back of the fuse panel cover, I used the blank spot between TAIL 10a and ACC 7.5a. Here's the add-a-fuse setup.



And here it is with fuses in it, I filled both spots with a 2a and a 3a simply because I wasn't sure which spot the tap was going to use when plugging it into a blank spot on the fuse panel.



And plugged in.



Next to figure out where you want to mount your switch. I chose to mount mine in the small storage spot to the right of the shifter bezel. I put the switch here because it was still easy to see and access, but I would be unlikely to turn it on accidentally. To remove this piece of trim, first remove the cup holders. On my 2012 this consisted of pulling out the rubber pieces and then simply pulling up on the plastic bucket under them.



Once that's done, to remove the plastic console, reach under where the cup holders were and back towards the shifter and push up. The console is held in with a bunch of friction plastic and metal clips, just give it a push and then keep moving around the console and pull up. Go slow and easy and it should pop off. Leaving you with this.



Here's the backside of the console, you can see the push pieces that hold it in place.



I then marked where I wanted the switch to be, and drilled holes in the corners. I tried to use a dremel here, but it didn't quite work the way I thought it would. I ended up drilling more holes and using a small edge saw, to be honest it looked terrible. But, size the hole small, and then use a file to smooth it down and fit it to the switch and you get this, even when it starts ugly as hell, and trust me it was.





Now just run your wires for the switch. I grounded to a bolt right there near the shifter and assorted stuff. Down here somewhere, worked ok.



Button up the trim and console parts after you test the switch to make sure it lights and activates the relay and the rest of your wiring, and you have this.



And at night when the interior dash lights are lit.



Then reassemble the grill, and here it is.





As you can tell, the stock grill is definitely blocking a couple of my flood LEDs on the end, as well as some of the rest of it. Hence the reason for the Grillcraft, not to mention it looks good. I don't think you would be able to use a satoshi grill in this case, simply due to the depth of the grill vs. the LED bar, I could be wrong though. Yay done! Now for some output shots. These were taken on a Nikon D5200 DSLR camera. It was set in manual mode and locked to settings F-stop: F/8, ISO-1600, and 1/2 second exposure, to keep the pictures of the output properly relative to each other, and it was a pretty accurate representation of the brightness as well on these settings. Also worth noting, these are 2012 headlamps and fogs with Phillips +50 bulbs in them, so they're really pretty solid headlights anyways.

Nothing on, just ambient light. The gate is about 175ft away.



Headlights low



Headlights low and fogs



Headlights high no fogs



LED bar only



LED bar and headlights low



LED bar and headlights low and fogs (best overall output I think)



LED bar and headlights high no fogs



And there you go. I hope this writeup helps someone else as much as the rest of TW helps me (empty my wallet ) Still have to relocate and hook up the horns, do the Grillcraft grill to get all the lost output as well as look sweet, I could use to redo a wire or two in there that were done with the shit soldering iron, as well as a short wire or two that I'd like to route differently, and zip tie stuff and route it nicely. But overall it's done. In the future I think I might use some different color wires, not all black, but hey I used what I had. Also, 12 wire for the switch and signal wire to the relay again wasn't needed, but it was what I had. It wasn't that bad to work with. Also, using the add-a-fuse in the blank spot in the fuse panel I used, the switch only gets power when the headlight stalk is on the halfway point or headlights on, which means it can only send signal to the relay and turn the bar on when the headlights are on or the halfway point that turns on the interior lights. They will work without the keys in the truck. Keep that in mind for your applications.

Happy Tacoma'n!

 

That's pretty good light with the stock grill

 

Nice

 

Can you post a front pic showing the grill and LED bar turned on?

 

Yeah buddy! Whatre your thoughts on the bars output? I have 4 of them, different lengths and locations of course. Extremely pleased myself. Had them installed for about a year now. Insane amount of light and awesome spread

Looks like there isn't a whole lot of loss of light behind your stock grille either...

 

Sure, here's a bunch of pics of it on from the front etc.

 

Yea they're def nice LED bars for the money. Those 10w LEDs with larger reflectors seem to do a better job than the 3w and 5w bars with smaller reflectors. I don't think I'm losing too much light behind the stock grille, but on the ends of the bar, 1.5-2 of the LEDs are completely hidden and not really helping. I think a mesh type front grille would increase my output a fair amount, as well as look good. It's on the list

 

Very nice, thanks!

 

Do you have a link to the ebay seller? I wonder if these have more output than the BlitzPros.

Now get a Satoshi grill and show that thing off! Nice write up

 

Store http://stores.ebay.com/sunyeeintl?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

30" http://www.ebay.com/itm/30INCH-180W...Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item5d4430eed0

I really need to get my build thread going, but here's a little review regarding these specific bars. Hope you don't mind OP

These bars are knock-off (clones) of the Vision X Evo Primes.
They have 10watt Cree led's versus Luminus that Vision X uses.
Same exact housing and optics. But not the same circuitry management.

The rated lumens for these clones are the same as what Vision X lists. So thats one discrepancy in these bars. I would say the output is slightly less in lumens, and slightly less efficient with Crees versus Luminus. And a little trickier on mounting if you want to mount by the ends. But even after those small quirks, the output is still amazing, and better than anything I've seen myself for the money. A little more pricey than some china bars, but well worth it imo. I absolutely LOVE my setup with these bars and would not trade/swap for anything else except maybe the real vision x ones. They put out a very nice pattern especially with the combo beam. And a very nice spread.. And to answer your question, yes, these are much much brighter and efficient than Blitzpros. Really you just can't compare these to them. Blitzpros are... 'alright'. A low cost alternative. I personally don't like them at all, but not gonna go into that and start a debate But they are good lights, for those looking for light in a pinch.

My setup:
42" Evo Prime clone: 10watt led's (roof) 22,165L
20" Evo Prime clone: 10watt led's (bumper valence) 10,320L
Two 8" Evo Prime clone: 10 watt led's (bumper valence turn signal area) 3440L ea.
Two Rigid srq ambers (used as dtrl's) (hood)
'MRT LuxMaster' led cannons(vision x clone): 25watt led's! (On CBI ditch light brackets) 1800L ea.
TRS Mini H1 projectors (2200 lumens each I believe)

Again, the best shots I have are TOTAL output of everything. I really need to get some separate shots of each bar. I can get one of the 42" by itself if you want...
(1st pic is without the led cannons. 2nd is with, but doesn't show much increase over all the other bars)

 

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