LED Light Bars

Yeah I have 4 of that same bar. The mounting for these are quite different from others. Gonna be hard to explain without pictures.. But they use a shaft inside the bar, that has bolt slots in the shaft and you slide the mounts in, and the bar has notches for adjusting it. When you tighten down the bolt, it 'wedges' itself in and tightens down. You can adjust the angle on those notches. I ended up taking the shaft out of the small 8" ones. But the bigger ones it seems the shaft doesn't wanna come out. My 20" I had to partly disassemble to get the shaft out. I didn't do this on my 42" though. I ended up getting a long ass 1/4" threaded rod and inserted it through the shaft as there's a 1/4" hole on each side of the shaft. Then I put nuts on the outside. Not the greatest option because at that point there's nothing 'locking' the bar in place. I just used some rubber washers in between the bar and the roof bracket and tightened her down. Seems alright for now. I may end up drilling another small hole through my roof bracket through the end cap of the bar with a small bolt just to lock it in place permanently. If you can get the shaft out, the hole in the end cap is bigger and you can get actual bolts to put in on the ends... Hope that helped. Idk if I can get pics or not for ya since I really don't wanna take any of mine off as they were a bitch to put in, ha. I can take pics of he roof mounts if u want...

 

Does that mean the mounting brackets can be positioned on any point on the shaft, as opposed to the common bars that only have the mounts at the ends? Does the shaft need to be taken out to insert the brackets? Also in your opinion, would you say these bars have more throw than bars that have 3 or 5 watt leds? Thanks for the detailed reply!

 

Kind of what mine are like had to build a bracket behind the bumper to mount it where I wanted.

 

Kinda yeah. There are multiple slots in the shaft but it doesnt run all the way through. But since theres a bunch it can be positioned almost anywhere. No the shaft doesnt need to be removed. It's kinda wedged in there and can rotate. I think its supposed to be removable, but it doesn't wanna come out at all on the bigger bars. It comes out by rotating the shaft and it has a big enough opening that it should fall out but I think because these are cheap china made knock offs they are just a little too tight. I even tired prying it out of my 42" and just couldnt get it. But yeah the bolts just slide in the slot, using the brackets it tightens down by wedging the inside shaft against the bar which is in a little slot under the fins. I have the 20" shaft that I took some pics of.

The end cap has a little rubber plug that easily comes out as well if you decide to use a threaded rod like through it like I did. Really the only reason to take out that shaft, is if you wanna use larger bolts instead of the threaded rod, or instead of utilizing the mounting option it was desigend for. But then if you do it with the provided mounts, it can only be mounted on the underside of the bar. Or 'hung' and mounted upside down.



As you can see the shaft has multiple slots. As well as a small 1/4" hole on the ends which is where I slid the threaded rod through the end cap, through this shaft, cut both ends off, and put lock nuts on the ends.

 

Or you could just make some kind of 'L' bracket, position only two factory mounts on the ends underneath, and attach the L bracket on the end so It comes up to align with the side plug/hole, and use a bolt on that bracket to mount horizontally instead of vertically.

 

Got a pic of the bracket ?

 

Here's another bar with some better pics on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100W-17inch...Parts_Accessories&hash=item51c7b5f16d&vxp=mtr

Also forgot to answer your question on throw. Yeah I believe these throw a lot more than the 3 or 5 watt. Definitely the 3, not sure about the 5 watters. I have been looking for a good vision x knock off of their 5 watt bars but guess they dont make em. yet. I think maybe those would throw more light. But yeah these 10 watt reflectors are pretty sweet. If you haven't already, check out the vision x details on the Evo Prime bars. Not gonna be the same technology in the cree knock offs but still utilize the same reflectors. I love em. I have a 42/20/and two 8's. Throw out a TON of light. And its a nice even spread with no hotspots with the way I combined spot/floods.
http://www.visionxusa.com/LED-Evo_Prime_Light_Bar/c1_109/index.html

 

Here, a comparison of vision x bars should shed a little light.

32" XMITTER: 10,800 Lm (sixty 3watt led's)
30" XMITTER PRIME: 12,312 Lm (fifty four 3watt leds)
30" EVO PRIME: 15,480 Lm (eighteen 10watt leds)
30" XMITTER PRIME XTREME: 26,622 Lm (fifty four 5watt leds)

As you can see, there's not much difference with the 3 watt bars. The 32" has 6 more led's and its the cheapest of them all with an older less efficient reflector design. The 54 led upgraded version is not much better but a basic upgrade in reflector design which also helps with farther throw. The Evo prime is a little better with the high power led's and deeper reflector bowls to throw even farther. Then you have the Xmitter Prime XP, which is just insane. It's got he same fifty four leds but at 5 watts each its a HUGE increase in light output. Easily surpassing the evo prime. Evo prime only lacks because its only got 18 leds since they are so much bigger. So the 5 watt bar wins for sure. But, I'm unsure how much farther down range it throws compared to the evo prime. I'm sure it's more.

I really really want the 43" Xtreme. Its got
(78) 5 watt leds
390 watts total
38,454 Lm!!!!!!!!!!! Thats nuts.

But guess how much...

$2,079.00!!!
That's insane..
For the 42" Evo Prime, they want $1899
For the knock off I got I paid........$350
If china makes a knock of the 5 watt Xtreme, I'm all over it.

 

That answers my question perfectly! I was hoping I could mount it from the rear, so I'll have to explore the ideas you mentioned. Thanks for posting those pictures

I've also found Vision X to be brighter than Rigid bars of the same wattage. Fewer lights, but more throw led me to think that the higher wattage LEDs are more effective, and have higher useful lumen output as opposed to just having twice as many lower watt lights, and I think this might apply to the Prime Xtremes vs Evo Prime. If you gave the 30" 180W bar 27 LEDs rather than 18, I would predict it to outshine the 30" 54 LED bar. The LEDs themselves have a higher theoretical lumen output, but also have less optical aberration since there are half the number of lights, lenses, and reflectors. I'd really like to get both of them side-by-side and compare. Can't justify Vision X prices yet though, so I suppose I can monkey around with one of these for now.

 

I know several people have bought Rigid mounting brackets to go with their LED bars.
Has anybody purchased a mounting bracket from another company other than Rigid?
I'm sure it would be much cheaper for a comparable piece of metal.

 

Looks good!

 

thanks dude! shes come a long way lol

 

Amber accent lighting ftmfw


Meh, let's try and revive this thread with even more pics. Seeing as it's been kinda dead lately.

 

did you install the riv-nuts in the roof or are those factory threaded holes? I was thinking Double Cabs are the only ones with roof rack mounting holes from the factory.

 

what mounts are those?

 

How does one keep those holes from leaking?

 

Any sealant really. I used a butyl based tape behind the mount, and tightened it down, squishing the butyl in between. Creates a good seal all around the mount base. Or even the butyl strips like that used in resealing headlights would work great. Or just silicone. Butyl is easier to reseal though if you ever have to take it off.

 

Picture who're I know... But, install photos. You can kinda see the butyl tape squished out.