30" Light Bar Install - Easier Than You Might Think

For anyone who bought the Rough Country Flush Mount Light Bar, they are shipping free light bar covers if you want one. Contact their customer service on facebook, email, or phone and they will ship you one so you can drive legally in California or other states where it's needed for road driving.

 

Waiting on a Rigid Radiance 30 inch light bar with amber backlight from "sidetracked". Will post process and pics in the near future. Planning on a custom install attaching to crash bar behind the grille & a separate SPDT (on-off-on) switch for each function; the main LEDs and the backlight. I plan to have the LEDs switch on with the high beams. Or it will be independent and can activate with switch in opposite direction or be off. The backlight will work with headlights in the same way. At least that is my plan. We all know the old saying," the best laid plans....."

EDIT: 4-21-17
Rigid Radiance light bar and cable arrived last night very quickly from "sidetracked". I decided to do the hard part first and that to me was running the cable into the cab from the engine bay. And in order to have a few extra wires for future use and my planned operation of the LED section and the backlight I parallel ran an old four-wire cable I had laying around. After some pondering and contemplating the method used by others I opted for a different plan. Others have cut off the nipple on the driver's side grommet and proceeded through that small hole. Wasn't going to work for me what with the size of the Radiance cable and associated connectors and the extra four wires; pretty fat. So after removing the driver's side sill protector and the kick plate I crawled in with a flashlight and a pair of diagonal cutters. Pushed aside a piece of the carpet underlayment and I snipped part of the grommet just below and to the side of the hood release cable. I snipped until I thought it was large enough for my fat cables to get through. I pushed a large gauge bare wire through it and taped it and the cables together with heavy duty electrical tape. The whole package came through rather easily this way. After completion I will throw some silicone onto this entry point. I tucked the wires aside and buttoned up the kick plate and sill protector to wait for the switches to come. Inside the cab I routed the Radiance cable and my spare cable so as not to interfere with anything else. I mounted the relay under the nut holding the relay and fuse panel. It is grounded. Attached the main ground to an existing ground connection on the fender wall. Headed to the hardware store to get some threaded inserts to be installed on the crash bar. Into the inserts will go mounting screws through the Radiance brackets. Hope to be well-prepared before removing the grille assembly.
UPDATE to follow when installing the light bar.

 

Rigid 30" bars... Will the E-series dual row fit, or do I have to go with the SR-series single row?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, don't you have to trim the two air dam panels that are behind the grill to make room for the brackets? At least, that's what I saw in the Caliraisedled installation video.

 

Yes you do or remove them entirely.

 

I think it depends on how you want to mount it. If you go behind the lower grille without cutting out the lower section of your grille the dual row should fit. Only the single row will fit in the cut out slot beneath the surround. I have not mounted my Radiance yet and I am hoping to attach it to the crash bar, behind the grille, with the brackets provided by Rigid. Fingers crossed on that. Hoping not to cut the air dams. They are flexible enough to push sideways to accommodate the bracket mounting. Might even reverse the position of the brackets facing them inwards. The Radiance, while being only single row, is pretty tall. Check Rigid's web site. They have an excellent catalog which gives every one of their product's exact dimensions and specs.

If my crash bar mounting reaches a snag I would be interested to know if the Cali Raised mounts will mate to the Rigid bar.

 

Ok. I will not be cutting the grill out, so if it mounts just behind, that's fine by me.

 

My crash bar mounting effort met the proverbial snafu. After a couple hours of cussing and drilling and cussing some more I decided to leave it the pros. If they will tackle it that is. I got the bar into place behind the grille after removing the air dams and moving the lower oil cooler out of the way. That is standard procedure for a behind the grille install. I had the holes drilled in the short crash bar sections on the left and right side. These are the perpendicular ones to the crash bar across the front. They lined up nicely with the Radiance brackets installed on the light bar. So far so good. I knew spacers would be needed to get the bar raised and centered up behind the grille opening. Careful measuring told me how many nylon spacers I would need. I had 5 inch 1/4-20 bolts that reached through the 3 1/2 crash bar section. Oh what good planning I did--NOT! I got everything ready to bolt in place and realized it still was not high enough be centered. Ok, put some more spacers in. Well, that ain't gonna fly. The light bar was touching the bottom of the center hood release bracket. Won't go any higher in this position. I removed all the mounting hardware and moved the bar on top of the long crash bar. This was my original plan but getting the bolt holes drilled through would have entailed removed the entire lower bumper assembly to be able to get at the screws to attach the nuts. So I tried the rearward position knowing I would need spacers to raise it. Even on the front bar some spacers would be required and the bar would have to go as far forward as possible to avoid hitting the hood release bracket. So my initial conclusion is that the Radiance bar is not a good fit for the Tacoma because of its height. The dimension from the center of the bar's mounting stud to the bottom of the supplied bracket is 2.95 inches. Even on the front of the crash bar this 2.95 inches in not enough to get it centered. Fits perfectly lengthwise, but....Conversely this same dimension on the single row SR series is 1.125 inches.

I buttoned everything up minus the air dams for the time being. I secured the light bar on top of the crash bar and will drive around like that until a better idea comes up. I think the only solution may turn out to be Cali Raised type brackets that "might" get it into a better forward and higher position. For "metonyme" be very careful about your selection of a light bar. Check the dimensions carefully. Compare the two-row Rigid you are considering to the Radiance as to size/dimensions in the Rigid catalog. If they are close, the same problem may come up unless a different mounting is designed. I once considered threaded inserts to go into the crash bar. But I backed off when the hardware guy said the ones I looked at were for concrete. There must be some for aluminum.

To be continued...

Any and all suggestions are welcome. Going for a beer!

 

Just installed a 32 inch light bar using this same setup and worked perfectly.hope you don't mind.Still need to wire it up,the Cali Raised ditch lights and brackets should be here Monday what switch did you guys use the one that came with the wire harness doesn't fit the blank in the dash?

 

I installed my own switch bank.

 

I like #4

 

"nevadabugle"--great job. I looked at those L brackets at Lowes yesterday after I was unable to get mine high enough. Nice fabrication. I'm thinking of the L brackets mounted forward to the main crash bar with stainless screw inserts. Back to my original plan but with taller brackets. What size were your brackets? How tall is the Cali light bar? My Rigid Radiance is pretty tall even though it's only one row of lights. Either way will succeed come hell or high water.

 

6" I think.

 

New
SUCCESS! Don't know why I didn't think of it before--duh! Instead of trying to mount it on crash bar I hung it on the cross member with the Radiance brackets pointed inward and attached to mending bars. Attached it from top. Light bar just touched the lower piece attached to that cross piece. Don't know what any of them are called. Anyway it's on and secure. Can't say I have seen any light bars mounted this way. In my excitement I forgot to put the air dams back on. Another day. Wiring when I get switches. It'll be ready for smoke test. Skill and science win out over ignorance force and brutality some wise man once said.

 

Nice good job

 

The cali raised ditch lights and brackets came in,now waiting on the switches

 

Here is the final synopsis (minus the switch choices) of my Rigid Radiance light bar with backlight. The grille has to come off and there are plenty of videos and descriptions of that process. It literally takes about a minute with a 10mm socket to remove two bolts and a small blade screwdriver to remove two plastic clips. I mounted the light bar unconventionally by hanging it. Very simple in the final analysis. Every light bar potentially could be mounted this way without the need for additional brackets except for two six-inch mending bars from the hardware store. Of course it does depend on the kind of brackets supplied with your light. My Rigid brackets, 3 inches tall, were faced up and mounted reversed to point them inwards and the mending bars attached. I used the existing slots in the support cross piece which allow for some left-right adjustability. I drilled an extra hole in each mending bar so there are 4 total bolts attaching it. I pulled out the plastic clips on either side and used those holes.


The cable run was done from the inside by snipping the rubber grommet beneath and just to right of the hood release cable. I ran an extra four wires along with the Rigid cable for future use. The sill protector and kick plate come off for this procedure.



I only temporarily wired up the supplied round rocker switches until I decide on the on-off-on type I want to use. At first the lights came on without the ignition or accessory on and were controlled only by the switches. Did not want that. I looked for a switched source to take the wire off the battery and tap it into. I settled under the fuse relay compartment and used a T-Tap to attach the red lead once going to battery to blue wire shown. Drilled a small hole and ran wire up into fuse-relay compartment.


The Rigid radiance is a pretty cool light bar. The two switches operate the LED main section and the backlight independently. I'm hoping to replace those with SPDT (on-off-on) switches and control the light bar from the high beams (for the LED) and the headlights (for the backlight) when so desired. Backlight is not much visible during the day.

Apologize for multiple pictures of the same thing. Was not intending that.

 

When installing my Rigid Radiance light bar with the hanging method I used, i.e. reversing the brackets and using mending bars to hang light bar from cross support, I cut nothing. The air dams are flexible enough to reinstall without cutting them. I know the Cali Raised brackets do require some cutting of the lower section of the air dams to get them back in after brackets and light bar are installed. I was happy not to cut. Light bar fits neatly behind the lower section of the grille. And some light bars and associated brackets even require this section to be cut out. Was not about to do that for aesthetics and for security reasons.

 

Sweet. I just ordered same light bar. Now i have an idea of how it looks like behind the bumper. Good job buddy!!!

 

Thank you! I'm very happy with it. You will be too.