How to guide to install light bar behind front bumper.

Hey guys I'm a new 1st gen Tacoma owner (2003 Prerunner Xtracab) and this is my first post. I installed a lightbar to the support beam behind the front bumper and I hope it helps some people out.

I removed the bumper first. It's held on by 6 bolts. 12mm. There are also 2 plastic clips on the bottom on the bumper. Turn the plastic housing om the parking light on the lower end of the bumper and the bulbs detach. The whole bumper pulled out pretty easily after that. There's a support beam with a bunch of holes in front of the oil cooler which seemed like a great place to mount my 16 inch light bar. The only problem was that the holes didn't align with the mounting holes on the light bar. I had some scrap aluminum and decided to make a bracket. First step was getting bolts into the bracket. There is literally no room to insert them from the back. Trust me I tried multiple ways! There is NO way. I fished a thin wire through one of the bigger holes and out of the smaller holes and tied the end to the threads of a bolt. I pulled the wire out and the bolt came through the opening of the smaller hole. I did this for both sides of the support beam and tightened them down with nuts and large washers.


Then I drilled holes into 2 pieces of scrap aluminum and attached them to the bolts. I made sure to make a bigger hole for the bolt the light bar attached to and stuck it through the aluminum bar.


I pushed the light bar onto the bolts and tightened it all up! I made sure to put big enough nuts behind the plate to allow.space for the head of the outward facing light bar bolt.


I then ran the switch wire and the power wire through the firewall at the gasket on the front driver side where the hood release cable goes through. I popped the gasket out made a slit in it and forced the cables through. I connected the power wire to a add a fuse and into the fuse box. Make sure to put the add a fuse into a slot that only has power when the ignition is turned on. Don't connect the red power wire directly to the battery or the switch light will draw power all the time and drain your battery. Hopefully this helps someone! Thanks guys!

 

Welcome!

 

How does it look with bumper on?

 

I'll update pics with the bumper on

 

Awesome! Tried to do this with my truck but I have a 1" body lift on... It's not easy getting those bolts into the support beam! I want to mount a 21" light bar that was given to me in the same location.

 

I would love to see some pictures of how this looks from inside the cab at night.

 

Mine's aimed a little high in this photo at 100ft. It's also a 30 inch light bar.

 

I rubber mounted it to the frame.