lightbar paranoia: collision; theft

Has anyone worried about auxiliary lighting on a lightbar getting destroyed in a front end collision or having them stolen?

I live in a downtown area, where people touch bumpers routinely parallel parking.

Am about to install a pair of Hella 4000 ($51.99 from Amazon for an open box) and Hella 700ff's from the HID group buy.

Looking forward to having extra lighting for the start of turkey season in a couple weeks!

Have seen suggestions from other forums: welding the nut to the bolt, Barri nuts from Australia, filing nuts round -- thought I'd check here and see what folks thought

 

I have the same issues as you.hate to have $200-$300 lights stolen or crunched

 

I have 4 kcs on a kc bar and not worried about them being stolen man, but thats just me. And if I get in a wreck or they get messed up ill just buy more and place them behine the grill or get an offroad bumper =D I woulda swore there was a locking style bolt like for your rims you can use on them but you have to use a certain "key" just like rims ill try to find a link

 

http://www.offroadtuff.com/locknuts.htm

There it is sorry for the wait

 

i have 4 light force striker 170 in front and i am worry about theft,but you can get anti theft nuts for them ,light force do sell them,i might hae to put them on soon just to calm down my paranoia lol

as for collision ,if all i wreck is the light and the bar ,i will be happy !

 

i have worried about theft too. my lights aren't cheap either and im hoping a thief doesnt seem them and realize how easy they would be to steal. and those "locking nuts" can be taken off with vice grips.

 

Touche to the vise grips, but im wondering who is really gunna take there time and get them off =/ maybe im being neive but id be scared to death of someone walkin out!

 

I used two different types of bolts to mount my PIAA 520s ... first I used a square nut, then a hex locking nut. So if someone wants to remove them, they're going to need either need a socket + adjustable wrench / vice grips, or take their time with the just the wrench / grips. A socket won't get the square nut off, so sockets alone won't work.

Of course they could just unbolt the lights from the brackets ... but I used 2 different bolts / screws on each light ... on one side is a phillips + hex nut ... the other side is a slot screw (no hex head). So again, someone is going to need a couple tools to even get it off the bracket.

As for stealing the whole light bar .. mine's an Avid ... 4 big bolts hold it to the bumper mounts, and there wasn't exactly a ton of space to work with in there. So it's going to take someone probably more time than they want to spend.

Rule #1 ... make it more of a pain to remove than the next guy's, and you should be just fine. Thieves look for the quick score. Unless they really want what you got, they're just not going to dick with non-standard mounts.

Now I'm looking for a way to wire on my grills ... probably just going to run a length of insulated twisted copper wire around the rims and behind the lights. Easy to cut? Sure ... if you have cutters. But they won't be as easy to remove as the next guy's!

 

I had 4 Hella 500s get stolen in the school parking garage here in Reno. Fucking thieves >: |

Didn't find out about the barri nuts until after. Check expedition exchange. Don't forget about the adjusting bolts.

 

I have a nfab light bar. I kinda rear ended someone the other day at like 5-10mph. No damage to light bar or the lights. No damage to the truck at all. The other truck has a hole in the bumper where the light bar hit. Pretty damn sturdy light bar or maybe get the prerunner light bar for better frontal light protection

 

I think about it... mostly about hitting someone or an idiot backing into me... but I just like having them there until something happens... I park in the garage... and many trucks around here have off road lights, so mine isn't too far outwardly looking!



2 Kragen HID Euro/ Driving beams, 2 Hella 4000 100 watt Halogen Pencil beams

 

maybe you could use some 16gauge cable and secure it to the light bar if you don't want to weld the nut. a thief probably wont have the snips on hand to cut it and for sure not able to yank it off.

 

If they want it bad enough they will take it I rather my stuff be somewhat easy to take off just so if they feel they need to take flights they don't need to fuck up other shit that cost more than $70