Today we are going to be mounting a 50 inch light bar on my truck. Let me explain what
I have done so far. That piece of duct tape right there is marking the center of the windshield.
As you can see on the light bar itself I have put a piece of duct tape signaling where the
middle of the light bar is so I can just line the two pieces up. Then I built this contraption
between two ladders to help support the light bar and so the light bar can just be resting
on top of this I have put the level on the center there so I can make sure the level
is in the right place for the light bar. The light bar is going to be level when I mount
it. This is just held up with some wood, duct tape and some scaffolding. Now I’m going
to set the light bar in place on the top. Now that the light bar is in place positioned
to where it needs to be. I’m going to put the level back into place so that the boards
always stay level. So right here, this is how we are going to design the brackets for
it. So from the top corner we are going to screw the brackets in right here on the frame
of the truck. It just has to extend enough so that we can screw it into the side of the
light here. So the metal has to be at least 6 inches long. I’m going to kind of curve
it to go along with the lip of the metal here. Then bend it out a little bit so that it will
fit. So bend it out, angle it out just a little bit so that it will mount with the edge of
the light bar itself. Now if you bought a shorter light bar you would have to angle
your bracket it in and then curve it up. I’ve seen some of those with like the 40inch light
bars. Since this one is 50 inches and it’s just a little bit longer then my truck we
have to bolt it, angle it, straighten it, and that’s it! Lots of cars will have similar
seams or creases in the frames on either side of the car. So this crease right here is the
exact same on the other side. So you kind of use those to reference where you want the
medal bracket to hold up the light. So mine is going to go just a little bit over this
line. I’m going to make sure that it goes over the same distance on the other side,
to keep it universal.
So right now it’s bent perfectly so that the curve of this won’t ever touch the bracket.
I’m going to mark where I can bend it up so that it will connect where it bolts into
the light. Right about there. That will give it enough clearance for this and allow it
to bolt into that. So now I just need to bend it up so that it’s parallel with this bottom
part right here, that mounts into the car.
Make sure you are using the correct drill bit for the bolt that goes into the side to
hold up the light. You want a bit that will cover up all of the threads. You can see on
this particular bit that you can see some of the threads on the top and on the bottom
of the bit. So I’m going to go ahead and switch to a bigger bit, and that will make
it so that the screw slides right into the slot with gripping on the threads or destroying
any of the threads. Now I can drill a hole in the side of the mount, since I have it
all pinned up against the truck. This is just like a rough placement right now. When I finally
put it on I’m going to put a bit of calk in-between this and the bolts so that no water
of anything will seep inside. Plus I have to paint it and trim it. So it doesn’t look
like just a piece of iron. Now I’m just going to trim it down a little bit so that
it will match with the curves of the truck perfectly. So that it will sit flatter against
the truck. Now I have the light bar bolted in on this side. Right now I have to get this
hole lined up so that the light is level on the top and its pointed straight forward.
So how I’m going to do that; to level it up and down with the ground is pretty easy;
I just need to raise and lower the light bar until the little bubble is in the middle.
So it needs to go up a little on this left side. Then as far as pointing straight forward
I’m going to make sure that the gap between the windshield and the light bar itself is
uniform on the whole side. So I have to do that both at the same time while I am getting
this in place to figure out where to drill the hole on this bracket. Now before I install
the finished bracket in place. Which is this guy, now that it’s all painted up. I’m
going to take some clear silicone sealant, and just go ahead and put it on all the little
holes, that way it won’t leak and it won’t get water inside of the truck and it will
help kind of weather proof it a little bit. Now the silicone is in place and I can go
ahead and install that bracket. The mount is installed. Super sturdy. The reason I use
a couple different kinds of screws is because, even though these are both 2 inches they are
slightly a different length and I wanted to make sure that the nuts on the inside were
able to stay on. You can kind of see the nuts right there. The reason I used these two darker
screws is because they are a harder grade of screws. They are more durable, but they
didn’t come in the two inch length that I needed. Those ones as well are tied in with
nuts there in the back. So on the wiring harness this end right here with the black and red
cables this is what attached to the ground which is somewhere on your frame, and this
attaches to the battery terminal. Then these ends go inside the cab. That end right there
connects to the light bar itself and then this end connects to the little switch that
turns the light bar on and off. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to take these ends
and stick them inside. In the fire wall there is a little hole right there. You can see
that I already have one wire coming out from my car alarm. So I’m just going to take
both of these and stick them through that hole and they are going to end up inside the
cab underneath the dash board. As far as wiring goes I mentioned before that I came back out
through the firing wall. Then I screwed this on just through a mounting bracket. You know
just to something that something else was mounted onto. Then I have the grounding screw
right here that some of my other things like my stereo and HAD lights are grounded to.
Then I just took the power and wired it into the power terminal of the battery. As soon
as you do that this little guy right here will turn red. Then you can just press the
button and the light will turn on and off. So as far as the wiring for the light goes
I just drilled a little hole into the cab a little bit bigger than the cable and I have
also siliconed that as you can tell. So the silicone is going to keep the water out. It’s
not the most beautiful job but I can clean it out in a second. On the inside of the cab
I have that big black wire coming down here, and this is for my car alarm. Then I have
connected them here and run it down underneath. I’m just going to clean all that up and
then stuff it all up underneath the firewall. The switch, which is what turns on and off
the lights. I’m probably just going to mount this right here kind of out of the way cause
that light is going to be on all of the time and I don’t want that blinding me so I’ll
just have it right here where I can just reach down and click it whenever I want. Surprisingly
enough the weather stripping went back on even though all those nuts and bolts are in
place. So the whole thing is still going to be relatively quiet and water proof because
the weather stripping fits on. If it would have fit. I would have just cut it here and
here and left the weather stripping on, on either side instead of where the bracket is.
Alright so now for the cotter pins on the side. I assumed that this would rotate fairly
easily, but actually when you clamp these down I actually have a lock in washer inside
of here as well and one on the other side as well. When you clamp it down it actually
holds really tight. I’m not super worried about it. The cotter pin idea was that I could
take a really long one, and just stick it inside that little hole right there and as
it goes into the hole it will go thought the little slides in the heat sink. Just like
that. You can’t really see it because of the camera angle, but it’s going right in-between
these little fins right here. Since there in one on this side and one on that side it’s
going to keep it level straight up and down or whatever position that I angle it at. So
I can take the pin out rotate it down and put the pin back in. obviously with this camera
you can’t tell a whole lot cause it doesn’t pick up all the lights from the head light,
but you can tell a huge difference when the 50 inch light bar is on. One more time in
a cemetery so you can see that the normal headlights can show about 3 headstones out,
and then with the 50inch light bar you can see quite a bit farther. If you’re interested
in buying a 50inch light bar I have linked down below. The one I bought was about $250.
So pretty cheap. That’s it! If you have any questions don’t forget if you have any
if it helped you and don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks for watching.