Who has mounted a 50" light bar, and how did you run your wires?

I have mine mounted on my Thule bar, but I don't like it up so high up, thoughts? Links to your install would be appreciated!

 

So I got ask, with that light on does it light your hood up a lot? Making it a little harder to see, best place would be up front somewhere. But I am a fan of how it looks up top.

 

Talking to Ridgid, they say that mounting higher up is better, and that there shouldn't be any shadow issues or casting light onto the hood, but I have not confirmed that yet.

It's growing on me a little bit, but I don't have it wired in yet. I'm afraid to drill a hole in the roof, being that I am in Michigan, with all sorts of salt and rust issues come wintertime.

The reason I put it on my roof rack, is because I didn't want to drill into the windshield frame area. Now I just need to figure how to run the wiring so it doesn't look like a hack job.

 

I had a Whelen light bar on the roof of my Expedition (I mounted it to the roof rack rails). I actually extended the wiring and ran it just inside the passenger side roof rack rail, then in through the opening at the hinge and through the opening just behind your center mounted brake light. Open your rear hatch and check the hinge area - there is a HUGE amount of room there you can run a wire loom through. Secure it with those double-sided squares you can use to hold TV wiring using a zip tie to keep it from getting pinched.

I picked up some flat aluminum bar (1" wide) from Lowes, and cut it down to fit in the roof rack rails. Drill a hole in the center and tap out some threads, and you have a 'backer nut' that works the same as the ones for your roof rack rails. Cut and drill 4-5 of these.

Cut another 4-5 sections of bar at about 2-2.5" long and drill out a hole that lines up with those backer nuts, and you have a 'bracket' you can use to hold the wiring in place. Drill two small holes through that bracket and you can either zip tie or run a small metal strip to secure the wiring from slipping and moving (so low lying limbs, car washes, etc. won't pull the wiring out). Mount the wires 'under' the bracket...it will ride between the clip and the roof of the truck. If you want, get spiffy like I did and polish them with a buffer before you mount them - if you do it right they'll almost look chromed.

It's inside the roof rack rail so you can't see it unless you are 7' tall, and mine held secure now for a good 4 years on my Excpedition, and now that you've reminded me of it I'm going to make some for the Excursion this weekend. I'll post pics.

 

A small far as mounting it up high, of course rigid says mounted high is ok because they are in the business of selling light bars that fit up high.

They have some use mounted high but it's limited.

As a off road light the problem is.
Any dust, rain, snow or fog in the air will make using it very fatiguing on your eyes as the light reflects back towards you. Down low is a far better solution.

As a driving light.
To keep the light out of oncoming traffic you need to point it down an angle that negates any long range lighting gain in visibility and even if pointed down it is still likely to blind oncoming traffic. Low is a better option here as well

Which leaves its usefulness limited to clear nights without inclement weather on deserted roads,

 

Makes sense! I'm going to leave it up top for now, and see how I like the light.

I would like to try it down below at bumper level, below my winch.

Talking to Rigid, they said I could run the 50" bar off of the factory fog lamps. Would this work, or is there not enough amps going to the fogs to power the LED bar?

 

The 50" rigid pulls 20 amps, the excursion headlamp- fog lamp wiring and fuse is designed around a shared 30 amp circuit . So no, you need a seperate circuit.

You can buy a complete 20 amp wiring harness with relay and switch that also has the Deutch connector for about $30 bucks

Wire Harness - For 20" ~ 50" SR-Series &... | Rigid Industries

 

I dont get a huge amount of glare from the hood but I do get light bouncing off the rack bar and shining into the windshield. when I am in Texas in November, I will add a 5% strip on the top and 80% across the entire windshield amd hopefully that will help.