Thread: Custom Install Driving Lights and Light Bar

Hi Tinman and as far as I know, NSW adopted the new ADR about 4 years ago.

This doesn’t help your mate but the police probably had no idea the regulations had changed.

About 20 years ago, a mate of mine got defected in Charters Towers for having driving lights on the roof of his ute. The problem is that QLD has NEVER had a height restriction and the police officer just didn’t know what he was doing.

BTW as per the regulations and ADR, you must fit a switch to be able to turn the driving lights off independently of the high beam.

I have used the same basic setup as Harry but over the last 20 years, rather than drill holes in the bashes of my new vehicles, I mount this switch under the bonnet.

NOTE, the regs do not state where the switch has to be mounted, they just state that there must be one fitted.

Good on ya, mate ! Not a bad job of installing all that kit - - accountant or not ! And stellar for thinking things forward and all . . . plenty of light for eating up a highway at night on the hot side of 140kph, or sifting through the sand and bumps at a late hour off the highway. Either way, you'll be sure to spot anything before you hit it with that kit on your Disco!
Jersey Danny USA

Originally Posted by HarrytheDisco

Been reading the forums for a while getting great insights from some of the threads and thought I would make my first contribution.

I've had my 2011 D4 2.7L Fuji White (aka Henry) for just on 12 months and during this time I've been searching for some aftermarket brackets mount a set of driving lights and a light bar in a relatively non-obtrusive way (stock front bumper), with little success.

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I therefore decided to build my own solution (not an insignificant task for an accountant) and thought some may get benefit from me sharing the process with you.

The idea

Early in the piece I bolted a standard full-length roof rack onto my Disco and received a 22 inch LED light bar from 4WD SupaCentre for Christmas. Using the provided relay wiring and some standard mounting brackets I successfully attached the light bar to the roof racks. The hardest part of the process was finding an opening in the Disco's firewall and splicing into the high beams, but it was relatively straightforward.

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There were however 2 problems with this setup:

• The light bar would only switch on with my high beams (which I know is the only legal way to install them but I wanted the option of running the light bar independently)
• At c.60 watts, the light bar barely added to the light already provided to the stock high beams

Based on this, I decided that my ideal lighting solution would include:

• Spotlights for improved long-range vision
• A more powerful light bar for improved short-range, side-of-road vision
• A wiring setup that would allow me to turn the lights on either with my high beams or independently
• No bulky nudge bars/bull bars to mount to

The hardware

My lighting setup is comprised of:

• 50 inch curved Philips LED light bar by STEDI (https://www.stedi.com.au/curved-phil...-off-road.html)
• Pair 7 inch 280w cree LED spotlights by VOR (purchased 12 Sep 2017, no longer available at the time of writing)
• Some rolled metal sheet and steel brackets, bolts, nuts, washers, screws, electrical cable and other accessories from Bunnings and Jaycar.

The process

The idea for mounting the driving lights was taken from this post -> Novel bracket for Light Bar to the new D4

I decided to bolt my brackets for the driving lights onto the crossbar installed in front of the radiator to give me the option to change spacing / add lights further down the track.

These brackets (Carinya 150 x 150 x 40 x 6mm Galvanised Heavy Duty Angle Bracket) from Bunnings were used (although the version I bought were 320mm long and 55mm wide).

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After considering drilling into the A-pillars above the windscreen for the light bar, I decided the better option was to make a bracket to attach the light bar to the roof racks in order to preserve the integrity of the car.

This was a case of positioning the light bar where I wanted it by propping it up with pieces of foam and then cutting a cardboard template from which I could trace onto steel sheet and then cut.

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The driving lights and the spotlights both came with their own relays which required me splicing into the high beams for power. After some more research online, I came up with a plan to use a 3-way switch (on-off-on) which enables me to choose whether to take power from the high beams or directly from the fuse box.

The diagram below explains the wiring setup I ended up with, which works very well.

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The key when using the 3-way switch when combined with the standard relays provided is to leave the switch in the relay set to ON (in this case, I just cut and joined the wires so that the relay circuit is permanently set to ON) and then insert the 3-way switch where you would normally splice into the high beams. From there, wire the high beams to one of the ON positions of the 3-way and wire power from the fuse box to the other ON position.

I spliced into both the RH and LH high beams to power each of the light bar and driving lights separately.

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I also used two of these fuse socket wire taps (Double Mini Blade Fuse Socket Wire Tap | Jaycar Electronics) to draw power straight from the fuse box as the alternative power source.

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Wiring in the engine bay was kept neat with some wire loom tube, Selleys Knead It epoxy (Selleys 110g Knead It Multipurpose Epoxy Putty | Bunnings Warehouse), and plenty of zip ties!

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There are plenty of bolts in the engine bay which are already used as a ground for stock wiring so I tapped into one of those near the driver's side firewall.

Finding a location on the dash to mount the switches wasn't easy. I wanted the switched to be as discreet as possible. In the end, the best spot was under the existing light switch on the right side of the steering wheel. This part of the dash just pulls off with 5 clips (pull down the cover under the steering wheel first for easier access.

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I punched a hole in the firewall in line with the grommet I found in the engine bay on the driver's side and fed all wiring through there.

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The result
The result is nearly 600w of blindingly bright light that makes night driving a walk in the park.

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The takeaways

1. Install with the future in mind – whilst going through the install, I was conscious of making the setup as removable as possible should I need to return the car to stock, and to protect my resale value (not that I want to sell Henry anytime soon)
2. Measure twice, cut once – The one time I didn’t follow this rule was the one time my wiring ended up being too short!
3. Play it safe around electricals – the last thing I wanted to do was fry the electronics while fiddling with wiring. I always disconnected the battery before doing any wiring and tested circuits with a multi-meter
4. Do your research – The install took about 3 full days (for an accountant), but would’ve taken a lot longer if I hadn’t spent hours on Google researching beforehand
5. Don’t use a drill to do the job of a Dremel – After some stray drill holes to carve out a space for the switches, the dash is going to need some cosmetic surgery!
6. Avoid drilling/grinding steel/metal on or around your car – some stray shards of steel stuck to my bonnet and over the next couple of weeks they rusted into the paintwork. Hopefully a cut and wax will fix this.
7. Accountants can build things too! – Don’t be afraid to give things a go, even if you’ve never used a power tool before.

There may be a part of the install that I’ve missed so if anyone has particular questions regarding any aspect please ask away!