Thread: Work Lights On Roof Rack

I have a pair of work lights I wish to mount on the rear corners of my roof rack. My question is where do I feed the wires? I don't want to drill holes in the roof but I see no other option. Vehicle is a D1.

Dave.

How permanent they are to be will dictate how you do it. Admittedly I don't know a lot about a D1, however having installed a lot of mobile phone car kits (back in the days before bluetooth etc), cb radios, spotlights, worklights and other internal accessories, I always went by one or 2 fairly basic rules. If it is ever likely you will want to sell the car without the accessory, install it in such a way that when you remove it there is no trace that it was ever there. Harder to install that way but better if you only plan to keep the car a few years. Also usually costs more but I always gave my customers the option. Also if it is ever going to be temporarily removed and you don't want wires or holes, do it with brackets and plugs so when removed you can't see any trace of where it fits, but if it will be on and off frequently, make it simple to fit and remove.

At the end of the day, some things just need to be drilled and fitted through, although my preference is not to do this where possible. There is no shortage of ways to plug up or cap a hole on the occasion that you do need to drill - I have a 1" round hole and a couple of bolts on my series 3 roof where the previous owner had something like a spotlight or an antenna, I will be looking for half decent ways to patch this or cover it so it doesn't stand out too much. A few people have suggested using plugs for your lights, you could always consider fitting a couple of permanent sockets flush mounted close to the body much like your caravan extrnal power sockets but something smaller (weatherproof of course) close to where the lights will go, then if you sell the vehicle you can rewire them as power sockets, or by then you may just want to leave the lights on there or pick up a set of $25 supercheap ones to replace your good ones and then everybody's happy. Thankfully you aren't pulling big amps with a couple of worklights so you don't need massive wires or plugs.

If you post a pic of your roof rack and roof where the wiring would have to go I'll happily offer some more personalised suggestions.