Mounting driving lights directly on bumper?

Modified and aftermarket systems, lights, wiring, etc.

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fallvitals
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Mounting driving lights directly on bumper?

Post by fallvitals »

Hi guys, I'm nearly done with my CC. All I have left is the full size bump stops, 3" cat cack exhaust, and dual beam driving lights.

Well I have been looking at brush guards, the ones that will work don't look too appealing, IMHO. Plus I don't want to spend a lot of money on something I don't really want any ways, lol. I just had the redneck idea hit me tonight to just drill and mount the lights directly to the front bumper. I don't think it would look too bad and there should be plenty of room... Here's a diagram of the housing:
http://www.piaa.com/Lamps/Lamp-pages/525.html

So I'm asking for opinions and such. I had planned on saving a big portion of my return, but oh well gotta have a project going on or I'll just be wayyy too bored. And I have wanted some great lighting on a truck for a long time and this should do the trick. Dad raves about piaa bulbs on his bike, he said he wants to get replacement bulbs for his 07 silverado. Which has the best lighting I think I have ever seen, even throws a lot of light past the aide of the truck.
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HenryJ
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Re: Mounting driving lights directly on bumper?

Post by HenryJ »

Pop the grille out and you will find two bolts that hold the bumper. Add a piece of flat iron to those for mounting lights. You may need to drill one small hole in the bumper to keep them from swinging side to side, but at least they would be far enough forward to clear the grille.
Just an idea.

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Re: Mounting driving lights directly on bumper?

Post by fallvitals »

Hm,, ill have to look at that, I thought you first said a piece of angle iron, sounded good, but re-read and you said on piece of flat iron...

Id definantly have to look at it first... from what im thinking it would looked like an iron shelf ontop of my bumper?

From the diagram, I should have plenty of room on the bumper to mount it, maybe have to notch the base of the grill where it flares over the bumper (wouldn't be any different if I bought an Ori Bar). PIAA says you need only 1/8" clearance from the grill to keep the heat from the lamp damaging the grill.


The way you see it,,, will the nuts bolting the lamp to the iron be exposed?

Meaning if someone with a wrench in his truck decided he liked my lights, he could easily take em off, cut the wires and run?



There was another "plus" to mounting it on the bumper, the nuts holding the lamps on would be IN the bumper.. bit harder to theif that... Especially at $300 for this set of driving lights... dont' want em theifed...
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HenryJ
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Re: Mounting driving lights directly on bumper?

Post by HenryJ »

fallvitals wrote:The way you see it,,, will the nuts bolting the lamp to the iron be exposed?

Meaning if someone with a wrench in his truck decided he liked my lights, he could easily take em off, cut the wires and run?
Yes.
Remember you will need room to remove your grille at some point. Make sure you can get the lights off and out of the way to do that.

"Speed doesn't kill, suddenly becoming stationary does." - Richard Hammond
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Re: Mounting driving lights directly on bumper?

Post by fallvitals »

Thought about that too.. I'll just have to wait for a warm (38+) day and just play with the front end some to see what can be done.

Your flat iron idea... do you see it being hidden as much as possible, or blend in or something, becuase I just cant see past a chunck of silver metal bolted and hunging over my front bumper being any where near attractive... :?:

I can't think how it looks from memory... probably wrong, but i think you can fairly easily get to the bumper (if lamps are mounted directly to it) by removing the front skid? Ill just have to give it a good look over tommarow.

Plus from what im reading and the vague install manual that PIAA gives, you only control the lamp via their switch. So, to switch from low to high (fog to driving) you will have to press the vehicles switch, plus the PIAA switch, i think. idk,, maybe you just need to turn their switch on then then vehicle controls it... guess theres only one way to find out, and if its not to my liking, mod it.
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Re: Mounting driving lights directly on bumper?

Post by fallvitals »

Gave it a quick look over today. It would be hard to come up from under the truck to get on the nuts for the PIAA lights. But where I did some trimming on my air dam i found I can slide my hand up and into the bumper with little problem. Thats in the center part of the grill, worst case, I have to take the air dam off to get a little more out to where the lights will be, but very very easy access when I would need to remove the grill.

Not sure if im gonna get those lights as soon as I planned now,,, but soon ill have em, and I think I just figured out how to do it.

I started thinking more about that flat iron idea brule, Wouldn't be that hard to cut it with a skill saw and dremel it up to look a lot cleaner then I was imagening. But I can't get over the idea of the nuts being exposed, even though PIAA does make locks for that reason....
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Re: Mounting driving lights directly on bumper?

Post by HenryJ »

This is exactly what I was talking about: ZR2USA - bumper bolt brackets
Sputnik360 wrote: A lot of people use mounts that attach to the top bumper bolts and go underneath the grille and allow you to put lights on the other end.

Here is a set I made for a friend.

Image

"Speed doesn't kill, suddenly becoming stationary does." - Richard Hammond
"Speed is just a matter of Money - How fast do YOU want to go?"-Mechanic from Mad Max-
If at first you don't succeed - Don't take up Skydiving!
- ThunderII KE7CSK