Roof Lamps for Night-Ops
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September 30, 2003
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Light Installation with a
Safety Devices Roof Rack
The following are descriptions of two separate
ways that I mounted the lights onto the Safety Devices Roof Rack.
The second method might work for some of you that have a different
rack. Much credit belongs to Dave of the Thatched Roof Garage for
use of his tools and expertise.
Installation Version 1
Parts required:
Hella lights (I bought 2 pairs, Hella 500)
Kit includes: lights, switch, wiring,
relay, and enough wiring
Angle aluminum for the brackets
Bolts, nuts, washers for the brackets (the
light kit will have enough hardware for it)
With
this installation I used the existing holes that are drilled in
the rack. Unfortunately, these holes are facing the wrong way to
simply bolt the lights onto the rack. To remedy this, we cut angle
aluminum and drilled two holes into this custom bracket. This
bracket attached to the rack and then the light to it.
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Installation Version 2
Parts required:
Hella lights (I bought 2 pairs, Hella 500)
Kit includes: lights, switch, wiring,
relay, and enough wiring
Angle aluminum for the brackets
4 5/8 carriage bolts with nuts and washers
Yakima
Universal SnapArounds - Pack of 4
Old
bicycle inner tube
This
is the jury-rigged version. However, I like the way it works and I
think it looks fine. Some advantages are: with version 1 the
lights sit pretty far forward and dump a lot of light into the
windscreen. With version 2 the lights sit further back and a
little lower and use the roof as a visor. While some light still
comes in it greatly reduces the amount and increases visibility.
The
Yakima Universal SnapArounds cost around $8 and are almost the
exact same diameter as the SD rack. You can get them through www.rei.com.
To take up the space and make it fit snug I cut strips of an old
bicycle inner tube and used them as a shim. The 5/8-2.5”
carriage bolts fit perfectly, and I used them to bolt the
SnapArounds to the aluminum bracket. With everything attached all
that’s left is the wiring.
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The
lights are all wired in series so that they all come on at the
same time. I ran the wires down the driver’s side and used
aluminum brackets (the kind used to attach pipe to the studs in a
home.) They are shimmied under the rubber door gasket and hold the
wire in place the full length of the door. The switch is mounted
just to the left of the interior fuse box inside the driver’s
side glove box.
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The
last thing I did in this project was custom make a fairing for the
rack. I did this in the name of science to see what effect if any
it had on gas mileage. The study is still ongoing.
I went
down to the local plastic shop and picked up a piece of 1/4”
Lexan. Then with the help of Steve and a few Bass Ales we
attempted to draw some straight lines in order to cut if to fit
using a scroll saw. It came out looking like a pair of Oakley
sunshades. The original plan was to score the reverse side and
paint it black. However, once it was cut and mounted it looked
better clear, so I left it that way. We mounted the fairing with
the same SnapAround clips I mentioned earlier. I slapped a Camel
Trophy sticker on it and it was done.
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