Added a Costco/Coleman roof basket and 4 Hella 500's

riptricket · **Posted:** Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:53 pm

love it! very nice and sleek looking!

also your front bumper cut looks great!

lilblkblt04 · **Posted:** Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:30 pm

How did you end up wiring them? I have two in the front now, and have been seriously considering doing exactly what you did, but I don't want the wires hanging out.

Looks good!!
Ryan

dloc_jeep_KJ · **Posted:** Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:28 am

looks very good!! a rack make a BIG difference doesnt it? i didnt think i would like or want one untill i got one and put it up there. now i love it and wouldnt change it.. only thing is that u hit way more trees and branches when ur wheeling (at least where i live). it sounds way worse than it is though.

CD · **Posted:** Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:47 am

Looks good, do you find it hard to go into parking stations now? I don't think I'd fit into my garage at home with that on. I have to take my pod off when not using it.

Jeep4me99 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 15, 2008 7:07 pm

that definately looks cool!

and I miss the florida weather this time of year. :cry:

jg45 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:01 am

How did you mount the lights to the basket?

GregScuba · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:34 pm

Not sure If I'll still fit into parking garages or not, haven't tried that yet. I'll get some close-up shots of the mounting and the wiring ASAP, probably today or tonight.

EDIT: Uploading the pictures right now...please standby....

Pote · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:29 pm

wild to think that between your lift and the new basket, your KJ now sits a full 9 inches higher than stock. Huge difference. I love the basket and lights. I had a coleman and a blackwidow...I opted for the 2" shorter BW. I wouldn't change it out either. Safari baskets just look right at home on our KJs. nicely done man.

GregScuba · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 4:53 pm

As you can see in the following shots, I hid the wiring in wire-loom and behind the Coleman wind-deflector...

I wired the pairs as Left and Right, so one relay goes to the pair on the right, and the other relay goes to the pair on the left.

In the following you can see the mounting hardware. The bolts that came with the lights were too short (the the basket tubing is 1" diameter, and Hella included 1" mounting bolts, no good). So, I bought four stainless 2" long bolts in the same thread at the hardware store, and ground the heads of the bolts down flatter so that they would fit inside the light mount without interfering with the light.

Now you will see how I routed and concealed the rest of the wiring.

Although there are two switches, I am only using one switch for both pairs of lights (one switch, two relays). I plan on using the second switch in the future for when I put lights on the rear of the basket. You can see I accidentally buggered up my dash. I needed to make clearance for one of the switches, and I couldn't find the Dremel, so I used an air powered cut-off wheel. Unfortunately it was a mistake to use such a large tool in such a small space. I should have known better. Oh well.

I stashed the two relays/fuses and the extra wiring behind the battery.

Hope this helps

WoodysKJ · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:22 pm

Looks great, we need pics at night too!!!!

Somebody's gonna get wet.....

Nice job on the mounting but I will bet that your weatherstriping is now not going to seal up all the way. I hope it does, but I bet it wont.

GregScuba · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:41 pm

WoodysKJ wrote:

I will bet that your weatherstriping is now not going to seal up all the way. I hope it does, but I bet it wont.

Any suggestions then? Anyone?

tommudd · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:54 pm

why couldnt you run the wires under the plastic piece from the rail mounting bracket up towards the windshield and then down the side of the windshield into the engine compartment, coulnt see it if you wrapped the wires in black tape and got it stuck back in that crack , then wiring for the switch could go through the firewall with the factory wiring.

I would shorten all those wires you have wire tied together at the battery as well, could get too hot and melt the insulation
just a suggestion

GregScuba · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:44 pm

tommudd wrote:

why couldnt you run the wires under the plastic piece from the rail mounting bracket up towards the windshield and then down the side of the windshield into the engine compartment, coulnt see it if you wrapped the wires in black tape and got it stuck back in that crack , then wiring for the switch could go through the firewall with the factory wiring.

I would shorten all those wires you have wire tied together at the battery as well, could get too hot and melt the insulation
just a suggestion

Wow, now that you mention this, I have no clue why I didn't do it this way in the first place. Your idea is much easier than my penetrating the fire-wall, entering the cab, then leaving the cab again. Thank you Tom!

Also, I do plan on shortening that bundle of wires behind the battery. I just am holding off on triming them for a little bit until I decide exactly of where I want everything mounted and routed.

Once again, thanks.

riptricket · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:56 pm

ya those wires on across the weatherstripping will cause water to leak into the cab... i did that exact same thing and took my jeep into the dealership and they charged me something like $50 to tell me if i had a leak from somthing and then the guy that was helping me took a garden hose over where the door closes, and it leaked in clear as day. so i would suggest not doing that!

if you open up the driver front door, and go down the pillar between the front and back doors, you will see some round grommet looking things... i ran my wires through there and put some heat resistance electrical tape on there to keep the water out and it has worked great now~!

kolesy · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:37 pm

GregScuba wrote:

tommudd wrote:

why couldnt you run the wires under the plastic piece from the rail mounting bracket up towards the windshield and then down the side of the windshield into the engine compartment, coulnt see it if you wrapped the wires in black tape and got it stuck back in that crack , then wiring for the switch could go through the firewall with the factory wiring.

I would shorten all those wires you have wire tied together at the battery as well, could get too hot and melt the insulation
just a suggestion

Wow, now that you mention this, I have no clue why I didn't do it this way in the first place. Your idea is much easier than my penetrating the fire-wall, entering the cab, then leaving the cab again. Thank you Tom!

Also, I do plan on shortening that bundle of wires behind the battery. I just am holding off on triming them for a little bit until I decide exactly of where I want everything mounted and routed.

Once again, thanks.

That is eaxctly what I did. I wired my 2 pr up on two seperate switches, one for centers and the other for outers. Check it out here.

http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/vie ... highlight=

Mike

jsc7002 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:01 pm

how good are the hellas? are they better than the brights?

GregScuba · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:26 am

jsc7002 wrote:

how good are the hellas? are they better than the brights?

The hella 500 driving lights are a world better than the high beams. They really do light up the night and turn it into day. You can see so much further ahead of you, the range is amazing. They also have a good spread beyond the the center hot-spot out to the sides 180 degrees. It kind of takes the creepiness out of four wheeling at night though. There isn't much mystery when you can see everything.

I also have a set of Hella Free Form 75 Driving lights laying around (the slim rectangular ones). I'm still trying to decide where to put them. I might put them on the sides, and put some cheap floods in the rear. Or would it possibly be better the other way around?

Added a Costco/Coleman roof basket and 4 Hella 500's

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