Has anyone made a roof rack or something of that nature to put lights on the roof? I want to do it but I would rather make the piece myself rather than pay for it. I am looking for ideas.

Evan

 

you need to get us more info, does your 4Runner have roof rack on top? do you currently have a roof basket? i know yakima makes lighting bracket for their loadworriar basket.

it's kinda tough to just build some light bar by yourself. it's doable, but i've never seen one which is clean and neat.

buying a lightbar is gonna be cheaper than DIY, in some way.

i made this one out of 1/16" steel plate for my Coleman basket so i can mount 4 big lights on top still keeps a low profile

 

im not a big fan of having lights above and behind your line of sight, if you're behind somebody thats kicking up alot of dust it makes it much harder to see than if your lights are lower (like front bumper)

 

When I ran a second set of Hella 500s on top of my rack on my old rig, my conclusion was that they were about 90% useless.

The light up there reflected off of the hood and made it that much more difficult to see.

They look cool, but in my case I was not satisfied with them up there.
Now the ones on the front bumper were very impressive.

 

Ditto on that.

 

Well if you have a roof rack i recently made a light bar on top with just some galvanized steel im going to ty and post pictures pretty soon you should check them out

 

I made a rack, put some lights on it. I was satisfied. I'll post some pics when i can.

 

i just put on a carr light bar with 4 lights

 

i got the bar for 165 w/ mounts and its pretty easy ..... hardest part is the wiring which is more of a pain in the ass

 

i've got lights on my coleman, not wired up, don't plan to until i have manual hubs in a month then I'' wire them...it's just like wiring lights on the bull bar/brush guard, the only thing different is you have to decided whether your gonna go through a door jam or straight through the roof and seal it.

cr@sh, where'd you get your avatar, i love it!

 

Well eventually I want to get a TJM bumper and since most of you see the lights as useless on top I guess I will drill through my bumper for now. I have a roof rack by the way.

Evan

 

Is it a factory one or aftermarket?

 

It is the factory one.

Evan

 

just tested the roof lights they look bad ass at night but my high beams light up the same amount of area as the top lights but o well it looks cool ....wait till i put hids up there

 

i dunno, i have lights on the roll bar in my bed. they light up pretty good. im satisfied. im actually not satisfied with the ones on my bumper, i cant get them to aim properly. sometime im gonna try some hellas or piaas.

 

i have 4 HID lights on my roof and 2 big HID lights on my bar, the roof ones are great as here in oz we do a lot of night bush driving which involves a lot of river crossings and the bumper lights are no good when there under water.
mine are spread lights on top and spot beam on the bumper.
also a lot of people have them on the roof too far forward which then it reflects of your hood, mine are situated behind my head.

 

yea i got my light bar in the middle of my cab and im satisified with the light....no glare on my hood ... but i think im going to change the 2 fogs to driving lights

 

I have done a lot of research on this subject (being my bored self) and tested a lot in real life applications, as always to each his own first of all, but I find it works much better to have flood lights on your front bumper, and then spots up top, this way the light goes past your hood and lights up the trail further ahead, and then the floods light up the trail in your immediate path, this setup seems to work pretty well for me, and with a factory roof rack it would be pretty simple to rig one up, (granted you have a welder), or you at least situate it so it will bolt together nicely, in any case to make it look good, you will either need some proper way (not pliers) to bend the metal, or a welder and some sort of cutting tool, like a hacksaw. and of course... a rattle can good luck