I've just purchased an Xterra and want to mount a light bar where the roof storage would go. I've found that if I were to mount a set of KC HiliTES up there on a straight piece of alumimum track that I would have just about a half of an inch of clearance before hitting my garage. That's really too close for comfort and I would like to be able to put at least a 2" lift kit on - so I need to lower the lights 2" or go with smaller lights.

Size matters and I like big lights so going with a 4" light would mean likely having to drop down to 55w bulbs (whimpy!). I looked around the dealers and found a few light bars but they all look like they stick up too high to fit my garage. I'm also a ham radio operator and need a mounting for a nice size 2M or 440 stick ... the middle of the roof is the best location for antennas.

So I'm pretty handy with metal working but I am not a machinist by any measure. I'm better than most but not as good as some with tools. I put my mind to a roof rack mounted lighting bar that would be mounted lower than the mounting points for the roof storage, could be made with common power tools (no CNC or TIG welding), and could fold over to allow enterance into a garage. Here's what I came up with - total parts are going to be about $100 which includes mounting screws and a can of black spray paint.



I thought about angling the lights downwards rather than putting them at 90 degrees straight back to avoid collecting water on the lens but a closer examination of the design of the KC's makes me think that straight back would be fine as long as the whip ham antenna has enough flex to bend on the next bar back.



So the end is a solid piece of 2" T6 aluminum with a mounting drilled and tapped for a 1/2" mounting bolt. That's going to be the toughest part of the whole project but I already have taps that size laying around. There is one hole drilled straight up and down into which a retaining pin slides into - these guys are sold at Home Depot. I figure I could subsitute a bolt and a wing nut if the retaining pin lets the lights wiggle too much while off road.

Using 0.25" T6 thick tube means that this thing is going to be pretty beefy but the tube weighs in at just a bit less than 7 pounds.



The "L" bracket on the side is 10 inches long meaning it can hit both of the stock roof storages mounting bolts. I'll put a third one in there in the middle and come through with a nice machine bolt and a bottom backing plate a few inches long to spread the stress load out across the bottom. If I wanted to get lower I could as there is about 4" of dip down below the very front air dam on the '06 model but then the lights would point into the air dam.



Here's a scale picture to estimate what the lights would look like at that height. I'll leave enough slack in the power wires so that they can rotate the 90 degrees each way. That center hole will be used for a universal antenna mounting allowing me to swap out antenna's as the spirit moves me to match my radio use. Normally I'll keep a tri-band 70 Cm, 1.25M, and 2M antenna in there but can go bigger or smaller as needed.

I figure it's going to take a couple of hours worth of time to drill the holes, tap each end with a mounting bolt, and paint everything a flat black. Before I mount the thing to the truck I have an idea of putting a 1/4" wooden dowel in the retaining pin's place to see if it will function as a safety allowing the dowel to snap if the lights were to hit a low laying branch (we don't do trees in the desert).

Any suggestions or feedback would be welcome ... before I get out the drill press and chop saws.

Edited to add: These measurements are for the '05-06 model and I'm not sure that they'll work with the earlier generation. The concept ought to work with minor modifications.

Very nice! Awesome design. I'm confused about a couple things: how the tube attached to the angle on the left? Is there a bolt missing from the picture? And I don't understand this part:

"The "L" bracket on the side is 10 inches long meaning it can hit both of the stock roof storages mounting bolts. I'll put a third one in there in the middle and come through with a nice machine bolt and a bottom backing plate a few inches long to spread the stress load out across the bottom. If I wanted to get lower I could as there is about 4" of dip down below the very front air dam on the '06 model but then the lights would point into the air dam."

Is the "L" bracket you speak of the one labeled "C"?

Anyway, it looks very good and I might have to use that design if I decide to get lights! It would definitely help on the highway to have them down to save gas, plus let you get into garages. Excellent!

Yes, item C is an "L" bracket - alumimum channel 3.5" x 3.5" by 0.25" thick. This piece is 10 inchs long and runs lenght-wise down the lenght of the inside of the track where the normal roof rack storage would fit. There will be two holes to mount into the factory storage mounting holes which are 8" a part. Drilling a third hole 4" away from each factory hole will give me a third hole and allow me to put a backing plate on the bottom which will sandwich up. Let me do a quick drawing.



Here's looking sideways at the bracket - the yellow is the current stock mounting for the roof storage. The bracket runs 10" along it allowing three bolts to drop down into the roof rack mount. The third one is an "honest" one with a backing plate to spread the stress all along that plastic. Most of the "L" bracket's bottom is cut away leaving just enough for the "B" part to mount to it at a 90 degree angle.

(I really wish I could do 3D CAD work!)

Ahh, I see...got it. Actually, I could model each part and create that assembly in 3-D SolidWorks in under an hour (I'm an ME and I do this every day...) but I'm not sure how much good that would do, other than provide cool pictures! Unless you wanted to send the drawings to a machine shop, but I doubt that would be cheaper than doing it yourself.

I will probably try this whenever I decide to get lights, it's a very good design. Definitely post pics when you're done!

Great idea. Please keep us posted.

X2THA_T and I were talking about trying to come up with a solution like this after doing his body lift that put his lights about 1/2" from hitting when he pulls into his garage. Your mount sounds like just the ticket!

Nice work!

OK refresh your browsers if you want to see a minor change. I made the main cross bar thinner by half and lowered the diameter by 0.25 of an inch. Looking at some 2.50" 0.25" wall tubing the stuff just struck me as too much - the thing would function as a roof slider if needed! Dropping down to the next thinner size tube wall of 0.125" seems like it will work. I'll order parts up this week from my metal supplier and give the thing a go. The extra 0.25" lower on the lights helps too.

Edited to add: aluminum bill is now down to $56 vice $90 something.

Here's the actual spacing I'm going with on the mounting holes. I wanted to leave a bit of a gap in the middle for an antenna. I know that the lights being that close to the antenna I'll get a pretty good coupling at the higher frequencies but not too bad at the lower ones like 1.25, 2, and 6 meter bands.

Well, I just ordered 4 ProComp 55w lights, 2 spot + 2 flood, and rocker switches from 4x4mods.com, so I'm going to be making this next week as well. I'm going to see if I can use scrap metal that I have at my company's lab, otherwise I'll order it (probably from McMaster, it's the quickest). I'm going to skip the paint and just bead blast the parts. Thanks for the design, man! I'll let you know how I do with mine.

The hard part will be finding an inside diameter tube to match an outside diameter rod. I've got the parts on order but they'll likely not arrive until next week sometime. I went with two sets of lights too but might put a set on the bumper and a set on the roof ... don't think the stock alternator is good for 830 watts worth of lights to go with three sets.

I've always liked a set down low to make rocks and holes fill with shadow to see the contrast better. Heck I'll try both sets up and then one set down to see how they feel. I haven't yet figured out how I'm getting four wires up there though the roof.

I've ordered up the nuts and bolts last night. I'm going to use a pair of 5/16"-18 bolts which will be tapped 1.25" deep into each "B" axle. I figured if I went with just one bolt in the center the thing would want to rotate with the tube where two bolts in each end would hold everything in place. Looking at 3/8" bolts they look like they'd be just a bit too big for the 2" axle.

For the lights I bought some 4.25" long 1/2"-20 bolts as the stock KC bolts aren't going to be long enough to drop down thru the 2.25" tube. Matching plastic insert locking nuts will hold those bolts in place.

I went with grade 8 bolts as they weren't that more expensive than the lessor quality ones.

I made a 3-D model during my lunch break today to help me with making this thing. Check it out - it's a little different than yours and it doesn't have the third support on the top angles. It's to scale, but since I haven't actually gone outside and measured the mounting points and available space, it's not exact - I went by your dimensions.

I also used 2.25"OD x 2"ID aluminum bar, with two short 3" rods on the ends, with two bolts each for attaching to the 3" x 2" angle. The 3" rods keep the large bar in place, while the pin holds it either up or down. I'll throw some o-rings between the long mounting bar and the side of the basket to keep it nice and tight.

The hardest thing will be finding a pin that will hold still during off-road driving.

Anyway, here it is...the first pic is how the assembly looks when up:


And then how it looks down:


And a wireframe view of the pin/rod connection that allows the rotation:


And how the assembly comes together:


You can get all the parts (36" tube, 3" rods, and 10" angles - all aluminum) cut to size at onlinemetals.com for a total of less than $50.

I'm going to make sure my lights can mount to a round bar, and if so, I'll start ordering!

Excellent work !!!

I use onlinemetals for all my fabrication needs. I've built a couple of ham radio antennas for fun. Home Depot sells pins with spring-loaded detents in 1/4" x 2" long ... I don't remember if they carry larger ones. I'm thinking bolts with wing nuts if they don't have them.

That's exactly what I had planned with part "B" - the axle parts. "O" rings would be a nice addition.

I'm a weekend off-roader and probably will flip the lights down 25 days out of 30.

Damn nice job.

I've ordered "Heavy Duty Spring-Loaded Quick-Release Pin 3/8" Diameter, 2-1/2" Usable Length" from McMaster-Carr hardware to try as the holding pins. Looking at 1/2" pins they seemed really big for the application so I'm dropping down to the 3/8ths which still has thousands of pounds of sheer strenght.

so who is going to start mass producing these and how much???

Ordered my aluminum today from onlinemetals. Should be here Tuesday, hopefully I can get everything done by the weekend of the 15th when I have a big wheeling trip with a night run!

I measured the factory mounting points to be 8" apart, and 31" from one side to the other. This, along with the available aluminum stock sizes and type of load we're looking at, dictated the design. I then maximixed the distance between lights (came to 7.25", so this is good for a 6" light) while allowing access to the retaining pin. For the pin, I'm going with McMaster part no. 95255A275, it's 1/4" with a 2.3" usable length, a perfect fit for the 2.25" tube!

I finalized it today during lunch, ended up ordering a 29" round tube cut to size for the actual mounting bar. I'm going to machine all the holes in the round bars/tube, and then I'll be match-drilling the mounting holes on the angles that will attach it to the factory rack, based on how everything fits.

Here's what it looks like:

OK the UPS guy was good to me today and delivered the Onlinemetals.com and KC HiLiTES. Bad news. In the past I have had driving lights where the bolt ran down though the light cup and down into the bumper. KC's don't do that meaning my 4.5" bolts aren't going to work with KC's but will likely work with other less over-priced lights. The KC lights have a second cup that is pop-riveted with five rivets to the bottom of the larger light cup. The bolt is held captive inside that smaller cup and can't be removed without pulling five pop rivets ... which I could do but what a pain.

So looking at my bar I've decided to drill a 1/2" hole on top and a 1" hole on the bottom. This will allow a deep 3/4" socket to reach the bottom of the short KC bolt and make the bottom line of the light bar "cleaner". It will also give me a bit drain hole incase I ever get wet off road . The large 1 inch holes will also allow me to snake the power cables down the pipe's interior with ease.

Each light will have it's chrome power lead enter the pipe through a rubber gasket and then attach to one of two heavy gauge power cables fed from the KC relay. Parts-express.com order for the power leads ought to arrive tomorrow. My 4x4mods.com light switches ought to arrive next week early.

So I dusted off the metal shop and spent an hour looking things over and starting on the first bits. I pulled off the roof storage and verified my initial measurements.



The grade 8 4.5" bolts are shown closer here and arn't going to be used. I throw them in the repair pack for the field.



The 2" solid aluminum rods came cut very nicely from onlinemetals.com and I just basically spent 15 minutes polishing them with 80 and then 180 sandpaper to get them to fit inside the 2" tube. It's a nice tight fit and I think the 3" lenght is right and will give a good balance of strenght and lightness.



Next I cut the first of the "A" brackets lenght-wise so that the shorter leg will fit the width of the roof rack's mounting ridge from the removed roof storage rack.



Looking at the thing I'm going to mount it a bit further back than planned "giving up" the first factory mounting screw. Those things are pretty small diameter and I think I'll be better off with two of my own bolts and one factory screw rather than the other way around.



Looking at the space between the bar and the wind deflector I might add a bit of an aluminum strip in there to fill the hole. I'll use that first, most forward hole holding the alumimum plate in place.

I'm at the point where I need to cut the sections of the longer part of the bracket out in the correct position for the light bar. I'm looking at where it would look and fit bet along that 10" lenght. I want it kind of foward but a bit back in the "wind stream" off of the wind deflector. Come daylight I'll have another look at it.

Engineer three times, measure twice, cut once!

Since the weather is going to be great tomorrow me and the better half are going camping for the first time with the Xterra. The metal shop will sit idle.

The dog came up sick so camping is off and work is back on.

A bit more work. I'm an electrician ... not a machinist. :p

I've got both brackets ready and drilled matching holes though both.



I then drilled and tapped the 2" rods spending a lot of time making sure that they were matched so that the hinge wouldn't bind when mounted on the roof. At this point I'm still assuming that the rails on the roof are parallel.



These things are so tight that a bit of machine oil helps a whole lot moving them in and out.



Next I have to put the brackets up on the roof, drill holes, run screws and then measure between the bracket so that I can cut the tube to width.

A couple of test fittings.

That is beautiful! Will you be able to fit a short fairing in between the roof flush fairing and the light bar?

Sweet! How long did the crossbar end up being? Mine is being cut to 29" which I think will be OK. I don't have a saw (go figure...I have access to a lathe and mill, but no saw) so I tried to buy it cut to the right size. It looks like it will be OK. If anything, the angles will be wider (I'll cut less off the 2" side) to make it fit. I don't think that will matter, I ordered 1/4" angle which is super beefy for this application. Dude that looks awesome! I can't wait to get mine on!

Yes that was part of the plan but I didn't know exactly where I was going to put the bar so I didn't know the size of the fairing. I'll get a bit of aluminum and paint it to match as much as possible the stock wind damm.

28 and 7/8th inches so you're going to be close at 29 inches. I shaved a tiny bit more off of my measurement to allow a bit of expanasion.

I've got the 1/2" holes drilled in the top - there's not going to be room for my antenna. I might add a thick bar back behind the lights for the antenna. If I had gone with 2" rods that extra 2" would have been enough for the antenna. My current challenge is getting the bolts up from below for the KC's - looking at popping a 1" hole up from below. My only concern is that when they're tipped over the 1" hole will whisle with the wind. :p

I've found some one inch gaskets at Home Depot but none with a 1/4" thickness ... the Internet is my friend. My wire and connectors won't arrive until Monday.

Here's a backwards tipped and forwards tipped picture. I am not going to be able to put the retaining pins in at 90 degrees but rather at about 75 degrees to allow them to clear the back cup of the light.





Next I'll drill holes to run the chrome wire guide into the pipe and then another on the passenger's end to run the cables out. McMaster-Carr sells plenty of gaskets ... 25 or 50 at a time! There's also a 1" plug for those bottom access holes. The entire assembly is a bit heavier than the stock roof basket.

Dude that looks awesome! I can't wait to get mine done. I can't believe that my 29" estimate was that close, considering I didn't even remove the basket before ordering the metal cut! My aluminum comes in Tuesday, then I'll be ordering fasteners and cable conduit that should be here the following day.

Very nice job, man. I'll put up pics of mine when it's done!

Nicely done, very clean