[Cofra]

Good day,

There should be enough space beneath the licence plate to do a decent installation, has anyone done it or seen it done? Looking for alternatives.

Regards, Christian

 

[SlyCoopers]

The closest that I have seen is a license plate bracket with mounting holes that goes between the mazda bracket and the plate itself using those screws as its own mounting point. 2 downsides to this as well as mounting to the space shown in your picture is weight and accessibility.

By weight, I mean the added weight of the lightbar (or even "offroad fog lamps" like hella lights 5"+) might be too much for a license plate screw to keep on since its ultimately attacked to a plastic bumper which would be the same issue as mounting it to your bumper lip. Driving at faster speeds would add more wind resistance and drag further stressing the mounting points, which again plastic/fiberglass bumper isnt going to be the same as bolting to a metal fastened point.

By accessibility, I mean that if you(or a repair shop) need to take off the bumper to work on it, complications will arise depending on the installation. Having a light there would require wiring behind the bumper so you would need to fasten an elaborate way to disconnect the light bar wiring similar to how fog lights are usually set up and have to warn every single person who works on the car so they dont rip anything off.

I dont want to seem like a downer since Ive wanted to do the same for a while but the risk and setup would be too much of a hassle especially since Im quite fond of taking the bumper off to wire stuff around. I personally went with a roof rack and light bar attached on that all with some randomly sourced parts but thats not without its own faults and irritation. Although I feel more comfortable driving highway speeds in windy weather with it mounted to a roof rack securely rather than relying on the strength of fiberglass bumper

 

[JPA]

I wouldn't mount HI-beams that low. You get too much bright light just in front of the car.
Your eyes will adjust to that and makes it harder to see farther.

The whole front bumper is really flexible and it's hard to mount aux lights so that they don't vibrate.
I have bracket under the license plate + upper struts for the lights.

 

[Cofra]

Thanks for great answers and your pictures!

Slycoopers:
From a light/beam perspective I do think that the roof is a good choice. Does it produce any noticeable wind noise when for example driving highway speeds?

JPA:
I will look into this. I think I'll in that case wait a bit and see if any kind of grille with space for recessed light show up on the market.

Thanks again.

 

[anchorman]

Well I’m the first to admit I’m a bit old fashioned but the only ones I’ve seen of those things have been in the USA and after passing one I couldn’t see properly - they are outrageously bright and they bear no consideration to other road users. I hope they never make it to the UK.

 

[Cofra]

Of course there's a need to think when using them. I live in the northern half of Sweden and part of the year (autumn/winter) is very dark and there's a lot of wildlife, so mounting extra lights adds safety and people are usually quite good here when it comes to using them right.

 

[funambulistic]

I live in Dallas, TX. There is little to no wildlife in a metropolis of 6+ million folks (though it is not as crowded as some NE Us cities or, say, London and surrounding areas). My car has LED daytime driving lights, LED headlamps and LED driving/fog (though fog is rather rare) and I find the lighting quite sufficient. Then again, I used to live in wilds of west Texas (also known as El Paso) and we would go off-roading quite a bit and small deer and coyotes were quite a nuisance after dark. Therefore, the addition of external driving lights in areas (such as Sweden) may be of a benefit.

 

[NotAPreppie]

I could see a low-mount LED bar working as a fog light if the emitters had a "batwing" or eliptical style diffuser to keep the light flat, low and wide.

 

[SlyCoopers]

Thanks for great answers and your pictures!

Slycoopers:
From a light/beam perspective I do think that the roof is a good choice. Does it produce any noticeable wind noise when for example driving highway speeds?

JPA:
I will look into this. I think I'll in that case wait a bit and see if any kind of grille with space for recessed light show up on the market.

Thanks again.

It does produce noise unfortunately but then again I attach the roof basket with the bar as needed since I mainly use it for those "offroading/rally" trips up north which does not have incoming traffic to blind others. Top mount lights and even some bottom mount lights are questionable in legality over here for operating on roads with other cars since they are usually intended to blast an enormous amount of light typically more than hibeams. It depends what you are going to do with it in the first place.

 

[Cofra]

It does produce noise unfortunately but then again I attach the roof basket with the bar as needed since I mainly use it for those "offroading/rally" trips up north which does not have incoming traffic to blind others. Top mount lights and even some bottom mount lights are questionable in legality over here for operating on roads with other cars since they are usually intended to blast an enormous amount of light typically more than hibeams. It depends what you are going to do with it in the first place.

Thanks.

Where and how did you run the wire up to the roof?

Regards, Christian

 

[SlyCoopers]

It got unnecessarily elaborate as I hate having wires more exposed than they have to be and cant stand them running down spots like side of the windshield.
The light's wiring is tied to the basket, ran it down the roof rack bar mount, fed it through into the capped channel of the rhino rack mounting point and in there is a waterproof connector (which is easily accessible through a key locked cap of the bar mount and makes it easiler to detach without unwiring the whole thing). The other half of the connector is fed under the oem roof channel cap down the back and fed through the rubber grommet of the rear hatch wires, then through the interior and to the engine bay to a relay. Switch is mounted near the gas cap/hood lever. On the bright side you cant see any of the wires except when opening the trunk and even then its almost unnoticeable. Also the rhino rack roof rack system is somewhat different from the oem rails so that would

It really was more work than it was worth but I had a lot of time on my hands last summer lol. Mounting lights on the front end of the car is easier to just run wires behind the bumper and to the engine bay.