Light bar ideas?

[spotdog14]

I'm looking to increase the light output on the front of my vehicle and was wondering if anyone has installed one of those LED light bars either in the front bumper/grill or on the luggage rack area?

I think I saw a picture here once of a light bar installed in the front bumper but cannot seem to find it.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[GAINMOB]

ive seen them in the lower and upper grille area

 

[Gruz7]

Behind the front grille seems like a decent spot but idk because the 3rd gen grille is a bit thicker than the 2nd gen one


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[jrscott]

Something like this?

 

[jrscott]

And this

 

[k9education]

I'm looking to increase the light output on the front of my vehicle and was wondering if anyone has installed one of those LED light bars either in the front bumper/grill or on the luggage rack area?

I think I saw a picture here once of a light bar installed in the front bumper but cannot seem to find it.

Thanks for any ideas.

I would focus on the grille area as most states have laws requiring that off-road lights be covered while on road even if they're powered off. If they're behind the grille, you are far less likely to get hassled/ticketed if the lights are off.

 

[spotdog14]

Something like this?

And this

Exactly. What did you end up mounting the lights to?

 

[Flexpedition]

Any thoughts about negative effects on cooling?

The way I see it, the 07's+ have essentially 4 openings for fresh air to cool a 2-row radiator, an AC condenser that supports front & rear HVAC evaporators, theres a small power steering fluid cooler, and the transmission fluid gets cooled off (or warmed, depending on how you see it). Remove the grill and you'll see a decent amount of shroud/duct/baffle/fairing geared at directing air specifically. I'm assssuming Ford spent a fair amount of time/3D/R&D/wind tunnel testing or whatever to determine the most appropriate and effecient size/space/volume of air openings, sizing of fans, etc to cool effectively. (the constant whiners here complain Ford does no R&D anyway, so whatever)

Just saying I'd be concerned about blocking 25% to 50% of those openings for the sake of offroad lighting. I cringe when I see a guy running a winter front come springtime too - except when they are in a Dodge, I smile.

 

[RedExpy]

light bar mounting

Something like this?

do you have a pick of the mounting? i have been wanting to do that but really unsure of how to mount it.

 

[k9education]

Any thoughts about negative effects on cooling?

The way I see it, the 07's+ have essentially 4 openings for fresh air to cool a 2-row radiator, an AC condenser that supports front & rear HVAC evaporators, theres a small power steering fluid cooler, and the transmission fluid gets cooled off (or warmed, depending on how you see it). Remove the grill and you'll see a decent amount of shroud/duct/baffle/fairing geared at directing air specifically. I'm assssuming Ford spent a fair amount of time/3D/R&D/wind tunnel testing or whatever to determine the most appropriate and effecient size/space/volume of air openings, sizing of fans, etc to cool effectively. (the constant whiners here complain Ford does no R&D anyway, so whatever)

Just saying I'd be concerned about blocking 25% to 50% of those openings for the sake of offroad lighting. I cringe when I see a guy running a winter front come springtime too - except when they are in a Dodge, I smile.

I had the same thought when I was considering adding some lights behind the grille, but thought I was probably worrying about nothing. I figured when/if the time came, I would monitor engine/trans temps via the UltraGauge and see if there was a significant deviation from pre-installation temps.

FWIW, Ford spent $6.4 billion on R&D in 2014. Of course there's no way to know precisely how that breaks down since they don't publish that info.