Gobi light bar mod
After four years of faithful service, my Chinese 40" LED light bar needed to be retired. I decided it was time for a change and was faced with two choices- buy a Ranger hoop or modify my Stealth hoop. I chose the latter because who doesn't love a project. If I was going to take the time and effort to essentially make my own light hoop I figured why not go big. Before diving in I made a mock-up to at least see how ridiculous my concept was using some 9" pots from my summer landscaping project (that somehow never made it into the trash) and some scrap wood. Armed with faith, a half baked plan, and a case of cold ones here's what I came up with:
Before you ask, the notch on the passenger side is to allow me to still mount my kayak up there. Surprisingly, I haven't noticed very much new wind noise although this is likely because I'm hard of hearing and there's already plenty of stuff contributing to wind noise. There's also the side benefit of four 9" lights up top, I'll never lose my Jeep in a parking lot š
Materials needed:
- 8x 90* 3/4" EMT elbows
- 1x 10' 3/4" EMT conduit
- 6x EMT connectors (great for mock-up and being able to use lap vice butt welds on the straight sections)
- 6ga or 8ga steel strip
- rubber gasket material (optional)
- Grinder, cutoff wheel, knotted wire wheel
- MIG welder (I used a crappy one from HF) and associated gear
***N99 or better mask that fits under your welding hood***
- EMT is galvanized and welding it WILL give you a headache at best, put you in the hospital
- Case of your favorite beverage (if you've met me, this goes without saying)
- Paint and primer
- 9" Lights
- A willingness to ruin a perfectly good $500 part
Lessons Learned & Tips:
- The off-gassing is no joke even after cleaning up the galvanization from the conduit as best I could/was willing to do. Wear the mask even for grinding.
- 3/4" EMT is almost the exact diameter of the smaller tubes used on a Gobi Rack - 1" is closer to the larger ones.
- Fishmouthing/notching is significantly easier using a template (http://harderwoods.com/pipe.html)
Thanks! Iāve always liked the Mickey Mouse KC Lights look but didnāt like how four (more just seems cluttered) small 6ā lights look spread across the roof in the JKU and the 9ā lights werenāt on the market in my price range the first time around.
They certainly get a wide range of looks from chuckling to appreciation to holy sh...