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40" LED Light Bar Installed

84K views 134 replies 44 participants last post by  ngdavid 
#1 · (Edited)
After seeing a few posts of people installing LED light bars i decided i would undertake this adventure. I purchased a budget LED bar here 40 Inch CREE S-Series - Lineside LED. Light seems strong and service was great. Advice on this light bar. Since you are mounting it behind a grill and its a combo light you will lose a lot of spread on the light. I would contact Eric who is a great guy and ask him to add a few more spot reflectors to your bar. Feel free to call his as hes very nice to talk to and can offer great advice. If you have any questions that i did not cover feel free to PM me.



This system was great, easy to install, and was affordable on the budget i wanted to pay.

Things you will need before you start.

(2) 1/4" x 20 x 2" Grade 8 Allen head bolts and 1/4" x 20 Nylon Lock Nuts (What i used you don't have to) ** DO NOT USE THE NUTS SHOWN ON THE LEFT, I MADE THAT MISTAKE**

(14) 1/8" thick Washers. Two extra in case you lose one.

You will need these as the light bar has to be raised to sit evenly in the grill section.





First you want to remove you grill from the truck. Its very easy, but make sure you pull towards your body and not up to the Sky. Once exposed you will see the black where you want to mount to.

You want to mount the bracket as far back as possible with still getting a good mount. This is subjective as the brackets are moveable on the light bar and location can change on the black frame mount. I believe i did the brackets roughly 2 1/2" from the edge of the bar.



Once drilled mount the bracket. Mount the bracket. I used a total of 6 1/8" washers to get the desired height. You could use probably 1 - 2 more to get it perfectly centered.





Once both brackets are mounted you will slide your light bar in to the brackets from the left side of your truck. Loosen the light height adjustments and slide it on in.





You could get away with an 1/8" or 1/4" more.



Time to start the wiring harness. This harness provided was very easy and very straight forward. Hardest part about this install was the getting the switch connector through the firewall rubber. You will need a coat hanger and razorblade. Make a cut in the rubber on both sides, tape your switch wiring for the switch to the coat hanger and go. This probably took my 2 hours and it was being very stubborn and the wiring is pretty large. Once its through go through the harness zip tying everything up and you should be done.







Unfortunately my night shots are bad as they are with my phone so it automatically adjusts the light and the location was bad. The light bar is very bright.

Low Beams



High Beams



High Beam + Light Bar.

 
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#3 ·
Thank you!
 
#4 ·
Nice install

The only thing I would change is once you know how thick the washer stack is, I would replace them with bolt spacers or "stand-offs". That way they can be painted, PD, por15, or what ever else floats your boat.

Was the quality/output of the lineside led worth the money?


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#6 ·
I am. Im asking my laser designer here at work to fab up to spacers. From asking the guy on the other thread (30" light bar) i initially thought it would be 3 washers but when installed it needed more so eventually i will, but can live it for now.

I have never owned another LED light bar so i dont really have something to compare it to but my initial thoughts are it was well worth it.

1. Build quality seems great with a strong heavy feelings housing and easy to install wiring harness

2. Output seems good, the output color is a little blue for my taste but is definitely brighter than my 5000K HID's. But as stated above im probably choking the output due to mounting inside the grill. If you do go with lineside i would give Eric a call, explain your situation (mounting location, etc.) and ask him to put more spot reflectors in.

3. Customer Service was great. Eric answered all my e-mails and calls swiftly. A few of the of the little allen bolts holding on the clear cover were stripped and he offered to send new ones out ASAP at no cost as well as offering to send out more spot reflectors at no cost as well.

4. Price. I wasn't looking to spend the amount of money the Rigids and some of the other brands cost. This light will likely be used for occasional mountain or desert driving and wont see too much harsh weather since i live in California. I figured with all these factors at $ 267.00 Out the door i couldnt beat it.
 
#5 ·
Nice work and nice write-up BDB!

Would you do it again?
Will this give me an edge against suicide deer? (good projection/side as well as frontal)
Do chicks dig it? I'm digging it, I'm not a chick but it doesn't hurt to ask. :)

Can you give us a shot with just the 40 by itself and some background to judge it by?

I know I asking a lot, but damn it seems like the best bang/buck if they are throwing some tonnage of lumens....
 
#7 ·
I would do it again. Cost to Satisfaction ratio is much high in the satisfaction area.

Unfortunately i cant answer your questions about suicide deer since i live in Cali, and the only thing we have to watch out for are the Democrats and Vegetarians / Vegans in which i speed up. Like i said in my response above side output wont be to its full potential great because the light is recessed in the grill which chokes the output. Eric from lineside told me the lights are "Setup" for an %80 side projection but would definitely ask eric to put more spoke reflectors to get the most frontal projection. But short Installing this light will definitely give you an added light source you might be looking for.

Ill try and grab just the 40 tonight.

Well i got laid last night but cant confirm if it was because of the light bar. I will pull up with it on and hope she comes out naked.
 
#8 ·
Comparison against something

Low beams



Light bar only

 
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#12 ·
Switch that comes with the wiring harness with red and green indicator light
 
#15 ·
The force is strong with this BDB.
(even if it isn't an electric pantie dropper)

You tell all those people that we here on T.T. think you're really bright.

When my time comes to do my 40", I think I'll use some black plastic donut stand-offs like the ones that come with flat panel wall mount kits. I have a bunch laying around. They are like thick washers. 28/32" across. Three of them stacked are 3/4" high. They have 5/16" holes. PM me if you want and I 'll send you 6 of them.
 
#16 ·
Appreciate the offer but im going to fab up a spacer. Just make sure since they are plastic they dont crack when torquing the bracket down. Other than that Post Pics!
 
#18 ·
Can you post a pic of the truck with hood closed so I can see what the lift looks like behind the grill.


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#19 ·
Can you elaborate? The grill is closed on the original post.
 
#20 ·
#24 · (Edited)
Thank you! I definitely creeped on your post before doing it. I think the best part about this particular install is its not a bank breaker. I understand the Rigid and other brands are a better product but im definitely satisfied with the budget bar.

I would like to see a Rigid 40" install and see the comparison.
 
#22 ·
Looks awesome. I Just installed a e-series rigid myself. Mounted it on front light bar for better adjustment. I want to mount a single sr-series on the top part of our hoods. It would look sick.
 
#23 ·
Ya it would! But when i took a look at it, it looked like there would be some work involved (cutting and stuff) with installing it. But wold so awesome if installed
 
#25 ·
rigid, Cree, doesn't matter. I mean unless you plan to race baha lol. Only reason I have a e-series rigid is because of eBay. Looks great!
 
#26 ·
Also note to everyone. CREE is just a manufacturer of the actually LED diode itself. So the light bar is a no name light bar using Cree diodes. Although Cree is a well known name brand they are not "the best" just cheaper to manufacturer
 
#29 ·
Anyone else do this yet? Compare installs
 
#31 ·
Stuck it on with double sided tape next to the interior light switch and whatever is on the other side of that
 
#32 ·
Very nice!
 
#33 ·
I plan to get on board with this in a similar way. It wont be for a few months though.

I was looking under my SR5 hood. Two things came to mind:

1. Would it be better to mount it higher for better projection?
2. Could it be mounted on the flat deck that is below the release handle when you open the hood?

Seems to have enough room (height), but without having a 40" in my hand, its impossible to tell.
Why not mount it there? Aside from modding the release lever so it can still be opened....
 
#34 ·
1.Theoretically yes, The higher the mount the better distribution of light.

2. Not sure i didn't look. But i do know that the bottom part of the grill where mine is mounted has the largest gap in plastic having the least restriction of light.
 
#35 ·
Anyone else do this install as i think my lights aren't adjusted right.
 
#38 ·
Love this post. Thank you.

I think you may be right in that they may be slightly aimed high? Thinking if for a daily application (which it doesnt sound like you are using) a slightdownward angle on the light would be perfect, maybe a 1/8 type slope when you make those spacers?
 
#37 ·
I only use it when needed as you definitely would get a ticket driving with it on.
 
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#41 ·
BigDutch. A million thanks for the great write up. Just finished my 40 inch LED light bar install in about 1.5 hours (including the trip to Home Depot).

The only remotely difficult part was feeding the wire through the firewall. For that part, I slit both sides of the lower "pie slice" on the rubber grommet (if you know what piece I'm talking about it'll make sense... hopefully). Then I used a pair of long needle nosed pillars to push the wire through from the cab side. Less than 10 minutes for that... 6-7 minutes of that spent cursing myself for being hamfisted.

Again, thanks for the write up. I probably wouldn't have tried it without that.

I'll try to remember to post some pics later.
 
#45 ·
If you do get a single piece spacer made up I'll definitely buy a pair off you.
I would be interested in buying a set also
No problem! Unfortunately i haven't had a chance to get the solid pieces done as im SUPER busy and have no time to practically do anything now. Post Pics!

I know the spacers look cheap but they work so im not really in a rush to make the solid set quite yes. Sorry!
 
#43 ·
I would be interested in buying a set also
 
#47 ·
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