Light Bar

[Ozsko]

What is the deal if I want a light bar made to bolt on a set of driving lights. The LEDS are good and for anyone who is twenty years younger than me they are most probably adequate but us old farts lose the ability to absorb light and what young people see as bright is not to us. I think the light loss is about 30% in some cases so it is significant. Apart from that I drive in the bush every time I leave home and the LEDS are not as good as the Bi Xenons were on the Skoda, I wish I could have seen those with 20 year old eyes!! So, I would like to get some Bi Xenon Cibie Super Oscars and bolt them to the front, is this a big deal to do in this day and age with air bags etc, I know bull bars have to be certified so what happens for a light bar.

[Tigger162]

Early days yet for manufacturing for a nudge bar for our tiggers, ECB East Coast Bullbars- Bull bars, Nudge Bars, Alloy, Steel Winch Bars for 4x4 SUV do one for the older model. But law states it must have ADR compliance. If you got one made custom I doubt you would have a problem even if it wasn't ADR. You could always just get a quality led light bar and attach it via number plate bracket or hide it behind grill. Your showing your age with cibie super oscars lol.

[Umai Naa!!]

Whatever you mount them to, will need to be solid.

The number plate only screws into the plastic bumper cover. Hanging lights from there isn't a good idea.

If you could make some brackets to come off the reo/crash beam, that'd be the go.

[Guest001]

Anything in the front must be ADR approved and airbag compliant.

Would be on your head if you had a frontal and for some reason the airbags didnt activate because of it.

[Tigger162]

Airbags these days are g-force activated. If the g's are there it will pop regardless of what's bolted on the front. The real issue is the legal one and run risk of a insurance company pulling out of a claim cause you have a un-roadworthy install, but would be rare I would think.

[Guest001]

Airbags these days are g-force activated. If the g's are there it will pop regardless of what's bolted on the front. The real issue is the legal one and run risk of a insurance company pulling out of a claim cause you have a un-roadworthy install, but would be rare I would think.

But then once would be enough wouldnt it. Far better to comply rather than be sorry afterwards.

[peter51]

I think blocking the view of the front radar sensor may be a concern, the manual shows a fairly large area in the middle of grill that must be left clear of obstructions.

[Umai Naa!!]

Might be able to put something in the lower grille area.

[Ozsko]

I have been crook so I will get back to this in a few days. Thanks for the replies so far.

[Ozsko]

I have just had a look at some "nudge bars" on ECB's site and they are nothing like what I want, big and ugly springs to mind. I want a bar that is low profile and is contoured to the front of the car not something that looks like it could stand a fair chance of fending off a B double in a head on. They would be the guys to speak to though as they know what the laws are and what can and can't be done. I have been using driving lights off and on for decades and I want a reach of about 600 to 800 metres and the way I have done it before is use two Cibies mounted as high as possible, one a driving light and one a spotlight and I am thinking that I might mount a LED light bar between them for flooding the near ground out to about 200 metres. The new LEDS lightbars are good for close in light but useless for long distance. Overkill? maybe but I will only see a 2/3rds of what younger people see and every time I leave home I am driving in the bush. Now I feel a bit better I will map out the no go areas on the front of the car and see where the lights can't go. The light bar should be so low profile it won't be a problem in that regard.

I am thinking pull the front bar cover off the car, build mounting pads off the reinforcement under it that contact the under surface of the bar cover and put the bar cover back on. Build a light bar that has mounts that match the ones under the bar cover and bolt it on with shear bolts so it can't be thieved by some lowlife who needs some drug money. That would keep it low with no need for anything that looks like a nudge bar. Some top stabiliser mounts from under the leading edge of the bonnet should keep them rock steady and let there be light. First to find some Cibies, the last pair met a bad ending after a trip into a culvert at high speed. If the culvert hadn't been there everything would have turned out ok but such is life.

[Guest001]

Best ask ECB as I would have thought that what you want to do would be illegal on an airbag equipped car. I bought a s/hToyota Bullbar and it was an easy fit on my vehicle except that it had to have an airbag compliant fitting kit with it Cost me another $200 for the brackets to make it legal

[Ozsko]

Best ask ECB as I would have thought that what you want to do would be illegal on an airbag equipped car. I bought a s/hToyota Bullbar and it was an easy fit on my vehicle except that it had to have an airbag compliant fitting kit with it Cost me another $200 for the brackets to make it legal

Yes, I never had any other intention. Further to this I have just spoken to my son who works on canbus electronics in cars all day and while he doesn't work on VW his biggest issue with it is where to pick up the high beam signal for the relays without causing problems with voltage levels.

[Diver3284]

Any new information about a way to mount some driving lights? I'm in the same boat as Ozsko and would like to mount my trusty Hella 100 watt HID's to my Highline. On previous cars I have used a standard number plate mount, suitably backed up for rigidity, but the radar unit for the cruise control and EAB system is mounted behind the central grille badge and the lights would be too close together. I tried it with a mock-up of the system before going to the trouble of pulling the bar cover off to mount the plate mount and it all came up with error messages.

[Ozsko]

I haven't done any more towards this due to a long period of ill health, I reckon that I might have filled the fuel tank three times since the last post on this it has been driven that little. What sort of space between the lights did the mock up have? I was thinking that the lights would have to be as wide as possible to avoid error messages.

[Diver3284]

The numberplate mount is about 380mm wide, so the lights were mounted about 340mm apart. They are Hella 180's so there was only about a 180 mm gap between the inner edges. Much too close. The only way I can see is if someone makes a proper nudge bar with light brackets, or go a custom route, which would be quite spendy.

Hope your health is on the way back up.