How to mount driving lights?

[Felix]

Hi all,

I want to put some driving lights on the front of my MY01 Outback H6, but the only thing I can buy is the poxy nudge bar thing that bolts onto where your licence plate bolts on, and I'm pretty sure it's not overly solid.

How have you guys done it? Not keen on a nudge bar that comes up from under the bumper because it'll reduce my approach angles. Any other solutions?

Cheers, Greg.

[BUDDAH]

Conciser LED driving lights and theirs a universal bracket that uses the number plate screws to mount the lights above the number plate

http://www.bushranger.com.au/x_bar.php#.UgiEMVOIhSY

[paggaz]

Jack mounted some behind the grille on his Gen 3

viewtopic.php?p=306261#p306261

[Felix]

BUDDAH - My issue with this is if the licence plate doesn't bolt into the bumper reo, it won't be rigid enough to hold the spot lights (already got a set of 5" Hella's lined up from a mate). I don't have the coin for really good LED ones, but I need the lights for night driving in Kalgoorlie.

Paggaz - Wouldn't this solutuion melt the grill?

[sbv]

A proper nudge bar shouldn't affect your approach angles at all as I'm pretty certain it comes out of the air dam in the bumper, not underneath the bumper...

This here is exactly what you want, though I'm loathed to say it as I'm tempted to buy it myself actually...
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/mullumbi ... 1025454354

Cheers
Josh

[zch91]

How deep are your pockets?

http://www.subaxtreme.com.au/subaru/bul ... ack99.html

[Felix]

The one from Gumtree is more like what I'm after, the other manufacturer's nudge bar is much too chunky for my liking.

That said, I'm a Boilermaker / Aluminium Welder by trade, so sorting out some brackets shouldn't be too hard. Just need some inspiration...

Cheers, Greg.

[sbv]

Aaah you'll have no worries knocking up a nudge bar then.

I am also considering replacing my fog lights with some good spot lights of the same size... might be another option, but they will obviously be a bit lower to the ground, so not as practical off-road (not an issue for me).

Cheers
Josh

[Felix]

Dammit....even with a MIG and ACDC TIG in my shed, I'm still going to buy that one from Gumtree! By the time I bugger around fabbing something, it's going to cost me more than the purchase price + freight to WA! Then add the price of the lights....

A good tradie just knows when to buy rather than build!! Especially when they are $450 new...

[sbv]

Good call! Now there's no temptation for me...

[Felix]

Is it sad that postage is more than the purchase price?!

[Felix]

OK, so who sniped this nudge bar from me? Just contacted the seller, only to find out they sold it to somebody else after I arranged freight prices and everything.

Not happy.

[sbv]

Damn! Wish it was me, but not so!

[tamastar]

I know this is a year old thread, but I spent ages trying to figure out how to do this on my '00 Outback so I thought I'd share my experiences!

I have my Cibie Oscars mounted on one of those licence plate bar things, but as you mentioned on our cars the plate doesn't screw into anything solid so with lights they'd bounce all over the place.

The solution is this.

I got two metal spacers made up, they're basically a hollow cube with a hole through the middle, I then cut out two square holes the same size as the spacers in the plastic bumper (still small enough that they'd be covered by the licence plate if I ever take the lights off) with a pocket knife and put the metal spacers in. Then drilled a hole into the chassis using the spacers as a template. Then put a big long bolt through each of them and the light bar. Gives you a solid, flat mounting point for the bar and no bouncy lights.

That might have been a bit confusing so please pm me if you want more details

[zch91]

Post a few pics if possible? Sounds interesting!