Jeep Liberty light bar on a VX

[Chopper]

Excellent. You're only slightly less lit up than a UFO. How much is all that gonna draw, when you flip the switch? Any need to add a battery, or get a bigger alternator. Get a set of those giant, hood mount, landing lights the WRC guys use. Looks great.

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

Excellent. You're only slightly less lit up than a UFO. How much is all that gonna draw, when you flip the switch? Any need to add a battery, or get a bigger alternator. Get a set of those giant, hood mount, landing lights the WRC guys use. Looks great.

Thanks!...I think...Hey wait a minute....you're using sarcasm aren't you!

The PIAA's are for fog. The Headlights are for street driving. The lightbar is for off-road in conjunction with the headlights. Doubtful it will strain the alternator if used properly. The Jeep Liberty "Renegade" seems to operate ok with it.

Its a work in progress...I haven't wired them up yet....Until I get them working & adjust the beams I won't know for sure if there is any issues to work out....

There are some VX'ers here with lights mounted up on the cargo baskets...I just chose to go a different route as I've always liked the look of the Baja racing trucks and yes...even rally racing :-)

[etlsport]

Excellent. You're only slightly less lit up than a UFO. How much is all that gonna draw, when you flip the switch? Any need to add a battery, or get a bigger alternator. Get a set of those giant, hood mount, landing lights the WRC guys use. Looks great.

yea my lights draw 100w x 4 lights (roughly 30 amps) i run those along with my sound system which draws no more than 40 amps and i havent had to upgrade my alternator, running an optima blue top.. never had any power issues

[JHarris1385]

I think that looks GREAT. How hard was the install?

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

I think that looks GREAT. How hard was the install?

Thanks... I won't lie to you...I am (and will be for some time!) shop-vac'ing the heck out of my basement after the carnage! Lots 'o' debris & dust from cutting (carbide cutter), grinding (dremel, bench wheel grinder), drilling (hand drill), filing (hand file). I've had this thing sitting in its original box since February and finally got the time & inclination to work on it now!

**I was concerned before I bought it that the light bar had a non-adjustable angle strictly for placement atop the forward roof directly above windshield as on Liberty Renegade. After stalking some Jeep Liberty's...lol...each light (Hella) does have an up/down angle adjustment which I have not played with yet and am assuming will be sufficient.


Alot of the work involved a simple mock-up & measurements on my VX. Sitting back and deciding what I didn't like (the overhang, height from roof). Spending like 4 hrs. after work in the evening contemplating & actually working to shorten the overhang without getting too excessive and ruining the light bar. Than thinking @ work what I needed to do to add additional support so it could be a "stand-alone assembly" rather than a "bolt directly to your roof assembly" as it was intended. Than spending more time after work laying-out what I decided to use for support (Ldubs favorite material..lol.) & cutting it out to match shape of bottom of light bar & marking, drilling the mounting holes & hole for wiring harness w/rubber grommet. Than spent another evening robbing one of my original roof racks of its support brackets and modifing them (more measuring, cutting, grinding & filing, plus mock-up) to get the height & level mounting face right. Then buying some slightly stronger bolts (allan bolts..one per side) to fasten the support brackets to the new light bar bottom... which had one issue that I had to remove each outboard light (left + right) to drill & fasten the support brackets and than re-install outboard lights. Finally, tearing it all down to clean dust, primer & paint flat black the support piece (you know, the one made from Ldubs favorite material ) and after drying..re-assembling the whole unit. For now, I capped-off the left & right side ends of the light-bar (after I cut off to remove the over-hang) with that screen you buy for auto-body work (to spread bondo over) which I cut to shape using a template & painted flat black & attached with black RTV. I may make actual plastic pieces instead later...but, for now It seems to work & look okay. I don't see much moisture ever getting inside as there is more plastic "baffles" if you will inside and the wiring is all done with plug-in connectors so there really is no bare wiring inside.

The finished light bar will have a plug-in wiring harness (not currently wired up...harness is coiled-up & tie wrapped presently) so that all you have to do to remove it is disconnect plug, remove the same single allan-screw you have on a stock VX roof rack support for each side, pick-up and swing off roof!


Total cost of project:

Jeep Liberty Renegade light bar on ebay $185 plus $20 shipping = $205
Support piece (Ldub's favorite stuff) 44"L X 8"W X .25"thick= $20
Rustoleum Primer from Lowe's (had on hand for repainting wiper arms)=$4
Rustoleum flat black paint from Lowe's (also from wiper arms)=$4
Body supply screen from Advance Auto (2 sheets in pack) = $4.50
Tube of black RTV = $3-$4
hardware...7 bolts scavenged from light bar kit, bought 7 nuts, washers, lock washers, 2 metric allan bolts w/nuts + lock washers for support bracket mounting, re-used the 2 VX allan bolts used as fasteners for roof mounting. = maybe $4 total from True Value Hardware.

already had all power tools & bits & accessories on hand.

[Mark Miller]

Since you have cut it down, does it look like it might work mounted where jeep mounts them.

[Ldub]

what I decided to use for support (Ldubs favorite material..lol.).....the support piece (you know, the one made from Ldubs favorite material ) .....Support piece (Ldub's favorite stuff) 44"L X 8"W X .25"thick= $20

You made the support piece outta...er...ummm...HEMP???
Whattya nuts or something??? ...LOL
Now ya got ME to wonderin' what my favorite material is.
I'm gonna guess aluminium, but it could also be stainless steel or carbon fiber.

In any event, nice work, now go "blaze" a trail...

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

You made the support piece outta...er...ummm...HEMP???
Whattya nuts or something??? ...LOL
Now ya got ME to wonderin' what my favorite material is.
I'm gonna guess aluminium, but it could also be stainless steel or carbon fiber.

In any event, nice work, now go "blaze" a trail...

.......yep..aluminum diamond plate! You could definiately use whatever floats your boat...(I'm guess'in the HEMP might have SOME issues ). Just be aware of the added weight you are introducing.

**Since the stock light bar bolts directly to the roof of the liberty it simply "conforms" to the roof since the plastic has very little stiffness/rigidity. I wanted to add support/rigidity but keep the weight down...I'm happy how it turned out. And, If you don't want to paint it you don't have too. I just wanted it flat black like the rest of the Liberty LB.

***I have a metal fabrication shop just up the road from where I work and as luck would have it they had some excess aluminum diamond plate pieces (they refer to this as "a drop"). They used a punch press to cut off what I didn't need and sold me a piece as I requested: 44"L X 8"W X 1/4"thick for $20

Since you have cut it down, does it look like it might work mounted where jeep mounts them.

At the beginning of this thread there was a VX on Ebay for sale with the Jeep Liberty Renegade Light Bar mounted in the same location as the jeep; which is what started the interest. It's too bad the photos are not still available for you to see. It was mainly the "overhang" on each side that made it look inappropriate on the VX. Otherwise..cutting it down would have made it look alot better IMHO.
It comes with instructions showing you how to mount it on the Liberty. It is meant to be bolted to your roof (which involves temporarily removing some of the headliner) via 7 drilled holes (using LB as a template) and you use a hole-saw to cut a 1" hole in your roof under the LB to run your wiring harness w/rubber grommet. This is how it is mounted on the Jeep Liberty Renegade. I personally didn't want to drill all those holes in the roof of my beloved VX and make it permanent. Also, I want to have a power sunroof installed and that dictates in my case where to mount the LB. Hope this helps!

[Mark Miller]

Thanks!
Looks like it will be on my list of to do.
Shouldn't be a hard mod, just takes doing.

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

Thanks!
Looks like it will be on my list of to do.
Shouldn't be a hard mod, just takes doing.

Glad to hear it! If you get one and want any details about anything in particular...just ask! I can always take a quick pic or take some measurements if it'll help out a fellow VX'er!

[Jolly Roger VX'er]

After much Procrastination:

[Ldub]

NICE...

[JHarris1385]

Awesome, make to where you can click to enlarge.

[taylorRichie]

That looks Killer!! Good job!

[Dumke]

Awesome, make to where you can click to enlarge.

<chants> BIGGER! BIGGER!