Mud-club
Vehicle & Technical => Discovery => Topic started by: paul and sam on February 25, 2006, 21:53:54
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does anyone have any thoughts about the light bars that can be bought for the discovery that takes 4 lights and is fitted to drip sill . i am thinking about buying one to fit to mine but am unsure as i dont see how they are wired up through the roof and if they are stable enough. many thanks :P :? :) ("they say this is ment to be fun 8) :wink:")
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Hiya,
ive just bought one from greenlane4x4 (also on ebay), as the cheaper ones for £57 on ebay seem to me to be very crap on quality, both in the lug area and on the mounting into the gutter parts.
To get power up there (I had a roof rack with the spots on before) I fitted my relays under the bonnet then ran a series of cables (wired the lights in pairs) through the inside of a hosepipe which was attached with sticky mounts and cable ties to the edge of the windscreen. Works well, protects the wires from damage whilst laning and its never budged in the 8 months+ its been attached.
A tip with the hose pipe, rather than having a green tube up the side of the disco, score the green outside on the hosepipe and remove the outside plastic, and its re-inforcing threads, your left with a very flexable rubber tube :)
This photo (http://www.cheshirelandroverclub.org/photos/albums/userpics/10002/100_4456.JPG) (rather large) shows it clearly up the side of the screen whilst the roof rack was on.
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The beauty of a snorkle you can hide the wiring easily!
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I think Greenlane will be getting the custom for my bar. Sent them an email an hour or so ago and have a reply!!! Now that is service.
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Yep Im impressed too. If you look at the quality of the light mounts too, the cheapo one is basically a bit of metal welded on with a hole drilled and the uses the cheapo light brackets to mount the lights, whereas the greenlane one actually has the light U shaped brackets on the bar itself.
Secondly if you look closely at where the bar comes round to the gutter, the cheapo one looks like it changes tube diameter to a thin bendy bit of flex :lol: whereas the greenlane is just stinking of quality in that area.
of course if you wanted even better there is the patriot one, but if you have their kind of money you should be driving a range rover sport anyway ;)
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I installed my relays under the bonnet, then carefully pulled up the edge of the windscreen rubber, it's only held down on the edge by 2 sided tape. Then an easy manner to route the wires along the edge of the screen and out the top! The left and right outer rubber of the windscreen is just trim, doesn't seal the glass at all and can be put back down with more tape. :D
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I fancied the Greenlane bikini roof rack but I have to watch the weight now :o
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of course if you wanted even better there is the patriot one, but if you have their kind of money you should be driving a range rover sport anyway ;)
ive got one o them on my 90 8) 8) soooo well made apart from one gripe about the stainless fixings
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sent mine up the snorkle along with a extended breather from the diffs, relays under the bonnet.
http://members.mud-club.com/profiles/driftwood/gallery/stickers%202/0/163359-1120832362./
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Had the Greenlane 4x4 rack on mine now for less than a year,build quality and welding looks good but be warned the paint finish is crap and I reckon mine will need treating within the next 6 months.
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i got the light bar on mine, good enough quality for the money
spots on a disco glare on dash and bonnet though so ive painter the bottom 5 mmm of the lights black to reduce this, wire them on full beam with a switch inside so you can turn them off when it is raining as it lights up every droplet in front of you
look good though :)
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Had the Greenlane 4x4 rack on mine now for less than a year,build quality and welding looks good but be warned the paint finish is crap and I reckon mine will need treating within the next 6 months.
Ditto :(
Darren
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spots on a disco glare on dash and bonnet though so ive painter the bottom 5 mmm of the lights black to reduce this
You ain't kidding either mate. Just fitted some lamps and a light bar to my motor and it looks like they will be coming off pretty soon if last nights drive down the lane is anything to go by.
Yeah - they throw out some light ok. But the reflections on the windscreen are so bad from the dash that it negates their usefullness as lights in one fell swoop.
Quite honestly I have better visibility with just the normal lamps and front spots.
Only real use I can see for them at the moment is as worklamps cos as driving lamps the set up is total rubbish.
Roof mounted lampbars - look good, work crap.
And I'm dammned if I'm gonna paint my dash matt black just to compensate to reduce the reflection. Might try tapping up the lower part of the lamps but I still ain't sure I can get on with all the glare off the bonnet.
They are a proper bad idea on the Discovery as far as I'm concerned.
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i only really have mine on for annoying chavs with bloody spots light on when its day time or aint foggy, and i use them for drivng lanes at night,
painting the bottom does help quite a lot and point them up a bit more then you think they should be at.
still glares slightly, makes them less efficent on the main roads but down lanes etc they work well.
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Yeah mate - I know where your coming from with the chavs :twisted:
May be that I've over-reacted a bit here. After spending half the day yesterday sorting the things out and doing a nice wiring job then finding out they are almost bl00dy useless because of the reflections from the dash I'm a bit p'd off to say the least. I could live with the bonnet illumination to a degeree but it's those dash reflections that obscure the passenger side view that annoys me. It's like tunnel vision, the view straight ahead is fine but as soon as you try to see to the left all you get is a mirror image of the dash and somewhat obscured view of the track ahead.
Will persevere a bit yet. Sticking tape along the bottom edges and re-angling may help the night time use though they are angled up almost along the line of my front spots at the moiment so I'm not convinced anymore angle will help. Even thought about cutting a matt black cardboard panel to lay over the dash at night. Will be out and about this evening so I've a couple of things to try :wink:
One thing they do well is light up the sides of the vehicle by the front wheels. Usually black as pitch down there, now you can see really well when you stick your head out of the window.
The other thing is I spend many weekends out overnight so they will come in very usefull as area worklights when I have thing things to do.
Will report back after I've done a bit of messing about with them in the dark tonight :wink:
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Well I must say that after a bit of tweaking the roof lights are now a little better than my first impressions of them. Angled upwards somewhat higher than I would like but it has removed a fair bit of the glare from the dash. The tape on the bottoms of the reflectors does have a litle effect but not that much.
One thing noticed is they are much better when in really dark areas so they are quite usable for off road driving. Would think careful choice on the style and type of lamp will have more effect than just tweaking to make them acceptable. Even taped strips of card underneath them to reduce the downward throw of light which helps quite a bit, looks a bit silly with the little peaks sticking out from underneath though . . . a bit like a 'Chav Rover' :lol:
Reckon the solution is to fit them to the front of a roofrack and rely on the shadow cast by the front section of the roof to get rid of the dash reflections. As they stand they are simply mounted too far forward to ever work well.
May or may not remove them, ain't made my mind up yet. Really good for dazzling the 'Homo-Doggers' down the local lane though - had one jump out of his motor with his boyfeind last night - looked proper annoyed . . . . but well blinded :twisted:
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I think Greenlane will be getting the custom for my bar. Sent them an email an hour or so ago and have a reply!!! Now that is service.
If you (or anyone) want anything from Greenlane 4x4 let me know as they are only 5-10 minutes up the road from me, and I'm heading for the World Record Attempt at Towcester soon - so could do the Mud-Club Pacels Express run for anyone attending to save on postage :wink:
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thanks for all your input i think that i will hold on for now about getting a light bar :? after getting all your replies i am not so sure that its the right way to go,i may go for a roof rack instead once again many thanks for all your inputs..
(they say its ment to be fun :wink: )