[acpete]

I installed a 20” Baja Designs LED light on front of my Baja Rack and a few Rigid Industries lights on the sides. I didn’t want to put a hole in the roof for wires. Instead ran positive wires up the backside of the FJ and then ran the negative wires back down and grounded to the interior body.

I used a multi-meter and checked the bolts that go through the roof rack and into the FJ roof. The bolts showed a ground existed. Has anyone grounded to the roof rack? I’m seeing a ground present, are there any issues that I don’t know about? What I’m looking to do is eliminate some of the wires that are running back down the tailgate. The 20” LED bar only draws about six amps and the three Rigid LED’s draw about .5 per light.

Any thoughts on grounding to the roof?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[WILSON]

I installed a modified retired police lightbar that draws some serious amps when all lights are on. Although not the preferred method, I grounded it to the rack and have not had any issues.

Difficult to see, but ground is on the bolt holding the lightbar bracket to the roof rack.

 

[FJ4RWS]

I installed a modified retired police lightbar that draws some serious amps when all lights are on. Although not the preferred method, I grounded it to the rack and have not had any issues.

Difficult to see, but ground is on the bolt holding the lightbar bracket to the roof rack.

The big difference here is your rack is aftermarket and all metal. This gets grounded to the body through all the roof bolts although the nut plates do have to pinch through the paint. The factory rack sits on plastic feet with no real metal to metal contact to the body. I'd recommend running a ground wire to the body if using the factory rack.

 

[cruiserlarry]

Do not ground lights to the roof rack or the roof mounts.

These are not good grounds, and you can end up with corroded contacts and shorter bulb life due the electrolysis that will likely occur.

Run a wire of equal or larger gauge than the power wire (very important) inside the vehicle, and attach it to a known grounding spot (A-pillars each have several). If you really want to do it right, run the ground all the way back to the battery. More work, and more wire, but it will eliminate noise issues associated from current radiating in the metal between your attachment point and the battery's grounding point (important if you use two-way communications or computer equipment on board).

Good luck...:cheers:

 

[acpete]

Here is the light set up so far. I have one Baja Designs 20" stelth LED, one Rigid on the right side, left side, and one on the rear of the roof rack. I think what I may do is bring one 10awg ground up from my existing ground point from the inside where the jack is mounted. I'm using a 14awg for the Baja Designs and 18awg each for the Rigid. I may tie them all into one 10awg wire.