Need A Mount For Roof Lights On A GM Van

I'm getting a lot of lighting for my Chevy Express and I just purchased some KC Daylighter spot lights to go up on my roof. But first I need a mount and I was wondering what you GM guys are using, or if someone knows of a universal bar that would work.

Something like this, but for a Chevy Express.
Jeep3.jpg
 
I'm still hunting for a light mounting bar. I thought I found what I wanted through Discount Ramps but decided it wasn't what I want. At this point I'm thinking I'll just get some sort of low profile gutter clamp and run a piece of aluminum Unistrut across for the mounting platform, but the only clamps I've found so far are for the massive ladder racks. I don't want something that sits 5" over the roof, I'd like to keep this low, like 1" or less over the roof.

I'm also after a good source of power. I want something that is switched with the van running so I don't kill the battery.
 
Progress is underway. I acquired some rectangular aluminum tube for the cross bar and found some low profile gutter clamp mounts that I modified to make a touch lower yet. Ideally the bottom of the cross bar will be no more than 2" above the roof's highest point. I'm hoping to get it all bolted together tomorrow for a test fitting. I'll post pics as I get them.
 
Ok, a little late but like most scratch built projects this takes longer than planned and evolved quite a bit as I went.

Here's what I started with. 1.5x3 aluminum rectangular tube, Surco gutter clamps, an bunch of nuts and bolts, an old beat up drill, an angle grinder, and some extra scrap metal.

BmdiuID.jpg


As tempted as I was to mount the lights to the bar, I figured I better make the brackets first so I know how wide the bar would be. I could only guess so I knocked these out. Later I changed the 2x bolts for the crossbar to a 3x in a triangle.

1vIs8bB.jpg


Four Daylighters are going on this thing. I know the LED bars are better but ever since I had my Tamiya Blackfoot as a kid, I needed Daylighters on a proper vehicle at some point in my life. I spring for the LED ones since I had a bit of a mixup at 4WheelParts and basically had to spend the money. Ugh. Anyway, I got 'em. In addition, the 17-year-old in me is getting PA speakers.

hGe3W9g.jpg


Measure thrice, cut once!

I0QyrfS.jpg


I drilled 1/4" pilot holes all the way through and then drilled the top to 1/2" for the mounting bolt...

N44SwvM.jpg


Then used a 1-1/8" hole saw for the bottom to access the nut and have room for the socket.

CmirT4k.jpg


Voila!

pd7HBPh.jpg


And the test fit. Speakers will go up later. Now I need to figure out how to run power to these things.

osf8X64.jpg
 
I don't know if it whistles yet. I just got it mounted and that is a concern of mine. I searched unsuccessfully for oval tube and am still looking just in case there is wind noise. I'll update when I know.
 
I've since redone this light bar with a round tube and the KC Highlight clamp mounts. The ends of the tube are mounted on clamps that I can loosen with a quick release lever which allows me to fold the lights down for extended highway trips. The rectangle bar whistled and the whole thing knocked 0.4mpg off my mileage, but the noise was the major irritation.

I'm not done with it yet, but I'm going to line drill the end for a ball-lock pin to fix the tube in place so the lights always face forward at the right angle, and don't slip when retracted. I've driven around and I do get a small amount of wind noise which I plan to eliminate by capping the end of the tube. But the round tube is much quieter.

I made this 1-lamp mount for test fitting that worked great for demo photos.

The lights in the "in use" position.
6Ljw0dl.jpg


To retract the lights, release the cam levers on both sides
adtr8SG.jpg


ZyvHwhA.jpg


Roll the lights forward and you'll see the much reduced frontal area
HIkEBIK.jpg

UJ1tsAu.jpg


Re lock the levers and you're good to go. Here's what it looks like with the lights up on my van. I'm going to spread them out a little since I'm putting 2 PA speakers up there to yell at people a-la Mr. Microphone.
QtmaHc9.jpg
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
185,528
Messages
2,875,553
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top