Well, after 2 months of waiting, it finally arrived - the Rugged Ridge light bar. I installed it last week but had been raining all week and finally got a chance to snap some pics at our mountain house. The install was VERY easy. It was a little more complicated for me since I have the Expedition One Rubi skid plate and the light bar brackets mount to the same mounting holes. I had to add a spacer and get some longer bolts, but the install was VERY easy and took 20 minutes. Of course, the lights took a little longer with running cables, installing relays, switches, bundling them and so on, but it was easy nonetheless.

The lights are KC Daylighters. 100W pencil beam in the center and 100W driving beams on the sides. Here are some pics. Enjoy!





















The build quality is excellent. The brackets are very sturdy with a great powdercoating and the holes aligned perfectly. The bar is also very sturdy and is the perfect height (for me). I looked at other light bars from MBRP, KC, Pro Comp and others, but in the end, the Rugged Ridge offered me the flexibility of 3 lights mounted higher above the bumper. (The MBRP was a close second! )

 

I almost picked up a set today do you like em they look great on the jeep the black looks way better than the chrome

 

Looks good, like your house too

 

looks Good

 

I was thinking the same thing, like them both

 

The instructions said no cutting but it looks like you have to cut the spacer panal that is behind the bumper to let the mounting bracket come through.
Is that correct? If not, let me know how you did it.

Thanks

Mike

 

they look great, real nice jeep and house too

How about some night pics with them on

 

There's no cutting involved. The bracket you see in the first picture is shaped like a hook and goes in front of the spacer panel and sits on top of it. It doesn't go through the panel, just in front of it. In fact, to get the brackets in place, you need to slide them in from the side of the spacer panel and push them all the way to the frame rail where they are attached with the provided bolts.

If it hadn't been for the added complication I had with my Expedition One Rubi skid plate using the same holes on the frame rail, I would have installed it in less than 30 minutes. Very easy to install and intuitive. The lights are a different story.

After having used them now for a few weeks, I can tell you that the build quality of the light bar is excellent. The mounting is very secure and solid. However, on rough roads, the lights vibrate a little sitting on the light bar, so it's obvious the light bar has a little play to it. I think the play comes from the bar being attached to the brackets, not from the brackets to the frame rails. I plan to get larger bolts to attach the bar to the brackets and possibly reduce or eliminate the vibrations.

Good luck.

 

Looks great! Thanks for confirming what my next mod will be!

 

Looks Good! ... but I'm partial to the beefier MBRP light bar... That's my next mod...