So, I’m not the biggest fan of light bars. They’re expensive and gaudy, and I’m pretty sure reserved for douches. And people who want to see at night…

In the last year or so, LED light bars have really come down in price. Enough so, that most of us can afford some sort of LED lighting for our vehicles now. Whether it’s a pair of pods, a shorty 12″ at the end of your stinger, or a full 50″ UFO bar, (to recharge the sun, or whatever they’re for…), LED lights are in just about everyone’s budget now. I want to find out if it’s possible to get reliable, effective lighting for cheap (or at least close to cheap).

One of my issues with LED bars is the ease with which they can be stolen. Essentially, they’re on thin metal brackets with a cord attached; not much for security…

Anyway, with out getting too much wordier, I ended up putting 5 LED lights in the grille of my dub, which in my opinion, will be effective, secure, and hopefully pretty cheap. I’ll update as I find out how the lights work…

Here’s what and how I did:

A bit of research yielded me some cheap 6 LED flood pods, and a 13″ LED spot bar, all from Amazon and ordered through Prime. God bless the internet…

All told, I had 4 pods and one bar, for a total of 48 LEDs and about 150 watts of power (is it additive? I think it’s additive).

The four pods were mounted on the grille support, which on a WJ is removable. The bar is mounted to the core support, and I had to trim the fins off of the back of the light bar quite a bit. I’m not worried about heat here, because the light is right up front.

After all that, it was time to wire. I’ll admit, I went way overkill here, but mostly because it was all stuff I already had lying around. Also yes, I am missing a fuse on the battery side of the distro block. I forgot to order one, and it’s on the way.

Headlights and bumper, grille, and bumper cover, everything else went back on as planned…

As the following pics will show, they aren’t terribly obvious unless you’re looking for them, and are pretty much invisible past a certain angle.

So far, I have about $175 in the project:

2 pair 4×6″ LED flood pods (2 x $40)

1 13″ spolight LED bar (1 x $70)

1 rocker switch

random materials like nuts and bolts, wire and connectors

Here is a shot using just the headlights:

Now here is the light bar by itself:

And here is everything I’ve got:

Initial Impressions: Very good overall. I’m happy with the installation, and more than that, I’m impressed with the lights so far. I’ll post an update after I’ve had some time to use them.