Fairly common question, but here goes anyways. Whats the best/most efficient way to run the wires from my adventure rack. I also have 2 hella 4000 fogs on my LR Gen. brush bar right now, but I'm getting an $G front bumper soon and I want to add a 3rd 4000. So would I have to wire to a separate switch or could I run to a single hella switch, the fogs are only 55w a piece so would I be able to run another 4000 to that existing switch? Or is that enough to catch my rover on fire. thanks

-Brian

Why not just pick up enough Hella relays with ready made wire harnesses to handle the power? The control can be from one switch, though.

alright that answers that question, now how about the light wiring for the lights on the rack.

Don't know how relevant this is to your truck, but I have four Hella's in a custom subframe mounted on the exo roll cage on my defender. I pulled the wiring along the front right leg of the roll cage, behind the snorkel, and just led it in under the hood to a custom box with fuses and relays in the engine bay.

What model Rover are you running?

96 Disco, I've heard of running it through the stock luggage bar holes but i haven't really seen it do or know how to go about it but it sounds like a fairly good method.

On the TREK vehicles (at least in 2000) they were using the Safety Devices low profile adventure rack which negated the front roof rails. The holes were covered with some painted body color plastic disc that I bet are some LR Part (from an overseas commercial vehicle?). In these they punched a hole to run the wiring and siliconed it up .

I don't know what kind of rack you have, but it may look kind of goofy w/o the roof bars and the space between the roof and rack.

The other way is to run it down the A-Pillar. I think I've seen one where they ran it thru the hole in the gutter and then into the A-pillar and back out thru the bottom. Major PITA in my opinion. If you had a snorkel you could run it along the side of that. If not that's a reason to make/buy one. :)

If you don't mind a bit of industrial look, go to a marine equipment store and get a fitting that will allow you to enter cables through the roof without leakage. There are also connectors/thru fittings that will allow you to remove the entire rack if you want, without pulling any cables. Just unscrew a connector and pull the plug.

Dunno about the rest of you, but poking a hole in my roof is not something I'd do...When I'll wire my 4 FF300s, I'll run the wires down the snorkel right under the hood.

Yea theres no way i'm poking the holes, what i've heard of is drilling an extra hole where the luggage bar goes through the roof. The roof bar bolts aren't as big of a diameter as the gasket that seals it so what i'm thinking is that maybe i could drill out a small offset from the luggage bar hole and then run the wires through there. But then i don't know where to go with the wire.

I have the adventure rack with 4 hella 4000's on it and went to the stereo shop and got some 12ga black speaker wire. The speaker wire lays right down by the balck rubber on the side of the windshield and attaches with some 3m trim tape. you can hardley tell its there and have had no problems with this setup.

i'll probably end up having to try something like that. do you have any pics of your setup? that would help me out alot. thanks

-Brian

Whichever way you route the cable, make sure you have enough cable area to support them, or your money will be wasted because of voltage drop. Don't know what 12 guage translates to, but minimum 2.5 mm2 per light. A typical automotive speaker cable is 1.5 mm2 tops.

well thanks for the info guys i have a place to start now.

Not the easiest way, but pretty damn slick is to go to a marine supplier and get some of the deck connections they use...you drill a hole and use a grommet but it is a cool plug....wire the stuff normally with your relays, bring it in and run it under the headliner to your the hole. you wire the lights on the rack and run them yo the deck connection. This way if you need to reove the rack its as simple as unplugging the thing from the roof and closing the cap on the grommet.


I have pics somewhere...

i would like to see some pics, and i was thinking something like that but just drilling the holes under the luggae bar gaskets.