I've been looking around at the different types of driving light kits available. I was wondering if anyone has mounted one of the LED lightbars on the front of their mini? They seem to be all the rage with the offroad guys right now. Some of those light bars are getting pretty small...and they put out a ton of light.

Thoughts?

 

I have a 7 inch bar, not on the mini, but holy crap.... they are bright, its actually going to go on my dirtbike.


I was gunna replace my hellas with the round LED's


roof rack mounted light bar would look nice, anywhere else, the size would look odd since they are straight and the nose of our cars are round

 

Do it!!!!!!!!!! Just make sure it looks clean.

 

they make curved light bars also.

i keep thinking one on the front and down low would be cool. my buddy has the little square ones on his cj7, in place of round fog lights, and those suckers are super bright.

i used aircraft landing lights (available at napa) in regular old 4" housings on my wrangler and they are so bright, i hardly get to use them here in town. my wife wants the mini fog rally looking lights added to the grill area of her car and i think i will put the aircraft landing lights in those whenever i get them done for her

 

I've looked into doing this myself and wiring them up to my fog lights.

My concern is they will be WAY too bright for legal and/or courteous public road use. I think there are coloured plastic covers you can buy to clip on and I was going to go with amber to sort of dim it down a little and get a nice rally/fog look...

 

You wouldn't use something like an LED lightbar on public roads in traffic, you would use it on roads where you would use your high beams...on sections of road with no traffic.

 

I am actually adding 2 - 6.8 inch round LED lights in the front of my Countryman.

 

I just purchased an 09 jcw and was also looking into an led bar as well as I have two 30" bars on my truck that turn light into day. only mini I've seen had a small rigid mounted on top the hood. (not an option for me). was thinking of getting two light mounts and measuring for a 20" curved bar up front or even just 2-4 of the 6-7" LED round lights. main problem is we are required a front plate here in ND also don't want to block air from intercooler.

 

I have a 35" bar that I wire up every now and then. It has spot and flood lights. Not something for the daily drive though.

 

Nice idea and design, congrats!
What about the wiring from LED to The car wiring??

 

I ran the wiring through the sunroof. Power leads went to the battery in the rear through the headliner and then the power switch to the front and popped it out by the sunroof switch. All the wiring stays in place, tucked away under the headliner. If I want to use it, I slap it on the roof rack and wiggle out the wiring. The wiring has quick clips.

 

Imthabean; looks good man! I thought about the roof rack idea as well but thinking more so a curved bar might fit the front contour of the car decent. thinking possibly in front of upper hood grill where the factory add on driving lights mount between the headlights. just not sure how they mount to the car/grill or if they could hold the weight of a bar or not. also the measurement between the mounts as far as what size bar I could run. it kind of looked like those mounts are only intended for the round style light.

 

I think the bar may block too much air flow if you mount it in front of the grill. They are big and heavy. the 35" that I have is a lot heavier than I thought. Maybe consider some smaller spots in lieu of the bar and mount them like the drive lights.

 

I've considered adding an LED light bar too. This one inserts into the hood scoop. Looks neat and tidy, but I wonder how bright it is. Probably not very bright, and I wonder why the photo has 5 LEDs but the description is for 3 LEDs.
MINI Cooper Hood Scoop 3-LED Insert R55 R56 R57 R58 R59

 

Decorative, not for actually throwing useful light.

 

Whereas a roof-mounted lightbar is purely functional and is not there to show how well the driver fills out his underpants?

 

Don't be a ****. If you won't contribute, then STFU. Thank you.

 

I really really really would love a pic of someone having a 20" or 24" led bar in the lower grill . Been debating it, but not sure haha. Tried googlin but got nothin might have to go to the good ol' photoshop

 

one thing you have to keep in mind is the depth of the bar. since LED throw off alot of heat, these units need fins, and they are very long =D

i tried to hide my hella 500ffs behind the grill, dont think its happening. and i just got 4 27w round LEDs, and i still dont think they will fit behind, may need soem trimming of the fins

 

-Excellent point, might have to look into that. You're onto somethin, stashin it behind the grill will have to do some drawing-board-thinking on that...

 

I would be worried about the LED bar inside the hood scoop blocking air to the intercooler.......not sure I would want to do that.

 

Since I have a MC non-S then, I like it !!!

You could install the light bar on the bonnet backside (on the scoop zone) without obstructing the air intake ...

 

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Just finished it a day ago. It's like turning on the sun.

 

yeah, they are crazy bright, I love mine. I got 4 rounders

 

40" curved that fab up brackets to mount up over windshield.