Roll Bar Wiring

[SuperCharged]

Hey all!

I've been away from the forum too long! 300ZX and I have made a light bar for my B7200 that will attach to the upper part of my ROPS bar. I need to run wires from the roll bar down to the chassis to power the lights. Any ideas how I can secure the wires to the roll bar cleanly and without drilling holes?

 

[Russell King]

You can use some small diameter steel or SST tubing (think like rigid gas line) from Swagelok and glue it (RTV silicon) or wiretie it to the ROPS

There are also wire "wraps" that look nice (see link below) but I am not sure how you could attach them to ROPS except with wireties.

http://www.keepitcleanwiring.com/products/ultrawrap/

 

[skeets]

Welcome back and you know the drill PICTURES MAN pictures,,lol Hmmm well I think like Russell said would be a real good idea

 

[Eric McCarthy]

Copper tubing comes to mind. It's easy to bend so it can follow the curves on the Rops. Wonder if you could solder it to the Rops and not affect the structural strength of it. Or stick it on with a few band clamps.

 

[mendonsy]

Take a look at Wiremold at your local Home Depot. It is made for hiding wires to sound systems and computers.

 

[meanjean]

Zip ties are also a good option.

 

[Wbk]

I used small plastic P clips and sheet metal screws, it works well and was fast and easy to install.

 

[seanbarr]

I drilled a hole & installed a grommet near the top & ran my cable down the tubing. Yes, I "modified" my ROPS but it was a two piece ROPS that joins at the top. The hole was a few inches away from the butt ends.

I'm in the process of building a "light bar" using an aluminum plate bent for rigidity and mount all of my lights on it. It will be bolted using the two existing bolts. Details will follow when I'm completed on a new post.

 

[SuperCharged]

These are some great ideas I hadn't thought of yet! I'll get some pictures up soon of the light bar.

The lights are LED. Two round lights face forward and two square ones in between the rounds face reward to help with any rear attachment visibility.

 

[Russell King]

I looked at my ROPS today. It is the "lightbulb" shape two piece design.

There is a split at the top and the splice plate bolts through the top so the lower side of the ROPS at the split is never "worked".

It would be possible to either let the split open up as much as possible or drill a small hole at the split line (so half the hole is one each piece) and then route the wires through the ROPS.

There is a hole at the bottom of the ROPS for the wires to exit.

I am not sure how you would fish the wires through the ROPS without taking at least one half off of the tractor.

 

[seanbarr]

Russel,

That's what I have. Even with the ROPS installed, I was able to drill a hole near the top & run a 1/2" thick cable down using a wire snake. I pushed it up from the bottom, grabbed the "fish" with pliers through the hole, then taped the cable to it and pulled the "fish" out, pulling the cable with it through the hole. I did it on the right side.

 

[SuperCharged]

You guys all gave me some great ideas for the wiring. I got brave today and decided to drill a hole in the rops and run the wire inside of the tubing. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Take a look.

One night when it isn't too late, I'll take a picture of it in the middle of the dark to see how much we can see around the tractor.

Thanks again to all you guys for some great ideas!

 

[mendonsy]

Looks good!!!
You should be able to see what you're doing now!!

 

[SuperCharged]

Thanks! I just hope the neighbors don't mind if I am mowing or tilling at night!

 

[iukaman]

Just did some LED work on my L3200HST

Not exactly most professionally done, but I too liek to bush hog a little after dark......now i need a bug reflector!

 

[seanbarr]

You're gonna cut off those bottom pieces right? ;-)

 

[skeets]

LOL,,, That's what I was thinking too Those bolt could cause some, really painful gouges

 

[iukaman]

Oh it will be cut off....just have to make sure there us nothing else that I want to mount to it....its nice having some threaded rods for mounting. Just have to do my thinking!

Any thoughts on what i can put up there or what is useful??

I really would like to have a canopy one day, just dont know much about what kinds to get and where. If i did that then i would be re-doing all of it anyway.

 

[Fastest1]

Nice work, the extra long bolts would be a concern ;-).

Just for the future, if you are interested in "fishing" wires thru a pipe or tubing. Drill the 2 holes needed, attach a vacuum cleaner to one hole (holding it by hand will be fine) and insert dental floss, string and or jet line into the other hole. Sometimes it will require tying a small piece of wadded up plastic or the like as a mouse to the end being pulled. Use gravity to your advantage. I do this all of the time in very long distance conduit runs underground. Using compressed air is the normal way of doing it, however if blowing into a house you better hope the inside of the conduit is dry. Dont ask me how I know that!

 

[iukaman]

wow i didnt subscribe to my own post, so sorry for delay!

Yea, the ROPS are foldable and wasnt really sure i wanted to lose that in case i ever had to get it into my garage for any reason (it doesnt clearn by a few inches), but i could just let the air out of the tires.

I really want to get a canopy for it though and want a good fiberglass one (since i dont deal with trees or anything for it to get damaged) and then i would re-think the installation of the lights, and possible sound system.

As far as installation, thanks for the info! I have been down that road many times....be careful of blowing air into possible water conduits...you never know when it might blow the water out the top and into a tranformer on an electric pole. Dont ask me how I know that! We have used may times small metal object tied to string with a magnet (in non metallic of course - if you dont get the purchased series a magnet off a speaker works great). This helps when the starting point is not completely verticle to the end point and you might need to fish a pull string through. I have also used the fishing line tied to a small cross bow for pulling wire across open areas liek crawl spaces and drop ceiling.

OK, back to the tractor talk!!