Today I installed my JW Speaker LED lights. Found here: http://www.headlightrevolution.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=JW-6145B&CartID=1 and you want to get the 2504 harness adapter. Today I finally had time to get them in. It was pretty easy. I decided to take the wheels off, but you could get by with turning them one way then the other if you wanted. As a reminder the manual says torque specs on the lugs are 100 ft. lbs. I adjusted the lights after it started to get dark. Here are some initial pictures showing the regular knuckle buster type stuff.
Side note: Jeep used some dumb aluminum rivet that is one time use on the bottom of the fender liner / front bumper. I used an interior trim removal tool and spread it apart, then used ***** to cut it. I had some 11mm head bolts, about an inch or less long, and with 2 washers on each put the bolts in their place. Worked well.
Picture Order:
Fogs on, no parking brake.
Fogs on, headlights on.
Fogs on, parking brake on.
In a grassy area, obviously, only fogs on, parking brake on.
In a grassy area, fogs and headlights on.
Obvious lights on, on a road.
On the road, fog lights only.
On the road, fog lights only.
A picture of the box.
Note that my Kyocera DuraForce does not have the best camera on it. My phone does not do these lights justice. They are worth every penny if you drive at night a lot. HUGE difference. I would say about 5x better than the stock ones. Better throw, more controlled and whiter. With the headlights on, the colors actually blend well. I have the factory headlight bulbs in.
Here is my mock-up of the Vision X Pods on the front plate mount. I am not sure if I am leaving these this way or not. The outside ones are the 60 deg flood to light up the sides of the trail. The center ones are the 30 x 60 deg elliptical to light up the road. Thoughts?
I forgot to add the picture I took of the new JW Speaker light next to the factory fog. What a difference! FWIW, the factory fog is made in Korea. JW is made in Wisconsin. The Rigid 20" is made in Arizona and the Vision X Solos are made in Korea.
I absolutely love those JWS fogs...The plate mounted lights will definitely give you lots of coverage as well. I'd run them, and adjust as necessary, but I think you'd be pretty well set with the set up you've got there so far!
From the pics, looks like you'd have to splice in a new pigtail to accept the same terminals. IMO, definitely worth it for the upgrade... @Mudman1, you're gonna cost me a lot of money haha
Factory wiring. Our fog lights' harness clips into back of the bulb, whereas the JWS has a pigtail coming out of it already. I only caught it because I deal with finding all the terminals/connectors for all the wiring repairs at my work so I'm kinda used to it haha.
Headlight Revolution includes a plug and play harness. All I did was plug each end in. Pretty simple. I did put some dielectric grease in the plugs for good measure though. Even if you are not mechanically inclined, you can do this mod.
I locked up for the night. All four Rigid Rock Lights are mounted and roughed in. The rear lights are ran along the plastic guard they are mounted to. The supplied wire is not long enough to make it all the way into the engine compartment for the rear sets, though the front could. I combined all four at the LF light. The passenger side was ran on top of the center skid plate, tucked under the aluminum sub-frame. The supply line is ran on top of the LF fender liner and into the engine bay, coming in in front of the battery so it stays tucked in the channel molded into the fender.
As for the Vision X plate mount and lights, I discovered an issue. There is about 2" of dead space between the plastic bumper and the steel one. The weight of the plate mount plus the lights has me thinking it is not safe to try and smash it against the plastic bumper. Also, none of the holes (6 total) for the front plate mount work for the light mount, so I would have to drill more. I have explored several possible areas to mount them, but none make me happy. Except one. Behind the 7 slots in the hood. They do fit well behind the 2nd slot in on each side. And it is possible to make a mount for them. But I am not certain I will do this because I could not aim them...they would need to be flush.
At some point I will have a work around for them, but for now I might put them on hold. Tomorrow I plan on running the wiring for the 20" bar and the rock lights then roughing in wiring for the A-pillar mounts.
Good evening guys. I am done! Well, until @myfirstcherokee gets those mounts in the mail. I have everything already pre-wired for the a-pillar mounts...just made sense while I was doing everything else.
I opted to not install any more lights on the front. There was no clean, garage fab safe way to do it. So in place of making it look tacky, I will just wait for either another project or for the aftermarket to catch up.
The REFERENCE threads in Post 1 of this thread has the info on the parts, including links, that I used to do this job. I will say those Powerwerxs Power Poles are the cat's pajamas. I have the primary power leads on dual 20A fuses and the secondary power leads on 15A fuses. Everything is grounded through the power buss minus the 20" bar, that is grounded to the ground stud next to the battery. I take my time, do not rush, and try to do it right. Everything is wrapped and I have detailed notes on what wires are what, should I encounter an issue. I also made a Power Pole jumper cable in the event I need to run the lights with the Jeep off and the voltage switch is playing it safe. I have it set to a 2 minute timer now.
The switch lights are tapped into the LF marker light. I did not want them on all the time, meaning when the voltage switch says the stuff is safe to have on. I wanted to tap into a fuse in the main block under the hood. But they are either the tiny fuses or the regular old size, but they have 3 prongs! I have never seen a fuse like that before. My 2012 Cummins did not have anything like that.
Enjoy! My next post will have pics of the lights in action.
The first two were taken with the Rigid Rock Lights on, from the driver's seat. The rest are kinda obvious. Unlike most others on here who post up day light pics of their lights and never do night shots, I deliver!
Nope. It closes just fine. I trimmed out the tops of the sides with my Dremel and make a tray, if you will, for the 3 pod housing to sit in. The back of the drawer is cut out so the wires can pass through.
Essentially, if I ever sell the Jeep and return it to stock, I only have to buy 3 things. The drawer and the two side guards / plastic sliders.
Since it does not get dark until about 10 pm here this time of year, tonight is the first time I did any night driving since installing the JW Speaker fog lights. I am GLAD I did that mod. It rained all day and there is a decent amount of fog around. They sliced right through, which I had concerns about. They, like all lights, get a little washed out in oncoming traffic on a 2 lane road, but otherwise are fantastic. You still cannot see around your fenders when you turn, but that is due to how Jeep put the lights in the bumper. Of course, my Rigid Rock Lights take care of that now.
Awesome work, and awesome write up! I had envisioned going into the headliner with my switches, but that really isn't a bad spot either, and probably tons easier to route wiring...You've got me thinking now!
I did too. I have the 6 pod panel and some other things I waned to put on and switch from the front. I am going to do those in a different way. My fear is all the airbags. I am not very smart with how to work with them and where wires can run. Also, the headliner would suck to mess up the cut on and that pod holder does not have wide tabs. So I scaled it down and went the safe route. I think one other member here did the same thing, putting switches in the drawer.
Really? You think after all that I would let it rattle? When sitting in the driver's seat and looking at the switch pod, the left side has a small screw in it. The bottom (front of drawer) and right side have industrial Velcro holding it in. I ran into an issue where some of the wires (I used 14GA for most of it) were pushing up the left side a it. It still closed and sat there but looked off. So I fixed that quick. The switch pod does not move. The wires are routed in a way that allow them to flex behind the drawer but not rub on anything.
Very nice install. My garage looks very similar! I even have the same plastic roll around cart. Thanks for taking time to take pics and explain install. This will be huge for most members. I could really use those lumens off-road
Well done on the pix and writeup. Thanks for taking the time!
EAK
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
2014+ Jeep Cherokee Forums
506.3K posts
40.2K members
Since 2013
A forum community dedicated to Jeep Cherokee owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, lift kits, 4 wheel drive, modifications, reviews, warranty, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!