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Posting to show that a roof/roof rack bar mounted light bar is possible. Haven’t seen this addressed on the forum since around 2022.
My Bronco Sport is a 2022 Big Bend with factory roof rails
I purchased the Rough Country Cree light bar part #71039. This came in 2 boxes, the rack mounts part # 71038, and the light bar with wiring harness, part #70740BL.
Mounting the light mounts and the rack rails was pretty straightforward. Measure, drill and secure with the supplied pop rivets. Be careful not to locate the brackets too low on the rails as this makes it hard to position and use the rivet gun. Also test fit the rivets in the mount holes as my right mount had pre drilled holes that were too small to insert them.
The light bar is easy to mount but only instructions is to use the provided hardware to do so. There is a spacer, a washer, a lock washer, and bolt to install. When I opened the bag I only found the bolts and spacers. Bolt wouldn’t screw in enough to tighten the bar. Scratched my head a bit wondering what I was doing wrong leading me to finding the washers and secure the bar.
There is a 46” wiring lead from the bar to the coupler for the under hood wiring wire harness. This was just long enough to make it down along the windshield on the drivers side. The under hood wiring harness is excessively long from the relay to the coupler from the bar. Wound up the access and zip tied it to the inner fender.
There is a rubber knock out plug on the firewall so routing the switch was easy. Glad Ford added this access. Again the wiring harness was excessively long so had to take up the excess in a loop and attach to inner fender. Switch is a stick on type so easy to locate on dash.
Where the wiring harness was shorter than should be is from the relay to the battery. And the battery positive and negative lead could be longer coming out of the harness cover. They fit but barely.
My plan was to hide the wire, from the bar to under hood, was under the exterior A piller trim. I stopped at my local body shop and they said they would pop off the filler strip and put trim cover for me. “Just stop by anytime you’re ready” they said. Ah not really as when I had the wiring run and stopped by it was a different story. Had to make appointment and probably not until a week or 2. I drove home and having watched a video on YouTube earlier, I decided to tackle it myself. Took me about 20-30 minutes to remove the trim piece and exterior trim cover, place wire, and put the trim pieces back on. Used just a screwdriver to pop them off.
Total time was about 3 1/2 hours to mount light bar, under hood wiring, and switch. That included about 20 minutes to get a new pop rivet gun from my local Ace Hardware store as my old one wasn’t up to the task.
I have attached photos of it finished. Hope this helps others who like me couldn’t find an abundance of info on adding this accessory.
My Bronco Sport is a 2022 Big Bend with factory roof rails
I purchased the Rough Country Cree light bar part #71039. This came in 2 boxes, the rack mounts part # 71038, and the light bar with wiring harness, part #70740BL.
Mounting the light mounts and the rack rails was pretty straightforward. Measure, drill and secure with the supplied pop rivets. Be careful not to locate the brackets too low on the rails as this makes it hard to position and use the rivet gun. Also test fit the rivets in the mount holes as my right mount had pre drilled holes that were too small to insert them.
The light bar is easy to mount but only instructions is to use the provided hardware to do so. There is a spacer, a washer, a lock washer, and bolt to install. When I opened the bag I only found the bolts and spacers. Bolt wouldn’t screw in enough to tighten the bar. Scratched my head a bit wondering what I was doing wrong leading me to finding the washers and secure the bar.
There is a 46” wiring lead from the bar to the coupler for the under hood wiring wire harness. This was just long enough to make it down along the windshield on the drivers side. The under hood wiring harness is excessively long from the relay to the coupler from the bar. Wound up the access and zip tied it to the inner fender.
There is a rubber knock out plug on the firewall so routing the switch was easy. Glad Ford added this access. Again the wiring harness was excessively long so had to take up the excess in a loop and attach to inner fender. Switch is a stick on type so easy to locate on dash.
Where the wiring harness was shorter than should be is from the relay to the battery. And the battery positive and negative lead could be longer coming out of the harness cover. They fit but barely.
My plan was to hide the wire, from the bar to under hood, was under the exterior A piller trim. I stopped at my local body shop and they said they would pop off the filler strip and put trim cover for me. “Just stop by anytime you’re ready” they said. Ah not really as when I had the wiring run and stopped by it was a different story. Had to make appointment and probably not until a week or 2. I drove home and having watched a video on YouTube earlier, I decided to tackle it myself. Took me about 20-30 minutes to remove the trim piece and exterior trim cover, place wire, and put the trim pieces back on. Used just a screwdriver to pop them off.
Total time was about 3 1/2 hours to mount light bar, under hood wiring, and switch. That included about 20 minutes to get a new pop rivet gun from my local Ace Hardware store as my old one wasn’t up to the task.
I have attached photos of it finished. Hope this helps others who like me couldn’t find an abundance of info on adding this accessory.
