Genocache: Land Rover 109 dome light

Friday, May 28, 2021

Land Rover 109 dome light

28 May 2021

Back in Oct of 2020 I bought a dome light and installed it over the front seats. You can read about it here;

https://poppageno.blogspot.com/2020/10/land-rover-headliner-installoption-part.html

Long story short, it didn't suit my needs as the light while bright enough was not covering the forward part of the cab or the seats, only the center section.

So the hunt was on. Then I screwed up, I bought 2 LED dome lights from Superbrightleds.com and when they came in, while they looked great and fit nice they didn't have manual switches, They were designed for door switches. They stayed in the box.

The hunt intensified; On Amazon(who'da thunk?) I found some rectangular low profile, manual and door switched, LED dome lights. Bonus points for being a 2-pack.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CBT6LCT?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

They came in yesterday, and were installed today.

Here's a look;

First I removed the old one.

Then looked at the mounting for the new ones. The steel bracket gets screwed on and the fixture slides on the hooks, Ya gotta press pretty hard to slide it on.

Mounting was easy, I just had to drill 1 mounting hole and hook up the power and ground.

That's when the hard work started. I wanted to have an overhead light in the back for camping.

I really, really, really wanted it on the centerline of the rib, but with space at a premium and me already bumping the rib when I crawl around, I opted for putting it on the side of the drivers side overhead bin.

What you don't have these? You can read about mine here;

https://poppageno.blogspot.com/2015/06/land-rover-storage-option.html

After some careful measuring and layout and center punching followed by drilling the bracket was mounted.

The ground was affixed and power run through(red wire).

And that is when I realized the screws protruded into the storage bin and would soon catch and tear up any thing I put in there. What to do?

Hummmmm, pop rivets 1/8" with 1/4" grip range was just the solution, the flange covered just enough of the bracket to hold it in place and the 1/8" hole needed was not much larger than the screw hole.