I welded some rear lights onto my Xterra today. I got the lights from Wal-Mart for $10 each. Everything seems good but when you open the rear door they aim into the sky .

OUCH!

Did you weld those brackets on?

Yeah, its just angle iron.

Just my .02 but what is wrong with the roof rack?

It doesn't look like you sanded the area first. Am I wrong? Did you sand off the paint there or weld to it? I am just wondering how it's going to hold.

Holy shit, that has got to be the worst case of molestation of a perfectly good truck?. Why on earth not mount the $10 light on your roof rack?. at least it can be replaced. So I guess the spatter and such complimented the paint nicely? (looks like it)

Branches would hit them if they were higher than the rack, so they would have to be low, or protected good. And I saw pictures of them bolted onto the roof rack with u-bolts; I didn’t think it looked as clean. And maybe there is less stuff to rattle.

EDIT: I ground the paint off with an angle grinder before I welded it. I guarantee that weld will NEVER break.

On my old isuzu trooper I had the same lights welded onto the same spot, never had any problems.
http://204.210.136.14/trooper/08/PA290021.JPG

baldercarma... i have to admit man, you arent the smartest out there.

first it was the whole "use the swaybar as a tow point", then it was the driving over 90mph is totally fine in the xterra, now you went ahead and WELDED your reverse lights TO THE ACTUAL HATCH!



by the way, you might want to think about washing your truck every once and awhile or else your paint is going to look 20 years old in about 2 years.

thanks for the entertainment.

LOMAO!!!...I thought I had heard about this guy before....Yup great candidate for the Xterra Darwin Mod award 2005.

I'm never going to wash the body, only the frame to keep it from rusting. I never really liked shiny paint anyways. When the paint gets crappy ill re-paint it camouflage like my trooper with non-shinny paint.

Thank you for making my afternoon so enjoyable....you by chance have a photo of your house?

That rocks!!

Mikek
Keefer1one@yahoo.com

really, why not the roof rack?

I was thinking about getting a light for the rear... but..

That's something I haven't seen before. I still think that the roof rack would have been a better choice.

I didn’t mount it on the roof rack because with the lights sticking up branches would destroy them really fast unless they were very short lights, or protected very well by something to lift up the branches. And all the ones that I saw attached to the roof rack were attached with U-bolts, and didn’t look as clean or as strong.

So other than the fact that attaching them to the roof rack isn’t as permanent, does anyone have a REAL reason why they shouldn’t be attached to the hatch, or is everyone just talking out of their asses?

Probably for the reason you already stated, which is they point to the sky when the hatch is open. In my opinion, it seems to defeat the purpose. But hey, it's your X - you shouldn't care what we think.

I see it's an '00. Do you own it outright?

No, bank owns it.

youre probably going to have to readjust the angle on them often as well after closing the hatch repeatedly.

make sure those bolts are really secure or dont slam the hatch.

Wow, really? I was trying to rationalize that somehow.

Wow.

Just...Wow.

In the desert world, a rear amber facing light is a necessity. Other than that , I've never had the need for a rear facing light.

But, if I did I would think that making some sort of removable bracket that would facilitate mounting a light to the hitch tube might be a good idea if you didn't want it on the rack.

I don't see the logic of not mounting it to the back of the rack on the last bar though. It's not going to be that high and if something is scraping it off, you are probably going to have a lot bigger problems than losing a $10 light.

Badercarma , I think the feedback you are getting is based in the fact that you basically ruined the paint on both sides of the hatch to booger weld two $10 lights when there might have been a cleaner solution that might have violated your X a little less.

But hey, seriously: It's your X and you mod it however you like that fits your needs. As long as your happy that's what matters.

Best thread ever.

FUCK the paint; it pisses me off when people won’t take their trucks off-road because they are worried about scratches. It’s a truck, who cares what it looks like.