Detachable lighting for JKU rack

[thechainring]

Hey All, after a few camping trips I'm realizing a few that things I need.

1. A cargo rack to get camping gear/fire wood out from inside. This is because my wife and I mtn bike and like to keep the bikes inside away from prying eyes and road elements. The catch is my Jeep barely clears my garage now so the rack needs to be easily removable. I have this sorted out my using some Yakima channel rails permanently mounted to the hard top.
For the rack I like the Surco Urban rack with Yakima low profile cross bars.

2. More lighting... We like to camp at removed spots and I'd like to set up some LED lights on the rack that I can wire to 4 separate switches depending on what side I need lit up.... side to side and front or back. Up front I'd probably run something powerful but the others I'l like something more ambient.
I want LED for the low power draw.

So my question is this.. I need advice on how to run the wiring through the hardtop and what kind of quick disconnects would be best for the light.
Sorry for the long winded question...

 

[goofiefoot]

Subscribing to this thread, as I have some similar thoughts for my own rack.

 

[Flyfishjeep]

I think a lot of this is going to depend on what rack you use and where it attaches. Running wire inside the rack is not difficult, it is where you run the wire to get in the rack that becomes the issue. I have a Gobi Stealth on my JK. I was able to run wire through the stock hood vents under the windshield to the side post of the rack for the front lights. I have not attached lights to the rear or sides of my rack yet (I did run wire through the tailgate following the 3rd brake light for lights on my swing out tire carrier). I only have about 4 inches of exposed wire but it is in conduit so it looks fine. Is the rack going to be square tubing or round? I will attach a link below to some pretty nice lights for rack attachment that are very small. They don't throw out a ton of light, but they put out enough to see what you are doing. I have a pair of them but have not mounted them yet.

http://shop.labrak.com/LabRak-Camp-Lights-LR-camp-light.htm

 

[thechainring]

Thanks FFJ, that's some good info.
I really like the Urban Rack from Surco: http://surcoinc.com/R-BR_URB.html. It should mount directly to some low profile load bars and feet that will mount directly into the channel bars. The idea will be to have everything permanently mounted to the rack while still being easy to remove the feet from the channels.
I was thinking on running the wiring up through the dash and into the roll bar padding similar (but opposite side) to how I wired my CB. My thoughts are to have only one main exit point thru the hard top for all the wires and then connect them to all the lights that are already hard wired on the rack.

 

[thechainring]

Bump