Wiring 4 Rigid Lights to Gobi Rack on 4Runner

Off-road lighting for better trail visibility and light-duty use for camping has grown in popularity in recent years. While the classic image of large halogen lamps atop an overly lifted rig persists, technology has advanced for 5th Gen 4Runner owners and off-road enthusiasts. Modern LED lights, which are energy-efficient and extremely bright, can illuminate almost any trail, dark back roads, or other areas you may need.

LEDs must be chosen carefully, as poor construction can lead to moisture buildup in the housing, rendering the light ineffective. Similarly, subpar housings are prone to early damage from rocks, branches, or trail debris when used in harsh conditions.

There are many great lighting brands, so do your research, stick to established names, and avoid cheap options on platforms like eBay or Amazon. While you can find high-quality LEDs on Amazon, beware of no-name brands made in China, as they often have poor construction, inadequate wiring, lackluster warranties, and poor customer support.

Lighting is one of the most crucial upgrades for your rig. Whether installing lights on a Gobi or Baja Roof Rack, choose your lighting carefully. A poor choice could lead to serious issues. Always opt for a reputable, name-brand LED lighting kit from a trusted source that offers good customer support.

Types of Lighting Options

• LED Lights and State Laws:
  • Off-road LEDs should not be used on paved roads or highways.
  • Using blinding lights on public roads is illegal, dangerous, and inconsiderate.
• LED Light Color Options:
  • Amber: Best for snow, dust, and fog.
  • White: Ideal for general driving.
• LED Light Patterns:
  • Spot: Narrow, long beam.
  • Flood: Shorter, wider beam.
  • Driving: Wider than flood, used for on-road driving.
  • Diffused: Very wide, low intensity.
• LED Lights – Shapes and Sizes:
  • Popular sizes include 40” light bars, which can be curved for better light distribution.
  • Choice between large light bars or multiple smaller lights depends on personal preference.

For my 2013 MGM 4Runner Trail, I went with 4 Rigid 6” E-Series Combo Spot/Floods, combining new tech with the traditional 4×4 look. Once you’ve chosen your lights, the next step is running the wiring to the battery and installing the switch.

One option is running the wiring to the back, piercing the rear hatch grommet, and routing everything forward. The second, more common method is running the wiring along the windshield, between the weather stripping, which I chose to avoid water damage.

Install on The Gobi Rack

Disclaimer

I am not an electrician, I am a 4Runner enthusiast and a do-it-yourselfer. You accept the responsibility of this install, I do not. Please read all instructions that come with your equipment and accept those terms.

Tools

• Wire cutters/strippers
• Soldering iron
• Heat Gun
• Waterproof heat shrink tubing (with sealant)
• 12ga wiring
• Appropriately Fused Relay (in this demonstration I will use the Bussman)
• Switch
• Zip Ties
• Silicone
• Screen tool (like for fixing a screen door)
• Caulking gun
• Wire splicers for 14-16ga wires

Pro Tip – If you don’t know how to solder, learn. It is very easy to build skill quickly with internet videos, proper equipment, and spare wire.

Using Heat Shrink – Be sure to slide some appropriately sized heat shrink tubing over one of the wires that you are soldering together, solder the wires, then slide the heat shrink over after cooling and shrink the tubing with the heat gun to protect yourself from electric shock and to keep the circuit from shorting. Do this for every solder in this post.

Time

• 3-4 hours

Preparation

• Prepare your 4Runner, Rigid Industries E-Series lights, Relay, and Wiring Harnesses

1. Disconnect the positive terminal of your battery

If you don’t do it now you will forget later. Getting shocked with direct current from a car battery is not fun. Here is a diagram of what we are going to do.

2. Check your equipment

Below you can see one of the 4 Rigid Industries 6” E-Series Spot/Flood Combo lights that I am putting on the truck. For all of them, I plugged in the wiring harness, connected them to the battery directly (carefully!), and turned on the switch to make sure they worked. This install chops up the wiring harnesses pretty badly, so you really don’t want to flip the switch in the cab just to see one of them isn’t working right at the end of the install.

3. Mount your light(s)

Whether you are sporting a light bar or several Rigid Industries 6” E-Series Spot/Flood Combo lights, it is good idea to mount them first to make sure you like the look, you have all the hardware you need, and to take measurements for trimming any harnesses. During this process I discovered that the supplied brackets for the E-Series lights were too high and caused them to hit the front crossbar on the Gobi Stealth Rack. This required bracket modification to bring the lights down a bit.

4. Measure and Cut the wiring harness(s)

So the issue with running wires along the rain gutters of the windshield is that removing the gutters and placing the wires underneath can fracture the plastic and/or cause leaks, whereas placing the smaller wire(s) that come with your lights on top of the gutter can be unwieldy (if you have 4 wires that is 4 bright red positive wires and 4 black negative wires) and apparent (red wires sitting in the gutter will be seen from a mile away).

To circumvent both of the problems, I tested several gauges of wire in the black rain gutters on both sides of the windshield and found that a black 12ga wire squeezes in on top of the gutter nicely, and will be well hidden by virtue of being black (you will see pics of this in a second).

So, whether you have a light bar or 4 lights like me, you now need to cut your wiring harness(es) and solder the all positive wires to a single black 12ga. You will also solder the all negative wires to a single black 12ga, just remember which one is which. After soldering them it is important to use marine grade heat shrink tubing with sealant to make sure the connection is waterproof and protected. It will be sitting in the elements on your roof.

Pro Tip – You can also ground the negative to the roof rack where it bolts to the roof BUT this can sometimes cause issues if you are reusing the relay that came with the wiring harness (the switch and relay need a ground too). I chose to run mine to the engine bay to give it a proper ground.

Run your wires to your relay

5. Run the wires to the engine bay

Plug the wiring harnesses into the lights. Zip tie them to the crossbars of your roof rack, bringing one of the 12ga wires (+ or -) to the driver side of the windshield and the other to the passenger side. Push them into the rain gutter using a screen tool and run them under the wiper molding at the base of the windshield into the engine bay.

If everything looks good, back the wires out of the gutter just slightly and apply silicone to the gutters using a caulking gun. Now place the wires back in, pull the slack tight in the engine bay, and run over the 12ga wires with the screen tool once. Take a rag and wipe off any excess silicone.

6. Wire up the relay

Now depending on your needs and setup, this step can be quite different. I have several lights and instead of dealing with the clutter under the hood I wired mine to a Bussman RTMR.

This has a great space saving design which still allows access to the firewall for passing these wires to the cab. Many other mounting plates are flatter and wider and do not allow such access. If you are only running the one light bar, or want to run just the roof rack lights off of one switch (and don’t plan on more lights), make sure one of the harnesses you cut is fused correctly and the switch can handle the amp draw, and simply solder things back together (+ to +, – to -) in the engine bay and follow the factory instructions for switch mounting.

If you are going to run many lights on your rig, the Bussman has worked awesome for me, and Shrockworks (no affiliation) sells it pre-wired with 5 switches and 5 constant draws. I simply selected a relay for a switch and soldered the positive 12ga wire to that relay. I then grounded the negative 12ga to a negative bus that I purchased (Blue Sea) and connected to the negative battery terminal.

Mounted Distribution Module with Bussman, Circuit Breaker, Negative Bus and Bracket

Get your trigger wire and power to your switch

7. Run the wires you need through the firewall

As I noted before, the behind the fusebox on the driver side there is a rubber grommet that runs through the firewall. In this instance, I ran a light green 12V constant draw wire (to power the switch), a black ground (to keep from having to find chassis to ground to in the cab), and a light blue trigger wire through the firewall. I also pulled all of the other trigger wires for the Bussman through the firewall at the same time for future use and hid them under the driver kick panel in the cab.

Engine Bay Side

Cab Side, under the driver dash

8. Wire the switch

I found that the green wire on the party mode button was the backlight power (so the switch will come on at night). I spliced into that with a dark green wire and then wired everything to an Air-On-Board switch. The wires coming from the lights/car are on the left of the pic below, the switch on the right. These were all soldered together.

The wiring went as follows:

• Blue- trigger wire
• Dark Green – backlight
• Black – ground
• Light Green – power supply
• White – trigger for light bar (wired at the same time, ignore for this post)

9. Check your work

Make sure you have a fuse in the relay, make sure all of your soldered connections have been covered with heat shrink and insulated. Reconnect the positive terminal for your car battery, and let there be light! I chose to put my switches in the blanks for the heated seats in the center console.

4 Rigid Industries 6” E-Series Spot/Flood Combo lights Mounted on Gobi Stealth Rack