Temporarily mounting flashlight to 4X4 vehicle

Not sure if this is the best category to post this, but here goes:

I am a part-time naturalist / guide who gives tours of the desert Southwest in classic CJ Jeeps. The Jeeps are 40 years old, have the original dim headlights, and the company wants to keep them original as part of the classic Jeep experience. We do some “sunset” tours where I would like more light while driving off road. I’m currently using a Convoy S2+ that works great as far as the amount of light, but I’m holding it out the side of the Jeep while trying to drive and shift. I’m looking for a way to temporarily mount the light without leaving any base or parts attached to the Jeep (we have 10 jeeps and I need to be able to mount the light to any one of them). So far I’ve thought of gluing magnets to the barrel of the S2+, but I don’t think that would be strong enough. I’ve also ordered a few different flashlight bike mounts, and am going to try attaching the clamp that is supposed to attach to the bike handlebar to the bars that hold on the outside rear view mirrors. Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks

P.S. - I am not looking for any lights that would permanently mount to or use electricity from the Jeep. I’m satisfied with the Convoy S2+ and am looking for a way to mount that light to the Jeep.

I’d stick with the magnet idea. If you’re ok with modding, I suggest a magfloat or equivalent, to start out with. They are made for cleaning aquariums, with strong magnets (one inside and one outside the aquarium). Attach the flashlight to that and you’re good to go. Plus the magfloat comes with two magnets, so you can make a spare.

If you go the magnet route, use two beefy neodymium magnets, at the front and back of the light, simply taped against the side of the S2+ with duct-tape.

I think your idea of the bike mount on the mirrors is good. It seems the bike mount would offer greater flexibility in aiming the lights than magnets.

Which bike mounts are you testing? I ran across these on Amazon the other day, but have no experience with them.

They’re plastic but seem to have mostly positive reviews. Look around on Amazon, there are multi-packs and different colors.

I built a tripod mount out of a quick-release truss clamp for larger-diameter lights, in case you end up trying some larger flashlights. Perhaps you could join the aluminum truss clamp to half of the above-mentioned bike mount.

BTW, if the CJ mirror arms are too small for your mounts to clamp securely to, try a few wraps of bicycle inner tube.

I’ve had luck procuring free punctured tubes from bike repair shops by asking nicely. :slight_smile:

You can use thick rubber band wrapped around mirror. Stick flashlight into the wrappings, you may even be able to adjust it a little. Should work quite well.

Magnetic weapon mount may do the trick.

https://www.amazon.com/OLIGHT-X-WM01-Magnetic-Weapon-Flashlights/dp/B00AASRQAE/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1537905897&sr=8-7&keywords=magnetic+weapon+mount

Is this overkill?

Doh, too bright.

A bit pricey, but I’m sure there are smaller version of them (eg, harbor Freight, etc.).

https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Ground-Grounding-Magnet-Welding/dp/B01FOQJHGW

Either leave in the center post, remove the spring and put back the bolt, however you’d want to mount the S2+ to either the post or the hole.

Cover the scratchy bits with adhesive-backed felt, rubber, etc.

Hmm, one of those swivelly bike-mounts above might be disassembled to leave the top-piece and stick it somehow into the hole of the magnet.

I had a CJ7 and a $12 handheld Coleman spotlight that plugged into the cigar lighter for driving the back roads. It worked great!

Use the neodymium magnets. Glue a few of the magnets onto a strip of plastic and hold the strip onto the light with a tube of elastic webbing that you can stitch together.

I use something like that for sticking a tube light to metal when we have power outages.

Just a quick update. I did a night tour last night using the black and orange mount goshdogit found on Amazon and it worked great. Thanks for all the ideas.

Nice! :+1:

Share some pics if you can.

Didn’t take any, but I’ll be using it again in a few weeks.