I was also, so I installed one of these.

Hella map lights

Yes I know about the LED upgrades available, but they don't fix the basic flaw with the stock light locations, they are behind the seats and most of the light is blocked from the front area. For those that have raised their seats, I bet the back of the seat almost touches the roll cage and blocks even more light. This also only cost $30 instead of $100 or so.

I went with the 19" model, and I mounted it to the top center of my roll cage. Just booty fabbed a bracket out of aluminium and drilled four holes to screw it into the cage. The wires for the factory light (Pink and yellow for my '03) run along the top of the bar so I direct wired it in so it will come on and off with the rest of the interior lighting. The top of the roll cage doesn't have any foam padding on it, just the fabric covering, which I used a gasket punch to put a clean hole through. There's still clearance between the light bracket and the soft top, no worries about it rubbing a hole in the top. Now I have enough light in the front to read maps, look for stuff I dropped, or whatever. The flexable neck is stiff enough to stay still while driving, but I haven't been off road with it yet. The light does come with a small clip that will hold the goose neck that I'll install when I get a chance. I'm going to clip it behind my head so the light still shines in the front passenger area. It's a good quality and pattern of light that doesn't hurt your eyes, yet still is bright enough to see by. The red lense is also good quality, with the same pattern.

The 6" ones would probably mount nicely on the corners of the dash, but then they'd be in your face somewhat. This one is positioned perfectly above your head and out of your direct line of sight, yet still lights up what you need. There's a switch on the head if you want it off for any reason.

Here's a picture...



Have fun,
Mark

hmm thats kinda cool, might be good having one under the hood too

I like it, but I would like to see them come out with a L.E.D. especially one under the hood, I stopped replacing my light under the hood, every time it gets wet it's toast, wouldn't have that prob with the L.E.D.

Squid:

Curious minds want to know: what IS all that stuff at the top of your windshield? And what's the gauge to the lower left of the column? OBA?

BTW: extra points awarded for mud streaks on dash board with doors ON!

BlackJack

OK, in the middle is my fire extinguisher, I just screwed it to the plastic trim piece using the mount that came with, and some washers behind it to distribute load. It's been mounted there for 3 years without a problem. The little blue thing clipped to it is a small blue LED flashlight.

The guage is my OBA, the small red dot above it is an LED that lights when the compressor is running. The red switch above that is for the SwayLOC.

Drivers visor is an empty palm pilot type case that's perfect for holding small things like smokes. Passenger visor is a small paper towel holder my wife found at a dollar store. That's a nice thing, they are stronger than kleenex, so you can actually wipe things up or check your oil, but still work on body parts without abrasions. Brand name is Tempo, it reloads by slipping a new packet inside.

On the dash is an indoor/outdoor thermometer from Radio Shack, cost about $10, and the external CB speaker.

Barely visible are the four switches below the heater controls. They are for the lights, OBA, and F/R lockers. It was nice of DC to put those blanks there, since I have a softop X model, none of them were used and I didn't have to worry about matching the factory switches.

Finally, the mud matches our mission statement across our windshields..."To boldly go where we're too stupid to know any better!"

Squid:

Thanks for that very complete reply!

I'm still in the timid phase, making little changes. It's helpful to see what others have been up to. Everyone *talks* about suspensions, tires, armor, etc. but everytime I meet a Jeep owner I'm fascinated by the very unique ways they've approached the cockpit environment.

Cheers,
BlackJack

I try to keep mine simple, like hide-a-way gauges and the cb flush and proportional to my center dash. To be honest i get a little OCD when my jeep is dirty so its always clean.

Black Jack,

Thanks for the compliments. Part of the fun for me is the gadgets, and coming up with a way to make something work for me. Cutting the hole for the first switch wasn't to bad since it was in a replacable piece on the center console. Drilling four holes in the body for a good CB mount was a bit harder, probably the hardest decision was to destroy the factory A/C for OBA, but I'm glad I did it. Now I have no qualms about cutting holes in the dash for switches and stuff, as it's better in the long run to have them in an organized and logical manner. Most recent was adding a switch to shut off the interior lights/beeper when the doors are removed or open. It used to drive me crazy when I was working on the Jeep with the radio on, and having to listen to that stupid "BEEP-BEEP-BEEP" when the door was opened. I put it on the side of the center removable portion of the dash near the passenger air bag. Small black switch in easy to reach location, yet almost invisible on the black dash piece. Most folks put that under the passenger dash where it's hard to reach from the drivers seat. Each mod gets easier as you go along, function over fashion is my preference.

Have fun,
Mark