An awful lot of us have those cheap, $12 florescent lights you get at Home Depot or elsewhere... I spent a little time and money to make sure mine were safe for my new car.
The problem with these are that they usually come with a little chain and an "S" hook, which hooks into holes in the light. You put a couple of screwhooks into the ceiling, hang the light by the chain, and you're done.
I found out the hard way when I threw a box across the garage and it took an odd bounce, those "S" hooks only need a slight nudge to let go of the light. Once one has let go and the light starts to swing, the other will go - and the light will fall. Right. Onto. Your. New. Car.
I fixed this by going to Home Depot and spending about $10 and got some much beefier hooks (probably support 50 lbs or so each), some self-threading screws, and some picture frame wire.
Put the new hooks into the ceiling (making sure they were going into the stud), ran two screws on the opposite sides of each end of the light, hung it from the regular chain (quick and easy), then used the picture frame wire to add a redundant, more resilient load path from the screws to the new hook. Wrapped some wire around the open end of the new hook so the wire can't pop out.
I like the wire because it's pretty strong, but cuts easily with a metal snip or wire cutter, and is easily formed.
This may sound a little paranoid, but we get earthquakes here in the US NW, and I'm pretty sure a strong one would have been enough to make the old mounting system sway enough to fall off.
For this case, peace of mind can be easily bought :smile:
The problem with these are that they usually come with a little chain and an "S" hook, which hooks into holes in the light. You put a couple of screwhooks into the ceiling, hang the light by the chain, and you're done.
I found out the hard way when I threw a box across the garage and it took an odd bounce, those "S" hooks only need a slight nudge to let go of the light. Once one has let go and the light starts to swing, the other will go - and the light will fall. Right. Onto. Your. New. Car.
I fixed this by going to Home Depot and spending about $10 and got some much beefier hooks (probably support 50 lbs or so each), some self-threading screws, and some picture frame wire.
Put the new hooks into the ceiling (making sure they were going into the stud), ran two screws on the opposite sides of each end of the light, hung it from the regular chain (quick and easy), then used the picture frame wire to add a redundant, more resilient load path from the screws to the new hook. Wrapped some wire around the open end of the new hook so the wire can't pop out.
I like the wire because it's pretty strong, but cuts easily with a metal snip or wire cutter, and is easily formed.
This may sound a little paranoid, but we get earthquakes here in the US NW, and I'm pretty sure a strong one would have been enough to make the old mounting system sway enough to fall off.
For this case, peace of mind can be easily bought :smile:
