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Boz330
10-17-2013, 08:55 AM
This time of year I leave for work in the dark and head home in the dark. I was looking for driving lights that would supplement my low beams some. Most of my trip is deer country and there is enough traffic that it is tough to use the high beams very much. Driving lights seem to stay low enough not to bother other drivers that much. Just wondering if anybody has a brand or style that has worked well for them. Just don't want to spend that kind of money to come up short.

Thanks
Bob

country gent
10-17-2013, 09:14 AM
Right now around me the farmers are running crops off, and the deer are all stirred up and moving alot more siince they are loosing alot of cover. I have found that flashing you head lights works better than the horn does to get them moving. Not sure where you would find driving lights that dont stick out. Oh and in a reintroduction 2 seat thunderbird convertable looking UNDER the deerthey reallylook big. LOL

marlin39a
10-17-2013, 09:30 AM
I researched this for my FJ Cruiser and decided to upgrade existing headlight bulbs to Sylvania SilverStar Ultra. I travel through deer crossings at late night and find them much better than stock bulbs.

remy3424
10-17-2013, 09:42 AM
Any addition lights will be a nuisance to all drivers you meet...buy the better low beam replacement bulbs

oldred
10-17-2013, 09:56 AM
Any addition lights will be a nuisance to all drivers you meet...buy the better low beam replacement bulbs

I HATE those D*** things and would truly love to see them outlawed! People drive around with them on with their low beams but they are as annoying as high beams in some case and I especially despise the inconsiderate nincompoops who get behind me with them on!

As you say, it's best to just buy the better light units for the regular headlights.

oldred
10-17-2013, 09:57 AM
Double post

lancem
10-17-2013, 10:21 AM
Hella brand are the ones that I like the best. What you are going to want are fog lights for running with lo beams, driving lites are for use with hi beams. Properly aimed fog lights should not bother an on coming driver any more than properly aimed lo beams.

Boz330
10-17-2013, 11:09 AM
I tried the brighter bulbs in my old car and they worked really well for a very short period of time. At $49 to $64 for the Silver Stars and it didn't seem like they even lasted a month that gets pretty expensive. Those bulbs life span is 25% of the standard bulbs as listed on the package. Unfortunately my high and low beams are in the same bulb so there is no option to just get the low beams. I wouldn't mine 50 bucks for bulbs if I knew they would last a year. I spend at least 2 hours a day driving in the dark this time of year.
I changed one of the bulbs out a couple weeks ago with a standard and the beam is noticeably less bright than the old side. I guess I'll have to check the brand and see what it is.
I don't have do inspections here but I don't like being blinded either. But I would sure like to be able to see better as well.

Bob

unclogum bill
10-17-2013, 11:55 AM
I have an older Subaru that I have played the game with . Started with set of Ebay "twice as bright bulbs" and like everyone said didn't last long. Next set was 29 bucks at Freddie Meyars , one and a half times as Bright. So far still running strong. Purchased a set of driving lights from auto zone for 34 bucks. Installing was a hassle, but l did a good job. Tough to stay aimed but that's another story and I fixed that. In 3 months one died. No reason, just did. Truth I think I used them 3 times. Had coupon for Harbor Freight lights , on sale set for 10 bucks . put them in place. Still going , help driving some. Left them on by mistake for 1 hour once and they about killed my battery. End of story......

starmac
10-17-2013, 12:52 PM
Their is a kit available To run your lights off of battery voltage instead of through the switch, which is a big improvement with any headlights. jacobs was the first on I can remember selling the kit, but others have followed over the years. I always just bought wire and relays and built my own. Started doing this back in the late 70's because ford pickups were hard on headlight switches.
I just changed another truck to low beams with lights with H4 bulbs, They come with a short pigtail (plug and play) to change the wiring in the pigtail. A KW doesn't have room for the extra wiring, so you have to change the wires in the original light plug. These run me close to 50 bucks a piece, but is a big improvement. I made one trip (two days) and had to change the driver side out again. lol It still worked, but got rocked.

We are light junkies in alaska, besides the above mentioned lowbeams, my high beams are actually 140 watt landing lights. I also have four hid's 2 spot and 2 floods, plus two led light bars down low on the bumper 1 spot and 1 flood, and two light force ditch lights. I have these all routed through an old style dimmer switch on the floor, so I can kill all of them when I meet somebody quickly. I have somewhere around 3 grand invested in forward mounted lights, but I drive in the daylight unless I'm meeting someone or in a blow.

uscra112
10-17-2013, 01:11 PM
I HATE those D*** things and would truly love to see them outlawed! People drive around with them on with their low beams but they are as annoying as high beams in some case and I especially despise the inconsiderate nincompoops who get behind me with them on!

As you say, it's best to just buy the better light units for the regular headlights.

Double Dittos. TRIPLE DITTOS. If I could buy light-seeking missiles to take those things out I would mount them by the dozens.

Little history on those things - I'm old enough to have driven serious winter rally competition in the '60s. (In 3-banger SAABs, if you wanta know.) The lights that are now imitated were installed on our rally cars and aimed to intensely illuminate the road surface out to about fifty feet in front of the car. The purpose was to help the driver "read" the road surface better, since in many rallies of that time there were "free sections" which usually turned out to be short sprint races. (Oh, the stories I can tell!) These modern imitations do not do that, they only LOOK like the driving lights we used, and functionally they do nothing but blind oncoming drivers.

These are not to be confused with the long-range Cibie "flame throwers" that we also mounted to supplement the standard HIGH beams, which in those days were not halogens, and couldn't illuminate the road 200 yards ahead. We were delighted when the first Cibie lights that would replace a standard 7" round sealed-beam became available, and used them even though they were illegal in Massachusetts.

"Fog lamps", which we rarely used, were always yellow, and were mounted as low as possible to reduce backscatter. Yellow to take advantage of the spectral sensitivity of the eye.

A problem with buying alternate low beams - the DOT dictates the lens design for headlights, so the only thing you can alter is the wattage of the lamps.

I live in deer-collision Hell. Going into my fourth seer season here I've hit three, and lost count of the near-misses. About the only thing you can do is mount a Mad Max bumper, IMHO. And have your brakes and tires in top condition.

FISH4BUGS
10-17-2013, 01:21 PM
My 1987 Mercedes 300d Diesel (377,000 miles and my daily driver) has halogen replacement bulbs. I live in deer country, and even had the pleasure of hitting one a few years back. The halogen bulbs work just fine. Bright is VERY bright, dim is acceptable.

MtGun44
10-17-2013, 01:38 PM
Fog lights, low mounted for side view. HID bulbs for long range.

I put some High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights on my car for high beams for driving in the country.
VERY BRIGHT, and VERY long range. Unfortunately they are slow to warm up, taking about 10 seconds
to reach full brightness, a significant problem. They are expensive and require you to put in a ballast
to provide the high voltage that they require and change the bulbs. I had one ballast fail and that sort
of worked out well. I put the good one on the right so I can see WAY down the road and the normal
high beam bulb back on the left for fast illumination and more protection to oncoming drivers.

Here is a link to a SIMILAR one on eBay. I forget what brand I got, but these look to be better made than
what I tried.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/75W-HID-Xenon-Kit-Conversion-H7-4300K-Bulb-Digital-Replacement-Ballast-Headlight-/360499825016?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item53ef76c978&vxp=mtr

Bill

Garyshome
10-17-2013, 01:57 PM
Yeh like those blue lights on the mercedes and bmw's. I don't mind having GEEZER lights on my car. I need to see and don't care about the on coming traffic. After all I do not believe that they give a hoot about me. How could they they have a I phone to play with while driving!

TXGunNut
10-17-2013, 10:13 PM
How clear are your headlamp lenses? Finally replaced them in my old pickup a few years back; huge difference! Polish works for a little while. Another thing fog lamps do is light up a little wider area, may help you see a deer on the shoulder if you're pretty close. They also work well offroad so you can see what you're about to run over.

unclogum bill
10-17-2013, 10:40 PM
"I live in deer-collision Hell. Going into my fourth seer season here I've hit three, and lost count of the near-misses. About the only thing you can do is mount a Mad Max bumper, IMHO."
Up in Canada met a guy that was driving a 79 caddy. On the front he had built a train like cow catcher that would throw a deer up and over the car. It was a thing of beauty , he had gotten tired of replacing parts and they were getting hard to come by.

uscra112
10-17-2013, 11:48 PM
LOL ! I wanna see that! Design it right and it could toss the bodies into a small trailer behind, to be cleaned and quartered at the next rest stop ! :bigsmyl2:

Kull
10-18-2013, 12:50 PM
I upgraded the lights on an old rig of mine, 67 vintage, with Cibie E code lenses and it's the greatest upgrade I've ever made to a car. I was really worried that things might be too bright and I'd irritate other drivers but not the case with the E codes because of the design and the way the light falls off sharply at a certain point. If you have an old enough car upgrading the main lights instead of adding lights might be the way to go, just a thought.

European ECE
http://i.imgur.com/9grwNyF.jpg

US DOT VOL
http://i.imgur.com/OXTiFPh.gif

firefly1957
10-18-2013, 03:47 PM
excess650 Probably gave you the best advice do us all a favor and stay away from those darned blue lights they really mess with the night vision of on coming traffic!

Ehaver
10-18-2013, 04:11 PM
hella 550FF is what I have. and I like them, but they are for high beams... any hella brand work well.

William Yanda
10-18-2013, 09:19 PM
"I live in deer-collision Hell. Going into my fourth seer season here I've hit three, and lost count of the near-misses. About the only thing you can do is mount a Mad Max bumper, IMHO. And have your brakes and tires in top condition. "

I used to work a split shift, with Dairy farmers-morning and evening milkings, 2-3K/month. I had enough car/deer incidents that my insurance company cancelled me even though my agent explained the nature of my job.
I finally started using the whistling deer alerts. The cheap ones work as well as the $25/pair chrome ones. After I started using them, the only deer I hit was being chased by dogs.

fecmech
10-18-2013, 09:47 PM
I finally started using the whistling deer alerts. The cheap ones work as well as the $25/pair chrome ones. After I started using them, the only deer I hit was being chased by dogs.
I have not owned a car(in 40 years) that I have not hit a deer with. That said the body shop where I got my last hit fixed showed me a big box of "deer whistles" he had removed from front ends of cars that hit deer. They sure didn't work for me.

Kull
10-18-2013, 11:17 PM
I have not owned a car(in 40 years) that I have not hit a deer with. That said the body shop where I got my last hit fixed showed me a big box of "deer whistles" he had removed from front ends of cars that hit deer. They sure didn't work for me.

Heard the exact same thing from a friend who's a body guy. Imho they are a gimmick.

redneckdan
10-19-2013, 12:45 PM
excess650 Probably gave you the best advice do us all a favor and stay away from those darned blue lights they really mess with the night vision of on coming traffic!

The higher the color temp the less effective and more annoying the lights will be. Stay in the 4500k to 6000k region.

The Hella 500ff makes a pretty good modded HID driving light. Not as good as a true factory designed hid light but still works good. There are several good Internet write ups on the procedure. I run a pair slaved to my high beams on my f150.

firefly1957
10-21-2013, 05:54 PM
This got me to thinking make sure your lights are aimed well also even low beams should show well down the road. My wife,s 2009 Mercury Grand Marquis had the lights aimed so low from the factory even the high beams would not show a deer in the road over 100 yds away and the fog lights actually only lit ten feet in front of the car! I now have them were they should be high beams show well down the road and light both sides of the road as well as fog lights, low beams do not light the sides as well so i leave the fog lights on i rarely get complaints from oncoming traffic also even with low and fog lights on. High beams do get me flashed if i forget them.

Lonzo
10-21-2013, 06:41 PM
Replaced my origional fog lights on my Sonoma pickup after hitting a football hog going home from work. I got Pilot PL-820Cs from AutoZone for about $40.00/pair. They make a wide flat beam that extends to sides without blinding oncoming traffic and have saved my truck a lot of times, I drive deer and hog country 5 days a week at night, just dodged a 6-point last week! Hope this helps, Lonzo

bayjoe
10-21-2013, 06:50 PM
I agree with oldred 100 percent!!!

Kull
10-21-2013, 11:40 PM
This got me to thinking make sure your lights are aimed well......

Hugely important to have properly aimed lights. Do it yourself or have the dealer do it. Either way do it to spec and you'll be pleased, and so will other drivers.

MT Gianni
10-22-2013, 11:04 PM
Our meter shop uses Mothers headlight polish to clean up UV problems with plastic meter lens's. It last for quite a while and seems better than any other brand tried. It is a cheap place to start.

Ehaver
10-23-2013, 01:34 AM
For headlight polishing turtle heavy buffing compound or swirle remover works amazing. I follow it up with a heavy coat of carnuba wax, let dry over night, then buff untill you can see if your teeth are clean!

unclogum bill
10-23-2013, 01:52 AM
I found at a marine shop some Mothers power plastic cleaner. excellent stuff. Headlights , motorcycle wind screen, some say a cheap but effective polish is toothpaste. I have never tried it.

Bullshop Junior
10-23-2013, 03:51 AM
This time of year I leave for work in the dark and head home in the dark. I was looking for driving lights that would supplement my low beams some. Most of my trip is deer country and there is enough traffic that it is tough to use the high beams very much. Driving lights seem to stay low enough not to bother other drivers that much. Just wondering if anybody has a brand or style that has worked well for them. Just don't want to spend that kind of money to come up short.

Thanks
Bob

Three words. High. Intensity. Discharge. Also known as HID. Get about a 6000K conversion for your main headlights and they will be as bright or brighter then most heligans driving lights. Only problem with them is since they are gas bulbs the take a few seconds to warm up when you turn them on, so if you have duel lights for hi/low beams you might want to consider doing the quad beam set up. I have a 01 GMC truck so I have the quad beam set up, with projectors, both high and low converted to HID and they are better then the 170 light force. On my truck I also have 2 8" HID "moose" lights along with two 4" KC lights on the front bumper and 4 6" KC daylighter a on the roof, and all 12 bulbs are HID. You can litterally see to the end of the road. I have counted seven mile marker signs lighting up in the headlights before.

So yea. If you can only run your low beams, convert them to HID and if you can get factory fog lights (the only ones legal here to run wit low beams) convert those to HID as well and you will be set. Although you may want to consider the Eruo style projectors that only allow the light to go just so high ( you can adjust them, I have mine set so they are just below eye level in a small car)

GabbyM
10-23-2013, 06:37 AM
To better light up the right side ditch and crossing deer. Adjust your right (starboard) headlight out to the right. Keeping the height low. Way lower than a normal aim. Run it clear out to the far side of the road ditch. Then drive 45 MPH in heavy deer areas if you can.

Bullshop Junior
10-23-2013, 02:28 PM
Adjusting your lights to point to the ditch doesn't really help much because then you are loosing light else where. And then that's like that deal borrowing from Paul to pay john. I like to be able to see way down the road, and all the way from treeline to treeline. With the 6000K H.I.D lights and the projectors I have (Eruo style ) I can see for a easy 150 yards in front of my truck, tree line to treeline, with just my low beams.

starmac
10-23-2013, 04:33 PM
YOUR lights aren't even close to being legal HERE. Anything above the side mirrors MUST have covers on when on the public roads. Too, only (1) set of fog lights, and only (1) set of driving lights. If your setup was legal, my Jeep would be so equipped. I'm already illegal, but only have lights on and under my bumper, so not as apt to draw the ire of the local LEOs.

I ran my trucks through all 49 states and all western provinces in canada, with lights even with the top of the cab, mounted ot the top of the mirrors. I have been dot inspected allover the country with them, just can't legally turn them on. British Columbia does have a law that says they have to be covered, once you hit the Highway 16 at the south end of the cassier. We just can't turn them on in the lower 48. There may be some state laws in some of the states against them, but from my experience even cali did not mess with me.

There are lots of legal headlights on the market, marked dot approved, that are legal everywhere and a vast improvement over stock lights.

Bullshop Junior
10-23-2013, 04:55 PM
YOUR lights aren't even close to being legal HERE. Anything above the side mirrors MUST have covers on when on the public roads. Too, only (1) set of fog lights, and only (1) set of driving lights. If your setup was legal, my Jeep would be so equipped. I'm already illegal, but only have lights on and under my bumper, so not as apt to draw the ire of the local LEOs.

I have had a few cops give me the "look" about my lights but havnt been pulled over for them yet. I have them hooked into toggle switches (all the ones on the roof on one switch and all the ones on the bumper on another) so as soon as I see headlights in the distance (or tail lights) thy all get shut off except for my factory lights. My factory lights are converted to HID with Eruo projectors so even though they are super bright, they don't really blind on coming traffic.

Technically my lights are not legal here either since we are allowed to run what ever kind of lights as long as they have a yellowish color. Mine, are bright white. But, I have never been pulled over for them since the projectors help with the blinding issues. Now if I had the blue or red ones that would get me in trouble, but I don't like those ones anyway.

starmac
10-23-2013, 07:54 PM
Bullshop there are a bunch of us run blue lenses on our moose lights, the law, or dot doesn't care, red might throw up a white flag.

GabbyM
10-24-2013, 04:45 AM
You don't hit deer that are standing in the road. You hit the ones coming out of the ditches. In general. That's why I like the ditch lit up.