Far-reaching driving light

[Das Delfin]

I might grab one of those. They're much easier to mount below the bumper and most of them come in a flood/spot combination

[spike68]

Here is the Amazon link where I got it from. As a note, I'd measure out how far apart your mount holes for your bumper are spaced out if you choose to mount the bar like I did. Unfortunately I didnt check that so my light bar is technically offset toward the passenger side because the mounting points for the light bar matched up with the mounting point for the bumper. yeah. Complete coincidence. Its not a big deal to me, but Id either go with a larger or smaller light bar than I did because of that. Id also recommend getting a different switch. The one that comes with it sucks.


https://www.amazon.com/Autofeel-Phil...ds=autofeel+5d

[spike68]

Pics are nice... Link to the seller is also useful for anyone considering the same upgrade.

Link is right above for seller. Pics of car were posted earlier as well.

I've used this thing more often than I thought. Being in a small town in Alabama there can be plenty of dark roads or highways. Even if conditions dont look bad I still use it. Deep can pop out anywhere and I like to think this could help in spotting them before they've already made it through my windshield.

Here are some distance pics

First with no headlights. Some street lights down the way.

20160712_220333 by Tony Gomez, on Flickr


And With light bar only


20160712_220338 by Tony Gomez, on Flickr



Sorry that I wasnt centered in the road. I just snapped the pics really quick before I parked my car and I didnt want to block any traffic. It reaches pretty far. Only issue with it being mounted so low is that it exaggerates bumps on the road. It can cast shadows on the smallest bumps, but I got used to it quickly.

[Das Delfin]

I see what you mean. Reset your service lights!

[berlow94]

Fog lights aren't pictured, but with those she's got about 32,000 lumens of total light output.
DV8 off-road 50" light bar
Depo euro smileys
55w HID low beams
100w Hella halogen high beams
100w Hella halogen fog lights


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[e30davie]

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned is voltage drop in your wiring causing low voltage at the head lights. It was a big problem with older corollas i used to play with, wouldn't surprise me if old BMWs suffer from it as well.

Quick check would be with engine running check the voltage at the headlight bulb (with it still plugged in drawing current). Compare it to the voltage on your battery, if the two don't match you got some voltage drop.

My old corolla would have ~13.5volts at the battery and closer to 11.5 at the headlights. I put in another relay and a dedicated wire from the battery (with a fuse) to run the lights (using the original wiring as trigger for the relay). 2 extra volts at a ~55w bulb makes a huge difference.

Edit, damn just realised this thread was bumped by the bloke above me. Oh well, ill leave the rest of my comment.

[Das Delfin]

^ the wire in our cars is generally accepted to be of greater quality than wire used today so I wouldn't be concerned with voltage drop

I want to get LED's but I'm afraid they will ice over in a snow storm due to the lack of heat inside the headlight.

although I can get an LED bar from my work and may mount it below the bumper in place of the fog lights. I have a pair of yellow harbor freight fogs and I'm not sure I like them..

I have depo smileys. Maybe I should just break down and buy an HID kit.

[berlow94]

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned is voltage drop in your wiring causing low voltage at the head lights. It was a big problem with older corollas i used to play with, wouldn't surprise me if old BMWs suffer from it as well.

Quick check would be with engine running check the voltage at the headlight bulb (with it still plugged in drawing current). Compare it to the voltage on your battery, if the two don't match you got some voltage drop.

My old corolla would have ~13.5volts at the battery and closer to 11.5 at the headlights. I put in another relay and a dedicated wire from the battery (with a fuse) to run the lights (using the original wiring as trigger for the relay). 2 extra volts at a ~55w bulb makes a huge difference.

Edit, damn just realised this thread was bumped by the bloke above me. Oh well, ill leave the rest of my comment.

I'm pretty sure that old Toyota Corolla's cost half of what these cars did... The ~100 amp alternators should not show any signs of voltage drop. I can barely hear mine strain if i have both low and high beams on and then switch on the 250w light bar! I'm pretty sure the Corollas originally run full voltage through the headlight switch in the dash. (The lights aren't relayed) You have to get a wire pretty damn hot before it starts to build resistance and drop voltage.

Might i note that i almost exclusively use Mil-spec 20 guage white wire sourced from Pegasus. Again, running 250 watts @ 12v through it i get absolutely no voltage drop. Even after hours of running.

Led lights do produce a decent amount of heat. I will typically scrape the light with a credit card before i head out, but after that i have never had it ice up.

[Das Delfin]

^ I do have lamin-x on my headlights so maybe that will help with ice?

[berlow94]

^ I do have lamin-x on my headlights so maybe that will help with ice?

Won't really have any effect on ice.

As long as your lights are on, they shouldn't ice up. Halogen, sealed beam, HID, LED all produce a decent amount of heat. Enough to melt the receptacle in Depos if you sit for too long with the lights on and no airflow. Lol


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[Das Delfin]

hmm. Maybe I should wax my headlights ;) I was mainly concerned about snow accumulation while driving on the highway with wind chills in the negatives etc. I'll probably end up getting an HID low beam setup with LED highs

[berlow94]

hmm. Maybe I should wax my headlights ;) I was mainly concerned about snow accumulation while driving on the highway with wind chills in the negatives etc. I'll probably end up getting an HID low beam setup with LED highs

Inanimate objects are not affected by wind chill!


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[Das Delfin]

^ air flow

[ELVA164]

The air flow only cools things to ambient temperature more quickly. Either way, you'll be fine in almost all situations except maybe serious blizzard conditions.

[Das Delfin]

The air flow only cools things to ambient temperature more quickly. Either way, you'll be fine in almost all situations except maybe serious blizzard conditions.

If ambient temp is 20 degrees out that's the problem.

I've seen other reports that say having the heat from halogen bulbs causes falling snow hitting the headlight to melt into a layer of water and more snow hitting that water causing it to ice over. So either way you'll have to clean the lights one way or another. My personal experience has only been with halogen bulbs and they were okay driving in the snow so this is mostly conjecture in order to form an educated guess.

I picked up an HID kit and I'll probably get some LED high beams to match.