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Old 02-22-2012, 10:56 AM   #11
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Re: Let there be light

You have to factor in the extra heat of a higher wattage bulb. Upgrading bulbs does void your warranty with Hella. For more information on lights dig into the Rallylights.com website. There is a lot of information available on that site if you dig a little deeper than just the product pages. Be sure to check out the different light patterns for different lights. There is a huge difference in what's available.

Will, the voice on the phone when you call them is also very knowledgable about lights. I spent a fair amount of time talking to both him and the custom wiring guy in the back room about my setup. They are nice folks and very helpfull. They are all Rally car racer types and know their stuff when it comes to rough and tumble lighting.

http://www.rallylights.com/

Now if it would just stop raining I could get off the forum and get out and drill some holes in expensive aluminum.

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Old 02-22-2012, 12:22 PM   #12
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Re: Let there be light

The lights are bolted in. The winch lid opens with about 1/4" to spare, so all is good. The outside lights aren't in the best spot and I'll probably have to cross aim them to keep the the bumper upright from interfering with the beam pattern. That shouldn't be to big of an issue. I'll aim the left light to the right side of the road and the right light to the left side of the road.

Hopefully sometime later this week I'll get at least 1/2 day without rain to pull the wires and hook everything up.

I'm thinking maybe I should have painted the bumper vent cover red to match the lights rather than silver to match the body of the van. I wonder if I could paint the vent cover somehow to make the holes in the bumper look like shark teeth

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Old 02-22-2012, 12:26 PM   #13
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Re: Let there be light

The fog lights are designed so the light stays low and wide.

I didn't install the fog lights in the bumper but driving lights as I never used fog lights on my cars until now...
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Old 02-22-2012, 10:06 PM   #14
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Re: Let there be light

Quote:
Originally Posted by AndrewST
The fog lights are designed so the light stays low and wide.

I didn't install the fog lights in the bumper but driving lights as I never used fog lights on my cars until now...
Yep, I agree with Andrew; if you live in a place like I do, the fog lights are a God send. If I want light, I turn on my LED's. I would like a couple of long range lights, but really the Hella halogen lights are worthless in my case. The LED's make night into day and traveling in the dark is almost better than daytime. I can’t even tell my Hella’s are on if the LED’s are powered up.

I will admit this and it’s really just called common courtesy;
Please turn off your friggin driving lights in wet or good weather! They are called "adverse driving lights" and are not supposed to blind the on coming vehicles for cryin out loud. TURN THEM OFF if somebody is coming at you. You might as well be on the phone at the same time. I am actually thinking of adding a set of Piaa’s just to get back at drivers blinding me. Now that my rant is over, should I tell you all the times I’ve nailed on coming drivers with the LED’s? Except cellularSteve...he don't count but we were off road
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Old 02-23-2012, 03:29 AM   #15
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Re: Let there be light

In Oregon the official term is auxiliary lighting. Oregon vehicle code requires drivers to turn off all auxiliary lights 300 feet for oncoming traffic and 100 feet for traffic you come up on from the rear. Those are the same numbers you need to dim your high beams.

It's a shame people don't follow the code. People are always driving with their auxiliary lights on day and night. It's one of my pet peeves too. Don't run with your fog lights on if there isn't any fog.

One of the guys I work with got a warning ticket for illegal use of fog lights about a month ago. A trooper was parked on the side of the road when my co-worker drove by at night in the rain with his fog lights on. The trooper pulled up behind him, then passed and tucked his patrol car in front of the truck. When my co-worker didn't turn off his fog lights the trooper went back around behind him and pulled him over. I'm pretty sure the trooper needed to get some truck inspections done and used the fog light thing as an excuse. It was part of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations CSA 2010 program of commercial truck safety inspections.

The fog lights on the truck he was driving are pretty much worthless. What ever Frieghtliner puts stock on their trucks as fog lights are junk. The Volvo I'm driving these days has a lot better set of lights.
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Old 02-23-2012, 11:50 AM   #16
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Re: Let there be light

I always wire my driving lights into my High Beam circuit with a two position override switch. In the down position the driving lights never get powered, in the middle position they get powered only when the High Beams are on and in the up position they are powered on.

I use them mostly in the middle position so that they are only powered with the High Beam lights on.
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Old 02-23-2012, 01:19 PM   #17
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Re: Let there be light

I have used 100W bulbs in my Hella 500FF lights for a year now. They do not feel any hotter to the touch than the stock 50W bulbs. They are blinding to other drivers so I make sure they are off with oncoming traffic.

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Old 02-24-2012, 09:09 AM   #18
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Re: Let there be light

Quote:
Originally Posted by BIGVANS
I have used 100W bulbs in my Hella 500FF lights for a year now. They do not feel any hotter to the touch than the stock 50W bulbs. They are blinding to other drivers so I make sure they are off with oncoming traffic.
Are your 500FF's the fog light or the driving light? Do you have them mounted on top of the bumper or in a light hole like the Aluminess bumpers? Will at Rallylights.com said if the lights are mounted inside a bumper like mine there may be more heat buildup due to less air flow because of the bumper. It's good to hear you don't have any excessive heat issues with the 100W bulbs.

I plan on using a 3 position switch also. I use a on/off/on switch with the up position triggered from the high beam circuit. The middle position is the off position and the bottom position will be triggered off of an always hot or a hot when the ignition switch is on wire. The fogs, HID's and normal headlights will be wired to all run at the same time or seperatly depending on the conditions.

It's nice to be able to turn off all the brights and fogs with one flick of the high beam switch.
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Old 02-24-2012, 09:15 PM   #19
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Re: Let there be light

Hey there Gnarvan, I have them mounted on top of the bumper but any time I put my hand on the lights housing I had not been driving at all so no air flow difference there. I’m going see next week if I can barrow my friends Snap-On temp gun and measure the actual temp of the two bulbs and compare them. I’ll let you know if it works out.
P.S. - They are 500FF Driving lights w/Hella H3 #H83135111 Bulbs (100W)

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Old 03-06-2012, 12:55 PM   #20
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Re: Let there be light

Sorry for not posting the light housing temps yet, still waiting on my friend to bring over his Snap-On temp gun. I may go buy one.
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