Problem- I live and mostly drive in the country on hilly, curvy roads. The focused modern projector head light might be grand for illuminating the interstate at 1000' feet but they are near useless for my roads. The focused beam does not illuminate deer about to cross the road from the side and the vertical cut-off leaves one driving in the dark when descending into dips or cresting rises. I need more horizontally and especially vertically dispersed light.
I looked at replacement headlights and they seem to just be replacement for my current situation. Perhaps driving lights like rally cars but I know nothing about them.
This won't help you but I solved several of those problems by buying an Outback which has steering-responsive high-intensity LED headlights. When left in "auto" mode the overall control of the high/low/fog light selection is near flawless. As for the vertical dispersion you want, there may be no legal way to do that. Then again, this is Tennessee so you could probably buy one of those megawatt blinder-bars that so many off-road vehicles seem to sport around here (even when the furthest they ever get off road is the parking lot at Kroger).
From the little bit I just read (:D) it sounds like the earliest versions of those projector headlights went for beam efficiency, but people found the cutoffs too sharp - same as you are saying. So manufacturers started adding frosting and Fresnel portions to scatter some of the light. That might still be ineffective for your needs though, only way to find out is to test something like that.
For a sure thing, I'm afraid the blinder bar may be your only option. A lot of people have those up here, lots of elk, deer, and cows running around on the wooded mountain highways.
There is a Facebook fan page for every single interest out there.
After buying my Geo Tracker I found a FB page to follow. The gang is super helpful...much like here.
Since the reason for owning the Tracker/Sidekick base is to go off road lighting is important. I learned things specific to the vehicles. The lenses are pretty stock. There are bulbs that perform differently though. The dimensions of the lit up area can be controlled as well as light intensity. Pretty specific stuff too.
Find the FB page for your vehicle and ask the nerds. There are people like 'us' out there with just as much passion.
I don’t remember what vehicle you have, Bill. My Tundra had and my Tacoma have fog lights that light up the ditches really well. The regular headlights on both did not. Motorcycles, too, have this problem, and riders frequently add fog lights made to light up the ditches. The lights on my Goldwings can fry rabbits at 200 yards.
This is the time of year we often encounter deer on the roads when traveling from our river place to home in the evening hours. I found my view when it is dark similar to what you described. Having my fog lights on brightens up the road and ditch line more to my liking.
Add-on light can be a sport of sorts. Way back in the day I had a 1969 Fiat 124 that I absolutely loved. I drove the vast majority of my highway miles in the wee hours of the morning in rather out-of-the way places. I added two driving lights above the bumper at 200K candlepower each, two fog lights below the bumper at 200K each and changed out the sealed beam lights for illegal Euro-spec halogen units at 100K each giving me a total of (assuming the makers were not lying) of 1,000,000 candlepower. I diddled the switch gear so that I could run high and low beams simultaneously along with the accessory lights. Problem was that I couldn't get away with it for very long since the alternator couldn't support it and the battery would start going down. Today, with LED lights it would be a lot easier.
we talking about. With a pickup you can add LED driving lights pretty easy along the front bumper. With a smaller car it is harder to find space to mount them. On my tractor I found some small 3 inch square LED lights I put on the roll over bar. They light up in front of the tractor pretty well. For a vehicle on the road I would buy a DOT approved set.
I bought some very bright off-road lights and mounted to the front brush guard/winch mount of my jeep cherokee. They can be aimed a little to the sides of the road, switched on when in the boonies (or as a reminder when some doofus tries to blind me with his...) However, the best mounting spot is on the roof on a bar or rack.
I live in interior Alaska where it’s dark most of the winter. If you’re able to drive these roads with your brights on, then what we call moose lights would be an option. They can be installed on most vehicles. They make license plate mounts and several other devices on which to mount them depending on what you’re driving. There are lots of options for lights. The business I own up here installs them daily on anything from big tucks to Honda’s. LED lights are the most popular. Vision X and Rigid industries are the best quality manufacturers. If you choose this route, have them installed so that when you turn on the high beams and have the auxiliary light switch on both the high beams and the moose lights will come on. You can also have your factory bulbs replaced directly with LED bulbs. These are quite popular. Good luck watch out for swamp critters.
What has held me back from a purchase is installation. Can you provide details of how the Moose illuminator is wired? Where does the primary power come from? Do I strip and tap the wire to the high beam filament? From here to switch to ground???? Ford Escape 2012
Bill, a couple of years ago I ran into a problem with my 1996 GMC van lighting due to cataracts. When meeting cars on country roads with a poorly defined edge I had a real hard time telling when I was in my lane and not drifting off road. At that time I purchased the ultra bright (still legal in Indiana) Sylvania halogen headlamp replacement bulbs from Amazon for both my low and high beams, then I added 2 driving lights mounted to my front bumper. Only issue with these bulbs is that the expected life is only about a year of normal use. The driving lights were angled outward to cover both side of the road. The driving lights came with a relay and a off/on switch meant to be dash mounted. However, as I recall we wired them up so that the low beam or park lights (which come on no matter whether your in high or low beam position). These do light up roadside hazards like deer pretty well off the side of the road. Total cost was a little over $200.
This worked for me - since had my cataracts removed but still need more light than I did a few years ago! I have since purchased another custom van (2003 Dodge B100) and now have replaced the bulbs with the newer high intensity LED direct bulb replacement. These are extremely bright and meet most of my needs. However I also have purchased another set of driving / fog lights - yet to be installed, my son usually installs these for me but he has current medical problems so will install later.
This van has only 2 headlamp but with the driving / fog lamps still was slightly over $200.
It does seem that even though they meet Dot standards, every state has different rules about lighting requirements, so be sure to investigate what Tenn requires before purchasing new lights.
Bill, I would wire in an automotive relay. It will have 4 terminals, labeled 30, 85, 86, 87. 85 and 86 are the coil terminals that close a switch between 30 and 87. So you would T-tap a wire into your high beams, and hook that to 86. 85 gets connected to chassis ground. 30 would then go to a 12V source (preferably fused), and 87 would go to the new driving lights, which would need to be connected to chassis ground to complete the circuit. Optionally, you could install a switch inline between the high beams and the relay so that you could control whether they come on with the high beams automatically or not.
I have put off wiring lights because I did not know what was usually done. I didn't know about the use of a relay. They solves the current draw from the head lights problem when a relay is not known about.
Yes. You definitely want the relay(s) and switch(es). These will eliminate the need for heavy wiring going through the firewall. On my last install (many moons ago) I mounted the relays for the two sets of lights right up front beside the radiator and ran the hot leads via inline fuse holders straight from the + post on the battery to keep the voltage drop to a minimum. Of course if you are using LED lights then the current draw won't be nearly as bad as what I had to put up with using halogen lamps.
so you could probably buy one of those megawatt blinder-bars that so many off-road vehicles seem to sport around here (even when the furthest they ever get off road is the parking lot at Kroger).