Driving Lights

[kb0rrg]

The time has come for me to install driving lights on my truck. I'm not interested in style or low-profile. They need to be bright as possible yet legal and good quality (won't rust in 3 year). Reasonable cost too (under $50). Any suggestions?

 

[Daniel Ramsey]

How about non-legal?

I have a project upcoming using either a 400W or a 1000W Metal Halide HID 120VAC light mounted atop a Peterbilt tractor with a movable Ultraviolet lense shutter so the driver can use this for snowstorms and whiteouts like the haul road to the North Slope up here in Alaska. It would use its own remote started generator or can be used with an inverter. The shutters allow either white or UV light which is superior at cutting through falling or blowing snow.

 

[NightShift]

Pilot, PIAA or HELLA are good brand names. Some nice Pilots onces should be around 50. If you want performance, probably gonna have to pay for it. You can try using a higher wattage bulb, but might damage the fixture.

 

[kb0rrg]

Ok, good feed back. I will be adding 100w KC daylighters eventually. But I want something legal for around town.

 

[Willmore]

What kind of truck do you have? Sylvania/Osram makes some HID capsule replacements for many common trucks. Might want to look into them. And their X1010 universal driving lights should be easy to retrofit into a truck. Between those two, you can have a *lot* of legal light.

Take a look at their website and look for xenarc. Good prices can be found elsewhere on the web. Send me a private message if you want my list of vendors. It's not my job to advertise in public for them.

 

[Ken_McE]

Re: Driving Lights - UV A No-No

>How about non-legal?

If it's non-legal you've gotta have a solid way to keep it from blinding other drivers.

>I have a project upcoming using... 1000W Metal
>Halide HID 120VAC light mounted atop a Peterbilt tractor with a
>movable Ultraviolet lense shutter so the driver can use this for
> snowstorms and whiteouts...The shutters allow either white or
>UV light which is superior at cutting through falling or blowing snow

That UV light is also superior at wearing out your eyes. We are specifically designed to not see it. Your vision should cut off at around 400 NM (deep purple) UV starts at around 399 NM and heads down from there. How is this UV light supposed to help?

 

[Entropy]

Re: Driving Lights - UV A No-No

[ QUOTE ]
Ken_McE said:
>How about non-legal?

If it's non-legal you've gotta have a solid way to keep it from blinding other drivers.

>I have a project upcoming using... 1000W Metal
>Halide HID 120VAC light mounted atop a Peterbilt tractor with a
>movable Ultraviolet lense shutter so the driver can use this for
> snowstorms and whiteouts...The shutters allow either white or
>UV light which is superior at cutting through falling or blowing snow

That UV light is also superior at wearing out your eyes. We are specifically designed to not see it. Your vision should cut off at around 400 NM (deep purple) UV starts at around 399 NM and heads down from there. How is this UV light supposed to help?

[/ QUOTE ]
How are you supposed to even see it?

True UV is invisible.

 

[EMPOWERTORCH]

Re: Driving Lights - UV A No-No

UV lights fitted to lorries would be a definite no-no here in England! If you plan to light your lorry using "mains power" style lights you can get some pretty impressive HID lights these days. The problem of fitting mains style lights is that many fittings are not really designed for vehicular use and would also cause confusion among other road users particularly in the blizzard conditions you mention.
If you fit road type lights make sure that the auxillary lamps have the right voltage bulbs (most lorries have a 24V system).

 

[highlandsun]

Re: Driving Lights - UV A No-No

[ QUOTE ]
Entropy said:

How are you supposed to even see it?

True UV is invisible.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, but it energizes other materials to make them visible. Hella used to have some photos on their web site (www.hella.de) showing headlights with UV output. Lit up a pedestrian a far distance away, because the clothing fluoresced, whereas with normal hi beams the person was invisible.