Width to mount auxillary lights?

[JTMcC]

I appreciate the knowledge available here, it's been a big help and saved me considerable $.

I have a second question, what width is most efficient (and how much does it matter?) to mount aux. low beams and driving lamps?

We are a welding company and we're going to build a new front bumper/grill guard for an '02 Dodge 1 ton welding truck when we get all lights in hand. So I have a lot of leeway in both height and width of the light mounts. I can put them anywhere except in front of the stock lamps.

I'd like to have an optimal setup and only do this once.
Does it make a lot of difference?
I can go pretty high if it's helpful.
The factory (poooor) headlights are at 39". Intuition would tell me to mount the lows wide and the highs could be narrower, but I'm a welder so I'm asking here.

Best height, and best width, of aux. high, and low. If it matters the lows will be 5 3/4" Bifocus' and highs will eventually be 5 3/4" Cibies (cheap Hella 550's for now).

Thanks,
John

 

[Hamilton Felix]

There are legal height limitations, as well as ideal mounting height ranges. As you surmise, fogs work better close to the ground (12-16 or 18") while driving and high beams want to be higher up (but still below the driver's line of sight). Scheinwerfermann will know more details.

I think a pair of lights will perform pretty much the same whether close together or widely spaced. On width I tend to want W I D E so the vehicle will appear larger from a distance. Putting lows and fogs out wider might help with "cornering" light to the sides.

 

[bnemmie]

On my truck the Aux Lights are about 18" apart. I havent experimented with moving them around, but that distance works well. Plus I think it looks good. It kind of fills in the "box" created by the low beams and factor fog lamps.

 

[-Virgil-]

Put priority on spacing the aux low beams (which, if you're using BiFocus, will serve as your foul-weather lights better than fog lamps) as widely as possible. Mount them lower than headlamp height, though there's no need to go to extremes to mount them super-close to the road surface. The aux high beams can be closer together, and should be at or near headlamp height, the higher the better.

On an '02 Dodge 1-ton, you can ditch the pathetic 9004 headlamps and put in a set of the '99-'01 Ram Sport headlamps that use a 9007 high/low plus a 9004 high-only in each lamp. Not the world's greatest headlamps but a whole lot better than the single-9004 units (as long as you buy genuine lamps and not aftermarket junk, and wire them up correctly)

 

[offroad-mike]

I dont have much experience with fogs but on my 93 toyota that is now 100% off road only. But even before then Ive had a set of Hella 500's mounted at 28" on center to the bulbs and only 3/4" of an inch below factory headlight center. In that postion and aimed well they add some distance to the factory lows and fill out the factory highs quite well. I would think for driving/offroad lights the aiming is more crucial then the overall positioning.

 

[JTMcC]

On an '02 Dodge 1-ton, you can ditch the pathetic 9004 headlamps and put in a set of the '99-'01 Ram Sport headlamps that use a 9007 high/low plus a 9004 high-only in each lamp.

Me (and the truck) have been pretty busy but we're starting to get to it now, I ordered oem Sport Lights, What's the best choice for 9004 and 9007 bulbs? J

 

[-Virgil-]

The best 9007 is this one. The best 9004 is this one.