"Gregg" <GTOmo@onlineracin.com> wrote:
: hello all,
: I have a question about fog lights and them shutting off when the brights
: come on.
[...]
: To my knowledge fog lights were not a factory option until 95, so I am
: thinking that I will need a headlight switch (the thing you pull out to turn
: the lights on) and a turn signal/low beam/high beam unit on the steering
: column from a 95. Anybody have any opinions?
I haven't actually done this myself (I'm not familiar with
what the headlight wiring is like) so there may be something
I am missing, but what I would probably do is to cut the
power line from the battery to your fog lights, and insert
a relay. Tap into the "low beam" wire behind one of the
headlights and use that as the trigger for the relay. This
way, the fog lights will only receive battery power when
your in-cab switch is on AND the low beams are on. If the
headlights are wired such that there is no "low beam" wire
but there is a "high beam" wire, do the same thing, but
instead use a relay that is normally on (closed), and use
the "high beam" wire to trigger it (to cut the power to
the fog lights).
Using the "high beam" wire to interrupt the power to the
fog lights is probably preferable, as this will allow you
to use the fog lights with just the parking lights, or no
other lights at all. (If you depend on the "low beam" wire
to trigger your power relay, you will only be able to turn
the fog lights on when your low beams are on.)
I've never understood why the fog lights should be off
when the high beams come on. IMHO, having the fogs on helps
to fill in the void right in front of the truck, and to the
sides which is left when the low beams turn off. Having
that extra side vision would be nice on the country roads
at night out here in deer country! Its not like the fog
lights are going to blind somebody - the high beams pretty
much take care of that. :-P Anyway, stupidity aside,
the law is the law, and if you need them to work that
way, the above should work for you, or at least provide a
good starting point.
Another really easy thing to do, if you think you can
get away with it, is to just disconnect the fog lights
and tell the inspector that they don't work. Or, unplug them
and remove them from the truck entirely at inspection time.
(Out of sight, out of mind.) ;-)
: Also, anybody have an easy solution for installing a license plate light
: into a Lund roll pan? The safety inspector said I need one of those also.
: I think PepBoys or AutoZone has some units that are easily wired in, cause
: the wires are there, since the original bumper had lights.
There is a product which is a license plate bolt that has a
light built right into it. I think they are called "Light Boltz",
and they are sold in pairs for about $20. I have had a pair of
them sitting on a shelf in my shop for about three years now, but
haven't tried them yet since I haven't gotten around to
installing the roll pan yet (which has also been sitting in the
shop for about the same amount of time) ;-) So, unfortunately,
I don't know how well they work yet, but you might want to give
them a try. Summit sells these, probably places like JC Whitney
too. Also, there are license plate frames which have a light
built into them, if you prefer to go that route. You can
probably find those at Summit or JC Whitney too, maybe the
auto parts stores too. The lights are nice though because its a
clean install (during the day, you can't even tell the license
plate has a light), there's no ugly frame, and you don't have to
worry about trying to fit a license plate frame into the roll
pan, which can be a problem on some roll pans.
Good luck!
---Jon-
.---- Jon Steiger ------ jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com ------. | I'm the: AOPA, DoD, EAA, NMA, NRA, SPA, USUA. Rec & UL Pilot - SEL | | 70 Cuda, 90 Dak 'vert, 92 Ram 4x4, 96 Dak, 96 Intruder 1400, 96 FireFly | `------------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com ----'
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