Guess the custom, one off part

toy4everyseason · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:47 pm

Lights are in and test fitted. Seems I have a slight clearance issue with the hood when opening it, about 1/16 of an inch, probably from my rebending of the mounting tab from my previous miscalculation :banghead:

It's an easy fix by opening up the light mounting hole a little... no biggie since I planed on drilling a hole for wires anyways. There should be room behind it to run wires. Here are the preliminary pictures for everyone. Sorry for them being a little off center, once I get better ones once they are completely mounted and wired.

nFodzy · **Joined:** Sun Oct 06, 2013 1:30 pm **Posts:** 389

toy4everyseason wrote:

Lights are in and test fitted. Seems I have a slight clearance issue with the hood when opening it, about 1/16 of an inch, probably from my rebending of the mounting tab from my previous miscalculation :banghead:

It's an easy fix by opening up the light mounting hole a little... no biggie since I planed on drilling a hole for wires anyways. There should be room behind it to run wires. Here are the preliminary pictures for everyone. Sorry for them being a little off center, once I get better ones once they are completely mounted and wired.

Look awesome, great job!

silverkk · **Joined:** Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:27 pm **Posts:** 637

Haven't tryed 6 inch and no they don't obstruct at all cus they are small and it's mounted to te hood hing no glare on hood and ik no worry a

Gageraid · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:37 pm

huntb wrote:

Gageraid wrote:

toy4everyseason - This is the exact kind of mod that should have been available from the factory or put out by an aftermarket company. Simple design, and relatively cheap I'd assume. Can't wait to see some lights mounted.
Things you should worry about which I'm sure you have already is that these mounts might cause some extra noises and the lights will probably cause a little more drag. I know this is a forum for Jeeps, but ya know, gas ain't cheap.

Gage, I'm still waiting for you to sell yours and buy a Prius the way you talk about fuel economy on this forum... Drag created by two lights (that are in front of the side mirrors by the way) = 0.00001 less MPG! OH NO :ROTFL:

Haha, it's too much fun messing with you

Hey hey hey! You're lucky you have a nice black KK. :lol:

Side mirrors are a design that manufactures care highly about. They can create a lot of drag. Look at some wind tunnel videos (seriously). I know Tesla have poured loads of money into some of their current and future vehicles on this very part of the vehicle. This was a major mpg technique the Ford Fusion took advantage of with their newest version.
The most extreme hypermilers don't even have side mirrors! :rockon:

I know I talk a little crazy about mpgs sometimes. I love having a awesome looking vehicle and hypermiling is just my form of entertainment.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:40 pm

Looks great!

toy4everyseason · **Posted:** Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:17 pm

Alright, it's all wired up, mounted and tested. I'm using Hella 500 driving lights and wow are these things great. At their current position and aim they are like brights on steroids. I decided against drilling a hole in the mounts themselves and just zip tied the wires to one of the mounting straps. The wires are ran underneath the cowl area to keep it all clean. As far as wind noise... I can't hear much of anything over the howl of my Treadwright Guard Dogs. I don't have any glare off the hood. I tried to take a picture at night but with all the lights on, it just looked like a wall of lights. The lights aren't in your field of view very much while driving either. Overall I am very pleased with them. A quicker, easier and better finish version 3.0 is on the agenda for tonight. These are more of a proof of concept version made of thinner steel than I'd like but it was difficult finding suitable material that suppliers didn't charge an arm & leg for. I mean a 11 inch by 9 inch aluminum in 1/8 of an inch thickness was $25 :shock:

profdlp · **Posted:** Fri Mar 14, 2014 8:34 pm

Looks nice! Now we need a fully-lit night shot.

JeepNCrowd · **Posted:** Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:39 pm

Im curious.Why do people put covers on their offroad lights? I run with mine ready to use at all times.

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:48 pm

JeepNCrowd wrote:

Im curious.Why do people put covers on their offroad lights? I run with mine ready to use at all times.

It's a law in some states. I keep the covers in my Jeep and plan on playing dumb about it. I think NY allows them to be uncovered, but NJ mandates that they are covered. Not sure about anywhere else. Idk how much a cop will bust balls about it though...

profdlp · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:47 am

JeepNCrowd wrote:

Im curious.Why do people put covers on their offroad lights? I run with mine ready to use at all times.

If I read it correctly, Ohio law says you can only have five lights up front. (Why five, I have no idea.) With headlights and fogs on I am up to four, so even accidentally turning on another pair of lights could get me in trouble. I'm not sure if Ohio law is among those that require covers like Bmxer524 pointed out, but if they were covered I'd have no worries about a cop having a bad day trying to say I was over the light limit.

Plus, if you're not in a situation where you could use them anyway, (such as being on the highway or in traffic), why risk a chip in the lens cover on something that's just along for the ride at that point?

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 2:48 am

Mine get used quite a bit actually... Upstate or out by the ocean beaches at night. Also when flashing the high beams doesn't work or when someone cuts me off. The spot lights just "happen" to be aimed to hit a car's mirrors and light up their interior...

Cherrie 274 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:41 am

Bmxer524 wrote:

Mine get used quite a bit actually... Also when flashing the high beams doesn't work or when someone cuts me off. The spot lights just "happen" to be aimed to hit a car's mirrors and light up their interior...

Not Cool.
While still not the right thing to do just hold the stalk and have both high and low beams on together. This only last a brief time.
Blind the wrong person with "off-road" lights gives non 4x4& others more ammo for their agenda. IE that's why states have laws that require them to be covered on the roads.

nFodzy · **Joined:** Sun Oct 06, 2013 1:30 pm **Posts:** 389

profdlp wrote:

Looks nice! Now we need a fully-lit night shot.

^^^^ Second that!!

Gageraid · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 11:53 am

Bmxer524 wrote:

JeepNCrowd wrote:

Im curious.Why do people put covers on their offroad lights? I run with mine ready to use at all times.

It's a law in some states. I keep the covers in my Jeep and plan on playing dumb about it. I think NY allows them to be uncovered, but NJ mandates that they are covered. Not sure about anywhere else. Idk how much a cop will bust balls about it though...

I think you're safe if you come to Jersey with your lights uncovered. I see more people with them uncovered versus covered.

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:08 pm

I never have problems in Jersey. Cherrie, it's only when flashing them doesn't work. If I flash you 3 or 4 times and you still don't move you're getting a flash of the spot lights. There's no reason to sit in the left lane doing the speed limit, or decide you're gonna get in the left lane to slow a speeder down. That's how people think here.

It happened the other night. Guy was doing 55 in the left lane. It's the speed limit, but he wasn't passing anyone. He had plenty of room to move over, but because of how the cars were set up I couldn't move over to pass. After a few flashes of the brights and 1 of the spots the car in the middle lane saw and slowed down for me to move over and pass. That's just as wrong...

Gageraid · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:15 pm

Bmxer524 wrote:

I never have problems in Jersey. Cherrie, it's only when flashing them doesn't work. If I flash you 3 or 4 times and you still don't move you're getting a flash of the spot lights. There's no reason to sit in the left lane doing the speed limit, or decide you're gonna get in the left lane to slow a speeder down. That's how people think here.

It happened the other night. Guy was doing 55 in the left lane. It's the speed limit, but he wasn't passing anyone. He had plenty of room to move over, but because of how the cars were set up I couldn't move over to pass. After a few flashes of the brights and 1 of the spots the car in the middle lane saw and slowed down for me to move over and pass. That's just as wrong...

I hear you and Cherrie on this one. Obviously dangerous what you're doing, but passing on the right IS illegal. People don't know the law. Keep right, pass left. Pretty sure that law is in all or almost all states.
Only time I'm in the left lane is when I have to pass people driving slower than me (believe that?) and when I have to make a U-turn to get to my house every night.

Bmxer524 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:18 pm

I ride the middle lane a lot. I admit it, I speed. The Jeep sees 70+mph almost every day. But I won't sit in the left lane unless Im constantly passing and there aren't any large openings in the middle lane. I'm not one for weaving. That's what gets you pulled over, and let's face it. We drive Jeeps, not sports cars. They aren't meant to weave in and out of traffic.

toy4everyseason · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:28 pm

JeepNCrowd wrote:

Im curious.Why do people put covers on their offroad lights? I run with mine ready to use at all times.

I run them because Nebraska's answer to even a possibility of snow is more sand & salt. Every spring I have to touch up all the rock chips on my hood & grill. It's easier to keep them on & protected than replacing them with each time a rogue rock hits them.

Not a huge deal to me as pretty much the only time I use them is on back country roads while hunting.

Gageraid · **Posted:** Sat Mar 15, 2014 11:23 pm

toy4everyseason wrote:

JeepNCrowd wrote:

Im curious.Why do people put covers on their offroad lights? I run with mine ready to use at all times.

I run them because Nebraska's answer to even a possibility of snow is more sand & salt. Every spring I have to touch up all the rock chips on my hood & grill. It's easier to keep them on & protected than replacing them with each time a rogue rock hits them.

Not a huge deal to me as pretty much the only time I use them is on back country roads while hunting.

How much snow do you guys get a year? If I had extra lights, not sure what I would do. I would want to use them on the few sketchy back roads near my house late at night, but also wouldn't want to draw extra attention to myself from the police.

toy4everyseason · **Posted:** Sun Mar 16, 2014 1:50 am

Gageraid wrote:

How much snow do you guys get a year? If I had extra lights, not sure what I would do. I would want to use them on the few sketchy back roads near my house late at night, but also wouldn't want to draw extra attention to myself from the police.

This year there hasn't been much but Nebraska weather is crazy. Take today for example, 65 degrees at 2pm but 10 hours later it's snowing. Every day I'm picking big rocks out of my tires from the "sand" they throw down. Sure I don't have to pick them out if I want to live with annoying clicking. Overall there has been only one time I had to use 4 wheel drive in the winter in the 6 years of ownership and the snow was up to the door. Pop her in 4 low and crawl my way up the hill.

Overall the goal was more lights for country roads since the deer are so thick here. I don't do much back roads until hunting season.

Guess the custom, one off part

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