• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Fog Lights

Share this page

roofman

roofman

Jedi Knight
Offline
I am going to add a set of fog lights to my TR6. Anyone have pictures of thier setups? Curious as to what diameter looks best, and how much wattage will not tax or fry my electrics. should I use special hook up kits with relays, etc. I am thinking of the larger 5"? kind that has that traditional British look. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif
 
Where's Kodanja?? I think he's got everything up front.
 
Here is my Hella's 500s 7"(which I've since replaced with 5" Cibie's). Sorry I don't have a pic without the covers.

These are driving lamps, with something like 1/8 mile range.. they're crazy bright and only should be used with high beams. I wired them up with a relay triggered by the high beam indicator in the tach. I also installed a manual on/off switch that's mounted in my radio delete plate.

The Cibie's are only 5" but are just as bright as the Hella's. I like them a little better mostly because they have a chrome housing vs. the black plastic of the Hella's.


normal_2006-08-27-Exterior%20010.jpg
 
[ QUOTE ]
The Cibie's are only 5" but are just as bright as the Hella's.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cibie's are great lights worth every penny. I don't have driving lights on my TR6 but I swear by the 7" round headlights. They are not sealed beams and use standard H4 bulbs. (It's not the bulbs but the glass that is worth the money) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
P3100011.jpg


Their light pattern from their specific cuts in the glass are awesome. A nice even flood of light with no hot spots and a defineable cut off in height with the low beams and the high beams, with a 60 watt bulb is more than adequate for most situations. 100 watt bulbs are available (definitely needs relays though) and are strictly designated for 'off-road' use only. They melt pavement. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Hi Roofman,

First decide if you want fog or driving lights. The other posts are mixing the terminology and it's important to decide what you want.

Fog lights are designed to improve your vision in (tah dah!) fog. They generally have fluted lenses that spread light more than driving lights. Some have yellow lenses or use yellow bulbs. As a rule, they throw a very low and wide light pattern.

Driving lights generally have clear lenses and are designed for long range work in clear weather. The beam they throw is narrow and intense, to reach well out into the distance.

Many LBCs and Rally cars will have both types of lamp installed. Usually the driving lamp is in front of the driver to help him see well down the road, and the fog lamp is in front of the passenger, to best illuminate the side of the road.

When both types of lamps are installed, sometimes they will operate at the same time or are indivivually switched, but often they will be linked via relay to the high and low beams. On high, the driving lamp will also illuminate. On low, the fog lamp will be used.

You'll want to look into added wiring and relays to support high output lights of either type. You can't go wrong if you buy a sub-harness kit from Dan Masters and follow his instructions.

Depending upon the year of car, the lights might be a bit much for the charging system. Certainly, TR4A and earlier, with their 22 amp generators, don't have the ooomph needed for extended use of auxiliary lights. So, many of these earlier cars were fitted with higher output alternators for just this purpose, including rally cars and the "police special" TR4s bought by Belgium.

Later TR6 have better alternators, but still might need a higher powered unit if using the lights a lot.

There are many types of lights to choose from. Lucas SFT576 (fog) and SLR576 (driving) are the stem mount approx. 6" round ones that are still being produced (or reproduced). These are what you most often see installed on older LBCs. These were also used on the factory rally TR4s.

A rear-mount version, WFT576, was used on the trunk (boot) lid as a reversing light.

Larger 7" stem mount Lucas SFT700 (fog) and SLR700 (driving, aka "Flamethrowers) were used on the LeMans and Sebring cars. Also sometimes on the rally cars.

I am pretty sure there are also smaller versions, about 5" in diameter, but am not sure of the designation.

One drawback to the Lucas lamps listed above is that they use a special proprietary bulb. There are adapters to use more common Halogen H3 (I think) in them, but these are pretty rare.

There were less expensive Lucas lights also offered, such as Fog Rangers. I'm not familiar with all the the types, but know that many of them have special sealed beam bulbs that might be hard to replace.

In later years, Lucas offered rectangular fog and driving lamps. These were used on the Shelby cars, for one. I think a more recent model is the "20/20". Not sure, but these might use more modern bulbs. However, in particular the models used on Shelby cars can get quite pricey.

There are lots of other good lamps out there, Hellas and Cibie were mentioned and I've used both, in round and rectangular designs.

My Land Rover has a set of large, 7" driving lamps (actually larger, that's the bulb size, which is probably made by Hella) as well as rectangular fog lamps. Even without them, it's got excellent lighting. But with the auxiliary lamps fired up, visibility is great, and these are all just 55W halogens.

As mentioned above, the driving lamps are keyed to the high beams, and the fogs to the low beams. There is just a single switch in the car for both, and so they are not all on at the same time except for that brief moment when switching from low to high or high to low. (Heh, heh... I did have a guy stop his car directly in front of me in a parking lot one night, and start flashing his brights. I had just the lows & fogs on, which are all well adjusted and nowhere near as obnoxious as some of that HID lighting.... Let him have it momentarily with all 6 lamps and he stopped his complaining, probably too busy waiting for the blue spots to clear from his vision.)

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Just to add to what Alan said: You NEVER want to the main headlights on if you really need the fog lights. As Alan said, the fog lights have a low, wide beam, designed to go under the fog, near the road surface. The main headlights, either hi or lo, will just hit the fog and bounce back, making it difficult to see.

The only time you'll ever want to have the fog lights and the headlights on at the same time is if you are using the fog lights to light up the sides of the road when you're doing some country road driving. They make good "cornering" lights.

You will, however, want to have yor marker lights on if you need the fog lights, and for this reason, I prefer to wire the fogs so they only come on when the parking lights are on (which they are if you have either the hi or lo beams on). This way, you can have the fogs alone in the fog, yet have the main lights on when not in the fog, yet have the fog lights go out when you turn off the headlights, making one less switch turn remember to turn off.
 
I notice Kodanja has yellow headlights and white driving lights. how does this work?

Thanks to all for the info.
 
those are just lucus lenses that clip onto your existing rims, since that pic I have taken them off, I just didn't like the way they looked...but they work very well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif
 
Shawn,

Have you wired your Cibie's using relay's? I've got a set of Cibie headlights that I haven't installed because I was under the impression that I needed a dedicated relay.

You're right, the Cibie stuff is great.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Just to add to what Alan said: You NEVER want to the main headlights on if you really need the fog lights....

[/ QUOTE ]That may be so, at least in an ideal world, but you'll want to check with your local DMV to see what they allow. Some states do NOT allow use of fog lights alone.
 
You want bright? My Audi TT has true xenon headlights that turn night into a day at the beach. If you've never driven with xenons, you should try it out, simply amazing and sharply focused.

Of course the drawback is at $1200 per headlamp assembly, not cheap, but neither was the Audi.

I've always wondered if the ebay "xenon gas" bulbs were any good but haven't tried them yet.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I notice Kodanja has yellow headlights and white driving lights. how does this work?


[/ QUOTE ]

The clip-ons have been mentioned, but some while back the French required cars from England to conform to their regulations and mask-off part of the lights to prevent dazzling on-coming drivers and to use either yellow colored bulbs or lenses. Instead of the clip-ons a "kit" could be used with pre-cut masks and with a brush-on waterproof dye for the headlights. It was very effective and could be removed later with alcohol or metholated spirits. I don't thnk the French require yellow headlights any longer, and I've not recently seen the dye....
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just to add to what Alan said: You NEVER want to the main headlights on if you really need the fog lights....

[/ QUOTE ]That may be so, at least in an ideal world, but you'll want to check with your local DMV to see what they allow. Some states do NOT allow use of fog lights alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't doubt the law - the books are full of stupid laws, but if you really do need your fog lights because of fog, turning on the regular lights totaly defeats the purpose of them. You may as well turn them off fo all the good they'll do with the main lights on.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Shawn,

Have you wired your Cibie's using relay's? I've got a set of Cibie headlights that I haven't installed because I was under the impression that I needed a dedicated relay.

You're right, the Cibie stuff is great.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope standard harness. I don't have radical bulbs though. Never had a problem and I have had those lights for eight years now. Maybe I'm lucky. If I wanted to change the bulbs over to the pavement melters I would definitely add relays.
 
Copy of my response from above post:

It sort of depends if you are doing fog or driving. Fogs should be mounted low, pref below the bumper & Driving above. I have a nice orig new/old pair of Cibie 35's (chrome I am looking to sell) as they are rectangular & I like the look of the round lights on these cars.
Let me know if you are interested.

Here's a good link to lighting.

https://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html
 
As for running fogs lights w/o regular headlights, I note that many current cars on the roads - my 2003 Explorer included - can run them alone, w/o headlights. I have to believe Ford is in compliance with U.S. light laws here. Perhaps this is done to allow them to be used as Daytime Driving Lights, but certainly they are legal, and thus you could wire your car the same way.

One for the opinion squad, as briefly covered earlier, the Lucas Square 8 lights, shared with Shelbys and Rolls, were a cosmetically nice period lamp for the TR6. Again, in my opinion, when mounted under the bumper, they looked the best. There's a shot of these on the current Moss catalog. They are on ebay at varying levels all the time.
 
Nice GTV! Only kidding. I can attest that Cibie's are by far the nicest lights out there. When I was in the parts buiss back in the late 70's we were a Cibie dealer & I had the conversions & fogs on all my cars, I got everything at cost. When I sold my 1st TR250 I kept the conversions & they sat in a box in my garagre for 15 yrs. My cousin bought a nice '85 RX7 & I gave them to him. Unfortunately a week after he got the car some b###strds stole the car & my lights!
 
What it doesn't show is nuclear generator in the trunk used to power the lights!
 
Back
Top