Driving along lonely Highland roads at night, I often feel that full beam (on my Berlingo) is not full enough. I would like to be able to see further along the road, as well as a wider area beside the road, so that night driving was more like day driving. I guess this would mean brighter headlights, but probably also I would want a higher and wider beam. (The reason for this, by the way, is chiefly to see deer as early as possible.)
Is there any inexpensive, practical way of doing this?
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Two spot lights,wired in parallel with your m/beam,like XR2's.
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Two spot lights,wired in parallel with your m/beam,like XR2's.
Something like these you need:
www.extremeautoaccessories.co.uk/products.php?sect...8
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Get some 'uprated' replacement bulbs perhaps , Osram & Philips come to mind (Google it)
- they claim extra 30-50% output (lumens?) but are still legal. They work, so they say, by having
zenon instead of halogen as the gas around the filament - i.e. not zenon discharge just zenon gas
surrounding the filament - they also make claims for a longer, wider beam pattern - available
for head,dip,side,fog lights.
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Y0ou can make your existing bulbs brighter, but you can make the beam longer or wider., Aux spot lamps wired in, power by a relay form the main beam feeds is the answer.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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should have typed of course "Can't make the beam longer or wider"
doh edit button edit button come out come out where ever you are
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Won't the beam pattern be dictated by the design of the reflector? So the light might be brighter with a better/uprated bulb, but the range of visibility remains the same?
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" Is there any inexpensive, practical way of doing this?"
Er, load up the boot and reduce rear tyre pressures. The beam will be directed upwards more!
Well, you did ask for inexpensive and practical.
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I fitted 50 per cent extra brightness halogen headlight bulbs (during a BOGOF offer at Halfords) and they certainly make a difference. They are just a straight swap for the standard output bulbs.
However, the other suggestions made will certainly provide even more light coverage.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Hello
I tried those bulbs in my mondeo and they lasted 5 minutes before they blew the fuses i have since put ford bulbs back in and they work fine.
I tried two sets of those 50 percent brighter bulbs before i gave up.
My suggestions are :-
1. Keep the Lights clean.
2. Make sure they are adjusted properly (if correctly serviced they should need no adjustment or you could fail your mot)
3. Keep the inside of you windscreen clean believe me a dirty windscreen can make a vast difference on how much you see.
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(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
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They wouldn't blow fuses, unless a higher wattage, the ones suggested are the standard wattage, but more efficient at producing light and light in the right place on the road.
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I thought headlights on main were meant to project horizontal beams anyway? (Like the two circles on the garage door)
If you adjust them to point upwards the dips will be too high as well.
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Cliff has a good point; the centre of main beams should be parallel to each other and to the ground, more than high enough to see far ahead. Maybe the reason is that it's a Berlingo; despite standard[?] headlight level adjusters, softly sprung vans like that often have low-set lamps for coping with load effects.
My first though is to make sure that the adjustment is as perfect as it's possible to get; the MOT only checks that it's not way out. Too much brightness [big spots] is actually counter-productive; the eyeball "stops-down" and you still don't see the tiny area that matters any better.
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I thought headlights on main were meant to project horizontal beams anyway?
I think that's very close, if not strictly to the letter of the law. Here are the N.I. regulations, which I assume in practice applies all over the UK. tinyurl.com/2tqks7 These tests are conducted on dipped beam.
My calculation of the allowed vertical angle (assuming the quoted percentages refer to the tangent of the angle) are as follows.
For headlights less than 850 mm from the ground, 0.29 to 1.15 degrees below horizontal.
For headlights greater than 850 mm from the ground, 0.72 to 1.57 degrees below horizontal.
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L\'escargot.
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I think that's very close, if not strictly to the letter of the law. Here are the N.I. regulations, which I assume in practice applies all over the UK. tinyurl.com/2tqks7
Having re-read my post and the N.I. test parameters, there's something wrong somewhere. The headlights surely can't be that high on dipped beam.
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L\'escargot.
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It's well over 30 years now since my (then) girlfiend was given a pair of Hella spotlights for her Mini. We mounted them on a frame which I think was fixed to the bumper/grill and a mate wired them in via relays so that, when switched on, they went out when the headlamps were dipped. They were FABULOUS - it was like driving in daylight. Drivers coming in our direction used to start flashing from miles away in fear of having their retinas destroyed. They had to be used with caution!
Sadly, after a few weeks of use, they were nicked by scrotes (yes, we even had scrotes 30 years ago). But, in a remote Highland area with possibly fewer scrotes, these would have been terrific!
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I suspect that Citroen have gone down the Form over Function route. The headlamps on my 2006 Picasso are very poor, (not a patch on even 10yr old bulbs in my Fiestas). LR spots are not a practical proposition on the front, and I must get round to trying high efficiency bulbs.
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pmh (was peter)
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And I want a better dip! I've done no scientific testing on this but my impression is that dipped beam on my S60 gives the worst illumination of anything I've driven long-term, right back to my first Escort in 1989. Main beam is fine - as it should be with an extra pair of lamps dedicated to it - but when I dip them, I get a fuzzy pool of dark yellow light that really doesn't seem up to the job. I don't think it's just the contrast after main - this car is the first I've had with four lamps - so what might improve it? (Pattern, spread and distance seem OK, it's just that the light ain't bright enough.)
Perhaps it is a form-over-function thing. My previous cars were a Saab 9-3 and a 900, each with a single pair of enormous reflectors that gave an excellent dip pattern; the S60's reflectors are much smaller. Coincidence?
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as i now drive through the Highlands a lot more now ( at least 4 times a year) and travel at night to miss the traffic, i know the problem well
i've noticed the local pick up trucks and lorries have 2 or 4 spotlights on a bracket set quite high up.. i.e on the roof
i'm not so sure you'd want to do that to a Berlingo, but it seems others have had the same issue... and spotlights were the solution for them
rally cars have awesome spot lights, there must be places about you can get them. Put a cover over them for day driving so you lessen the chance of a stone through them (or in the case of my bike a lorries wheelnut which came bouncing down the motorway something akin to one of Barnes Wallace's creations)
as an aside, what a pleasure to drive up there, courteous 'get on with it' drivers, who will pull over to let you pass and fully expect you to be driving at the limit or even a bit more.......oh how i wish that was so down here
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Hello
They did blow my fuses ford bulbs (i know not made directly by ford)
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
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hello
meant to say
They did blow my fuses.
Ford bulbs did not.
I know they are not directly made by ford.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
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Did you get the +50% bulbs, or did you go for the (rally use only) extra wattage ones? The latter would have a better chance of blowing fuses, I'd imagine.
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Powerplus bulbs work well, but they do tend to highlight (ha!) deficiencies in the beam pattern.
The real answer is spotlights. One's thoughts turn to the spotlight packs available for RS200s
tinyurl.com/2ttk3t
Speaking of which (writing of which?), the current issue of Classic Ford carries an excellent article about the RS200, including a recent trackday event at Brands that involved embarrassing a GT3. Hurrah, long live Group B.
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You ought to try driving a Saab 93 at night with the standard bulbs, my mates comment the other night was "Have you actually got your lights on?" Every and i mean Every car that is behind me casts a massive shadow when on the motorway, if they have got fogs on behind forget it, main beam is fine though.
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Thanks all for your answers.
Looks like I'll need to have a look at a couple of spotlights. I don't know much about this sort of thing, but I had a look on the web, and wondered if Hella Rallye 3000s would be the sort of thing I should be thinking about. Any thoughts?
btw, I particularly enjoyed Dulwich Estate's suggestion - but I don't think that's the way I'll be going this time :-)
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Understood, Tyro. But it was cheap!
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Nice pair of retro Cibie Oscars (them with the concave lenses) in e-bay. They will light up Scotland !
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My car has these dipped light's that look like xenon's but are in fact normal lights - they were the worst I have ever had so i went and bought some 30% brighter - no joy in fact worst - looking at these lights - like 4" round magnifying glass's they looked black - so took bulb out and poked a thin stick with a cloth on end and touched len's and was surprised to see they were covered in a blackish film like the windows of house with heavy smokers - so make up a cleaning stick that I could poke in and spin to clean the lens - I now have very good dipped beams with the original bulbs in - main are best I have ever had.
Dave
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Oh, and by the way, with regard to the point made by Waino, how likely is it that a pair of spotlights would be nicked?
I'm sure they would be safe if I'm parked in one of the local villages, but if I were to park the car in some den of iniquity like Inverness or England, is there a substantial chance that a light-fingered gentleman might purloin them?
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