Well we are talking about the hill country here where I will be at where you are constantly going up and down over very steep hills on the road. There will be many times where the lights including my head lights will be shining up into the sky till I crest the hill and start down the other side before the lights will be back on the road. Theres also many many winding roads that followed old cattle trails where you are constantly turning left and right. There are some roads that are long stretches but they generally are the up and down hill areas where as the winding roads are flat and level for the most part. Thats why I am not sure on the lighting because theres many different kinds of roads that I will be driving on where I am moving to.

Ive drove on them at night time in a new truck before and its not that bad but in a old truck with sealed beam headlights, it will be a little harder as the sealed beam bulbs I noticed dont throw light as far to the sides as modern lights do.

 

I'm talking about airborne.

If your wheels are on the road, the correct lights will be pointed in the -correct- direction.
Look into driving lights and fog lights before you make a commitment to some "flood" lights that are going to draw the ire of LE and everyone in your path.

As for the "no cut wires", unfortunately the harness plugs right into the regulator.
PA Performance makes a 'fake' regulator for this purpose, but it is stupid expensive for doing nothing but being a splice block.

You will also need to modify your current Ammeter into a voltmeter or do away with the wiring entirely.
Gary Lewis and Jim's Rebel -among others- have used Rocketman Enterprises to convert their existing meters.
Both report an excellent instrument comes back.
The existing ammeter will melt right out of its housing if you try to send this much amperage through it.

 

The Amp Meter is not going to work correctly even if you just add relays for stock lighting let alone adding extra lighting loads via relays. Even on a new truck, the information you could get off the Amp Meter was marginal at best.

So I gave up on the Amp Meter and installed a volt meter.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...olt-meter.html

Jim

 

ArdWrknTrk already gave you the same answer I would. Two spots I think are going to be PLENTY for any on-road use. Again, I'm content with my high beams personally. And has been said already, spots typically aren't street legal and need to be covered on the road. If you do use them, make sure they go off with your high beams. You don't want to be fumbling for a switch while you are blinding an oncoming driver.

And I would not use floods for driving. They are useless for distance, and good for up close. But you can't use them with on cpming traffic. I would use fog lights. They are just as good as floods for the wide angle, light-up-the-shoulder aspect. And they are a low, flat beam so they can be left on while traffic is approaching.

I use floods on the back of my truck for lighting up a work area, or as brighter backup lights when I'm in the middle of nowhere. But I'd never have floods on while driving, no matter which way they are pointed.

 

I think you need to do this modification in steps. First off, I like your idea of any strong driving lights being hooked in with the highbeam switch.

Second, if you are going to use some type of LED lighting, you definitely do not need to modify the charging system of the truck. And from your last few responses, I think you are getting more reasonable with your lighting requirements, and would not need to modify your charging system with regular incandescent bulbs either. I think the whole project will go better if you do the lighting mods first, the charging system mods later only if you need them, which I think you will not.

And from your latest comments about later trucks being ok as far as lighting, it sounds to me like you would benefit immensely by just buying one of those relay kits for the stock sealed beam bulbs. They make the old bulbs much brighter, and some of the guys on here like the special sealed beams they sell now, I think some of them are called "silver stars" or something like that. I will let them comment on those type of bulbs since I have never used them. LMC truck sells the relay kit for the stock bulbs at a reasonable price and it's plug and play.

 

I will have to look into that. I might go with the LED housings and be done with it. I really like the amp gauge to be honest but I will have to sleep on the conversion of that though. The splicing the wires I can do that if need be.

Thanks for the link I will check it out. I know mine works it let me know when my alternator stopped charging due to the belt jumping for some reason and the second time for the support bolt breaking in two. I understand that they work and some times they dont work.

But the fog light would have to be mounted down low though wouldnt they? Cause as of now I havent even been able to locate a used push bar and I already checked with some that could build one and they wanted way too much. Might find someone cheaper in the small town once the move is done though.

I came across some on ebay when I was searching last night but they had in the description things such as "flood/fog light" or "spot/fog light" which makes me doubt they knew what they were even talking about.

 

Im wanting to get the hella glass composite headlight housings and pick up some H4 Silverstars to use in conjunction with my relay kit I have. Still need to get the nerve to go ahead and cut the harness up and extend it and get the thing hooked up. The H4 Silverstars are 55/60w which isnt really much different than a standard halogen bulb wattage wise.

If this conversion I have planned but havent done just yet (after I get my paycheck for this last week for pulling two 4L60E transmissions for block plate and torque converter swap I should have enough spare cash to pick up the hella composite bulbs) results in lighting simmilar to what this 2012 truck I drove had then I wont need the roll bar lights to come on with the highbeams when driving down the road. Would just need them for when I am off road, and then I could probably get away with going with low wattage H3 bulbs or low wattage LED assemblies for that.

I also have used the sealed beam silverstars. I orignally got Silvania Performance for my Mercury as they were brighter than standard but when I installed them I didnt notice much difference. But now for my mothers van, since its harder for her to see at night I got the Silverstar sealed beam for the '92 Astro van we had and I was very impressed with how much more light they put out to the sides as well as down road than the performance ones I got.

 

There is a reason for that; They are street legal. I don't think there is a lumens limit for being street legal, but there is a wattage limit. They are doing everything they can to make their bulb brighter, and still be at the legal wattage limits.

If you run the relay kit, that means with a late model stock alternator you will have about 14v at the headlight bulbs, and that gives you a boost in the output. It will shorten their life a little bit, but there are always trade-offs.

 

But if I dont have to do a late model alternator conversion I rather not as the cash I save from not doing that I can put towards something else, such as towards buying replacement wood for the bed, or getting more goodies for the truck that I still want to add on such as the troubleshooting light that was an option on these trucks under the hood.

 

Read the link I posted and you will see why DOT is bassawkards on using wattage to determine road legal brightness.
You will also see what kind of **** to expect from no name Chinese reflector/lenses.
The headlamp relay harness IS plug and play and will result in much brighter headlamps.

 

I read the DOT part on that link. I noticed the windshield glare caused by headlights but the thing is though my windshield doesnt glare up when dealing with OEM headlights. My glare was caused by idiots installing HID lights aftermarket and not using the right headlight assemblies or not even adjusting their alignment so they result in putting all the light on the windshield causing glare.

I have the harness already, had it for about two months now but havent done the conversion yet. I have been putting it off as I have to cut the harness up as the generic harness I bought off ebay for $6 or so didnt have enough wire to allow me to route it neatly. I need to go ahead and get that done and order a pair of the Hella composite 6x7 headlight assemblies to finish the conversion. The lens are supposed to increase light down road and the diffusers are set to direct more light towards the road and to the right away from on coming traffic. I think I said it said these lens will have a standard H4 bulb put out 25% more light down road on low beam and 10% more light down road on high beam. But they are roughly $50-$60 a piece but they come with a H4 bulb though.



The part I am reading now is about decoding the lens, need to make sure cause the Hella conversion housing I am looking at I think from at a glance is intended for left hand traffic. If thats the case then on low beam I will be throwing more light into the windshield of passing cars. Need to find a better photo o the Hella Lens so I can see all the codes.

 

E-code Hella lenses are much better than USA sealed beams for putting the light where you need it.
Sorry if I missed where you mentioned that the harness you bought doesn't have enough length to mount where you want it to be...

 

Sorry, double post.

I'm having problems with posting from mobile.

 

Fog lights definitely work best mounted low. They have a very wide beam side-to-side (which helps light up the shoulders and ditches) but a very narrow bean up-and-down. If you mount them high you will need to aim them down to hit the road at all, and they won't shine out very far because of the narrow up-down beam. On the other hand, if you mount them low and aim them so the top of the beam stays basically level they light up the road nicely and don't shine up in driver's eyes. That's why I mount them on top of my bumper. And I don't use a push bar, I just mount them right to the bumper.

By the way, "fog lights" used to always have amber lenses to cut down glare off fog. That works because they aren't as bright when they go through the tinted lense so they can't reflect back as much. But it's a waste of light power. Get clear lenses on fog lights too.

 

Selective yellow can be the bulb OR the lens.
I put yellow bulbs in clear housings on my wife's Passport.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/light_color.html