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Archive for the ‘Autos’ Category

Auxiliary driving lamps are designed to supplement your head lights by throwing light out as far as a half mile in front. “These lights, with a 20- to 30-degree horizontal spread, illuminate both sides of the road,” King says. “Essentially, driving lights give you early visual clues about the road ahead and what problems may be out there.”
Like deer.
Driving lamps are available in round or rectangular configurations. Choice is largely a matter of aesthetics (many owners prefer auxiliary lamps to match the shape of their 4×4’s headlamps). Some light manufacturers claim a rectangular shape provides a broader, better-spread beam, whereas round lights offer better range.
Each state has its own regulations concerning the installation and use of these lights, so check with the appropriate motor vehicle agency before you begin any installation. For example, find out whether the lamps can be wired directly to the regular headlamps and whether they need a separate switch/fuse.You should also know if auxiliary lamps must be covered when not in use and if there are any restrictions regarding the number of forward-facing lights and mounting location.
Experienced offroaders use both types to manage their lighting needs. For example, I use fog lights to improve close-in visibility to gain greater detail of dips, bumps, and rocks. I’ve also found them invaluable when making U-turns on country roads where ditches line either side. The driving lights break open the darkness beyond the high beams, the best of which are only effective out to about 800 feet. (That’s 9 seconds at 60 mph.) Auxiliary driving lights can double that distance, giving you much more time to react to road hazards. In effect, they turn the high beams into a mid-range light, giving you a three-stage lighting system.

Fog lamps are designed to cast light under the fog and illuminate the road or trail surface. Actually, a better term might be all-weather lights, since the lamps are also effective in sleet, snow, and dust. The advantage of fog lamps is their low and wide beam, a result, according to Buddy King, product manager for IPF (a manufacturer of auxiliary lights), “of reflector and lens design. The lens is specially cut to bend the light down and to the side where it’s needed. When the lamp is properly adjusted, the light won’t reflect back to the eye while driving through rain, snow, fog, or dust.
“A properly aimed fog light is also great for night driving on highways, because the ‘cut off’ design keeps glare from interfering with the night vision of oncoming drivers,” King notes. “For example, our ZE-l light has a vertical spread of only 6 degrees, and when properly aimed that’s well below the line of sight of oncoming traffic.”
Fog lamps come in two colors: amber and clear. Clear lenses provide better illumination, while amber lenses are most effective for glare reduction and depth perception. A rough rule of thumb is “to use clear; to be seen, use amber?’
King prefers amber because it produces less glare. “Look for a light that has the gold coating on the glass lens rather than a colored bulb or a yellow-dyed lens,” he says. “A colored bulb or lens can diminish the light’s intensity by as much as 25 percent. That is why IPF uses a titanium-ceramic coating on the inside of the lens. The coating filters out the blue part of the light spectrum while allowing the red and green portion to pass through without a loss of intensity producing the amber color.”

Is swallowed the last of my coffee and said, “Saddle up boy, we got to get in the woods?’ Then 1 stepped outside, slipped behind the wheel of my pickup, and cranked up the CD player. At four in the morning, George Jones had his work cut out for him.
Another turkey opener, and we had agreed to meet two other hunters at 4:30.We barreled down the state highway, then turned off onto a farm road. The second the front wheels hit gravel, I reached over and flipped a switch on the dash. Instantly the toad lit up as if I had set off a Roman candle.
“Whoa!” Pete said. “What did you do, supercharge the high beams?”
“Nab. I just added some extra light. I got tired of not being able to see on these country roads?’
Modem original-equipment halogen headlights are light-years (lit- entity) ahead of what manufacturers could offer only a few years ago. But they’re mass market products designed for average driving conditions. Hunters and fishermen who routinely drive off the mad, before dawn and after sunset, and in bad weather, need something more. That “more” is auxiliary lighting.
Auxiliary lighting is designed to supplement the original-equipment headlights.Though the market offers several types of auxiliary lights, for our purposes we’re most concerned with driving lamps for long-distance vision, which supplement the high beams, and fog lamps, which supplement the low beams. (The so-called pencil- beam driving light, which has an effective range of 2,000 feet, is a narrow-focus specialty product more suited for offroad desert racing. It doesn’t perform well on twisting roads and in hilly and wooded terrain.)

Once the truck has been returned to spec (meaning it now should ride and handle just as it did when it was new), you can evaluate the overall performance of the suspension in regard to accessories or modifications.
“In’s say you want to replace the wheels and tires, which is one of the most common upgrades on 4×4s,” Snyder says. “Manufacturers have a broad range of tires—offroad, mud and snow, slick-rock situations, you name it. For best results, you need to match the tires and wheels as closely as possible to the way the truck is used.
“The same holds true for shock absorbers. Shocks really are the wrsonality of the suspension, and like the tires and wheels, should malt-h the way the vehicle is used.”
I low do you ensure the proper match?
‘Many hunters who are serious about their sport maintain a logbook of all their time in the field,” Snyder says. “Well, you can do the same thing to document the function of your vehicle, If you record the hours you spend behind the wheel,you’ll get a better idea of how the vehicle is really used. You also can make brief notes about the pluses and minuses of the suspension you’re currently riding on— things like when it works best and when it doesn’t.”
The logbook will be an accurate record of the vehicle’s real use. It will tell you where, when, and how the truck is used. (See the Appendix for a sample logbook.)
With logbook in hand, you can talk knowledgeably about the specific use of the vehicle, which helps suspension experts select the correct accessories. In towing applications, for example, the biggest consideration is stability and load-carrying capacity. The components that Trailmaster would recommend for a truck used in this manner are different from what the company would suggest for a slick-rock offroad application. Likewise, a purpose-built hunting and fishing vehicle that will spend most of the time offroad requires a different setup from a pickup or sport utility that is used by multiple family members for work and sport.
Keep the log in the glove compartment or console where it’s handy. And clip a pen to the front cover, so you’ll use it.