"city lights" in 8" Pro Comp 130w lights

Hey guys. Any of you that run Pro Comp lights probably know about how bad their powder coating is. I have run the 6" lights for years, with some bed liner on the housing they have held up great. I added 4 8" lights on my roof, and for some reason didnt have the forethought to bedliner them before installing. Consequently I will be pulling the light bar down, stripping them and bedlinering them. I figured while I was at it it would be cool to add some LEDs to the housings so they would be able to be lit up, without having the 130w bulbs lit. Need some advice on what/how many LEDs to run and where to purchase them. Thanks for any insight you guys might have!!

 

[Anime]

Why would you want them to be lit up without the 130W bulbs?

About the only application I can think of is if this is a show vehicle and you want to have the roof bar lights stand out while it's parked at a car show, or when it's parked in a parking lot or other place where people are gathered to check out each other's rides.

It's 100% illegal in all 50 states to use driving lights on the road, and if you even just use "city lights" to light them up, you'll still get a ticket (at least) or your vehicle towed and impounded (unless you remove the lights on the spot so it's back to being legal).

Most states also require that driving lights be covered when on the road so they can't blind other drivers even if turned on accidentally. Cops can be picky enough and include public and private parking lots in terms of where driving lights have to be off and covered that you could run into problems anywhere there is pavement and other vehicles.

I'd also advise against drilling anything for "city lights" since it messes up the reflector and creates a weird dark spot in the beam, and also allows another spot for moisture to enter the housing.

"City lights" are usually for headlamps, so that the smaller lower-watt bulb can be used to illuminate the headlamps rather than full-wattage headlight bulbs in cities where street lighting is more than enough for nighttime visibiity, and vehicle headlamps are only necessary to indicate a vehicle's position to other drivers, not to illuminate the road. The reflectors on lamps with "city lights" usually have a hole for them as part of the design. Any that you would be able to drill out for another bulb would need to be plastic.

 

[Stator]

Why would you want them to be lit up without the 130W bulbs?

About the only application I can think of is if this is a show vehicle and you want to have the roof bar lights stand out while it's parked at a car show, or when it's parked in a parking lot or other place where people are gathered to check out each other's rides.

It's 100% illegal in all 50 states to use driving lights on the road, and if you even just use "city lights" to light them up, you'll still get a ticket (at least) or your vehicle towed and impounded (unless you remove the lights on the spot so it's back to being legal).

Most states also require that driving lights be covered when on the road so they can't blind other drivers even if turned on accidentally. Cops can be picky enough and include public and private parking lots in terms of where driving lights have to be off and covered that you could run into problems anywhere there is pavement and other vehicles.

I'd also advise against drilling anything for "city lights" since it messes up the reflector and creates a weird dark spot in the beam, and also allows another spot for moisture to enter the housing.

"City lights" are usually for headlamps, so that the smaller lower-watt bulb can be used to illuminate the headlamps rather than full-wattage headlight bulbs in cities where street lighting is more than enough for nighttime visibiity, and vehicle headlamps are only necessary to indicate a vehicle's position to other drivers, not to illuminate the road. The reflectors on lamps with "city lights" usually have a hole for them as part of the design. Any that you would be able to drill out for another bulb would need to be plastic.

I'm some what new here and I want to point out that every post I have seen by you is so negative, the man is asking a question I don't think he really wants to read all that BS you just wrote. I myself don't appreciate all the negative crap you wrote on my post as well about how everything i have done is illegal.

 

[DjDom]

I'm some what new here and I want to point out that every post I have seen by you is so negative, the man is asking a question I don't think he really wants to read all that BS you just wrote. I myself don't appreciate all the negative crap you wrote on my post as well about how everything i have done is illegal.

Lol..

@OP,

Get some of those cheap LED strips from an auto parts store, inside the housing run them in a circle, it would probably look pretty cool.

Just keep in mind, it's still not street legal, as previous post explained.

 

[Fish Man]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I got the idea from these: http://www.amazon.com/City-light-wh...cd_dp_aar_al_a?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0002M9SUO

Hella rallye 4000 come with a "city light" which yes, is to just light up the lights without actually throwing any light. Just to be cool. I assumed they wouldnt be street legal, but now that you mention that, I probably dont need to be drawing any more attention to all the other illegal things on my truck. Suppose I'll leave it alone!

 

[DjDom]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I got the idea from these: http://www.amazon.com/City-light-wh...cd_dp_aar_al_a?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B0002M9SUO

Hella rallye 4000 come with a "city light" which yes, is to just light up the lights without actually throwing any light. Just to be cool. I assumed they wouldnt be street legal, but now that you mention that, I probably dont need to be drawing any more attention to all the other illegal things on my truck. Suppose I'll leave it alone!

Good idea. Keep it legal.

 

[Fish Man]

oh its already far from legal

 

[DjDom]

oh its already far from legal

Got any pics of it?

 

[Anime]

You don't have to worry about it being street legal if it's for a show application. It's perfectly fine if you have them covered when you're on the road.

There are also laws in most states, and sometimes they are even local, that only allow one pair (two lamps) of extra lights to be lit (i.e. fog lamps) in addition to two headlights, so you'd also draw attention if you had FOUR lamps lit up, on the roof, and that'd be another violation (and another ticket).

Bedlining the metal housings sounds like it might be a good idea, though I prefer using tough high-heat paint instead, reason being that rust can eat away under the bedliner stuff and you'll only discover it on the inside of the housing when it's got holes in it already. I think it's better to paint inside and out and just redo it anytime you have to take them apart to change bulbs or other maintainance. Of course, you could always bedliner the back over the paint, too.