Can You Run Your Parking Lights As Drl?

[wtbrowne]

Just to set the record straight - it is legal to drive with parking lights on in most states. It may be illegal to drive with only parking lights when head lights are required, but it is legal the rest of the time.

[chevyinside]

Just to set the record straight - it is legal to drive with parking lights on in most states. It may be illegal to drive with only parking lights when head lights are required, but it is legal the rest of the time.

 

 

technicly there not even called parking lamps , there called marker lamps . and about fixing them to do what you want it'll take a good bit of rewiring

[Spurshot]

For you California members, here's the law. They are called "parking lamps" in California. There is another section that defines what they are and when they may be used.

 

In the seventies, I used to see a lot of people cruising beach streets, Van Nuys Blvd and Whittier Blvd with only parking lights on at twilight. Looks cool. Costs a ticket and a roust by the cops. Back then, they could search your car without cause and damn near dismantle it on the side of the street.

 

Lighted Parking Lamps

24800. No vehicle shall be driven at any time with the parking lamps lighted except when the lamps are being used as turn signal lamps or when the headlamps are also lighted.

 

 

Amended Ch. 58, Stats. 1961. Effective September 15, 1961.

[dlstewart01]

For you California members, here's the law. They are called "parking lamps" in California. There is another section that defines what they are and when they may be used.

 

In the seventies, I used to see a lot of people cruising beach streets, Van Nuys Blvd and Whittier Blvd with only parking lights on at twilight. Looks cool. Costs a ticket and a roust by the cops. Back then, they could search your car without cause and damn near dismantle it on the side of the street.

 

Lighted Parking Lamps

24800. No vehicle shall be driven at any time with the parking lamps lighted except when the lamps are being used as turn signal lamps or when the headlamps are also lighted.

 

 

Amended Ch. 58, Stats. 1961. Effective September 15, 1961.

 

I believe thats the same in Tennessee.

 

Have a good one.

[C. Charles Hahn]

For you California members, here\'s the law. They are called \"parking lamps\" in California. There is another section that defines what they are and when they may be used.

 

In the seventies, I used to see a lot of people cruising beach streets, Van Nuys Blvd and Whittier Blvd with only parking lights on at twilight. Looks cool. Costs a ticket and a roust by the cops. Back then, they could search your car without cause and damn near dismantle it on the side of the street.

 

Lighted Parking Lamps

24800. No vehicle shall be driven at any time with the parking lamps lighted except when the lamps are being used as turn signal lamps or when the headlamps are also lighted.

 

 

Amended Ch. 58, Stats. 1961. Effective September 15, 1961.

 

Then how do you explain vehicles that in the past have come from the factory with the parking lamps lighted as DRLs? I\'m thinking 4th-gen F-body, Buick Century/Regal, some Pontiacs, C5 Corvette, etc.

 

All we\'re saying is we want our GMT900 pickups to work that same way. That IS NOT ILLEGAL ANYWHERE.

 

 

[Zembonez]

For you California members, here's the law. They are called "parking lamps" in California. There is another section that defines what they are and when they may be used.

 

In the seventies, I used to see a lot of people cruising beach streets, Van Nuys Blvd and Whittier Blvd with only parking lights on at twilight. Looks cool. Costs a ticket and a roust by the cops. Back then, they could search your car without cause and damn near dismantle it on the side of the street.

 

Lighted Parking Lamps

24800. No vehicle shall be driven at any time with the parking lamps lighted except when the lamps are being used as turn signal lamps or when the headlamps are also lighted.

 

 

Amended Ch. 58, Stats. 1961. Effective September 15, 1961.

 

Then how do you explain vehicles that in the past have come from the factory with the parking lamps lighted as DRLs? I'm thinking 4th-gen F-body, Buick Century/Regal, some Pontiacs, C5 Corvette, etc.

 

All we're saying is we want our GMT900 pickups to work that same way. That IS NOT ILLEGAL ANYWHERE.

 

Sheesh.+ Rewire it to be the way you want it then. WTF can be accomplished by beating it to death here?

[Zembonez]

I don't think parking light laws have anything to do with DRLs.

[dlstewart01]

I don't think parking light laws have anything to do with DRLs.

 

You are absolutely correct. They are two different animals.

[dmaxpower]

Sorry the pictures are not the best I left my DSLR at home and I only have a POS camera at the shop.

 

I'm just going to give a brief rundown of what to do and the pics are in order to help you figure it out. I don't have time to write a proper how to right now. Perhaps someone who does the mod after me can do better.

 

This only applies to GMC's. I am pretty sure Chevy's are different but I never looked into it.

 

First remove the 4 - 13mm bolts holding the drivers side fender brace. It connects the fender to the firewall and is above the fuse panel. (Not shown)

 

Then remove the fuse panel cover (Not shown)

 

Next lift up the two handles to release the fuse panel

 

 

Completely remove the fuse panel to expose the plugs underneath

 

 

 

Gently release the 4 clips holding the X1 connector in place. The X1 is the grey one in the passenger front corner.

 

 

 

 

Next flip the harness over and you will see 2 brown wires in position F8 and F5. F8 goes to the left front park lamp and F5 goes to the front right.

 

 

 

Cut the 2 wires.

 

 

 

Strip them and solder in a 6 amp diode to each wire. The band on the diode should be facing away from the fuse panels as shown. This isolates the front park lamps from the rest of the truck so when we supply power to them it doesn't feed back to the rest of the park lights.

 

 

 

Next solder in 2 more 6 amd diodes as shown.

 

 

Next cut the Dark Blue wire coming out of B3 of the X1.

 

 

Next use I used 3m amalgumating tape and 3m electrical tape to seal up the connections, then twist the 2 remaining diodes together and solder the dark blue wire from B3 (fuse panel side) to 2 diodes.

 

 

 

 

Next seal up all your connections.

 

 

 

Now put it all back together

 

 

 

And here is the finished result. As you can see only the front park lamps are on when the DRL's are supposed to be on.

 

 

 

Here's a shot with the park lamps on to show you they work normally. You can see the rears are on because I have turned the park lamps on.

 

 

 

 

And finally all my lights on at once

 

[Spurshot]

For you California members, here\'s the law. They are called \"parking lamps\" in California. There is another section that defines what they are and when they may be used.

 

In the seventies, I used to see a lot of people cruising beach streets, Van Nuys Blvd and Whittier Blvd with only parking lights on at twilight. Looks cool. Costs a ticket and a roust by the cops. Back then, they could search your car without cause and damn near dismantle it on the side of the street.

 

Lighted Parking Lamps

24800. No vehicle shall be driven at any time with the parking lamps lighted except when the lamps are being used as turn signal lamps or when the headlamps are also lighted.

 

 

Amended Ch. 58, Stats. 1961. Effective September 15, 1961.

 

Then how do you explain vehicles that in the past have come from the factory with the parking lamps lighted as DRLs? I\'m thinking 4th-gen F-body, Buick Century/Regal, some Pontiacs, C5 Corvette, etc.

 

All we\'re saying is we want our GMT900 pickups to work that same way. That IS NOT ILLEGAL ANYWHERE.

 

 

 

'not doing any explaining. I just posted the CA Motor Vehicle Code, plain and simple, for CA member reference. Since you're in Michigan, how do you explain your rant about a factual post of a California law?

[C. Charles Hahn]

Sheesh.+ Rewire it to be the way you want it then. WTF can be accomplished by beating it to death here?

 

Dismount the high horse there, Tex. How hard is it to understand that a how-to for rewiring it was the whole point of this thread? I understand that, how is it that y'all don't? We're not debating legal/illegal or beating anything to death (well, ok, maybe I'm beating to death the fact that several people in this thread are missing the idea of what's being asked for).

 

dmaxpower that's exactly what I was hoping someone would be able to post. Thanks!

[Zembonez]

Sheesh.+ Rewire it to be the way you want it then. WTF can be accomplished by beating it to death here?

 

Dismount the high horse there, Tex. How hard is it to understand that a how-to for rewiring it was the whole point of this thread? I understand that, how is it that y'all don't? We're not debating legal/illegal or beating anything to death (well, ok, maybe I'm beating to death the fact that several people in this thread are missing the idea of what's being asked for).

 

dmaxpower that's exactly what I was hoping someone would be able to post. Thanks!

 

Come on man... you can't really think I was serious. Just trying to poke a little fun. I was mainly commenting on how derailed your original question had become because of the illegal versus legal debate...

 

Carry on!

[Spurshot]

someone else brought up the opposing view of the legal question. I think it's perfectly logical in any thread that an opposite or "ying/yang" viewpoint is presented in these threads. I have no particular viewpoint in whether or not anyone else converts their parking lamps to DRLs. I'm not going to do it, mainly because I think real DRLs perform a safety function. There's probably some NHTSA data to show DRLs save lives. But WTF, do what you want, you're an insignificant number that wants to deviate.

[C. Charles Hahn]

Sheesh.+ Rewire it to be the way you want it then. WTF can be accomplished by beating it to death here?

 

Dismount the high horse there, Tex. How hard is it to understand that a how-to for rewiring it was the whole point of this thread? I understand that, how is it that y'all don't? We're not debating legal/illegal or beating anything to death (well, ok, maybe I'm beating to death the fact that several people in this thread are missing the idea of what's being asked for).

 

dmaxpower that's exactly what I was hoping someone would be able to post. Thanks!

 

Come on man... you can't really think I was serious. Just trying to poke a little fun. I was mainly commenting on how derailed your original question had become because of the illegal versus legal debate...

 

Carry on!

 

 

Sorry if that was the case, just didn't seem that way.

[C. Charles Hahn]

I'm not going to do it, mainly because I think real DRLs perform a safety function.

 

I agree that DRLs are a good safety function, but I figure enough other vehicles on the road use their amber markers as DRLs that this isn't compromising that

 

It's all good.