New Auxilliary Lighting

[cyoung1253]

Finally got around to replacing my broken PIAA 540 fog lights this weekend. Never really liked the purpleish/yellowish lens of the PIAA's, that and the fact I was not satisfied with the performance of them. Installed Hella FF200's in their place, I think the clear tempered glass lens looks better and they have a nice wide low light pattern that brightens up the sides of the road nicely and don't seem to bother oncoming traffic. They fit great in the factory location even though they are slightly oval. Also built a couple brackets to mount a pair of Hella FF500 driving lights in front of the grille to supplement the highs. Given the cheap Wal-Mart price the FF500's are very bright and in combination with the high beams it is like day light on dark back roads. Big difference in overall quality (and price) between the Hella "Made in Taiwan" for sale at Wally-World FF500's and the Hella "Made in Germany" FF200's. Snapped a couple pics this morning, yeah truck is dirty and it snowed again last night.

 

New lighting installed

Hella FF200 Fog lights in factory location

Hella FF500's on bracket in front of grille

Low Beam

High Beam

Pic of old, now broken PIAA 540 Plasma Ion fogs

[KMGZ400]

looks great how bright are theyt?

[sc4808]

They do look great.

[cyoung1253]

looks great how bright are theyt?

 

Hella FF200's are much brighter than the PIAA 540's were and supplement the low beams quite nicely with the low wide beam pattern and don't seem to offend oncoming traffic. The FF500 driving lights in combination with the high beams is like driving in daylight on dark back roads. Used the PIAA switch that I had previously installed and three relays to activate the aux lighting and automatically switch between fogs with low beam or driving lights with high beam. Could add the diode to the factory high/low relays so that when I switch to high beams all 4 headlights and all 4 aux lights would be on but that would really be overkill.

 

Aux lighting switch

[Royal Vader]

Looks good!

Clean switch install too!

[Gregorio]

Very nice. Thanks for the comparison.

[Bruins04]

Looks good.

Were did you get the brackets for the larger lights?

[cyoung1253]

Looks good.

Were did you get the brackets for the larger lights?

 

Made them out of a piece of 1 1/2" angle iron that is bolted to the bumper (there is a pair of unused tabs with holes just under the grille) and a couple Uni-Strut "L" brackets. Also braced the top of the brackets back to the radiator support structure to stiffen things up so the lights are not like bobble-heads on rough roads.

[lmt]

Are those FF200 fog lights or driving lights. Very nice set-up clean and neat

[cyoung1253]

Are those FF200 fog lights or driving lights. Very nice set-up clean and neat

 

FF200's are fogs,FF500's are driving.