Cornering Lights A-Pillar/Ditch Lights

[asilverblazer]

I live in a rural area where many of the intersections are un-lit. I find myself many times struggling to get a good idea of what the road looks to the side where I am steering towards/onto. 

 

Many of you likely are aware of a feature on many older luxury cars like Cadillac and Lincoln where when you activate the turn signal a small light comes on on that side to illuminate the area adjacent to the vehicle. I replicated this on my truck using some small off road lights mounted at the A-pillar near the hood hinge, this is a popular location for off-road lights or ditch lights. I used the turn signal wires going to the BCM from the signal stalk, when activated they provide a ground to the BCM which then pulses the appropriate light circuits. I used that same ground signal to trigger a relay to power each respective light. Left signal turns the left light on and same for the right while avoiding the pulsing of the actual turn signal circuit. 

 

There are plenty of aftermarket mounts, but I was able to use an existing hole at the top of the fender. If you pull the plastic cover off where the antennae mounts you will find the same hole on the back side of the fender, directly behind the antennae post. A u-nut, small metal bracket to attach the light to was all that was necessary. 

 

The lights function well for my purposes, work well. If/when I do add some proper off-road lights I would likely mount them on the front of the truck vs. where these are mounted because my truck is white and the glare reflection off the hood would be problematic to use as an additional high beam location.