E-code Headlamps and Hella 3rd Brake Lamp

Updated 07/16/06

Deer inspire me.

 

Central Texas has a rodent, I mean deer issue.  They are all over the place; Brushy Creek Road, RR 620, FM 1431, FM 734.  Problem is, those are the roads into and around my neighborhood.  I would prefer not to wear one on the hood of my car. 

This weekend I upgraded the lighting system on my car.  The headlamps, well, are for the deer.  The 3rd brake lamp is an attempt to wake up the soccer mom on the phone driving the Suburban behind me.  That and one of the guys I cruise with on Saturday nights was complaining that it was hard to see my brake lights, and this was at night.

The head lamps are E-code standard 7” lamp housings with integral city lights manufactured by CIBIÉ, bulbs are H4 type. City lamp is a 3886x – same as used for the marker lamps.  I replaced all other exterior bulbs with high efficiency and/or slightly higher wattage bulbs.  In the picture you will see a clean plastic grill piece, as part of this whole process I swapped in a good one I bought of E-bay, the one that was in there was broken into three pieces from when I tapped a deer a few years ago on FM 2222.  Strange incident, I got a broken grill, four tires with flat spots and the deer got knocked on his butt.  When I jumped out and surveyed the damage, he got up and ran off (probably uninsured like about ˝ the folks on the roads around here).


With “city lamp” on – bezel will stay off until I get a chance to adjust the aim.


Same camera exposure settings w/ the headlamp turned on.  I will try to get a “down the road picture” posted soon.

The 3rd brake lamp is a Hella Model 37 LED lamp.  It is extremely bright. 


You can just see it, barely, grey spot at top of window.  It is just above my field of view in the rear view mirror.

 
Once again – both pictures at same exposure settings, picture taken from a slight angle; the car fender in the bottom right of the second picture is in both pictures – camera was on a tripod, gives you an idea of how much light is being thrown.

I bought all this stuff from Daniel Stern.  http://www.danielsternlighting.com/

The relay kit was purchased about a year ago from Painless.  The plug that you are supposed to use to plug into your original harness didn’t want to work, so I snipped it and used a 3-pin weather-pack connection.


Painless Relay Kit

 

E-mail: mosley"at"mail.utexas.edu