I have always wanted to ask this, but kept forgetting... inside a normal light bulb in our trucks, is a low beam wire and a high beam wire, now, low or high setting will alternate between which wire is powered, yet when u pull back on the wipe lever both wires are powered, would it be wise/safe/easy to modify it so this occurs when ever the high beams are on? or am i barking up the wrong tree?

 

I dont even know what you are asking???

 

hes saying would it be possible to energize both high and low beams at the same time...

i dont see any gain in doing this... pluss the added heat could possably melt or warp something, and the extra energy draw could also fry something... just go down to you local autoparts store and get some off road lights for 30 bucks if you really want more light...

 

oh yeah thats possible, its done all the time. I know I have read about that hear before. I thoght you were asking if you could set your wiper blades to engage while your high beams were on...

 

ROTFLMAO

 

I wired my old Mitsu Eclipse to do that. They are notorious for weak headlights, so I wanted more power to the high beams. Basically, I bridged the high beam relay to trip the low beam relay. That way, both would stay on. It was that way for 5 years, never had a single problem. Even used high wattage bulbs. Made it much easier to see the road.

 

when i was in my jeep club alot of people had power going to the headlights straight from the battery, they had a relay set up and everything, because i know with Jeeps you are only getting like 9-10 volts (IIRC) instead of the 13-14v

 

just wondering, bt you know that when you pull the magic highbeam wand towards you it switches up to high beams, but when you push it out it engages both, it just doesnt lock you have to hold it

 

I have standard bulbs in my truck and alot of the time when I'm doing night driving out on country roads I hold the lever back so both lights are on and I can see alot better, especially with deer and w/e running around out here. I tryed the relay trick on an explorer and kept burning out bulbs, so I'm just going to go to walmart or where ever and buy some cheap driving/fog lights that can go underneathe the grille

 

there is a kit available for about $99
I believe that Bob has written up on this before and I hope he throws his $.02 in on this one too

 

I know JC Whitney had a kit for the Chevy's. You might wanna check on there.

 

I know kits are conveint, but, i like stuff to be beefy and over kill, especially when it comes to electrical. these off road lights come with these "kits" of speaker wire... where they use speaker wire, i use 14ga wire... so id much rather do it myself.

 

Overkill isn't always so smart. Especially with electrical. Besides, are you planning to "show off" your 14awg wire? I know most people prefer to hide their wires.

 

Nothing wrong with using a larger size wire...you are sitll protected by the rating of the fuse....You should not upsize the fuse rating however...

 

here's the answer. i had one on the ranger and now on the L. 5 minute installation, looks factory, low beam is on with the high.

bright box

 

Good Find!!

I looked up the company...and found the install guide for it....
http://www.thebritebox.com/Brite.Box...g2.install.pdf

 

buy you an hid kit...4000K

that will get you more than enough light and if you can't see after that you may want to get your eyes checked

 

Still won't have as much coverage as having both Hi & Lo on at the same time.....But at least with a properly aimed HID kit, you won't be blinding people.

But for back country roads if nobody is around having both Hi's & Lo's on would be kick ***.

 

You should be able to use relays to accomplish the same thing as the black box for $10~20.

You would also probably want to upgrade the size of the ground wire from each headlight. It is intended to handle the current of one of the filaments on a continuous basis, both on an intermittent basis (headlight flasher).

Then there is the question of the stock Ford headlight connectors which have a habit of overheating/failing when using non-stock 100W bulbs. Would the same thing happen over the long term on the ground side when running both stock filaments together (55+65=120W)?

Technically, it is illegal, too, although I doubt that you would be called on it.

 

my hid bulbs will put out more light than your factory bright lights...the only thing with bright lights is that they are aimed higher to cover more area then low beams wich you can't do with hid bulbs. I have permanent lows and even with one bulb on i can still see better than your two. i won't trade them for nothing else. i would check that out. bob can get you a high/lo kit.

If you got yourself an hid kit, from bob, and put you some powerful offroad lights on your truck you should be fine: maybe a pencil or flood beam. another thing u have to remember is that with all these lights and power you will need to modify your harness and make sure you truck isnt killing itself because you can't see. most people dont' do the job right and that's when stuff goes wrong.

i can tell you with all 6 of my lights on my battery needle drops really quick...

 

I wasn't talking about Lumens that the bulbs produce. We all know that HID's produce many more Lumens than Halogens (3200 Lumens for HID's and only about 1200 for Halogens).I was talking about the AREA it covers....Like you mentioned that is the whole point of "HIGH beams"

It all comes down to if you want a greater range of light..you could just get the 'brite box' but if you just want a brighter light (Higher Lumen output) but still the same "Range" of light, then HID's would be a way to go....And if you add the HID Hi/Lo on top of that...then you would get HID's AND the larger range.

 

I would be worried about the electrical connector on a newer ranger. You are basicly doubling the current load on the ground wire. We all know by now that they use the bare minimum wire gauge to save money and weight. They don't design the wires to handle double the load.

I would go to the autoparts store and buy a new 9007 connector. It will come with beefier wires that can handle it. Ground it to the chassis right nearby. That will fix the inadequate ground issue.

 

since the geneal discussion is lights and wiring, and all the fun stuff inbetween. I was given this by my best friend's (he happens to also own a Ranger) mom out of the El Paso Times. She's the sometimes way overly cautious type, but I'd rather be safe than sorry 99% of the time...

Feds Investigate Trucks:
The government has opened an inquiry into the brake lights on the Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series trucks from the 2003-05 model years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration saif Friday in a posting on its Website that it was investigating the potential for a short circuit in a wiring harness that could blow a fuse providing electrical current to all brake lamps. If that occurs, the brake lights could fail, the agency said. The preliminary investigation involves more than 510,000 trucks.

 

For those of you wanting brighter headlights.... You can either purchase or build a harness that incorporates two 30A relays and use the factory headlight harness as a trigger....
I built one for my '98 Jeep Cherokee. The harness that Jeep installs is VERY inadequate.... Using 16 ga wires and 10A fuses and when you check the voltage at the headlight you only receive 11.3V IF you are lucky....
I used 12 ga for the headlight wires and 10 ga for the source. You plug the new harness into the factory headlight harness..... The factory voltage is sufficient for triggering and you will use almost no amperage....
The Jeep factory headlights are sealed bulbs.... I changed them to a H4 OffRoad housings with a 55W/100W PIAA bulb. The new harness delivers 13.8V consistantly and the increase in brightness and driving range is QUITE dramatic.
Still havent built one for the Ranger, but it is coming.....

OR 4x4