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Subject:Re: High beams not working-lighting upgrades!
From:Scott Daniel
Date:Sat, 16 Nov 2013 19:59:12 -0800

I have those same lights on my good vanagon, and 85 Adventurewagon.
All is ever do is aim the low beams so the tops of them are about 2 1/2
to 3 car lengths out ..
and the right one is aimed a bit more to the right to see the side of
the road better on low beams..
and the high beams always  seem just fine doing it that way.

I don't find the high/low 'spread' to be different than usual.

You might have the only vanagon with a roof-mounted moveable spot light.
Good for finding ninja campsites after dark I'm sure.
I just have the old fashioned hand held plug-in-the-cig-lighter style.
Works well enough.

On 11/16/2013 7:50 PM, Don Hanson wrote:
>     I have the H4 Euro style with 75bulbs,,Hella, I think.   From Bus Depot
>
>    They've been marvelous on my many night time back road journeys but
> the "spread", the aim-change between low beam and high beam is
> slightly too 'big"...Might be a function of their distance off the
> surface of the road when installed in a Vanagon or something....
>
>     If you aim them so the high beams hit the highway, the low beam is
> pretty close in...too far down...if you  aim the low beam just right,
> the high beams go out about 2 miles, but leave half a mile sort of
> dark in front of the van.   They're still a giant improvement over the
> stockers but the aiming was a compromise...I understand the other
> brands may have a different 'spread'...but I don't know this for sure.
>    I have mine aimed pretty well and I do like the cut-off left side
> light pattern the Euro lights have.    I did use some relays and I
> grounded the lights out near the grill.
>
>     I also have some KC Daylighters...Major off road lights that really
> throw a lot of light for deserted highways or really late night deer
> country.   I added a switch under the rear defrost and wired it to
> only work when my highbeams are on, so if I encounter an oncoming car,
> unexpectedly, with my driving lights on I just hit the normal dimmer
> and the extra lights as well as the high beams go off...
>
>    And for real off road looking around, I have a roof mounted Unity
> 100,000 cp manual spotlight, like on cop cars, but on the roof.  Very
> handy for finding side roads and campsites that aren't directly in the
> headlights, also useful as an area light around primitive camp areas
> or as a help light for working on another vehicle nearby...The
> spotlight runs on my aux battery, but I sometimes add it to my late
> night driving package if I am in very heavy deer country....I can
> reach it comfortably while driving, up near the center rear view
> mirror...
>
>    Now a days all the off road crowd use LED lights...those are
> amazingly small and compact, use little juice..probably pricey...dunno
> I am happy with my set up so I haven't checked.
>