Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 13:17:06 -0600
Reply-To: Joel Walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Joel Walker <jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET>
Organization: not likely
Subject: Re: Lighting options - again.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
was a little slow on the steep parts, but not painfully so. Anyway the
lighting is so pathetic that I may end up doing something sooner
rather than later. Between the South African set up and the European
set up which puts out more light? I am under the impression that they
are both similar in cost. About $300 for the South African and about
$350 for the European set up? Do they both use easily replaceable
if you ask me, and i admit to being biased :) , the south african way
is 'better'. why? cause i sort kinda semi went that way: i swapped out
my rectangular headlights on my 87 camper and my 88 bus to the round
7" headlights (and grill) of the 1980-1985 vanagons. the 7" headlight
is easily available at any auto parts store or wal-mart or even some
gas stations ... should you break one and need a quick replacement.
what i did was a bit more expensive ... i got some Hella Vision Plus
halogen headlights. MUCH better lighting! i can actually SEE at night
with these things (and it gets worse, trying to see at night, when you
get older, like over 50). anyway, the new grill and new headlight
buckets cost me about $200 from a dealer (camelback vw in phoenix, az,
by mail order; 1-800-876-5199. ask for mike lewis), then the
headlights themselves cost about $45 EACH! <well, i didn't say they
were cheap :( > they use the standard H4 halogen bulb.
the Vision Plus high beam is adequate for the speeds i choose to drive
at night (about 60-65), but you might choose the south african setup
for more high beam lighting. i've heard that the inner/smaller lights
are the same as the 5" lights on earlier model bmw's.
anyway, the 2nd bus i converted, i went to the junkyard and got the
grill (had a small crack in it ...fixed it with epoxy) and the buckets
for $75. :)
how easy is it to change over? really quite simple:
- remove the rectangular headlight grill.
- remove the rectangular headlight buckets and headlights.
- cut the wires to the headlights (leave yourself as much slack in the
wires as you feel comfortable with ...that is, cut 'em up kinda close
to the old headlights)
- solder the new/junkyard bulb connector (you DID remember to get the
round headlight bulb connector, right? they are NOT the same as the
rectangular headlight connectors!) to the wires and heat-shrink tubing
protect it. now, here's the gotcha: the wires are all colored exactly
the same ... white, yellow and brown. but!! on the rectangular
headlights, there are TWO brown wires .. the ground path wires. no big
deal, just connect them together when you solder to the brown wire of
the bulb connector. :) just match up the other colors and you're done.
- now, there's one other little gotcha: on the rectangular headlight
bucket, there is one of the five gripper-thingies that hold the
headlight grill in place: those little 'screws' that you only turn 90
degrees. it's built into the bucket. on the round headlight bucket, it
ain't there ... it's on a tab, setting off separately from the bucket.
so guess who gets to make the L-shaped tab and screw it into the
opening and fit the gripper-thingie into the tab? yup... you. :) it's
not 'hard', but it does take some familiarity with tools that some
folks might not have. and you do have to be very careful to line up
the position of the tab with the grill when you're installing the tab.
there's also a little tab that you need to remove ... the rectangular
bucket needs it for one of the mounting screws, and the round
headlight bucket doesn't need it. and i think i recall that the tab
got in the way of the round headlight grill. anyway, it's not a big
deal to drill out the rivet.
would i do it again? yup. you betcha! :) i actually like the looks of
the round headlights better ... makes the bus look more 'friendly'. ;)
but then , i grew up with round-headlighted buses, so i'm kinda goofy
anyway. :)
>down highway 84 into Portland it is just flat dangerous. Especially
in driving snow or dense fog >where using the brights makes it really
hard to see.
ah, now fog lights! :) that's another story. the best ones i've found
are the Cibie Oscar Plus fog lights ... unfortunately, they are rather
LARGE and somewhat hard to find. the best place i've found is
http://www.seriousauto.com (click on lighting, then on Oscar+) where
a pair of the lights costs about $160. but these are 7" round
foglights ... yup. same size as the round headlights! :) and they
reach out about 650 feet (200 meters) in the night and fog. you can't
mount them under the bumper, so on top is the only place. however,
even just that little bit lower than the headlights makes a lot of
difference ... i wired mine up to be connected to the parking lights
(as a trigger to the relay), so i can run on just the parking lights
(and taillights in the rear) and the fog lights by clicking the
headlights switch only to the first position ... this drastically cuts
down on the amount of glare from the headlights that comes back in via
the windshield, when driving in snow or fog or misting rain. and the
fog lights reach out just about as far as the normal headlights ...
almost. but since i drive slower in those conditions, it doesn't
matter. :)
now, these things are large and somewhat heavy. so mounting needs some
reinforcement ... like large washers, top and bottom, on the 80-87
bumpers, and some aluminum sheeting (or large washers) on the 88-91
plastic bumpers.
what i'd also recommend is a smaller rectangular fog light on the REAR
bumper, controlled by a switch on the dash. this is for a backup light
when in deep dark forest. you'd be amazed at how much better you can
see with these things. :)
a bright red rear fog light, for really bad dense fog or snow, is also
a good thing, but a decent one is hard to find nowadays. probably the
easiest and cheapest one is the Hella one for the Porsche 911. it's
small and unobtrusive and only about $30. i have the Cibie 35 5" round
one, and you kinda have to be careful closing the rear hatch or you'll
hit your fingers on the light .. the clearance to the hatch is that
close. :( but it's BIG and it's BRIGHT! anybody that hits me from the
rear in fog will have to be drunk or just plain stupid! :) <which they
probably will be anyway ...>
anyhoo, them's my recommendations. i'd like one of the south african
setups as well, but haven't actually SEEN one in person, so i'm
waiting on that one. and if i swap to the 1980-1985 headlights, i can
always add the south african ones later ... just by adding the grill
and the inner headlights.
hope it helps. good luck!
joel
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