Light Bar

[Ozsko]

Hi Ozsko, I have never been happy with drilling holes in the dash of a new vehicle and if you read the ADR relating to the fitting of driving lights ( old and new ADR ) it states you must fit a switch to be able to turn the driving lights off.

The ADR does NOT state where that switch has to be located, so in all my vehicles for the last 15 years or so, I have mounted the switch in the engine bay, usually next to or close to the driving light relay.

BTW, I always fit an ON/OFF/ON switch. One “ON” position is wired to the Highbeam and the other “ON” position is wired straight to the battery.

I wire the switch this way so that in normal operation, turning the vehicle’s Highbeam on also turns the driving lights on, as is the normal use.

But the other “ON” position allows me to turn the driving lights on at any time, not just to be able to have the driving lights on when the ignition is off, but it also makes it much easier to aline the driving lights when you first install them.

I just find a good bit of quiet straight road, turn the vehicle’s lights off, then turn the driving lights on via the engine bay switch and adjust the driving light position to suit. This is much easier to do with the other lights turned off.

I have been fitting driving lights to cars since about 1968 so it is a familiar process but my last two cars have had such good headlights after I upgraded them with 125 watt globes in the high beams that I did not bother. I have always fitted a three way rocker switch for the same reason you outline and I definitely do not want to drill holes where I don't have too. I have found that in light misty and where I have to drive in and out of light fog and we get a lot of that where I live it can be an advantage to turn off the driving lights to prevent glare. I did a trip to SA a long time ago and the bloke on the SA fruit fly inspection came out to chat to me with his sunnies on about 2:00am in the morning, he reckoned he had never seen lights so strong on any car or truck.