Traveller Reversing and Fog Lights

[vincenth]

I am thinking about putting a reversing and or fog light on my traveller. Can anybody recommend a suitable product and supplier. Is it an easy job or best left for an auto electrician.

Cheers

[Rob_Jennings]

find a couple of cheap lucas rear lights on ebay (one red for fog one clear for reverse). bolt these under the bumper on the bumper mounting is idea.

for fog....
take a wire from the light switch behind the dash (solid blue is main/dip beam) pass through an illuminated switch fitted some where, say a bracket under the driver glove box (very important switch has a light as fog light should have a 'tell tale' to pass MOT test)) run output of switch to rear of car to power the fog light, earth light to the car body to complete circuit.

for reverse....
take a wire from the ignition switch feed green at fuse box, pass this through a switch, (illuminated is nice to have so you don't leave it on) mounted under drivers glove box. run output to back of car to power the reverse light, earthing the lamp to the car body to complete the circuit.

there was a tale of a nice adaptor plate that could be fitted somewhere over the gear stick to detect reverse and provide the switch, but I don't think you can find these any more, so the manual option is the way forward for now.

so all you need are... couple of lamps (ebay is your friend) couple of switches (maplin, RS, farnell etc...) bracket to hold them (L shape metal with 2 holes drilled) bit of wire (say a piece of mains flex from B&Q ideal to carry both to the back), couple of crimp connectors probably lot cheaper than a 'kit' from a supplier

[bigginger]

I *THINK* a telltale's compulsory for the 'versing light too

[Rob_Jennings]

hum was not sure about that but you may well be correct....

push the boat out get 2 lit switches ;-)

I have just got some nice chrome toggle switches off ebay with 12v LEDs, one a nice red for the fog, one a nice green for the reverse and a blue one that I'm not sure what to use for yet but it looked cool (perhaps have to fit under car neons for it? ;-) ), only 1.50 each so a bargin. just got to get round to fitting them now

I'lll tidy up my above post and write it up as a neat wiki guide and post a link later

[chrisd87]

I have a manual reversing light and I can honestly say it's not worth the bother. I've left it on by mistake (or knocked the switch accidentally) so many times that I don't bother using it anymore.

A fog light would be much more useful but perhaps get a fairly stiff switch that's not suseptible to being accidentally switched on, because if you get caught with a fog light on when it's not foggy then it's £60 and 3 points IIRC.

[alex_holden]

I have a manual reversing light and I can honestly say it's not worth the bother. I've left it on by mistake (or knocked the switch accidentally) so many times that I don't bother using it anymore.

Don't you find them useful for seeing what's behind you when you're reversing in the dark? On my Landy they stopped working for a while (dodgy gearbox switch) and it was quite irritating until I realised I had a big dashboard-operated spotlight above the back door (duh!).

[nebogipfel]

A fog light would be much more useful

But, PLEASE, only use it when it is really foggy, not when there is the odd wisp of mist (I hate being dazzled by the bleeping things when visibility is hundreds of yards)

When I was young and men were men, we used to use the indicators for reversing lights - not trafficators of course

[bigginger]

(say a piece of mains flex from B&Q ideal to carry both to the back)

Be sure it's stranded wire cable, not the sort with a solid copper core, as that will break under vibration in no time flat.

[vincenth]

The LED switches sound like a good idea. Where should I mount them though, presumaby I would need a little bracket of some sort.

[JimK]

The Highway code says use foglight when visibility is less than 100 metres, and switch them off when you can see a car behind you. What it doesn't say is that WHEN I CAN READ WHERE YOU BOUGHT YOUR CAR YOU CAN SWITCH THE LIGHT OFF!!!!1111 *cough* *cough*

My opinion is that rear foglights are very nearly completely and totally pointless, I've used them perhaps twice in fifteen years of driving. I wouldn't bother fitting one

Reversing light is another matter, I travel down dark lanes where two cars can't pass and I have to ask people to reverse because I can't see where I'm going. I'm planning to put one of these on since my new gearbox has a switch in it.

A telltale for that light would be gearstick at "R" and travelling backwards...

[Rob_Jennings]

I got my LED switches off e-bay but seen places like maplin sell some just make sure they are 12v car types.

The ones I have are chrome, nice heavy duty, and bright enough for daylight too.

Added wiki page, mostly the stuff I wrote above above (thanks for tip about multi core cable I would not even have thought to use single core so its a good point)

http://morristechnicaltips.wiki.com/Mec ... rse_lights

[bigginger]

A telltale for that light would be gearstick at "R" and travelling backwards...

Great - tell that to the polis when you get pulled over with a white light showing to the rear, they'll laugh at their own stupidity...

[Matt]

You could always just fit the remote on the gearbox from a 1275 spridget... (make sure you get the switch tho, they are fairly rare) and have an automatic reversing light switch!

[alex_holden]

I think Jim is fitting a Ford gearbox and using the automatic switch in that, hence why he says the reverse position on the stick will be his telltale.

[bigginger]

I think he is too, but Vinceth, who asked the original question. isn't - so that's not a specially good bit of advice for him.

[Kevin]

Added wiki page,

I dont like the bit that says
(piece of 2 core mains flex would be ideal to carry both)
Why not get the correct cable for the job designed for 12v not 240v

[Rob_Jennings]

feel free to edit it if you wish... thats the point of a wiki

otherwise I think its an easy to get option that is more then well suited for the application. You could easily put 12V at several amps down it

[bigginger]

Just as easy to get the right stuff from Halfords, or any car parts dealer

[JimK]

I am indeed fitting a Ford box, and sorry to Vinceth for the thread drift.

[bigginger]

So'm I - not to the car I'm doing just now, but the next one