WesBrooks
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| posted on 4/1/17 at 03:00 PM |
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Auxillary Main Beams - Floods, Spots, etc.
Hi all,
I've looked through the lighting C&U regulations following a discussion about light bars on the LR4x4 forum and hope you may be well placed
to help find the relevant regulations.
The C&U and M1 test guide seem to conflict each other. C&U allows any number of extra main beam lights and the M1 test guide limits this to 2
extra over your standard 2 main beam lights. There is also some debate about the location of the lights with a 1.2m max height being mentioned. It is
my understanding that this only applies to the dipped beams?
My understanding of the C&U is that it allows for any number of extra lights and there is no maximum height limit?
The issue with only 2 extra lights being permitted is that when off road lighting from higher up can be beneficial as long shadows from bumper lights
can hide some nasty surprises on the other side of small rises. These can be uncovered with high lighting. The disadvantage of the high lighting being
that in heavy snow or rain the reflected light can make them useless!
I intend to have bumper level lighting and roof level lighting with a dashboard switch that enables them to come on and off with the main beam.
I'd hoped this could be done in a road legal manner so as to avoid having to disable them on the road in order to satisfy any potential road
side check. My project is a large vehicle and so it would struggle to slip by anything unnoticed so I'm planning for the worst!
Regards,
Wesley.
http://doctrucker.wordpress.com
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loggyboy
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| posted on 4/1/17 at 03:03 PM |
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Without going in to too much detail, why are you concerned with the comparison?
Design car to pass IVA, then make changes with MoT/C&U standards.
Mistral Motorsport
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jps
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| posted on 4/1/17 at 03:08 PM |
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Surely M1 is about construction and initial registration for road use, C&U is about subsequent usage on the road?
Plenty of rally cars run about on the public road with more than 2 additional forward facing lights - they do tend to be low mounted but only for
practicality I would have thought?
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WesBrooks
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| posted on 4/1/17 at 03:08 PM |
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Fair point regarding future modifications to conform to MoT and C&U.
I was just concerned that I may have missed something in the C&U guide as it seemed odd that the M1 test guide clearly states a more restrictive
maximum of 4 main beam lights and C&U doesn't have this restriction.
http://doctrucker.wordpress.com
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Charlie_Zetec
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| posted on 4/1/17 at 03:15 PM |
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As above - get it through, and then make changes! As a 4x4 owner (Land Rover - is there any other?!?), a lot of users have a light bar and/or spots
as well, most of which don't comply with current light emissions ie. for off-road use only. But they don't take them on and off every
time they go off-road, just have them switched. I had (and will have) spot lights on the bumper and a light bar on the roof, but both will be run on
three-way switches; on/off/on with full beam. That way, it can be used how you want it, but be fully compliant come MOT time without removal. Does
that make sense??
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity!
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WesBrooks
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| posted on 4/1/17 at 03:19 PM |
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Thanks all, I was just making sure that my understanding was correct and they don't fall fowl of C&U when installed at roof level, can be
disabled, only come on on the road with main beams, are E/BS marked and installed as pairs.
With regards to the rally car I think the covers would potentially get them around any C&U issues as they need tools to remove and so only come
off off road? Any how, given their teeny numberplate I guess following the regs aren't that higher a priority for them?! :-D
http://doctrucker.wordpress.com
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WesBrooks
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| posted on 4/1/17 at 03:56 PM |
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Found this:
https://www.hella.com/hella.../673_Legal_Requirements_Brochure_HELLA_EN.pdf
Summary from this is no height limit and there is a requirement that the maximum illumination does not exceed 430,000cd or the sum of the reference
numbers on the E marking doesn't exceed 100.
My interpretation of this would be that high and low spots would be legal on the road if there was a switch to select which you were using along with
the main beam lights. Therefore your total illumination could exceed the 100 reference number because they all won't come on at once.
As I'm not planning to do anything mega quick like comp safari I think that's fine!
Edit: Another useful link, although the lighting limit is lower! http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/codes/codes.html
[Edited on 4/1/17 by WesBrooks]
http://doctrucker.wordpress.com
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snowy2
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| posted on 13/1/17 at 01:47 PM |
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C+U lighting regs
The thing is......you can have as many as you like...but only on main beam......dip you can only have 2...... unless your car is registered before
1991
[Edited on 13/1/17 by snowy2]
sometimes you are the pigeon, most of the time the statue.
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WesBrooks
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| posted on 19/1/17 at 08:09 AM |
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Thanks for the link snowy2. I'm sure I looked in that but after reading these documents after a whiel you can't see the wood for the
trees!
Ok, so post IVA test when you modify your car do you have the option of following the ECE regulations or C&U and as long as you comply with one or
the other you are ok? I'm going to have to read the C&U more carefully as I don't see the bit that limits your bulb size to 55W or
anything akin to the bit in the ECE regs that say the sum of the values from the E marks on full beams mustn't exceed 100.
http://doctrucker.wordpress.com
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