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Fog Lights in a Sport 3500


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I've been looking around for some time for some additional lighting. Anyone install aftermarkets in their Sport model. I;m not sure of the mounting. Looked at a non sport model, one that was on a lift, looks like there was a mounting place for a factory bracket. Any ideas?Thanks, Dave

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Dave,

I don't think the cooling opening can make a difference since the optional factory lights fit there... with no heat issues. My truck has the factory "fog" lights and they "work" as in they turn on... but are really useless. The OEM buckets have no aiming option. I thought about cutting the plastic out but haven't got to it yet.

My truck doesn't have the spoiler, just the reciever for the pasport (radar) under there. I lifted the Lic plate to give it a clear view. Working behind the bumper is d*mn close. I wonder if the holes you mention could be used and take the moto tool to the spoiler.

I always liked the lights I mounted in my Road Runner years ago. It requred fabricating brackets between the body & the radiator support & cuttin the grill. Sorry, not a better picture. Car appears to have been photo-shy.

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Russ

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68 Roadrunner (first year). 383- last year with no smog, just a tweek to get it by the sniffer. 8.5 compression. 727 auto, 3.23 ratio G70 14 polyglass skins (remember those?). A fabulous car on the open road. Oh, yeah... turned 3000 rpm at 70... red line was somewhere over the right hand turn signal light.

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Fog / driving lights for Dodge? What made the old 1968 lights great was the combination of power & high quality optics... My old lights were the H3 Halogen. Separate bulb / reflector in the days of all sealed beams. I wonder if that type of quality is available today. Anyrate, if one wanted to utilize the factory wiring (assuming it could handle the draw) it would have to be on low beam (am I remembering right?).The Dodge OEM light are just for show lamps that do not do anything useful. I think Geno's Garage offers a kit to up lamp them. But that retains the throw away optics & inability to aim them. The OEM lamps must be held in from the rear. I have some sealed beams in the shop that look about the same size... I'm not going to put shoes on to go outside to look tonight. But the sealed beams are made for the rubber tractor bucket. (I have some on my backhoe since the factory lights were AWOL, the spare bulbs were changed out when I swapped bulbs to mount some on a Massy-Harris Pony tractor... gone now). But the 12V bulbs are here. The sealed beams are retained by the rim... there must be some metal rims that fit... Alternately, I could spin something on the lathe. Hmmm.Russ

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Yes, Mike, those are the basic lamps... They all interchange since rubber buckets are universal. My spare bulb is still in the NAPA box #4411 PAR 36 Lamp is a GE 4411 "TRACTOR" 12v 35w 1518 (must be GE number). It is a utility light, unshielded element, multi fawceted flood light lens. I bet there's a whole catalog of bulbs... The question is if one would come up with a mount to fit in the stock space. Russ

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Sure the power is nice but the optics... reflector shape & lens control the beam. A flood light is general illumination, of course. Only intended for short distances... They're not really intended as "headlights" as the unshielded elements have upward glare. The landing lights, spotlights, are tightly focused. Also unshielded. I don't suppose that aircraft have to worry about opposing traffic! I swear the "off-road" high beam lights in the Roadrunner would light up over a mile of straight flat interstate. It was none to much. Yes, the high power lights get hot. That really could be an issue if one uses materials (including OEM parts) not intended for so much heat. These sealed beam bulbs have the advantage that breakage would not cost a second morgage. A lot of this applies to all aftermarket "driving lights"... they can have tons of power but if the beam is not focused for YOUR task, they'll be disappointing.

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Mike, your under the truck mounting you have does have the advantage of blocking upward light from those lights. Low mounting should be less obtrusive than higher lights. (Proably why the decorative OEM light are like that.) Measuring the wattage... the electrical draw... of a bulb is not the best measure unless you're comparing all the same type of bulbs. No doubt the 35 W tractor lamps are tungston filiment. The H3 bulbs give better light per watt. I believe you're right about the 55 watt. Now I do recall those old lights of mine... 255,000 candle power... were 55 W. If I was going to go to the trouble of mounting a higher powered light in the OEM location, I'd want to figure out how to aim it. 55W or 100W, quality optics. I recall having to be on my toes about dimming those high beams (set horrizontal, with a mile of range). Russ

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I think Mike's truck did not come with the OEM driving lights. Mine did... but I don't use the worthless decorations. I don't know about the up lamp from Geno's Garage... if it's worth doing at all. At least it would be doable.It would be a project to put a better lamp in the OEM spaces. I like "neat" gear & it would be neat to put something useful in the OEM spaces. Practically, there are lots of aftermarket driving lights (to 55W) that could go under the truck nose. For more power, it would be hard to beat Mike's landing lights. Russ

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