Can anyone recommend a website or company that supplies quality lamp covers/stone guards (remember the smiley faces from the 80's?) for non-factory driving lamps? They seem hard to come by and all sport the company logo, which I would prefer not to sport on my Mini.

Thanks!:impatient

 

You can probably ask Jersygirl to make one for you out of fabric...
kinda like a shower cap with rubber lining on the back, and paint/dye your
smiley face on the front.

 

I'd try www.myminiparts.com

 

Thank you both

 

shower cap. hee hee

 

is it true that some states require you to cover the driving lamps when on the road?

 

That may only apply to off-road only lamps and yes probably true.

That wouldn't apply to normal, LEGAL, auxiliary driving lamps. But if you put some huge driving light bar on the top of your MINI and say four huge 100 watt off-road bulbs ... yeah, its probably true.

 

I was sort of unclear going into this how the driving lights worked, but I had read thatthey only tied to high-beams, so I passed on the factory set-up for now. Is that really true of all the systems though? None of them just hook up to the regular headlight system? I admit to being a little confused by this, but man, I love the look of em!

 

Every state has different regulations on auxiliary lighting. However, a general rule of thumb is this ...

Fog lights go low and many states specify somethink like between 12 - 24". Driving lights go high (18"+, the higher the better). Fog lights are meant to be driven with only the low beams and are usually required to be switched off when going to highs. They are useless for high speed driving anyway because the beam cutoff is right in front of the car and down low .

Auxiliary driving lights are usually two kinds ... sort of a general beam that aids the high beam and pencil beams that are like 5 degree pattern and go WAY out beyond the normal highs. They are mean to be only used as auxliary to the highs. MINI wires them to be switched with the highs because that is the law is most states. Similary, MINI wires the fogs to go off with the highs as that is usually the law. Of course, that doesn't mean if you do it yourself you cant wire it however you want but it makes no sense to not follow the laws because you dont want auxiliary driving lights on with low beams. Thats like having your highs on with oncoming traffic

BTW, some states also have a limit to the number of lights you can have, hence the rule about having the covered. Also 55 watts for Halogen is about the law everywhere. Anything higher is sold for off-road use only and is usually advertised as such (to cover the seller).

Make sense?

 

very helpful, thank you!

These being wired to the highs, logic being that they are being used, theoretically, in off-road, non-trafficked situations where you need more long-range illumination at lower speeds?

 

well your supposed to use your high beams on dark road with no oncoming traffic, correct? So auxiliary driving lights throw more light onto the road.

I drive to work every morning in the wee hours in the DARK. For a few miles, few lamps before the highway. Auxiliary driving lights are excellent for thowing out more light to see deer and varmits on the sides of the road and deer DO come out in the early morning, especially in fall, in residential areas. I've seen lots of deer road kill and deer just walking across the residential side roads ... kind of scary without good lights.

Pencil beams are another thing entirely and are really meant for living in say the high desert, Nevada, Utah, wide open flat stretches of road where the road is straight and goes forever. Pretty useless elsewhere. I wouldnt buy pencil beams unless living in the west (Not necessarily CA because I dont see much use there).

 

I hardly have need for the highs in my urban existence... only when heading into the hills on trips, etc.
Not to say that people here in SF don't use/abuse their highs in urban traffic, because they do, and it slays me.

 

I bet you do get fog though, in the valleys in the middle of the state or by the coast

 

oh yes... sometimes, depending on season (and usually summer) driving back towards the bridge from Marin (towards SF) it's pea soup periodically interrupted by the back end, or the high beams, of marauding SUVs at high speed...