Cowl Lights for serious snow?

[Sting-Gray Neutral Pres.]

Hi there, I've got two questions:
1) Do cowl lights impact fuel economy? I'd guess no but aerodynamics can be a complex and counterintuitive thing and I'm hoping a fellow data nerd out there has measured the impact ?.

2) Recommendation for a good pencil (spot?) light with a yellow tint? Prefer an aerodynamic rather than recessed housing.

For those who like stories and details here's why I'm asking: I now live in a mountain town and frequently travel over some of the snowiest mountains in the US, in the winter, at night. The Jeep's headlights are an atrocious design for this, recessed buckets on a flat front that just collect snow no matter what, in conditions that are non-issues for most modern aerodynamic front ends. My setup is Oracle heated LED headlights and Diode Dynamic yellow fogs (mid-tier strength, supposed to get hot). Despite the heated element and hot fogs I had a couple drives last winter that were pretty unpleasant, including one memorable one where I had to pull over 7 times in just 30 miles to wipe clean the lenses of both the mains and the fogs (I have video if anyone is interested). I could even see where the heating elements were trying but failing to keep up. My thinking is that I'd like to have a cowl light because it would not be in a recessed housing and in different airflow and thus wouldn't accumulate snowpack. I'd also like it to be a pencil/spot to pierce through driving snow, and be able to turn off the headlights and just run spots and fogs in all yellow with great visibility.

Sponsored

 

[ORACLElights]

Hi there, I've got two questions:
1) Do cowl lights impact fuel economy? I'd guess no but aerodynamics can be a complex and counterintuitive thing and I'm hoping a fellow data nerd out there has measured the impact ?.

2) Recommendation for a good pencil (spot?) light with a yellow tint? Prefer an aerodynamic rather than recessed housing.

For those who like stories and details here's why I'm asking: I now live in a mountain town and frequently travel over some of the snowiest mountains in the US, in the winter, at night. The Jeep's headlights are an atrocious design for this, recessed buckets on a flat front that just collect snow no matter what, in conditions that are non-issues for most modern aerodynamic front ends. My setup is Oracle heated LED headlights and Diode Dynamic yellow fogs (mid-tier strength, supposed to get hot). Despite the heated element and hot fogs I had a couple drives last winter that were pretty unpleasant, including one memorable one where I had to pull over 7 times in just 30 miles to wipe clean the lenses of both the mains and the fogs (I have video if anyone is interested). I could even see where the heating elements were trying but failing to keep up. My thinking is that I'd like to have a cowl light because it would not be in a recessed housing and in different airflow and thus wouldn't accumulate snowpack. I'd also like it to be a pencil/spot to pierce through driving snow, and be able to turn off the headlights and just run spots and fogs in all yellow with great visibility.

Hi, sounds like you get some really subzero temperatures! We do also offer a heated plow light which may be suitable for your needs. Here is the link https://www.oraclelights.com/products/plowlight?_pos=1&_psq=heated+plow+light&_ss=e&_v=1.0

 

[mx5red]

Wouldn’t lights at eye level cause an absurd amount of glare in falling snow??
If anything I’d mount some pods on the bumper.
That’s part of what drove me to swap Baja designs pods to DD pods, sharper horizontal cutoff and less glare.
I feel like I could drive comfortably with just my DD amber fogs (headlights off) in snow/slow.
Sometimes more light is worse, more glare.

 

[Alpine Warthog]

Hi, sounds like you get some really subzero temperatures! We do also offer a heated plow light which may be suitable for your needs. Here is the link https://www.oraclelights.com/products/plowlight?_pos=1&_psq=heated+plow+light&_ss=e&_v=1.0

I see the oracle heated lights have similar wording to these plow lights but they don't say how hot they get before shutting off. The regular lights don't get to 100 like the plow lights do they?

Wouldn’t lights at eye level cause an absurd amount of glare in falling snow??
If anything I’d mount some pods on the bumper.
That’s part of what drove me to swap Baja designs pods to DD pods, sharper horizontal cutoff and less glare.
I feel like I could drive comfortably with just my DD amber fogs (headlights off) in snow/slow.
Sometimes more light is worse, more glare.

You're correct, the further from your eye level you can make them the better, a Roof mounted light that's behind the driver worked wonders. There were times I'd shut off my headlights and just use the forward facing white spots of my light bar (police car) to see the road in the snow. The A-pillar spots were useful for ditch lights though lol.

 

[ORACLElights]

I see the oracle heated lights have similar wording to these plow lights but they don't say how hot they get before shutting off. The regular lights don't get to 100 like the plow lights do they?

Great question, here is the spec sheet for the plow lights. The heating element will shut off at 104 degrees F.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1766/0599/files/2914-001_Spec_Sheet.pdf?v=1625580419

 

[Alpine Warthog]

Great question, here is the spec sheet for the plow lights. The heating element will shut off at 104 degrees F.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1766/0599/files/2914-001_Spec_Sheet.pdf?v=1625580419

To be honest, I'm more interested in the specs for the headlights. The OP may have interest, but I've been debating the heated headlights for some time, I'm already running the tail lights and contemplating the tailgate lightbar too.
I'm not going to run plow lights but the heated headlights are an option.

 

[Sting-Gray Neutral Pres.]

To address a few questions:
ORACLElights: This issue isn't the ambient temperature, it's the rate of snowfall driving directly into the recessed headlight bucket with nowhere to go. Conditions were maybe 25 F but 6"/hr snowfall. I sadly don't have a picture of the headlight in these conditions but I distinctly remember the core issue is not the snow the accumulates around the outside of the lens but that snow starts sticking in the very middle, right where the LED headlight beam eminates. This disc of snow/ice then scatters the headlight beam, significantly reducing the effectiveness. Given time and less snow I'm sure the ring element would eventually melt out the snow in the middle but it's just not hot enough when it's really snowing hard. Snow was even starting to accumulate on the heating elements themselves once or twice, although the heat ring was still clearly visible. I'm not sure if there is a viable solution to this scenario but I do know your product is still superior to no heating at all.

MX5Red: stock bumper, not interested in an aftermarket bumper on my already heavy diesel. I'll look into if lights can somehow be added to a stock bumper though. The yellow does help with the bounce back, and in snow/fog I often run slow with my headlights off (in halo-only/parking) and with the very bright DD yellow fogs as my primary forward light. But the fogs suffer the same fate as the headlights when it is really snowing hard, as they are recessed in the bumper and just pack full of snow. Thus the interest in a 3rd set of lights somewhere.

 

[Swordfish44]

A roof mounted light is probably your best option for a 3rd light on your setup. There are tons of variations you can get from budget to top-tier.

 

[mx5red]

To address a few questions:
ORACLElights: This issue isn't the ambient temperature, it's the rate of snowfall driving directly into the recessed headlight bucket with nowhere to go. Conditions were maybe 25 F but 6"/hr snowfall. I sadly don't have a picture of the headlight in these conditions but I distinctly remember the core issue is not the snow the accumulates around the outside of the lens but that snow starts sticking in the very middle, right where the LED headlight beam eminates. This disc of snow/ice then scatters the headlight beam, significantly reducing the effectiveness. Given time and less snow I'm sure the ring element would eventually melt out the snow in the middle but it's just not hot enough when it's really snowing hard. Snow was even starting to accumulate on the heating elements themselves once or twice, although the heat ring was still clearly visible. I'm not sure if there is a viable solution to this scenario but I do know your product is still superior to no heating at all.

MX5Red: stock bumper, not interested in an aftermarket bumper on my already heavy diesel. I'll look into if lights can somehow be added to a stock bumper though. The yellow does help with the bounce back, and in snow/fog I often run slow with my headlights off (in halo-only/parking) and with the very bright DD yellow fogs as my primary forward light. But the fogs suffer the same fate as the headlights when it is really snowing hard, as they are recessed in the bumper and just pack full of snow. Thus the interest in a 3rd set of lights somewhere.

I have LP6s mounted on the bumper, look at my build/ light threads. I have not had a chance to use them in heavy snow though.

 

[BUZZHEAD]

Just thinking been awhile on one.
What are snowmobiles equipped with ?

 

[MPMB]

Hi there, I've got two questions:
1) Do cowl lights impact fuel economy? I'd guess no but aerodynamics can be a complex and counterintuitive thing and I'm hoping a fellow data nerd out there has measured the impact ?.

2) Recommendation for a good pencil (spot?) light with a yellow tint? Prefer an aerodynamic rather than recessed housing.

For those who like stories and details here's why I'm asking: I now live in a mountain town and frequently travel over some of the snowiest mountains in the US, in the winter, at night. The Jeep's headlights are an atrocious design for this, recessed buckets on a flat front that just collect snow no matter what, in conditions that are non-issues for most modern aerodynamic front ends. My setup is Oracle heated LED headlights and Diode Dynamic yellow fogs (mid-tier strength, supposed to get hot). Despite the heated element and hot fogs I had a couple drives last winter that were pretty unpleasant, including one memorable one where I had to pull over 7 times in just 30 miles to wipe clean the lenses of both the mains and the fogs (I have video if anyone is interested). I could even see where the heating elements were trying but failing to keep up. My thinking is that I'd like to have a cowl light because it would not be in a recessed housing and in different airflow and thus wouldn't accumulate snowpack. I'd also like it to be a pencil/spot to pierce through driving snow, and be able to turn off the headlights and just run spots and fogs in all yellow with great visibility.

Mt. Baker area? Good luck with that heavy wet snow.

I have two 7" on the front bumper with yellow shields that work ok, as long as no one comes the other way.

I have cowl lights that aren't really good for driving (likely because of they type they are), but they shine a bit on the hood.

I'd recommend higher lights, if possible.

 

[bd100]

Maybe some high-wattage halogens? Some old-style fogs, for example.

 

[88mmm]

I've been trying to source parts to add some heated higher pressure headlight prayers to grill from an older audi or Saab. To me this is the only real solution. The heated lights can't keep up due to the recessed design.

 

[djthumper]

Maybe these could help. https://www.quadratec.com/p/quadrat...inch-light-bar-jeep-wrangler-jl/1-piece-jl-jt

 

[Alpine Warthog]

Maybe these could help. https://www.quadratec.com/p/quadrat...inch-light-bar-jeep-wrangler-jl/1-piece-jl-jt

Those are on my wish list. After I regear, lock and add 38s....

Sponsored