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Cowl Lights for serious snow?

wildtaco

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I would go for something HID powered for a winter spot light. Something like the ones linked below converted to an HID light with an amber cover. They will throw light farther than any LED light while radiating heat to melt snow/ice. The amber covers will make the glare against the snow much better than white light.

https://www.amazon.com/HELLA-H12560...d=1699558463&sprefix=hella+hid,aps,162&sr=8-3

Alternatively, Hella makes an HID driving light. They are already HID powered so if you don't want to mess with converting a set to HID, this would be the way to go. These aren't pencil beam however.

https://www.amazon.com/HELLA-009094...mzn1.fos.ac2169a1-b668-44b9-8bd0-5ec63b24bcb5
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Sting-Gray Neutral Pres.

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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'd recommend higher lights, if possible.
Stevens Pass, so same same, but different.

Bumper lights would need to be pretty small for me due to the diesel cooling issue. Seems like up top is the prevailing recommendation. Gotta be easily removable for summer though.
 
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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.
I too have tried some heated prayers for visibility in high pressure situations :LOL: ?
 

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Stevens Pass, so same same, but different.

Bumper lights would need to be pretty small for me due to the diesel cooling issue. Seems like up top is the prevailing recommendation. Gotta be easily removable for summer though.
Nah, unless you're towing over limit, if it's cold enough to snow, the ambient temps will cool the engine and trans. Stevens Pass isn't that strenuous of a pass (I'm from Monroe).

A couple years ago leaving Jackson in the morning, we hit a snow dumping going over Teton Pass (and someone putting chains on the rear tires of a Kia Optima). Then the farmland of Eastern Idaho where it was gusting hugely. Hard to see the road and keep it between the lines. Stopped in Mud Lake, ID and I took a gander at the front end. We had been driving in clear weather for about an hour at this point.

Jeep Gladiator Cowl Lights for serious snow? IMG_0163
 

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It’s more that I don’t want to uninstall large bumper lights when I’m towing in the middle of summer.
 

mx5red

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Nah, unless you're towing over limit, if it's cold enough to snow, the ambient temps will cool the engine and trans. Stevens Pass isn't that strenuous of a pass (I'm from Monroe).

A couple years ago leaving Jackson in the morning, we hit a snow dumping going over Teton Pass (and someone putting chains on the rear tires of a Kia Optima). Then the farmland of Eastern Idaho where it was gusting hugely. Hard to see the road and keep it between the lines. Stopped in Mud Lake, ID and I took a gander at the front end. We had been driving in clear weather for about an hour at this point.

IMG_0163.jpg
Looks like my LP6s on the bumper would be pretty plastered?
 

Bazz McLean

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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.
From my experience the amber lights should be mounted on the bumper, not near eye level.
 

starrskream

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one thing to remember, The higher the light the more you get the "Star wars hyperspace effect"
You'd want lower, bumper level lights to be able to see the road. Yellow is a good color to cut fog, works ok in snow too.
I've honestly tossed around the idea of installing some kind of windshield wash squirter into the grille to clean off the lights. I live in Western NY near the lake. we definitely get some serious snow.
Jeep Gladiator Cowl Lights for serious snow? 1716076511758-53
 

ShadowsPapa

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one thing to remember, The higher the light the more you get the "Star wars hyperspace effect"
You'd want lower, bumper level lights to be able to see the road. Yellow is a good color to cut fog, works ok in snow too.
I've honestly tossed around the idea of installing some kind of windshield wash squirter into the grille to clean off the lights. I live in Western NY near the lake. we definitely get some serious snow.
1716076511758-53.png

Get too high, and it's more like this -

Jeep Gladiator Cowl Lights for serious snow? 1716076857321-zg
 

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