Runaway Tractor
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Finally mostly finished enough to post some pics. Added fog lights and ditch lights, with switches and control integrated into the truck's ignition, high beams and parking lights. I'm using a CanM8 canbus interface to read the status of ignition, high beam, and parking lights. There's a canbus wire behind the driver's footwell trim that it's connected to. Those 3 outputs are used through the switches to drive relays. I don't want to push buttons constantly while driving. I want things to just turn on and off with the high beams or parking lights so I do not need to push extra buttons. But I want the switches to override or disable if I feel the need. The canbus and relays are in a waterproof box next to the battery. Switches are on the empty little panel under the steering wheel.
The fog lights are Diode Dynamics SSC2 Pros in yellow SAE Fog beam with amber backlight. In automatic mode, they come on with the parking lights. I'd rather it be tied to low beams that would require the 8-output canbus interface and is way more expensive. I really love these lights. They're mounted to the air intake grid and wiring was fished up and around which was a major pain in the ass. The SAE fog pattern is great, puts the light right where it belongs. The yellow makes it way less in-your-face and is more effective in actual inclement weather. These are almost always set for automatic. If I have them off, the amber backlighting comes on with the parking lights instead which looks nice at night too.
The ditch lights are Diode Dynamics SSC2 Pro in white SAE Driving beam with amber backlight. In automatic mode, they come on with the high beams. If I have them off, the amber backlighting comes on with the parking lights instead which also looks nice at night. Using Diode Dynamics ditch lights brackets since they put the lights outboard instead of inboard. This gets them out of the way of the antenna, and doesn't flood the hood with light. The SAE driving beam pattern is great. It puts the light way out front, not spilling all over the hood. The beam actually almost perfectly matches the truck's high beam pattern.
Note: I have enabled the glare free matrix high beams in Forscan. When that is enabled in the Sync menu for lighting, I can't use the automatic mode on the ditch lights since they'd stay on. The truck's high beams are actually really great by themselves. The glare free matrix automatic high beams is amazing, works great, and love it. It's honestly debatable whether I prefer normal high beams with the ditch lights, or just enjoy the automatic glare-free matrix lighting. On the highway, matrix for sure. On the back roads, normal with ditch lights seems best.
The switches are 3 position on-off-on. Down is automatic, center off, up is manual on. All of this only operates with the ignition is on, so there's not pissing the BMS off leaving the lights on with the truck turned off. The third switch is for future use since I was drilling holes and running wires. I also pulled several extra wires through the firewall while I was at it. It is a pain and I didn't want to have to do it more than once. I used a piece of Cat6 for the switches since it is just contact closure and not flowing high current. So much easier than pulling a bunch of pointless higher gauge wire.
I have set of Diode Dynamics SSC1 pods to put somewhere. My original plan was alley lights pointing sideways off the ditch lights. But it would be kind of ugly. Might put them in the back. facing backwards or sideways.
