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Buying a Tundra is already very difficult for a person like me who has no money, so I basically have no plans to modify it, I just want to add a light.
The price of LED strip lights is very cheap. You can buy it for a few hundred yuan, and you can buy a good one for more than a thousand yuan. I can afford this price.
Why add lights? My previous two self-driving trips made me deeply aware of the importance of lights.
For the first time, on New Year's Day in 2016, I drove a Haval and took a few friends to Ulan Butong, Inner Mongolia. On the way back, the highway was closed and we took the provincial highway. As I was driving, I found that there was wind and snow on the road, but fortunately, I could stop the car, and only the edges of the road were covered with snow. I continued to drive forward, and suddenly, there was a long stretch of road ahead, and half of the road was covered with snow, which was nearly one meter thick! But looking at the distance, there were no cars, so I thought about passing through as quickly as possible. However, this section of road is longer than I thought, and the same is true for the road ahead. At this time, I used to step on the brakes to see if the road was slippery. As a result, this section of the road was much slipperier than before and I couldn't stop with just one foot of the brake. But at this moment, I noticed a truck coming from the other side. Oops! What if he didn't know it was so slippery here? One side was covered with snow and there was no way to miss the car on this road. At this time, I quickly turned on my LED strip light and kept pressing the switch to flash, while still honking the horn. If the big car didn't slow down as it got closer, I was ready to rush into the snowdrift. Fortunately, the big car slowed down and stopped far away. This time it was really thanks to the LED strip lights on the roof of my car. Without this, just relying on the lights of the original car, the driver of the big car would not have been so early. slow down.
The second time, during the National Day holiday in 2016, I drove my friends in Haval to the Alxa Heroes Association, and on the way back, I went to the Shanxi-Shaanxi Grand Canyon. There is a section of the road by the Yellow River, which is full of coal trucks. Because trucks are pressed back and forth all year round, the road is full of shell craters. There were almost no cars on this stretch of road at night, and many trucks were shining bright spotlights that made it difficult for us to see the road clearly. When I used the original car's high beam to flash them, I found that in front of the truck's spotlights, the brightness of the original car's lights was almost the same as a candle... Only by flashing the LED dome light could it be possible for them to turn off the spotlights.
Therefore, I realize that lighting is very important outdoors, and I need to add a light to the smooth road! Last time I bought a Haval dome light, there were two shortcomings. One was that the strip light was installed on the roof of the car, which caused a lot of wind noise. The other is that last time I went to a technician at an auto parts store for wiring, maybe it was due to the wire material or the routing problem, but it started leaking after a month of use. So this time I plan to spend a little more money to find a reliable shop to install the lights.
The first person I asked was a modification factory I had visited before, and asked the boss what kind of LED lights they had. The boss replied directly that they don't make LEDs. When I asked why, the boss told me that LEDs only look bright and don't actually illuminate the road as well as halogen lamps. Generally, all racing cars are equipped with halogen lamps. At this time, I suddenly remembered that when driving in the snow in the mountains in winter, I turned on the LED dome light and found it very dazzling. The effect of illuminating the road was far inferior to the halogen light of the original car. Turns out I needed brighter halogen lights!
Now, my needs have become two. One is to look brighter so that oncoming vehicles can turn off their high beams. The other is a halogen lamp used to illuminate the road. In the meantime, I also saw Hella’s xenon lamp, which is extremely bright and has a long range. When I was driving along the border in January this year, there was no man's land all the way. I could drive faster, but due to the range of the headlights, I couldn't drive faster because I didn't know what the road conditions ahead were like. At this time, I discovered that with this xenon lamp, I could drive faster and safer in no-man's land.
At this time, I wanted to replace the LED with a xenon lamp, but after checking the information, I found that it still couldn't be replaced, because it takes a certain amount of time for the xenon lamp to reach its maximum brightness, so it would be impossible to shine the high beam on the opposite side. Therefore, in the end, we had to give up the xenon lamp and choose LED and halogen.
In addition, because the Tundra car is wide and tall, the blind area is very large. When there is no light outdoors, the left and right sides cannot be seen clearly. I need to install LED lighting on the left and right sides. Similarly, when reversing in the wild, I also need a brighter light to allow me to see the road conditions behind me clearly. In this way, I need at least 8 lights. Among the four lights in the front, I must choose very reliable brand lights. Brightness is one aspect, and stability is also very important. It is relatively convenient to buy lights in Beijing and the price is low. If there is a problem with the lamp while traveling around China, and you have to find a shop on the way to fix it, it will waste time and increase the price. For several lights in other directions, I actually want to buy better ones, because I am also a flashlight enthusiast myself, and playing with lights is also a kind of fun, but this time the budget is really limited. I might buy the lights on the left, right and rear. Choose something relatively cheap.
In terms of installation, I must find a reliable modification shop this time. All wiring, thread processing, connection methods, and waterproofing must be of the best quality. After all, if you want to travel around China, the environmental differences between the south and the north are huge. The journey is long and the route must be able to withstand hardships.
The above content is the first article about car lights on my public account. At that time, the cost of changing the car lights was estimated to be around 20,000 yuan.
An alumnus of mine works in self-media. After seeing the above public account article, he gave me a scolding. "You spend 20,000 yuan to modify the lamp? Is your article for rich people? Is it for the elites in the field of modification? Do you know that people who can spend 20,000 yuan to modify lamps can also afford to buy a lamp? A 2 million car? How many people can afford a 2 million car? How many of these people will sit here with their mobile phones and read your official account? Do you still want to attract fans? "
I thought about what he said, and I think it makes sense. But I asked myself again, should I replace all the brand lamps that I have been considering for a while with the cheapest ones in order to attract fans? No, this idea goes against my heart. I feel like I can’t change my approach just to attract fans.
Why are you willing to spend so much money on changing lights when you have no money? My thinking when buying things now is that I don't consider whether I can afford the retail price of this brand-new product. What I consider is whether I can afford the depreciation cost if the product is sold second-hand after one year. Whether it is changing the lights or buying a smooth road, we all do it based on this thinking. Before traveling around China, I was making equipment, but I was unsuccessful. I am not a professional equipment designer, I am just a player. Because I like the outdoors and equipment, I make equipment out of interest. I wish I had more knowledge about equipment. I have seen and used it all, from low-end to high-end. Needless to say low-end ones. In the early days of outdoor play, I used low-end ones. I know what low-end things look like. But I know less about high-end ones, and a big reason is that I don’t have the money to buy them. But this time, I mustered up the courage to pursue my dream. If I do well, I may still be able to continue playing after traveling around China. If I don't do it well, the worst I can do is sell it all. If I come back and work honestly, at least my knowledge of equipment will be improved to a higher level.
Next, let’s talk about changing the lights. Generally speaking, I have two needs for lights:
1. It can illuminate the road brighter (this includes lighting in rainy and foggy weather)
2. Be able to flash the truck in complex road conditions and ask him to turn off the huge bright high beam (this kind of light cannot be turned on at ordinary times. Even if the truck's lights are too bright in complicated road conditions and you can't turn it on, try not to turn it on)
I looked up some information and found that there are three commonly used light sources: halogen, LED, and xenon lamp (HID).
The following passage is quoted from Zizhihu author Huang Jian
LED's electro-optical conversion rate is high, the physical size of the light source is small, the light collection performance is better, the light efficiency is higher and the brightness is higher. But in terms of color temperature requirements, halogen lamps are better than LED lamps. The color temperature of halogen lamps ranges from 2300K to 7000K; the color temperature of HID and LED lamps ranges from 4200K to more than 8000K; the higher the color temperature of the lamp, the better it penetrates fog and rain. The worse. Color temperature is expressed in absolute temperature K. When the color temperature is around 3000K, the light color is yellowish. When the color temperature is above 5000K, the light color becomes bluish. Choose headlamps with different color temperatures according to different environments. For example, if you want to cope with rain and fog, you can choose yellow light with strong penetrating power. If you like to have a beautiful personality, you can also use blue light with a high color temperature.
Therefore, my car must have halogen lights to cope with rain, snow and fog. Tundra's original car has halogen lights, but the brightness is very low. My idea is to install 2 halogen driving lights and adjust the angle as low as possible so that they can illuminate the road without flashing to oncoming vehicles. Halogen driving lights + original car headlights are basically bright enough to illuminate the road. Under normal circumstances, I don't want to touch the original car lights because it involves issues such as waterproofing of the lights.
The other two lamps did not choose xenon lamps, and finally chose LED. For the specific brand, I chose VISION. This time when I changed the lights, I discovered a problem. In the modification industry, the information between businesses and consumers is extremely asymmetric. In the past, when I was buying other equipment, there was a lot of information online, and I could take my time to read it. There were also a lot of accessories selling on Taobao, but there were relatively few introductions to lamps and merchants selling lamps.
I really like to watch couples. When I was changing the lights, I remembered the Dabai of the 270. I immediately found the video and watched it again. I found out that the 270 used VISION, and found that the front and rear bumpers of the 270 were made by Yunliangjia. I have been thinking before, which store in Beijing has a more professional and professional store? After thinking for a long time, I didn't come up with it. When I saw Yun Liang, I suddenly had the answer. When I went to the Alxa Heroes Association, went to forums, and watched Teacher Han’s videos, I heard the word Yunliang several times. (successfully marketed)
After finalizing the modification shop, construction started. I originally planned to add a light stand, but later I consulted with my riders. If the light stand is not fixed well, it will be loosened by the vibration. It may be a better solution to replace it with a competition bar. The front bumper is a smooth road conqueror.
MR Conqueror front bumper, PIAA 85W halogen driving light, VISION 5W*18 lamp holder round LED light, VISON 10W*2 lamp holder square diffused LED light
Modification begins! Remove the bumper
Remove the bumper
The staff are very serious
A small part of screws, mechanical beauty
MR conqueror bumper
After installing
piaa halogen
Install pedals
After pressing the light, press the chassis guard. It was already off work at that time. Yun Liang's buddy was very interesting. He knew it was not easy for us to come here, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Please press the button to work overtime!"
deeply appreciated!
It’s too late to click them all. Reliable.
Also gave away gifts.
I said, "This needs to be punched in the car."
Brother Yunliang said: "Come here when you are ready to fight."
Hahahahahahahahahaha.
I do like this switch though
Yunliang's modification was very meticulous. It basically took a whole day to install the fresh-keeping box, route the wiring, install and fix it. From day to night, the masters worked very hard. In the words of Yunliang staff, their requirements for routes are higher than those of 4S stores.
After the lighting modification was completed, I started to test the lights. I found that there was a problem that I had thought wrong. Even if I adjusted the angle to the lowest angle, the two halogen driving lights would still sway to the oncoming vehicles. On normal roads, these two lights would still be there. There is no way to open it.
The only other option was to change the original car lights. There are 2 options for the original car lights
1. Directly replace the headlight assembly. Many car enthusiasts choose Xiushan’s headlight assembly, which comes with a lens and uses a xenon light source.
2. Disassemble the headlight assembly, add a lens, and replace the light source with a xenon lamp.
After thinking for a long time, I decided to replace the headlight assembly directly. This has the advantage that if I am still not satisfied after replacing the headlight assembly, I still have the opportunity to change it back.
Xiushan headlights are purchased online. Generally, sellers provide xenon lamps with a color temperature of 6000K. I asked the seller to help me change them to 4300K. Because we drive long distances, 4300K is more visually comfortable.
I continued to get Yunliang to replace the lights. After replacing the assembly, I was very satisfied. Because with the lens, there was a tangent line when the lights came out. Before, the lights of the original car would be a little scattered.
The left headlight is original and the right one is modified.
The 4300K xenon lamp looks much brighter than the original car, and is still visually comfortable. In this way, my car has three light sources at the same time, xenon halogen and LED. You usually turn on xenon lamps in the city. If you encounter foggy weather or when there is no car in the wild, you can turn on PIAA halogen lamps. Halogen lamps have strong penetrating power in foggy weather. When driving in the wild when there is no fog, the yellow light source is also comfortable. When encountering a very bright truck light in complex road conditions, you can flash the LED twice to ask him to turn off the light. Again, this kind of light cannot be turned on normally. Even if the truck light is too bright in complicated road conditions, it can be turned off. Try not to open it.
I’m planning to travel around China recently and I’m short on time. So I’m going to write so much about vehicle lighting. The above is just my personal opinion on lighting. If there are any mistakes, please point them out.
Finally, I was lucky enough to attend the premiere of "Our Couple", where I met my idols Brother Xinyu and Sister Liang Hong, and took a photo with their Xiaobai.
