[Longboardr]

Sometimes I've got a question and there's no handy place to ask it...

I've been wondering about this for a while... Why do the P4X guys care that the roof lights only come on with the high beams on? What situation do they get into that they want low beams and roof lights on instead of high beams?

 

[Labbie]

I want to be able to have just the roof lights on, so anyone seeing me from the front will think I'm really tall.

 

[NOAHVT]

Sometimes I've got a question and there's no handy place to ask it...

I've been wondering about this for a while... Why do the P4X guys care that the roof lights only come on with the high beams on? What situation do they get into that they want low beams and roof lights on instead of high beams?

I am not sure. It is probably because if you shouldn't have your high beams on, IE oncoming traffic, you shouldn't have your roof lights on. You know there would be people that just leave them on all the time, because they are dumb.

 

[Longboardr]

I get why Nissan wired the roof lights like they did, there's always that idiot blinding others and seldom a cop around to bust him. I just wonder why you'd want to run anything other than high beams along with your roof lights.

 

[sheffner4]

The problem is your fog lights will not come on and the beam is only at a distance and the up close beam is not good.

 

[Longboardr]

The problem is your fog lights will not come on and the beam is only at a distance and the up close beam is not good.

Now that makes sense, thanks.

Along the same lines I need to get around to the fog light mod where you can run the fog lights without the headlights on. When we get dense fog I'd much prefer the low beams aren't bouncing off the fog back into my eyes. As a plus I'd like to be able to leave the fog lights on all the time like daylight running lights and have them turn off with the key without having to touch the stalk ?

 

[Lowcountry idn]

Now that makes sense, thanks.

Along the same lines I need to get around to the fog light mod where you can run the fog lights without the headlights on. When we get dense fog I'd much prefer the low beams aren't bouncing off the fog back into my eyes. As a plus I'd like to be able to leave the fog lights on all the time like daylight running lights and have them turn off with the key without having to touch the stalk ?

Much better in heavy snow also. running with high beams with heavy thick snowflakes will quickly drive you nuts.

 

[RikRong]

Sometimes I've got a question and there's no handy place to ask it...

I've been wondering about this for a while... Why do the P4X guys care that the roof lights only come on with the high beams on? What situation do they get into that they want low beams and roof lights on instead of high beams?

This is annoying because they won't stay on when we dim our high beams or turn off the headlights. I've been in situations where I've wanted to illuminate the side of the hill, but had no need for light immediately in front of me.

Now, why are non-P4X jealous of our boobs? >

 

[CThoreal]

This is annoying because they won't stay on when we dim our high beams or turn off the headlights. I've been in situations where I've wanted to illuminate the side of the hill, but had no need for light immediately in front of me.

Now, why are non-P4X jealous of our boobs? >

This was one of the reasons I had a 2nd set of fog light mounts put in my front bumper. I now have the stock fogs that are only on with low beams, and another set that I can flick on at any time needed. I currently have amber floods so they illuminate the shoulder / side hill and directly in front pretty well. Also they are functional in snow and fog on the road, where I cannot use my big lights without burning the retinas out of oncoming drivers.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

I've been waiting for this thread. I believe I can contribute.

Why is it that my front wheels never looked "stuffed"? They had room to move up in the wheel well.
I had extended rads at 650# with 1" spacer on top. Was it the spacer itself? Is the spring rate too high and can it limit full uptravel?

Could never get the front wheel more stuffed than this:

 

[LBX]

As others have stated, it sucks when you want to have the fogs on to light up the lower area in front of you but can't have them on when the Boobs are on. I have mounted a 21" LED light bar in the grill mouth to help combat the issue of needing to light up the immediate area in front of the rig, while maintaining the use and spread of the Boob lights further down the trail.

 

[RikRong]

I've been waiting for this thread. I believe I can contribute.

Why is it that my front wheels never looked "stuffed"? They had room to move up in the wheel well.
I had extended rads at 650# with 1" spacer on top. Was it the spacer itself? Is the spring rate too high and can it limit full uptravel?

Could never get the front wheel more stuffed than this:

It's probably your spacer. Also, you might be hitting the bumpstop.

 

[IM1RU]

Could never get the front wheel more stuffed than this:

You just haven't jumped it high enough.:wink:

 

[Surf and Snow]

Bumpstop or do you have the front sway bar on. That will cause it too.

 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Swaybar was off

Are you talking about the LCA bumpstop?

So how are people getting this kind of stuffing? It must be the spacer... either that or the rock in my pic wasn't a good place to try to get full stuff

 

[RikRong]

Swaybar was off

Are you talking about the LCA bumpstop?

So how are people getting this kind of stuffing? It must be the spacer... either that or the rock in my pic wasn't a good place to try to get full stuff

Yes, the LCA bumpstop. The spacer also affectively removes 1" of "compressible" suspension.

This is about as stuffed as my fronts go. I'm hitting the bump stops. You're doing better than me. I purposely have that much bump stop in there because I have about only 3" of uptravel left in the struts right now. I'm going to either get the custom top hats made or just keep it this way for a while and throw in some legitimate TS coilovers. You can see the compressed bumpstop in the attached picture. I do plan on trimming about 3/8" to 1/2" off the stops, to allow for more uptravel, but still allowing them to avoid topping out the struts.

 

[CThoreal]

I've been waiting for this thread. I believe I can contribute.

Why is it that my front wheels never looked "stuffed"? They had room to move up in the wheel well.
I had extended rads at 650# with 1" spacer on top. Was it the spacer itself? Is the spring rate too high and can it limit full uptravel?

Could never get the front wheel more stuffed than this:

I get the same thing on mine. Same front setup. Heres my conclusion. While speaking with Greg at PRG one time about spring rate he brought up a good point. The biggest concern with spring rate is balancing it with front and rear. He stated that a stock exterra (unloaded without heavy gear or armor) is fairly well balanced weight wise form rear axle to front axle. I dont really have evidence of this beyond his words.

Anyways, assuming the weight is evenly dispersed between the axle, then having equal spring rates front and rear would result in balanced articulation. having a slightly stiffer spring rate in front forces the rear to react more in nearly every scenario. Now I personally see this only being true if the front and rear suspension design is identical i.e. multi-link solid axles front and rear on coils (damn jeeps). I feel the characteristics of a independent suspension makes them less flexy(articulate) compared to leaf springs. So the rear is simply gonna flex more than the front. We could probably beef the hell out of the rear springs and force the front to flex more but I bet the resulting ride and handling would probably be horrendous and even unsafe. Physics wants the front wheels planted and let the rears move around. Imagine those video of trohpy trucks blitzing 3'whoops at 100+mph. The rear axle is dancing like mad but the front end looks a little more controlled and planted.

The spacer only moves the range of motion downward and away from the fender. So i dont think that has any real affect on the front ends resistance to bottom the coil over all the way. I feel its the spring rate difference from front to rear, and the weight distribution that causes this.

If Im way off base here, someone set me straight.

 

[CThoreal]

wow a lot of other posts came through wile i was writing that. I know on mine the front stops just short of the bump stop. I chalk this up to the fact Im still on stock leafs with dual AAL and they are softer throughout their range of motion, compared to say a set of Alcans.

 

[Sznurek]

My dumb question> Why hasn't Bushwacker, or any other company, mass produced fender flares for the X?

 

[zach_attack]

Anyways, assuming the weight is evenly dispersed between the axle, then having equal spring rates front and rear would result in balanced articulation. having a slightly stiffer spring rate in front forces the rear to react more in nearly every scenario. Now I personally see this only being true if the front and rear suspension design is identical i.e. multi-link solid axles front and rear on coils (damn jeeps). I feel the characteristics of a independent suspension makes them less flexy(articulate) compared to leaf springs. So the rear is simply gonna flex more than the front. We could probably beef the hell out of the rear springs and force the front to flex more but I bet the resulting ride and handling would probably be horrendous and even unsafe. Physics wants the front wheels planted and let the rears move around. Imagine those video of trohpy trucks blitzing 3'whoops at 100+mph. The rear axle is dancing like mad but the front end looks a little more controlled and planted.

The spacer only moves the range of motion downward and away from the fender. So i dont think that has any real affect on the front ends resistance to bottom the coil over all the way. I feel its the spring rate difference from front to rear, and the weight distribution that causes this.

To add on a little bit to your description...

On-road vehicles are designed with different stiffness of suspension for the sole purpose of deadening resonant frequencies. IF the front and the rear suspension had the same spring constant, we would go over bumps and the front and back would bounce in resonance (front raises while rear squats and vice versa). In today's vehicles, the front is designed with a significantly stiffer spring rate than the rear so that when we hit a bump there is destructive interference and the sinusoidal wave is quickly killed.

An example to the contrary of this mindset is an older bronco which everyone always complained was bouncy. The spring constant of the front and the rear was too similar and you would hit a bump and the truck would continue into a resonant frequency that took a long time to start. It often was so bad the just going down a straight, flat highway was enough to have you rocking back and forth.