LTD Cornering Lights - driving lights - always on or not?

[sheridat]

Hello everyone,

Can I solicit some opinions?

I am just about to reconnect my LTD lower fairings and hence cornering lights>

As far as I can figure out these things only light up when you use the turn signal switch and they only light up for the corresponding right or left switch position to illuminate the corner you are turning into. That all seems very sensible.

There seems to be a thread of thought that rather than use the lights this way an alternative is to have both lights on at the same time s the headlight - i.e. always to acts as quasi driving lights or just to make yourself more visible all the time..

Is there a downside to having them on all the time?

[firstwing85]

I have the same bike and I love the cornering lights,
I do have some extra driving lights on Vanna as well and I would not change the cornering lights but I would recommend adding extra driving lights.
here is a picture of the front end of my bike..
[attachment=1]

[ghostrider52005]

I havent done this with my LTD mainly because of two things. One the cornering lights shine out to the side quite a bit so I didnt see much extra visibility on my part being accomplished as far as using them as driving lights. Second I dont know how well the bulbs would hold up being on all the time vs only when the signal is used. :-\

Im sure someone here has done this and can speak to it better than I can though. :d

[neoracer]

changing the cornering lights to fulltime is possible but as foglights perse they are worthless,they would be useful as daytime running lights though

years ago markland made a conversion kit which can convert them to either driving lights or amber foglights,they are still available in limited supply last time i checked
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.touringcycleaccessories.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=653&zenid=9ffbd16a49525f62f687f6c13fa5a622">http://www.touringcycleaccessories.com/ ... c13fa5a622</a><!-- m --> or <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.touringcycleaccessories.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=652&zenid=9ffbd16a49525f62f687f6c13fa5a622">http://www.touringcycleaccessories.com/ ... c13fa5a622</a><!-- m --> have spare lenses i can change back to driving if i wanted

i use them with amber fogs and have another set of driving lights like you have mounted

[Granpah]

Hello everyone,

Can I solicit some opinions?

I am just about to reconnect my LTD lower fairings and hence cornering lights>

Is there a downside to having them on all the time?

LTD Cornering Lights PARTY CRASHER :YMALIEN:

Some time ago, I bought and modified an LTD fairing lower for attaching it to my '85 Interstate SPECIFICALLY because it has cornering lights. Then I replaced what ever is in there with moderate intensity 35 watt H3 bulbs, and wired both of the resulting lights to an independent circuit through a toggle switch mounted on the left panel. I turn them on during dark days, nights or whenever. I made this fairing change specifically for the "travel lights". I believe the extra lights provide increased visibility of my bike for oncoming motorists.

So far, with using the "travel lights" about 50% of the time, the 35 watt H3 bulbs have held up for over two years.

[ghostrider52005]

See i knew someone that knew more than me would chime in. Thats what great about this place. :d

[nascarnuts27]

The previous owner(s) of my LTD had wired them to a small toggle switch on the fairing by the left pocket so you could turn them off/on together. I have found that they do add some nice light for slow speed turns and illuminate the road shoulder for dark highways. After almost getting hit by deer 3 times in one night in rural Montana (closest I've every come to wrecking!) I attached some inexpensive 55 watt halogen driving lights to the front crash bars that have a fairly wide spread beam. Now I have plenty of light however if I turn them all on the voltage slowly drops from it's usual 14 to 12.7 or so, so I use the cornering lights only if needed as I'm a little concerned about frying the fragile stator. Also the halogen lights make the bike much more visible than the cornering lights to oncoming traffic.

[neoracer]

have an SEI and run HID headlight and two 55W driving or foglights fulltime,sounds like the stator,regulator and solenoid connectors need to be hardwired,
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also disconnect and clean C1,C2,C3 that come off the fusebox

before starting anything,cut and check the stator output,could be that the stator output is low,not a big concern since the poorboy mod can be done on the LTD/SEI also

have been running the hardwired system for over three years with no problems

[fysty-1]

Mine are wired to a switch so they come on only when the switch is turned on. I like them as DDL as mentioned above but @ night they don't shine very far but do a great job of lighting up the shoulder of the road. The downside you asked abought is that with higher wattage bulbs & being on fulltime could cause a strain on your Stator. It is for this reason that most of us have converted to an external altenator.

[neoracer]

the ltd since it has a larger stator is well capable of running the cornering lights fulltime,i run two 55w driving lights fulltime and haven't had any problem in three years,one fact is you should make sure is that the stator,regulator and solenoid connectors are hardwired though