Trucks Of The Month
|
BY
Jon O'Data
The
Ranger, like many late-model vehicles, has factory installed fog lights.
While the purpose of a fog light should not be confused with a
driving light, I had a hard time even telling if they were on or not.
Since I’m on the road a lot in all sorts of Pennsylvania
weather in my 2002 Ranger, I set about finding a suitable upgrade.
Without
getting into the trial-and-error of finding a better light bulb
that fit, I finally found a replacement at J.C. Whitney.
The stock 9145 bulb is shielded like a regular low-beam
bulb but uses a high-beam type plug and is rated at 42 watts.
The bulb I found at J.C. Whitney for $9.99 is a 9005
all-weather high-beam replacement bulb, their part number is
07UF6049U, and is rated at 65 watts.
(DCP_0008.jpg) It also casts a somewhat yellow light like the
conventional aftermarket foglights that we’re used to seeing,
and is not shielded like the stock light. |
|
The
stock lights come out with a quarter-turn, and then you can easily
remove the plug. I
did learn that the new bulbs don’t seal quite as well but a thin
bead of clear silicone around the base will fix it. (DCP_0004.jpg) |
|
The
ears, or bayonets for you camera buffs, are pretty much the same
for both, however in this photo you can see that the one at 7
o’clock is a little bit lower on the J.C. Whitney bulb on the
right. This is nothing that can’t be overcome on installation
with some wiggling into the housing. |
|
Here
is a photo with one of the all-weather bulbs installed on the
driver’s side of my Ranger. My
only other recommendation if you do this mod is to not drive
around with the foglights on all the time like a lot of people
seem to do, because these are much brighter and could bother other
drivers. I save them
for actual fog and other bad weather. ~TRS |
|
|