Clear or Black Lights

bknighton1 · May 8, 2008

I've seen a bunch of ranger with clear corner lights and clear tail lights but has anyone seen a ranger with blackout headlights,cornerlights,and taillights. If so how do they look or do you think i should stick with the clear??

KELLY88 · May 8, 2008

bknighton1 said:
I've seen a bunch of ranger with clear corner lights and clear tail lights but has anyone seen a ranger with blackout headlights,cornerlights,and taillights. If so how do they look or do you think i should stick with the clear??

I'd stick with clear. Blackouts are alright, although I'm pretty sure they're illegal in most states. Not really worth getting pulled over.

exbass94 · May 8, 2008

Clears are also technically illegal, unless they have some sort of orange reflector in them, and you use yellow bulbs in them.

bknighton1 · May 9, 2008

yeah that's what i would worried about, around here the cop will get you for anything! so ill just stick with the clear!

UrbanRedneckKid · May 19, 2008

My lights are DOT approved. Not Black-outs, but they're black. Actually found them on EBAY of all places, they have them for all generations (except gen2)

mhughes165 · May 19, 2008

personally those kinds of lights will never see a truck of mine, i feel they belong on ricers, and id rather just smoke my lenses the old fashioned was instead of puttin the euro lenses on them, get the clear lenses, and just run the amber bulbs in them, its what ive done in the past

85_Ranger4x4 · May 19, 2008

KELLY88 said:
I'd stick with clear. Blackouts are alright, although I'm pretty sure they're illegal in most states. Not really worth getting pulled over.

Or rear ended over.

That is one of those laws that wasn't made just because the lawmakers were bored that day, some of them make it difficult to see what the light is doing which kind of makes the whole tail light thing pointless.

KELLY88 · May 19, 2008

85_Ranger4x4 said:
Or rear ended over.

That is one of those laws that wasn't made just because the lawmakers were bored that day, some of them make it difficult to see what the light is doing which kind of makes the whole tail light thing pointless.

Good point on the rear ended. I know they're illegal cause they defeat the purpose of headlights/taillights. I looked at some of those online a while back, said it was for off-road use only. Doesn't make sense cause during the day the lights probably won't be on. At night you'd definitely want the lights off road. I doubt they offer much protection from hazards either. Guess they just seem more like something for show in a parking lot or driveway.

85_Ranger4x4 · May 19, 2008

KELLY88 said:
Good point on the rear ended. I know they're illegal cause they defeat the purpose of headlights/taillights. I looked at some of those online a while back, said it was for off-road use only. Doesn't make sense cause during the day the lights probably won't be on. At night you'd definitely want the lights off road. I doubt they offer much protection from hazards either. Guess they just seem more like something for show in a parking lot or driveway.

Some of them are hard to see even in the daytime. I could care less about the headlights at night as they have enough power I can still see them coming, but signals and brakelights don't take much to drown out.

V8 Level II · May 20, 2008

bknighton1 said:
...has anyone seen a ranger with blackout headlights,cornerlights,and taillights.

On my truck, I have the background (not the reflectors) of the 01+ headlights painted black. This does not affect the headlight or turn signal output at all. Headlight Mod How-to.

My 06+ corner markers have the entire reflector blacked out - this is probably illegal but they still work acceptably well for my purposes. The factory 06+ corners have an amber DOT reflector panel that the aftermarket clears and blacks do not.

Personally, I would never black out or otherwise compromise the brake/tail lights.

85_Ranger4x4 · May 20, 2008

rwenzing said:
On my truck, I have the background (not the reflectors) of the 01+ headlights painted black. This does not affect the headlight or turn signal output at all. Headlight Mod How-to.[/IMG]

That looks really good, it is mainly the black snap on covers I have beef with.

92MiniMonster · May 20, 2008

On my 92 i just smoked the corners and the turn signals, that was over 3 years ago, they still look good, and i havnt been pulled over yet. I didnt smoke the headlights, you would think that looks tacky, but its really not, the black bumper i have on there is a nice accent. Ill try to post some pics, not really sure how to. im sure your truck is newer, but a couple of pictures never hurt. I used some spray can called Nite Shades, i got it from a 4x4 store.

bknighton1 · May 22, 2008

i really just want to get rid of the orange corner lights and replace them with clear, if any one has clear corner lights that would be great i was just going to keep the stockhead lights athen replace the corner lights with clear lights and amber bulbs!

sarasota · May 22, 2008

rwenzing said:
On my truck, I have the background (not the reflectors) of the 01+ headlights painted black. This does not affect the headlight or turn signal output at all. Headlight Mod How-to.

My 06+ corner markers have the entire reflector blacked out - this is probably illegal but they still work acceptably well for my purposes. The factory 06+ corners have an amber DOT reflector panel that the aftermarket clears and blacks do not.

Personally, I would never black out or otherwise compromise the brake/tail lights.

how much work was it to paint those? that looks siiick and i want to do it

92MiniMonster · May 23, 2008

honestly though if your going to replace just the corners, i would seriously look into reaplcing the headlights also, even though your truck is an 01, youd be surprised at the difference in clarity. I put clear corners on my 04 explorer, thinking that the headlights were perfect, and the corners still put them to shame. Just something to think about, i know were all trying to stay cheap here, but in the end, it still comes down to quality.

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