Lighting for deer avoidance

O

Oldtom

Joined
Jul 5, 2014
Messages
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Location
Ceciltucky
Good Morning - I work the night shift and drive home on windy country roads at midnight. I have had a few close calls with deer and want to avoid an accident. I thought about installing a cheap light bar on the front bumper relayed to work off the high beams. I wanted to leave the existing headlights stock to avoid bothering any oncoming driver. My county has a lot of jacked up pickups with cornea burning driving lights. I dont want to be that guy. I just want extra lighting mostly on the side of the road so I can see a deer early and slow down. The light bar will only be used when there are no other cars in sight. Speeds are no more than 35 MPH.

The vehicle is a 2003 Dodge Caravan. Does this sound like a viable plan? Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
yes and no, I'm not sure about a flood lights range. It will mostly light up the road right in front of you, contracting your pupils more (especially with the "daylight" current leds give off).

In any event, part of how I rate headlights is by how wide they throw light, and I derate them for how much they light up the road just infront of the car. So I think you have the right idea, but maybe not the right execution. All you can realistically expect, is to get a reflection of the pupils until you get really close, so don't blind yourself for that small source.
 
Deer whistle works and helps.

I live in the city south of Los Angeles and have a deer whistle mounted on my car! It works wonders for the Wanders and homeless druggies that wander in the streets.
 
Rigid D-Series (DOT) fog lights are especially good. They have a very sharp cutoff, and a super wide beam. There is a reason they get nothing but 5 star reviews!

I did my research when purchasing them. My wife kept running into garbage cans that were just barely in the neighborhood street. Problem solved.

I simply wired them to the parking lights. So they are always on when headlights are on.

This setup:
Beamtech's best LED headlight bulb. (they are epic good, and don't blind oncoming drivers)
PIAA 80W conventional spot lights for distance
Rigid D-Series Fogs for beam width. (and yes alone they are good enough to drive behind)

Link to lights https://www.amazon.com/Rigid-Indust...xt&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A3FT3NRVQ52555&gQT=1


zSLy0a1.jpg
 
A pic I found online of 'just the fogs'. This is the D-Series Fog pattern. Not really the best picture. The beam is wider than that, this guys bumper probably interferes. You can see the beam width in my picture above.
A1XxyO1fcLL.jpg
 
Cujet said:
A pic I found online of 'just the fogs'. This is the D-Series Fog pattern. Not really the best picture. The beam is wider than that, this guys bumper probably interferes. You can see the beam width in my picture above.
A1XxyO1fcLL.jpg
Click to expand...

I think he has them aimed too high which makes the beam look less wide. they sure shouldn't light up that sign the way they do, that's blinding to other drivers.
 
Yeah light bars are dumb. Get a pair of fog lights then splay them somewhat outboard of straight.
 
It’s not “cheap”, but it’s what I use in a very similar way to what you’re wanting. I have an 18” Diode Dynamics “Combo” light bar on my truck… I think it with the relay wiring harness is ~$300. Mine is wired to the included switch to a hole I drilled into my dash… but you don’t have to do that.

2nd pic is no headlights at all. It has decent width and length… better than my low and high beams combined lol… and has paid for itself spotting deer I otherwise wouldn’t have seen.

I basically treat it as a high powered high beam… and shut it off well before the minimum 500ft in my state and at intersections…. And I turn it off to avoid blasting light into peoples houses.
IMG_6325.webp
IMG_4515.webp
 
mikeduf said:
Deer whistle works and helps.

I live in the city south of Los Angeles and have a deer whistle mounted on my car! It works wonders for the Wanders and homeless druggies that wander in the streets.
Click to expand...
Interesting story about the deer whistles.

I used to work at a rocket motor plant that, because of the nature of the business, was out in the Utah desert, so it was a 20 - 45 minute commute for almost all employees. Deer hits were very common on the commute to work. The company made a huge wholesale purchase of deer whistles, and offered them to the employees at cost. A lot of the employees bought them, and mounted them on their cars.

Being a business that was based upon science and engineering, the engineers kept track of reported deer hits from the commutes to work. As expected, there was a definite shift in the data, from before the deer whistles were distributed, and after. But the shift was not what was expected. The number of deer hits went up! A lot.

Now the study shifted into high gear. What was found is that the deer, already on the road, were as expected, startled by the sound of the deer whistle. But instead of immediately running away after hearing the whistle, the deer momentarily froze before running off of the road. Thus more deer where hit with the whistles than before.

So no, don't use deer whistles as a deterrent to deer hits.
 
Last edited:
Jetronic said:
I think he has them aimed too high which makes the beam look less wide. they sure shouldn't light up that sign the way they do, that's blinding to other drivers.
Click to expand...
Yes that's way too high. They are best when aimed forward about 100 feet. If I were to guess, I'd say he was simply showing how much lighting power they have.
 
BHopkins said:
So no, don't use deer whistles as a deterrent to deer hits.
Click to expand...
Years ago I was having a friendly roadside chat with a CHP officer in Northern California. I noticed he had deer whistles on his car and inquired as to his perceived effectiveness. He said that they had put them on half of their cars and that the ones with the whistles hit just as many deer as those without them.

Ed
 
BHopkins said:
Interesting story about the deer whistles.

I used to work at a rocket motor plant that, because of the nature of the business, was out in the Utah desert, so it was a 20 - 45 minute commute for almost all employees. Deer hits were very common on the commute to work. The company made a huge wholesale purchase of deer whistles, and offered them to the employees at cost. A lot of the employees bought them, and mounted them on their cars.

Being a business that was based upon science and engineering, the engineers kept track of reported deer hits from the commutes to work. As expected, there was a definite shift in the data, from before the deer whistles were distributed, and after. But the shift was not what was expected. The number of deer hits went up! A lot.

Now the study shifted into high gear. What was found is that the deer, already on the road, were as expected, startled by the sound of the deer whistle. But instead of immediately running away after hearing the whistle, the deer momentarily froze before running off of the road. Thus more deer where hit with the whistles than before.

So no, don't use deer whistles as a deterrent to deer hits.
Click to expand...
It’s funny you mention this because as an auto damage appraiser, we used to joke with the body techs that these little whistles actually attracted deer.

We’d have deer hits all the time on vehicles with whistles installed, some customers even wanted them replaced lol.

I have one theory or idea that is and possibly having infrared flashing lights, maybe mounted closely to each other to mimic a predator’s eyes. Having a vehicle with these lights flashing from a very far distance would be seen by the dear and hopefully cause them to react much earlier than in front of your vehicle.

It would be a complicated theory to test as I can imagine. There would have to be a lot of thermal imaging or infrared video recorded to see how these animals interact from a distance.
 
Deer exist to convert tree bark into something tasty for smarter animals.

Wife had one ram the gas filler door on her stopped Saturn. Why, we'll never know. Left hair behind, but no dents.
 
I had a pair of spots … I think they were a hella driving light but it reality it was a spot … and it was eye-opening what they could do. I didn’t need much and tinted them amber to tone them down, but they could penetrate far and low. By the time people were closer they were above the intensity of the beam. They did not spread out much or flood the road - they shot shot out far.

https://a.co/d/i5WPQVO

I’d start with these for country road driving. They may be a little hot for oncoming traffic if you leave them clear and horizontal. With high beams, they would be very effective.
 
@Oldtom - Link to another post where I put my fogs on 4 vehicles https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/tell-me-about-fog-lights.388867/post-7061202.

You could get the Diode Dynamics or Morimoto in white also. I prefer yellow for the inclement weather. Actual use at this point as easy and great pattern the Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport are excellent and what I would recommend. They make then in 2 steps brighter (Pro and Max) also. The converted Hella DE's were more work and I need new ones as reflectors etc are old (many years like over 10) and beat some.

Does the Caravan have fogs now? Replacing the whole assembly not just the bulb might fit right there. How are the headlights? If any haze/yellowing that will hurt a lot. They need to be totally clear and polished or replaced so they are.

If it does matter where you are many LED fogs do not get hot enough to melt snow or ice making them useless in wet snow at night. Same goes for LED headlights. I have had to pull over with my '19 Pilot on side of snowy highway to clear them making multiple safety hazards.
 
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