Gatekeeper steering knuckle light brackets

thecritter · Nov 19, 2023

zouch said:
maybe it's just me, but that just seems like a terrible place for lights to live.

they're mounted to an unsprung portion of the suspension, so they're subjected to every tiny bit of shock from road surface irregularities.
they're low enough to the ground to be highly likely to be damaged by flying road debris. (i've caught a lot of stuff off the road on my motorcycle boots, and they're about the same height off the ground.)
they'll be underwater with likely every water crossing.
given the above, what's the life expectancy for a lamp mounted in this location?

unless it's just about a 'look', i'm not sure i see the point of them, anyway; being mounted near the center of the inboard side of the wheel, they're not likely to throw any light out to the outside of where you're steering in a turn, so they wouldn't even serve the same purpose as Ditch Lights.

another consideration is legality; are they legal for on-road use? would have to look up the Code for the state(s) i'd be using them in to see what they minimum height is for lights. (i know in Calif, technically i'd have to have them covered on the road, and that sounds really inconvenient.)

not meaning to spoil anyones fun here, and if it's just about a 'look', all bets are off (no logic applies).
but what's the draw here?

I might catch a rock tomorrow but I have been lucky so far. I have the white Diode Dynamic lights with the Amber lens cover for extra protection. They do have a cool factor but still functional. I had a smaller set of spots and they show the steering of the wheels better but i like the flood Diode Dynamics better. As for legality they are lower than factory led fog lights so hopefully covered under the law. Your commie state lol no telling with their laws.

Javwohl · Nov 20, 2023

I can see the light be in a bad spot and get hit with a lot of stuff, but I also think they provide extra light where a lot of times we don’t get it.

I have the adaptive lighting on my gti and it a really nice feature to have.

Which diode dynamic lights did you use? I purchased the gatekeeper lights that were on sale for 30 figures if they get damage I’m not really out much, but all
Of my aftermarket lights are diode dynamic and would like to keep with them.

thecritter · Nov 20, 2023

Diode Dynamics Stage Series 2in Combo w/Amber Backlight https://a.co/d/3WhU77P

One thing that drove me crazy was the lenses. I ended up taking one apart spun the lens 180 so patterns would match (they are not built to do this). With the lens covers attached looking back it was not necessary to do. I hooked the Amber Backlight to come on with rock lights and used the fog lights to power the light. Bumper mounted fogs are on another switch already. Still going strong since April of 2022.

Javwohl · Nov 20, 2023

thecritter said:
Diode Dynamics Stage Series 2in Combo w/Amber Backlight https://a.co/d/3WhU77P

One thing that drove me crazy was the lenses. I ended up taking one apart spun the lens 180 so patterns would match (they are not built to do this). With the lens covers attached looking back it was not necessary to do. I hooked the Amber Backlight to come on with rock lights and used the fog lights to power the light. Bumper mounted fogs are on another switch already. Still going strong since April of 2022.

Thanks for that I have the ss3 max in white and amber on my bumper and the ss2 in white and amber with the amber backlit on my a piller have the anpiller amber hooked up to turn signals right now and looks cool imo.

I def look into another set of the ss2s

zouch · Nov 20, 2023

well, the family has property in your state too, and an excerpt from the Vehicle Inspection portion of the code for your state says headlight height ""...shall be located at a height of not more than 54 inches nor less than 24 inches to be measured from the center of such lamp to the level ground".

always good to know the law where you go, not just where you're from.

thecritter said:
I might catch a rock tomorrow but I have been lucky so far. I have the white Diode Dynamic lights with the Amber lens cover for extra protection. They do have a cool factor but still functional. I had a smaller set of spots and they show the steering of the wheels better but i like the flood Diode Dynamics better. As for legality they are lower than factory led fog lights so hopefully covered under the law. Your commie state lol no telling with their laws.

Anonymous · Nov 20, 2023

zouch said:
well, the family has property in your state too, and an excerpt from the Vehicle Inspection portion of the code for your state says headlight height ""...shall be located at a height of not more than 54 inches nor less than 24 inches to be measured from the center of such lamp to the level ground".

always good to know the law where you go, not just where you're from.

Do they provide a definition page? What constitutes a headlight? No skin in the game, I was just ?.

Javwohl · Nov 20, 2023

zouch said:
well, the family has property in your state too, and an excerpt from the Vehicle Inspection portion of the code for your state says headlight height ""...shall be located at a height of not more than 54 inches nor less than 24 inches to be measured from the center of such lamp to the level ground".

always good to know the law where you go, not just where you're from.

I know here in Colorado you only allowed 4 lights on at one time, and if one of the light is a light bar there is specific rules for that too, that being said I’ve watch people pass cops with a bunch of lights on and they do nothing and seen cops drive around at night without there lights on also, actually that’s really common here in Denver people just driving with there lights off.

Most the time I feel it comes down to commen sense if your lights are blinding people and cause a bunch of problems there going to leave you alone.

For my personal use these be used in off road situations and bad weather.

richk225 · Nov 20, 2023

As far as the lights being able to turn with the vehicle this is nothing new, from OEM to a huge amount of street bikes having them also. I have a set of ditch lights on a adjustable Carr bracket but with the lower turning lights I am able to get a little bit more of an idea what is around the corner. As far as state or federal rules on lights that would probably take up 200 pages alone.
Running lights down low with a set of lens covers amber/clear or whatever you choose IMO gives you a little of an advantage and there is a lot of other parts that have to be hit before the lights get taken out. And it also depends on what you use your Jeep for
I would imagine that a set of rock lights in the wheel well must take some abuse too

richk225 · Nov 20, 2023

I had sent an email to Gatekeeper asking about using with stock wheels and with or without a lift. Jacob stated depending on what light you are using you may not get the full effect of it
More importantly Jacob mentioned that they may be on sale for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Subscribe and see, I want to mention that I shot the email over yesterday (Sunday) after chatting with fellow forum member Javwohl about getting them and Jacob replied back late yesterday with the information.

thecritter · Nov 20, 2023

zouch said:
well, the family has property in your state too, and an excerpt from the Vehicle Inspection portion of the code for your state says headlight height ""...shall be located at a height of not more than 54 inches nor less than 24 inches to be measured from the center of such lamp to the level ground".

always good to know the law where you go, not just where you're from.

I have run all combination of lights up front from old school daylighters on, tires out past finders etc. I am sure they could find a whole list wrong with any vehicle I am in. Just don't be a D!(k to the cops and you will get the same treatment back.

I believe your quote is referencing what can be considered a headlight. Fogs as long as dot approved could be much lower. I am not the police or a lawyer or play one on TV lol. I believe we are similar to Colorado in the quantity of lights at one time you can use. Too far to drive to California in the Jeep so anything I would be in would be rented. Completely agree ignorance of the law is no defense.

zouch · Nov 20, 2023

Anonymous said:
Do they provide a definition page? What constitutes a headlight? No skin in the game, I was just ?.

i didn't find any definition between a headlight and a fog light or any kind of forward-facing light in the TX code, but i admittedly didn't look very hard; i only really looked at the Inspection requirements.

richk225 said:
As far as the lights being able to turn with the vehicle this is nothing new, from OEM to a huge amount of street bikes having them also. I have a set of ditch lights on a adjustable Carr bracket but with the lower turning lights I am able to get a little bit more of an idea what is around the corner.

i find i'm looking much further inboard into a turn than the front wheels are pointed. and since the wheel is in the way of where i'm looking, i can't see these being much help when i most want them.
in one of my German cars, Adaptive Headlights did an excellent job of keeping the headlights leading where we look in a turn, but they were unreasonably complex, and challenging to keep working properly. to the point, they did light up where i was looking, but were pointing *much* further inboard than the wheels were at any speed.

richk225 said:
As far as state or federal rules on lights that would probably take up 200 pages alone.
Running lights down low with a set of lens covers amber/clear or whatever you choose IMO gives you a little of an advantage and there is a lot of other parts that have to be hit before the lights get taken out.

lots of other parts that catch flying debris aren't going to be damaged when they meet a rock that's still airborne.
there's a lot of stuff flying around just above the road surface on the highway, and meeting it at hwy speed isn't going to be good for something as delicate as a lamp.

richk225 said:
And it also depends on what you use your Jeep for
I would imagine that a set of rock lights in the wheel well must take some abuse too

not sure what rock lights have to do with anything we're talking about, but i don't use those. i guess some people think they look cool to people watching, but since i can't see what they're lighting up from where i am in the drivers seat, they wouldn't do me any good.

thecritter said:
I have run all combination of lights up front from old school daylighters on, tires out past finders etc. I am sure they could find a whole list wrong with any vehicle I am in. Just don't be a D!(k to the cops and you will get the same treatment back.

better yet is to not meet any cop on a business basis in the first place.
but lucky for folks here in TX, cops there generally don't seem to be particularly interested in enforcing safety or the law.

thecritter said:
I believe your quote is referencing what can be considered a headlight. Fogs as long as dot approved could be much lower. I am not the police or a lawyer or play one on TV lol. I believe we are similar to Colorado in the quantity of lights at one time you can use. Too far to drive to California in the Jeep so anything I would be in would be rented. Completely agree ignorance of the law is no defense.

my post referenced what was listed with regard to TX Inspection; there was no distinction there between "headlights" and "Fog Lights" or any other light. i can't claim to have studied up on all lighting definitions for TX lately.
FWIW, last time i check CA code, they also allowed only 4 lights on at a time, and no more than 8 total (even if some were for off-road use only; and those would have to be turned off and covered if not street-legal).
Auxiliary lights were allowed to be between "not less than 16 inches nor more than 42 inches"
Fog Lamps are allowed to be "not less than 12 inches nor more than 30 inches and aimed so that when the vehicle is not loaded none of the high-intensity portion of the light to the left of the center of the vehicle projects higher than a level of four inches below the level of the center of the lamp from which it comes, for a distance of 25 feet in front of the vehicle."
even the aiming of headlamps is pretty particular; i can't imagine many people go to the effort to make sure they're compliant:
"headlamps shall be so aimed that when the vehicle is not loaded none of the high-intensity portion of the light shall at a distance of 25 feet ahead project higher than a level of five inches below the level of the center of the lamp from which it comes, and in no case higher than 42 inches above the level on which the vehicle stands at a distance of 75 feet ahead."