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Elio Lighting (head, Tail, Brake, Signal, Fog, Auxiliary, Blinking,etc...)

Would you choose optional lighting on your Elio? (choose all that apply)

  • Yes, I want a "third" or higher brake light.

    Votes: 17 39.5%
  • Yes, I want marker lights on the front wheels.

    Votes: 32 74.4%
  • Yes, I want signal lights on the front wheels.

    Votes: 27 62.8%
  • Yes, I want headlights, fog lights or similar on the front wheels.

    Votes: 10 23.3%
  • No, I do not want any additional lighting.

    Votes: 7 16.3%

  • Total voters
    43

carzes

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Lil4X, those lights are almost identical to the ones fitted to my car. If all else fails, something like that could no doubt be added to an Elio - but wouldn't it be great if the factory could incorporate the European lighting standards from the outset? I'm sure many folks this side of the Atlantic would like to be in the Elio marketplace, too.
wouldn't it be great if they could incorporate the light standards of EVERY country from the outset? Except that many of those are outright contradictory to each other. One country REQUIRES amber fog lamps, others like many US states BAN them outright. Parking lights, rear fog lamps, etc, etc, etc.... you can't please every govt. agency on the planet except by giving them piles of money. I will be shocked if they can sell the same vehicle in every state of the US without some kind of regional regulation messing with the works somewhere. And it's not going to help that every useless paper-pushing beaurocrat on the planet perches their Napoleanic complex at the pinnacle of a motor-vehicle regulations mountain that rivals Mt. Everest, much of which is contradictory to itself, so I certainly wouldn't expect compatability with the neighbor's paper mountain.
And that only touches on LIGHTING issues! Can you imagine trying to get ALL the mechanical systems legal on more than one continent?
There is a reason they make export and domestic varients of vehicles.
 

carzes

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Just to throw it into the discussion, you can't just go sticking headlights out the sides of the body or fenders, or even surface-mount them without having an impact on aerodynamics. Remember aerodynamics? It's an important part of the 80+ mpg target.
Before anyone answers, YES, I know, you're willing to sacrifice a few mpg cause it's "SAFETY".......
 

saint451

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Once there was this big rig driver carrying a load of new automobiles and driving down a country road at night. All of a sudden his main headlights went out. So he stopped and checked it out and could not get them fixed. So he look up and decided that the front car on top of the trailer would be able to shine on the road and give him light. He turned them on and all was good, continued down the road.
An approaching car started swerving and as he got closer the car drove off the road into the ditch. He stopped and went to give assistance and saw a man get out, shaken but okay.
The truck driver asked, "Why did you drive off the road into the ditch?"
The driver of the car said "When I saw your headlights coming towards me, I figured if you are as wide as you are tall, I better give you plenty of road!"

So watch out where the headlight are!!! The Elio has lights a lot like the Dodge Prowler.
 

Mark Ambrose

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I was thinking about Elio's headlights this morning, and had an idea. Is this workable?

My thought is to design headlights aerodynamically into the top of outboard wheel fenders. That would space them to fairly average width, giving perspective to oncoming traffic at night, and would also help avoid opposite traffic from accidentally clipping an Elio wheel since it's so far outward from the current headlight placement. Plus, if the headlights were incorporated into the tops of fenders, an LED could be housed in the back of the light, to give the Elio driver an indication of position to aid in parking, to help avoid scuffing wheels or fenders.

Good idea, or bad?

My question is would it be legal? Since the Elio is technically a motorcycle I would think there would be much less stringent rules to follow. On the other hand how would you route the electrical bundle to the lights on top of the fenders? You would have to have enough extra wire to allow for lock-to-lock turning. I'm looking forward to seeing all the Elio mods in the future. Hey...someone should start an Elio gathering event a year after the first vehicle is sold. I'd drive a long way to attend that!
 

Elio Amazed

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Install one 2" (three wire) reflector with a clear lens and amber LEDs in the front on each fender...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Round-Re...Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a33f30a09&vxp=mtr
... and one toward the outside of the back of each fender.

Install one 2" (three wire) reflector with a clear lens and red LEDs right beside it toward the inside of the back of each fender.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Round-Re...Parts_Accessories&hash=item27d237cb67&vxp=mtr

Wire the front "amber" lights for running/turn.
Wire the rear "amber" lights for turn only.
Wire the rear "red" lights for running/brake.

Here are your choices for chrome bezels that will make those lights look like a million...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111395386299?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1454wt_1362
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110955584375?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1498wt_1362
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400323975589?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1549wt_1362
http://www.ebay.com/itm/140855624718?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1556wt_1362
http://www.ebay.com/itm/14085562475...2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1677wt_1362

Again, stainless braided hose is the perfect protective flexible solution to running the wires to the wheels.

I intend on taking advantage of look that EM is giving us and making my ride as tastefully "hot roddish" as I can without spending a lot of money.
 
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outsydthebox

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Install one 2" (three wire) reflector with a clear lens and amber LEDs in the front on each fender...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Round-Re...Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a33f30a09&vxp=mtr
... and one toward the outside of the back of each fender.

Install one 2" (three wire) reflector with a clear lens and red LEDs right beside it toward the inside of the back of each fender.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Round-Re...Parts_Accessories&hash=item27d237cb67&vxp=mtr

Wire the front "amber" lights for running/turn.
Wire the rear "amber" lights for turn only.
Wire the rear "red" lights for running/brake.

Here are your choices for chrome bezels that will make those lights look like a million...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111395386299?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1454wt_1362
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110955584375?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1498wt_1362
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400323975589?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1549wt_1362
http://www.ebay.com/itm/140855624718?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1556wt_1362
http://www.ebay.com/itm/14085562475...2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT#ht_1677wt_1362

Again, stainless braided hose is the perfect protective flexible solution to running the wires to the wheels.

I intend on taking advantage of look that EM is giving us and making my ride as tastefully "hot roddish" as I can without spending a lot of money.

Those all look pretty bulky. I would probably use something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1999-2010-F...:F-350+Super+Duty&hash=item5401158dd0&vxp=mtr
 

Elio Amazed

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Those all look pretty bulky.
Not really. The lights have the same 2&3/8" diameter as a standard reflector and with the bezels, the whole thing is only 3&1/4" in diameter.
All but one of those bezels are plastic. The lights weigh so little, I'm pretty sure I'll be putting less than a pound of weight on per fender.

I also plan on putting a 1&3/8" x 3&1/2" brake light where the roof meets the trunk lid.

Those do look good for discrete reflective marker lights though.
 
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