Minimum Mounting Height for DRL?

SubLGT

Flashlight Enthusiast
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Nov 18, 2013
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Idaho, USA
What is the minimum legal mounting height (in the USA) for an (aftermarket LED) DRL lamp?

Looking through Standard No.108 all I found was a specification for maximum height: 1.067 meter.

S7.10 Daytime running lamps (DRLs).

S7.10.1 Number. See Table I-a.

S7.10.2 Color of light. See Table I-a.

S7.10.3 Mounting location. See Table I-a.

S7.10.4 Mounting height. See Table I-a. and S7.10.13(b)............

Not more than 1.067 meters above the road surface if not a pair of lamps required by this standard or if not optically combined with a pair of lamps required by this standard
See S7.10.13(b) for additional height limitation.............

S7.10.13 Photometry. Each DRL must have a luminous intensity not less than 500 cd at test point H-V, nor more than 3,000 cd at any location in the beam when tested according to the procedure of S14.2.4 as specified by this section, unless it is:

(b) An upper beam headlamp intended to operate as a DRL, whose luminous intensity at test point H-V is not more than 7,000 cd, and whose mounting height is not higher than 864 mm.

reference: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.108
 
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-Virgil-

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Mar 26, 2004
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7,802
Thanks Virgil. That rules out replacing my fog lamps (12" off the ground) with round DRLs

Not really, no. SAE technical standards do not carry any force of law. They're recommended practices. The ECE (rest of the world) specification is at least 250mm off the ground, and as there is no US regulation on the subject, plenty of cars in the US have DRLs mounted lower than the SAE recommendation.

I am now looking at low profile DRLs, such as this Hella kit:
https://www.tirerack.com/lighting/detail.jsp?ID=1144&brand=Hella

If you get those, be sure to match up the angle they'll be installed at with the angle specified in the kit. That's the 15-degree kit; there's also a 30-degree kit and some zero-degree (straight ahead) kits.

Are there better lamps from Osram, or Philips, or other, that I should be looking at?

The Hella units you pointed at are quite good. You could also skip adding new lamps altogether and do this instead.
 
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