Headlight foot dimmer switch again...

[Charles]

Anybody put the super convenient foot well headlight dimmer switch back into service on a newer truck like a superduty?

I'm headed down that path because I'm tired of taking my hands off the steering wheel in a turn over and over and over and over while my left foot sits and does nothing for hours on end. We used to know how to do this, then we forgot and put it on a knob with a thousand other things, all requiring you to take your hands off the wheel.

Has this already been breached, and if so what parts, what was the easiest way to tie in, so on and so forth?

God knows I like picking my right hand up, grabbing the wheel, removing my left hand from the wheel, pulling the little plastic lever back, putting my left hand back on the wheel, putting my right hand back wherever it was, on the radio, on the shifter, holding something in the seat, leaned up on the seat, and then waiting for all oncoming traffic to pass, putting my right hand BACK on the wheel, taking my left hand BACK off the wheel, grabbing the little plastic lever and shoving it forward AGAIN, putting my left hand BACK on the steering wheel, and then putting my right hand BACK where it was AGAIN..... e v e r y.... s i n g l e...... t i m e......s o m e o n e.....a p p r o a c h e s.....


Meanwhile...... update from the floorboard where we used to know how to dim lights but somehow forgot along the way.....

Left foot...... did not a single thing during all of that. Just sat there in the floor, doing nothing. Could have left my hands alone, doing whatever I wanted to be doing and just went CLICK....... then cars all pass and CLICK we're back again.....

I hate it when we as a society FORGET how to do something we already knew how to do.

Floor mounted dimmer is a human factors engineering A, while the pos plastic thing on the wheel is a D-.

Use the plastic pos for a quick flash but use the floor button for bright/dim at night.

Just wanted to check if anybody had done it already.

 

[drunk on diesel]

you should put your turn signal switch in the head rest so that you don't ever have to take your hands off the wheel!

 

[Vader's Fury]

I have wanted to do this for years. Can't be that hard. Just remove the wires from the multi switch and wire in the foot switch.

 

[046.ohBills]

Sub'd...I loved that feature in my Fathers 86 F250 back in the day. Would love to do that to my 04. Will be following and looking into schematics to assist.:thumbup:

 

[Kbuterbaugh04]

Loved the feature in my 83 gmc.

The front load garbage truck I drive is like that. Which, your hands are already doing a hundred things. Turning the steering wheel, flipping switches running levers, etc...

Subd on this as well!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[rentstdi]

Why don't you get a new minivan. They turn the headlights on for you. It will also turn on the high beams and sense if any their is any oncoming traffic to turn them off... Are your headlights that bad that you need the highs on all the time?

 

[79jasper]

Would be kinda neat to have.
My 79 chevy had it.

I hardly drive with my highs on. Too much traffic around these parts. Other times I always dim them coming to a intersection/sharp curve. Just some strange habit I guess. Lol

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[Magnum PD]

Another sob story from Chuckles. That is a dirty area down there too Charles. Some have rusted out and quit working because of its location.

 

[bluedge8]

I would think the best way to do that is to wire both switches in parallel if possible or at least try to keep the flash feature. I always like the foot mounted switch also but would never have the time to modify it.

 

[Charles]

Idiots that actually prefer doing NOTHING with an entire appendage for minutes to hours on end while they switch hands back and forth on the steering wheel hundreds of times in the same distance, this thread clearly isn't for you. Go beat yourselves to death with a tack hammer.

And anyone who can't conceptualize a world without street lights and nonstop cars you live in and around the city..... newsflash..... MOST of the country is RURAL, not URBAN....

Everywhere outside the cities and towns with thousands of cars and streetlights you must run bright lights.... constantly. In fact, DOUBLY bright light would be AWESOME, but illegal... and dangerous when you DID meet another car.

Driving home on any given night I will probably have to let go of the wheel with my left while grabbing it with my right around 20 to 40 times easy. I can't use my right hand for anything else in the truck because it has to be on the wheel the second a car approaches to kill the brights, when my left foot just sits and falls asleep.

Automakers needed a quick flash function and ignorantly took out the dimmer switch with it. We can have quick flash on the stalk and dimming in the floor.

If you live in sh*tville usa where you have salt on the roads 6 months out of the year then I don't care what you do with your headlight switch, your truck is a total rustbag POS anyway, so who cares.

If any of the rest of you with a brain..... not in the rustbelt.... have done this, I'm all ears.

Should be super simple to tie it in on the high beam circuit but no need to re-invent the wheel if it's already been streamlined by someone else.

 

[drunk on diesel]

LOL @ not being able to hit the signal/bright stalk without completely removing your hand from the wheel.

are you an elf?

 

[DEEZUZ]

What in the ****....

 

[Charles]

LOL @ not being able to hit the signal/bright stalk without completely removing your hand from the wheel.

are you an elf?

So in addition to being fully lit, the streets where you drive must all be perfectly straight as well.

Dumbass....

Let me guess.... you love pitbulls?

lol.


Dipsh*ts are easy to spot.

This thread isn't for you. Go find one about doing whipits or drinking brake fluid.

 

[drunk on diesel]

I just love seeing you all worked up, Chaz! LOL

my first vehicle had a floor switch. I haven't missed it. Even up in the mountains.

And no, I prefer Australian Shepherds

 

[bluedge8]

Couldn't you just grab a relay and wire in the floor dimmer parallel to the multi function lever? simple, done.

 

[Charles]

Couldn't you just grab a relay and wire in the floor dimmer parallel to the multi function lever? simple, done.

No need for a relay. It's already there. Simple is grabbing fused power and tossing it on the existing high beam relay.

But have you ever wanted to see if any others had already been down a path, just in case there was some super clean, super simple method already fleshed out?

If someone has come before me on something I like to take their experience into my decision when I can. Many times I get nothing, or nothing I didn't already expect, but sometimes you get a perspective you never thought of.

I like to give that a chance. That is the sole purpose of this thread. I could go wire it in at least 3 or 4 different ways but would like to chance the idea that someone's already done it, and has important intel.

 

[Magnum PD]

I'm thinking of you every time my left foot hits the headlight switch on the floor in my DD.

Usually goes down like... "Click". "Eat your heart Chuckles"!

 

[dsberman94]

I've got these funny things called knees. They do a good job of holding the steering wheel for me in the event I need to turn a knob or flip a switch. Even able to turn a little using them to stay in my lane.

 

[psduser1]

Put a stick back in it...
All your appendages can be busy part of the time.



I miss floor dimmers too.

 

[Charles]

I've got these funny things called knees. They do a good job of holding the steering wheel for me in the event I need to turn a knob or flip a switch. Even able to turn a little using them to stay in my lane.

55mph on a mountain 2 lane, the tires are starting to howl just a tad in a turn and your left hand is at 3 o'clock when you see a light pattern appearing on the trees in front of you from an approaching car.

Go ahead and take that left hand off that wheel and hold it with your blue jeans smart ass :doh:

Are you people really this dumb that you can't conceptualize, much less just remember what happens when you have to dim your lights on anything but flat, straight road?

On a flat, straight road you still have to loosen your grip and slide your hand down to the 9 o'clock position, make the change to the stalk and with a loose grip, slide back to the 12 o'clock position, only to repeat again after all cars have passed..... you think..... and then repeat immediately when another pops up, lol.

Nevermind that during this move if you hit a pothole, water puddle, hard wind hits the truck, trailer tire drops off the road for a second, or anything else, you don't ACTUALLY have a dedicated grip on the wheel.

Maybe I just need to become a dumbass like you and I won't have to be cognizant this sort of stuff either, lol.