How do I get red trail lights?

Trevair

Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2019
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27
Location
Parker, CO
Hello everyone.

One of my other hobbies, besides fooling around off the road, is night sky photography. It's one of those things that, as many of you know, gets easier with less light pollution. So what better way to get far away from civilization and admire more distant gas balls than in the TJ? Well a couple fancy lights to brighten up a night trail should make that a walk in the park. But you know, the hardest part besides getting somewhere dark is getting all the equipment (tripod, shutter release, camera, etc) set up in the dark. A headlamp makes this easier, but what if I used my Jeep's lights to illuminate the darkness? Then I'd lose my night vision. Because white light is terrible that way.

So I started looking for red aftermarket lights. Those are less terrible on night vision. And boy, unless I just don't know where to look (very likely), there are not a lot of those. Plenty of LED ones, which I figure might color change to red. But they are expensive, and not quite a fit for what I'm looking for. There's also the idea of buying standard white lights and fitting red filters over them. This sounds great to me, as it allows for them to be cheap and still function as intended without the filters as well. But I haven't any idea how to make, find, or fit such red covers. Unless I make a new friend who owns a 3D printer and is much smarter than me.

So my question is this: how the heck do I get red trail lights to save my night vision?

Jeep trails NW.jpg


Northeast close up 126.jpg
 
You could get a sheet of red lexan or polycarbonate and make lenses out of that.

Guys make custom tail lights out of that stuff all the time.
 
You could get a sheet of red lexan or polycarbonate and make lenses out of that.

Guys make custom tail lights out of that stuff all the time.

This is likely the approach I would take as well.

Love the photos as well. I'd definitely like to see more. You should start a thread with all your photos.
 
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Are you stuck on red? There is a great outlet deal on Rigid lights in green. The a-series light are really high quality.

“If we look below at the interval between the sensitivity of rods (P) and cones (S) we can easily conclude that blue-green light (near 500 nm) would be the best headlamp light color to preserve night vision, where the interval is greatest. We can detect more light at lower brightness in that color.”

https://survivalskills.guide/best-headlamp-light-color-to-preserve-night-vision/
https://www.rigidindustries.com/out...?product_list_order=name&product_list_dir=asc
 
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You could get a sheet of red lexan or polycarbonate and make lenses out of that.

Guys make custom tail lights out of that stuff all the time.

This is likely the approach I would take as well.

Love the photos as well. I'd definitely like to see more. You should start a thread with all your photos.

Not a bad idea. But if I can find them premade in red, that's one less point of failure for me. Peeling because of my poor application, etc. I'll have to get a thread of these shots going though once I get a few more shots with the Jeep in 'em--right now it's mostly airplanes...
 
These lights come with a detachable flood light cover, which you could could then use a Red light film over. The diffuser would actually probably work pretty well because I imagine you would want a flood light when setting up your equipment.

Closer, but I would need to find or cut a circular piece instead of the rectangular ones I mostly see. Lots of amber ones out there.

Theres the Red Halos you can get and just have the headlight off running the halo only.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DRGTTDY/?tag=wranglerorg-20

or KC makes these beautiful little Cyclones in red which I have 2 of in red and in clear. I can vouch for their awesomeness.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HWLQQL2/?tag=wranglerorg-20

Those Cyclones might be just right! Not too huge, nice and cheap. Just need to mount and wire them.
 
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Are you stuck on red? There is a great outlet deal on Rigid lights in green. The a-series light are really high quality.

“If we look below at the interval between the sensitivity of rods (P) and cones (S) we can easily conclude that blue-green light (near 500 nm) would be the best headlamp light color to preserve night vision, where the interval is greatest. We can detect more light at lower brightness in that color.”

https://survivalskills.guide/best-headlamp-light-color-to-preserve-night-vision/
https://www.rigidindustries.com/out...?product_list_order=name&product_list_dir=asc


That's good info, and news to me. I've been using red lights for years. The trick I suppose would be finding lights that match that wavelength. I'm not sure where I'd find that info without measuring it directly. Another thought is that, to some degree, my vision is always being compromised by the dimmed LCD screen on my camera used to change settings. So the gains from using a better color might be negligible anyway since I can only adapt to so low of a threshold as the light from that screen. Anything's better than my super-bright white LED main headlights though!

...plus my TJ's red, and I like red!:ROFLMAO:
 
Those Cyclones might be just right! Not too huge, nice and cheap. Just need to mount and wire them.
Best part is you drill one hole and bam, bolt right through the middle of the light. You can pin these things up just about anywhere and they are bright, waterproof, and very low-profile.
 
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Best part is you drill one hole and bam, bolt right through the middle of the light. You can pin these things up just about anywhere and they are bright, waterproof, and very low-profile.
I see that lots of people like them as engine bay lighting, which isn't a bad idea either. Pretty versatile.
 
Cool pictures.

I'll have to say, when I first read the title, I thought it said "How do I get red TAIL lights." LOL
 
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