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

[goofyone]

I wonder how LED lights on the front wheels will stand up long-term to road shocks.

What other highway vehicle has lights that take shocks with the wheels rather than being isolated from road bumps from shock absorbers or struts?

Quality LED lights and wiring should not have any issues holding up to long term fender mounted use. These are well proven on all types of motorcycle installations and the closest thing to the Elio which answers the question directly is the Can-Am Spyder which is actually equipped standard with LED auxiliary lights on the front fenders. There are also many fender light customization options for the Can-Am.

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[Joshua Caldwell]

Fyi: glow lights attatched to unsprung parts are legal but projecting lights are not, eliminates the steerable headlights.

Also, further research found no safety advantage to the middle brake light within 5 years of it becoming standard, the safety boost had been due to the attention catching novelty of it.

 

[Jim H]

A little introduction here - I like the Elio and have signed up to get one, but I'm not really an automobile enthusiast. I just want something that will get me where I need to go, inexpensively and with reasonable comfort and safety.

I posted this idea on the Elio Motors website forum, but there's not much happening there - so this is a repost:

My mechanic says it would be easy to add the lighting package I want aftermarket, but it occurs to me that many others might want the same package, so I offer my suggestion here. I want both of these as safety features - the safest accident is the one that is prevented.

(1) "Third" brake light.

I know the Elio has a nice, wide brake light as is, but I also remember the discussions when cars began to get third brake lights in the 1980s. Trials had found that cars with a third brake light were involved in significantly fewer accidents, so this is a safety feature. There are two significant points about the third brake light: they were higher than traditional brake lights, and unlike the other tail lights they only turned on when the brakes were applied. This means they are much more visible (especially to cars two or three places back) and also far more noticeable. If the driver behind looks away for a moment and looks back, there is no question whether the brakes have just been applied or if the tail lights have always been that bright (especially in daylight) - if it is on, the brakes are being applied - period.

I have recently seen brake lights on cars that stretch the entire width of the vehicle, incorporated with LED tail lights in such a way that it is immediately clear when the brakes have been applied (other than just a question of brightness). These often have an outline of LEDS around the brake light - the outline lights are always on, the far larger, far brighter middle only turns on when brakes are applied. This may also be a good idea for the primary brake light, if it is not already the standard.

(2) Lighting on the front wheels.

As a minimum, I want amber lights on the outside of the front wheels so that oncoming drivers can immediately see where the vehicle is. Ideally, I want those amber marker lights (always on), amber turn signals, red brake lights, and even a low-powered headlight that would light up perhaps a hundred feet in front - especially useful when making a turn, as these lights would be aligned with the wheels rather than the body of the car. These could be angled slightly down.
I would think all of these could be fashioned into a single streamlined piece the size of a small flashlight that could be fastened to the outside of the fairings on the front wheels.

Any thoughts? Would there be any legal issues with these?

Alan Light, welcome to the forum. As you can tell we are a highly active group that has provided responses to your suggestion. One of the great things about the forum is the ability to exchange ideas about how to dream about personalizing the Elio. Enjoy both the Elio experience3 and the journey.

 

[WilliamH]

Fyi: glow lights attatched to unsprung parts are legal but projecting lights are not, eliminates the steerable headlights.

Also, further research found no safety advantage to the middle brake light within 5 years of it becoming standard, the safety boost had been due to the attention catching novelty of it.

Not sure if that applies to all states.
Texas Transportation Code seems to limit it to two driving lights mounted between 16 and 42 inches off the road.
It doesn't appear to require them to be chassis mounted.

 

[Joshua Caldwell]

Not sure if that applies to all states.
Texas Transportation Code seems to limit it to two driving lights mounted between 16 and 42 inches off the road.
It doesn't appear to require them to be chassis mounted.

Then if you never go on a road trip outside of Texas you're safe.

 

[Ty]

Quality LED lights and wiring should not have any issues holding up to long term fender mounted use. These are well proven on all types of motorcycle installations and the closest thing to the Elio which answers the question directly is the Can-Am Spyder which is actually equipped standard with LED auxiliary lights on the front fenders. There are also many fender light customization options for the Can-Am.

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I dont think I could stand the ones staring me in the face at night. But, it still looks cool.

 

[Alan Light]

Thanks to everyone who voted in my poll or commented!

As of this writing, there appear to be 17 people who voted, and only 1 who voted for no factory optional lighting. 16 out of at least 17 voted for some sort of marker light for the front wheel pods, 12 voted for signal lights on the wheel pods, and 8 voted for an additional tail light mounted high. Only 5 voted in favor of a headlight or similar on the wheel pods, and it appears there may be legal issues with that, so perhaps that idea should be dropped - but it appears that there is significant interest in additional lighting.

I am under the impression that although the Elio appeals to many car enthusiasts, it is being marketed to those of us who do not routinely customize our vehicles, so it seems to me that Elio might want to seriously consider these as factory options.

The poll remains open.

 

[Ocean9000]

I might be interested in a factory integrated idiot light (hmbl), if well done (not a cob job, but something such as an embedded LED string) and I most assuredly will find some way to substantially improve and increase the forward lighting without compromising the aerodynamics. But these were not really survey choices...

 

[outsydthebox]

Hey Alan, Welcome to the forum. I think it's great when New members jump in with both feet.

 

[RUCRAYZE]

Thanks to everyone who voted in my poll or commented!

As of this writing, there appear to be 17 people who voted, and only 1 who voted for no factory optional lighting. 16 out of at least 17 voted for some sort of marker light for the front wheel pods, 12 voted for signal lights on the wheel pods, and 8 voted for an additional tail light mounted high. Only 5 voted in favor of a headlight or similar on the wheel pods, and it appears there may be legal issues with that, so perhaps that idea should be dropped - but it appears that there is significant interest in additional lighting.

I am under the impression that although the Elio appeals to many car enthusiasts, it is being marketed to those of us who do not routinely customize our vehicles, so it seems to me that Elio might want to seriously consider these as factory options.

The poll remains open.

Well, for sure, if many of these items are not offered from EM, and this autocar takes off, they'll be plenty of vendors outside EM wanting to get a piece of the pie.
Also, the competition should both lower prices, and provide more products to choose from. There have been many posts here of products that seem easily adopted and much cheaper, and of equal value. I don't need a chrome valve cover, but an upgraded stereo that will fit in the existing opening, easily installed, and get it 2 days later from Amazon will be just fine!