Left Foot High Beam

So...

I was driving home from a buddy house after a camp fire with food and beer and I had a cigar in my left and hand shifting (yes a manual) and steering with my right. Two lane road with periodic oncoming cards and turning the high beams on and off when it occurred to me why not put the high beam switch on my left foot? We grew up with VW's that had the left foot high beams. I'm guessing they went the way of the dodo bird with the onset of automatic transmissions and also cheaper to send up the wire to the steering wheel.

Anyway, I've purchased the items below.

$23 General Motors GM Genuine Parts D808 Headlamp Dimmer Switch

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C9QXKA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$11 ACDelco Professional PT1994 Courtesy Lamp Switch Pigtail

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005OUT8U4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Has anyone tried this? I could use some assistance with the wiring. I would like both switches to toggle the high beams. Worse case just the left foot to toggle the high beams.

Yes I did my google searches and came up empty for a Tacoma. Plenty of much older cars with simpler wiring....

 

Following. Id like to do this as well. Id suggest starting with getting a wiring diagram if you can find one.

There's gotta be a toggle or a relay you could tap into that would make the switch work.

 

1st, you need to figure out where you’re going to mount it so it’s not in your way when driving, yet easy to hit when you need it. After that, there’s at least 3 ways to do it based on the desired results. On low beam, the dimmer switch doesn’t do anything. Even though there’s contacts for low beam, they don’t connect to anything, so all you need to be concerned with is grounding the red/green wire for high beam.

1. Disconnect the factory dimmer switch. Run the red/green wire to your new dimmer switch. Hook the common terminal on the new switch to ground. Now the floor switch will be the only 1 that works.

2. Do as above but leave the factory dimmer switch connected. This will result in being able to turn on high beams from either switch, but you must use the same dimmer switch to go back to low beam.

3. Wire the 2 switches like 2 switches in a house. This will allow switching from either switch, but sometimes the factory switch will be backwards, just like the switches in your house.

 

One of the reasons auto manufacturers went away from the floor mounted switches was corrosion in areas where they use road salt - like where you live. I live in an area where we use lots of road salt and every vehicle I ever had with that kind of switch suffered a failure at one time or another. All of those failures were from rotted out switches.

Another thing you want to think about is the holes you will have to drill through the floor to mount the switch. Every single one of them will be a rust hole waiting to start. Then there's the splicing into numerous wires in a factory harness. Your call, but be forewarned.

Remember, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

Wow!! Thanks for the detailed instructions. I'll keep you posted on how this works. I figure in the next week or so I'll tackle this job. Just put a softtopper on my Tacoma this weekend. Getting ready to flat tow it to the south east for 6 weeks behind our RV. Escaping from PA where things are a bit to "tight" these days.

 

Following just out of curiosity. My first truck, a 79 Chevy, had this and so did every HMMWV I've been in. I didn't mind it at all, but I don't see a reason to do it on a Taco.

 

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one myself as I have the same issues. How do you like that soft topper? I plan on getting a camper soon and i was thinking about one to help with storage and hopefully some aerodynamics as well by getting rid of that huge void between the cab and the camper.

 

As long as you paint the holes, and properly seal everything this won't be an issue. Most of us rust belt guys undercoat every year anyways.

 

So you’re driving a vehicle that requires all 4 appendages and you remove one appendage from the equation with a cigar and now you want your left foot to control your clutch and your high beams? Surprised you didn’t spill the beer in your right hand.

 

I beg to differ. I spent 36 years in manufacturing - much of that in Painting and Plating operations. Trust me, "painting" won't gain you much - especially if you just dab it on. Proper surface preparation prior to painting is the key to "painting" providing any significant corrosion resistance. And lacquer touch up paint has very little corrosion resistance even if properly applied.

As for undercoat, don't even get me started on how counter productive that crap is. (My truck has Ziebart and I would never, ever do it again.) Do some digging and you'll find that although properly applied undercoating can somewhat slow down the process of corrosion, it's nowhere near as effective as annually applied oil based coatings. If it's improperly applied (like most Ziebart undercoating), it can actually accelerate corrosion. And undercoating applied every year (like Ziebart) just hides corrosion that's already started and traps moisture to fuel it.

I've lived in the rust belt all of my life and experimented with just about every corrosion prevention / inhibiting process there is. Drilling holes through a perfectly good factory paint (or plating) job is a guaranteed way to get rust started up here.

 

I don't think I'll do it myself, but that's a good idea and I hope it works out for you!

 

I live in maine and spend quite a lot of time on CT where they use that liquid calcium bullshit.

I also happen to be a preservation specialist on submarines. I know all about properly prepping and coating steel to prevent against corrosion. We have classes on this and I've been doing it the last 6 years. Rust prevention is how I make my living.

None of our trucks are going to be spending it's Life in 100% salt water like submarines do. Proper surface prep and paint will prevent against corrosion. I've seen submarines I've blasted and painted come back into dock looking like we just painted them. 5 years later.

The only undercoating I've ever needed has been used motor oil and a dry dirt road. A couple layers of oil coating and a layer of dust on top of it will prevent any corrosion you or will ever run into in the northeast

 

@Too Stroked

How do feel about fluid film?
I ask this, because I have used it on my lawn equipment (stihl hedge trimmers, and saw baledes)
My trimmer blades would rust after trimming certain bushes with lots of moisture in them or from dew in the mornings.

I was thinking of spraying the underside of the mower decks to see if it would help with grass build up on the deck. I’ll admit, I don’t scrape my decks as often as I should, I was thinking this help with rust prevention. The powder coating on the under side of the deck is pretty much all gone.

 

Great stuff, but it doesn't hold up in environments where it's getting blasted by water, road debris, etc. And unfortunately, I'm pretty sure underneath a mower deck qualifies as one of those bad environments. I would consider using it when I put a mower deck up for the winter though.

 

Thanks man.
Was curious, might still try it, just to see if it helps with removing the grass clippings.
Believe it or not, that stuff gets stuck on there pretty good.

 

So far so good on the SoftTopper. Haven't driven it yet but the installation was easy and the quality of the top seems very good.

 

My 1962 Triumph TR3 still has a floor switch, as did most of the cars I grew up with and learned to drive on.

Give me stalk-mounted high/dipped beam switching any time. Tons more convenient, especially for flashing the brights. Moving it to the floor would be a fail for me. Good luck with your project, though, @mgord.

 

Granted. I'm going to try to get the both working. Best of both worlds.

 

My dads old 1975 dodge royal monico had a floor switch. Brings back memories of me learning how to drive

 

I grew up driving cars with the foot switch. Second nature once you're accustomed to it. The dimmer on the stalk was found on those fancy Uropian cars...
Yeah, I changed a few of those corroded switches.