Highbeam/Lowbeam footswitch

[GasSavers_NovaResource]

Originally Posted by VetteOwner

lol every car besides gm

My fathers G8 is push on and pull to flash.

[kamesama980]

one reason the floor switch is bad is because it's really really easy to kick it accidentally. I have the care of a '72 caddy hearse and the high-beam switch is exactly where my left leg sits comfortably (12 mpg is pretty good for 6k+ lb and 500 ftlb with a carbed 472 big block and 3 speed auto) (it's for the haunted house put on by the theatre a friend of mine runs)

[jmf]

my 73 xj6 has the floor switch for on/off and a lever for flashing. i prefer it to just the lever. i never accidently turn the lights on but it's tricky to go from a new car back to the floor switch.

justin

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Accidentally hitting it with your foot could be a specific layout problem rather than an inherent disadvantage, I suppose. I thought to ask an older friend of mine (not really a car guy) and he preferred the foot switches too. We got into a brief discussion of how one might retrofit a vehicle with a foot switch, but pretty quickly decided it'd be too much work.

[theholycow]

Retrofitting should be quite easy on an older vehicle, and depending on how graceful you want it to be it could be easy on a new one too.

Foot switches are plentiful at guitar stores and boating stores. You can reroute (or even splice) the lever switch, or you can wire it to the relay, or you can wire it directly to the headlights.

[Jay2TheRescue]

My 74 chevy C-10 had it on the floor. I loved it. The explanation I was given as to why it was moved from the floor was that it was cheaper to make the car that way. Instead of wires gong everywhere in the car, only 1 harness needed to be made that went up the steering column, and eliminated all the wires going all around the dash for the wiper controls, lights, high beams, etc.

-Jay

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Cost cutting does make a lot of sense. What I should've said before was "we decided it was too much work, because both of us are lazy". Sometimes you can get footswitches from surplus places. That's where I got a footswitch for my spotwelder.

What ever happened to auto dimming high beams anyway? I recently saw a reference to them in a Madmen episode, amusingly enough.

[IndyFetch]

I remember my mom's '77 Country Squire and '78 Cougar Broughm had the floor switch, as did a slew of Mercurys owned by my grandparents. I never drove one. I move my feet around a lot (even though I drive manuals), and I think I'd hit it accidentally. I also like the ability to "flash" my high beams.

[IndyFetch]

I remember sitting in an ancient S-10 Blazer ('84?) with a floor switch for the horn. Good old GM Ergonomics for you. What about the '84 Camaro Berlinetta with the turn signals mounted on a toggle switch on the dash? I've never personally seen that one, but Car and Driver mentioned it in an article in 1997.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

My father told me once about a car he drove growing up that had signals that extended out when you used them. If his father got mad at someone he'd flick them back and forth. I should ask him what model that was. Something really old, given this was probably in the 40s (maybe early 50s).