Bongo Fury

Don't know what you mean BDC Pot, kettle & black?

Wot??...Liccle ol' me???

What was that experiment you tried after our discussion, BDC that involved shining a light into the reversing mirror and letting it spread the light out ont the surrounding ground with its convex shape. I think you said it worked quite well - I never got round to trying it out for myself. I like the idea though of using the mirror as a means of directing the light as it should in theory send it to al the right places

Oh, yes!...I remember!

It was when i'd got fed up of looking at my little dangly, ( so i fitted flushed fogs instead)

It was your concept mike, and a good one at that.

I simply (as an experiment) stuck the dangly temporarily to the rear parking mirror,facing downwards,made a quick extension of cable,and ran it to the rear fogs, (remember, i use clear lenses in my fogs, as they are extra reverse lights)

I masked the bumper lights up, hit the switch, and was amazed at how much light was thrown down immediately behind the bongo.

The only drawback was the amount of glare coming from the rear mirror, so i made a rough light shield from some card, which solved that problem.

I realized that your idea mike, was to have a concentrated beam of light to shine upwards into the mirror,then reflect back onto the road surface via the reflection of the mirror.

I couldn't devise a way of anchoring the light to shine upwards (in the dark, and drizzle) to test out the theory, but it sounds like it would work.

We give some thought to these bongo's eh?

Can you imagine the vehicle we could come up with if Mazda approached forum members with a view to designing "bongo mk 3 ?"

Would it work by projecting a light from inside the vehicle, onto the mirror?

Hmm, ... possibly...

The real bugbear as i discovered was the glare emmited from a convetional bulb...

L.E.D's are the way to go i think...

Good thinking Keefy!

These are great thoughts - this thread is coming alive. You're right keefy, my original thought was to have a highly directional (torch) beam that was mounted by the internal rear view mirror and shone down the cab and through the rear windscreen, onto the reversing mirror. But I suspect loss/scatter etc. might rule that one out. Might try it at some point though

Can you imagine the vehicle we could come up with if Mazda approached forum members with a view to designing "bongo mk 3 ?"

How true, I've thought that many times. Bring back our lovely Friendee

You cant point a light up at the mirror because it would just shine in your eyes when you try and look back - it will be directed towards you and not the ground. You could shine a light back to the mirror and it would direct it the right way but it would reflect back on the rear glass and obliterate everything. The only sensible thing is to have the light outside and pointing down from a reasonable height. A couple of small foglamps might look quite sweet tucked under the spoiler (does it move with the boot, I cant remember).

I did see a nice reversing camera package with a colour camera and screen for £60 at Costco. It said effective up to 5m in the dark and it fitted above the numberplate in a nice trim piece. The neatest thing was it was wireless to the monitor.

I like the wireless to the monitor concept!...its all the faffing with drills,and taking off trim/bumpers with seized nuts/scraped knuckles...and all that sloblocks that ultimately puts me off before i start things these days...
...Where has all the enthusiasm from my youth gone? (christ!..i'm only 36!)

Now then, some of those white/blue LED's that missfixit discovered could work REALLY well mounted into the flat underside of the spoiler, its even at the correct angle to project the light slightly outwards...

I can testify to the effectiveness of those bulbs,its quite a defined beam too, ideal for fitting to the spoiler.

The thing Iam trying first is.......LED numberplate lights.
Just ten minutes ago showing the father-in-law the reversing lights situation, I noticed that one of the number plate lamps had blown, and when taking it out, noticed the other one, which was working is putting a tiny amount of light onto the road I thought, wonder if LED lamps in their place would throw more light onto the road?

lamps ordered( I ordered the right ones ) will let you know how it goes. Failing that, I wonder if getting rid of the two wee lights full stop, and replacing them with more powerfull LED units would do the trick?

Hmm, interesting... yet another option for more rearward illumination eh?

I've considered the rear number plate light upgrade to LEDs', but i must admit the notion of more visibility when reversing hadn't occured to me

Could you post the item number please brora?

I've never had to remove the number plate lights for any reason, so i dont know the bulb specs...

I have been practicing for the arrival of my bongo recently, by not replacing the blown reversing lamp in my van.... (I'm sure this would be more than acceptable to any policeman.... ahem)

also the wife car is an seat altea and the reversing light on that is pityful... and so low to the ground... that as you stop to reverse onto drive, cars pull up right behind and can't see the reversing light!... so it could be worse!!!

John
(1 day to go)

bigdaddycain wrote:Hmm, interesting... yet another option for more rearward illumination eh?

I've considered the rear number plate light upgrade to LEDs', but i must admit the notion of more visibility when reversing hadn't occured to me

Could you post the item number please brora?

I've never had to remove the number plate lights for any reason, so i dont know the bulb specs...

LED

I'm hoping its the right type, and will be fitting as soon as it comes in.

Keep us informed on those brorabongo