Not all modern cars and trucks have daytime running lights because they are authorized but not mandatory. They first appeared in Scandinavian countries back in the 1970s and only in the 1980s began to appear in cars and trucks assembled by General Motors. In Scandinavia and in Canada they are mandatory.
There’s a discussion going on about the use of daytime running lights and not everybody agrees that they improve our safety on the roads. Studies conducted in Scandinavian countries showed that they reduced head-on collisions during the day by about 10 per cent and this is good enough for me to think that they help.
There are many kits available in the market that allow us to modify our electric system and transform our low beam headlights into daytime running lights. These kits are basically made of transformers that reduce the brightness of the headlights to about 70% of normal and keep them on whenever the ignition key is turned on. In other words, when you start your engine they go on and when you stop the engine they go off.
In later years General Motors came up with a system that uses the front parking lights/turn signals as daytime running lights. There are kits for this hin the market which aren’t too expensive nor too difficult to install. The video below shows my truck with one such kit and how it works under the various conditions.
To know more about this kit click here.
Old Trucks 