switch function

[JohnR2]

can anyone tell me the original function of the push/pull switch found top right on series 2 dashboards?

[autorover1]

Panel lights I think

[Wittsend]

 

[Daisythelandie]

Now a rear foglight switch for me with a period warning light below it, dash lights on with side lights.

[NoBeardNoTopKnot]

Most of us have the switch doing something completely different.

You can switch off panel-lights on Saabs too. I can't tell you why you'd want to do this with your LR or a Saab. I suppose it allows you to leave you lights on fractionally longer but the panel display contains the low-watt bulbs not the high. Is this a wiring hangover minded to military use?

[simonbav]

I imagined that the dash panel light switch was a vintage vehicle folly, a pre-war hangover with an origin lost in the mists of time; perhaps when Fred the farmer was bouncing over his fields to check on his ewes, interior lights were a distraction (I am ever a fan of James Herriot bouncing his Austin Seven through scarcely lit Dales). Do vintage aircraft have optional panel lighting? I was delighted in the late 1980's when I was sat bored at traffic lights after dark, pulling and twiddling that particular switch (which never did anything in daylight) to find out my gauges had illumination after all.

[Wittsend]

Useful for when you are poaching or greenlaning at night. Turning the panel lights off helps with your night vision, But then Guess only a small number of owners venture out on the lanes at night


 

[NoBeardNoTopKnot]

I'm not entirely convinced, yet the night-vision thing is less contrary to common-sense than the Saab version...

In Saabs we infer 'A pilot excludes information not pertinent to the sound-barrier. ie: we make aircraft you know, did you know we make aircraft?'

I'm ready to buy every word.

[Exile]

Even on early coilsprung One Tens and Ninetys, you can still switch off the panel lights.

I can't imagine they would have kept this feature going from 1948 until then, if there wasn't a market for it in somewhere in the world.



(I found it a handy feature when going rabbiting in the dark.... ).

[Ken]

I used to like the 'stealth' light features on my wolf. Various combinations which I can't now recall but including just a small 'convoy' light on the rear.
Perhaps this feature is, as suggested something to do with military requirements.

[Old Hywel]

I thought all modern cars had dimmable dash lamps...

[Alan Drover]

I thought all modern cars had dimmable dash lamps...

My 1977 MGB GT has.

[Old Hywel]

I thought all modern cars had dimmable dash lamps...

My 1977 MGB GT has.

That's not modern! Nor, I suppose, is my 20 y.o Passat.

[autorover1]

Remember in the 1950/60's one always needed side lights on when parking on the road at night even in a built up area. Having the ability to  switch off the panel lights would conserve the battery & that might be a reason for them to be switched. That's why a single parking light hooked into the window was a popular extra.