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KC HiLiTES, Inc is a manufacturer of
The company's best-known product is the Daylighter off-road lamp. KC designed the special patented isolated rubber mount for the Daylighter when they noticed too many failures due to the severe vibration within the metal housing during off-road use. The firm worked with GE engineers over the intricacies of lighting, sealed beams, filaments, the varied types of construction, wattage and candlepower in order to devise a way to completely encircle the bulb in rubber, helping isolate it from damaging vibrations. In addition to the Daylighter, KC manufactured a wide variety of halogen products through the late 1990s, including flood lamps and driving lamps.
In addition to forward facing lights intended for either on- or off-road use, KC also offered accessories in their early years, including glare shields, interior map lights, and theft-deterrent light locks (security nuts).
In the 1990s, KC developed 
Official Website
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off-road
Off-roading is the activity of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain. Types of off-roading range in intensity, from leisure drives with unmodified vehicl ...
lighting
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...
based in Williams, Arizona
Williams ( yuf-x-hav, Wii Gvʼul) is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, located west of Flagstaff. Its population was 3,023 at the 2010 census. It lies on the routes of Historic Route 66 and Interstate 40. It is also the souther ...
.
History
The company was founded in 1970 inSaugus, California
Saugus is a neighborhood in Santa Clarita, California. It was one of four communities (with Valencia, Newhall and Canyon Country) that merged in 1987 to create the city of Santa Clarita. Saugus includes the central and north-central portions ...
by Peter Kim Brown and his wife Carol Brown, and named using their initials. They were spurred to start the company when Peter began using landing lights from aircraft adapted to fit his truck, and realized that the way they were mounted would not stand up to the rigors of use of the off-road community of race buggies and pickups. Available lighting at the time was limited to 55-watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
halogen lamp
A halogen lamp (also called tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen, and quartz iodine lamp) is an incandescent lamp consisting of a tungsten filament sealed in a compact transparent envelope that is filled with a mixture of an inert gas and a small ...
s that were in Brown's words, "really disappointing in the desert". Initially he made a few sets for friends, but eventually began working with neighbors out of his garage assembling the lights, building the wiring harnesses and selling the packages to off-roaders and local shops. In 1974, the company was moved to Williams, Arizona
Williams ( yuf-x-hav, Wii Gvʼul) is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, located west of Flagstaff. Its population was 3,023 at the 2010 census. It lies on the routes of Historic Route 66 and Interstate 40. It is also the souther ...
where it remains today. Many race teams use KC's lamps, included pioneers Walker Evans
Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans' work from ...
and Ivan Stewart
Ivan "Ironman" Stewart (born June 4, 1945) is an American professional off road racing driver.
Racing career
In 1973, Stewart was scheduled to co-drive (navigate) in the Ensenada 300 in a Class 1-2 dune buggy. His driver broke his leg, so Stew ...
. Peter's step-son Michael Dehaas was the company owner for over a decade after purchasing it in 2004, and it is now owned by family members - Alan, Andy, and Mike.
Products
The company's best-known product is the Daylighter off-road lamp. KC designed the special patented isolated rubber mount for the Daylighter when they noticed too many failures due to the severe vibration within the metal housing during off-road use. The firm worked with GE engineers over the intricacies of lighting, sealed beams, filaments, the varied types of construction, wattage and candlepower in order to devise a way to completely encircle the bulb in rubber, helping isolate it from damaging vibrations. In addition to the Daylighter, KC manufactured a wide variety of halogen products through the late 1990s, including flood lamps and driving lamps.
In addition to forward facing lights intended for either on- or off-road use, KC also offered accessories in their early years, including glare shields, interior map lights, and theft-deterrent light locks (security nuts).
In the 1990s, KC developed high-intensity discharge
High-intensity discharge lamps (HID lamps) are a type of electrical gas-discharge lamp which produces light by means of an electric arc between tungsten electrodes housed inside a translucent or transparent fused quartz or fused alumina arc tu ...
(HID) lighting, based on metal-halide technology. More recently, KC offers HIDs and LEDs for off-road use, and for commercial and industrial applications.
References
{{ReflistExternal links
Official Website
Auto parts suppliers of the United States