Getting "bright lighted" all the time

[LaxCummins]

Let's see... no fog... No need for fog lights.



Do everybody a favor and don't run them. I'm sick of all these SUV's and trucks who feel the need to have TWO PAIRS of freaking headlights. Gives me a headache and makes the world a more dangerous place.

 

[ROCKJEEP]

so would you be happier if I converted the headlights to the super bright cadi and lexus lights. There way brighter than all my lights on. Because these light suck so bad I will continue to run the fogs.

 

[LaxCummins]

Ok, so now I'm gonna run my brights on ALL THE TIME 'cause I can see better and other cars leave their brights on and forget to turn them off sometimes and them HID's are REALLY bright when you look at 'em at just the right angle!



That makes sense.



But I digress...



Seriously - there ought to be standards for headlights. Aim, intensity, etc.

 

[Matt400]

A good way to improve the visibility and not offend the others is to yank the fogs like I did and install Hella projector high beams. I trip a relay with the trucks high beams so they are never on in traffic and light the road excellent in no traffic. I run a 100w Xenon H1 bulb in them.



Not recommended for fog though.

#ad

 

[sevobuck]

Wow! When I started this thread I had no idea how intense it would get. I will have to agree that the low beams on these trucks suck. I actually had to check and make sure they were even on tonight while I was in town. I will also have to agree that those HID lights on some of the luxury cars are downright obnoxious when meeting them on the road. Anyways I have really enjoyed some of the replies in this thread. Thanks

 

[phloop]

I can tell that after reading the rest of the replies to this thread that we all have different views on the use of the blankety blank fog lights as well as better or worse night vision. I will agree that these lights have a different pattern to them as compared to other vehicles. My '97 Ford had god awful bright lights stock, it is the design of the reflector. The fords design was good but obnoxious to on coming drivers. After some getting used to, my dodges lights are just as good but have a different pattern.



And again, those of you that insist on running your fog lights without dimming them to on coming traffic (or not dimming them when you come up behind some one), ever wonder why you might be the subject of road rage?



And as a side note, I will be traveling through Utah next month and I would really appreciate you all to turn your high school stud lights off as you pass me as I am not a wild animal but a fellow driver. Yes I can see you, and you can see me, at that point you no longer have to blind me.



Thank you in advance.

 

[sevobuck]

In town, I drive with the fogs on.

There are so many street lights, and so many people on the road, it almost doesn't make sense not too. plus Honestly,, I do feel cool.



Now, on the highway, or when I start getting away from the city lights, I turn the fogs off. I find it to be more considerate to drive with them off with dark surroundings, plus I also feel blinded because there is so much light right in front of the truck.



For the last month or so I have been driving 130 miles between 4:00am and 6:15am on a two lane highway down here in South Texas. As soon as I see a vehicle approaching, or just before a vehicle comes up over a hill (TX mountain) I will drop to my low Beams. When the approaching vehicle does not return the favor and they get close enough to light my interior of my truck up a little I'll give them a really quick flash. 90% of people drop to the low beams after that) If they start getting closer with the high beams on, I'll give 'em a slightly longer flash. (Most don't go to low beams) By then, I can usually see if the truck is a GM vehicle (High beams on inside, Low beams on outside), or if the vehicle is towing.

If a vehicle is towing, I am considerate, move my vehicle over to ride slightly on the shoulder stripe, and let them pass. However, if it's a lifted truck, or a vehicle with very bright lights, I am a little more aggressive and will pop my high beams back on about 30'-40' before they pass. However, if it's a GM vehicle, or the high beams are literally making my eyes burn, I become very aggressive. After a few "high beam flashes" like I stated earlier, I will pull my vehicle far off to the shoulder and put my high beams on, pause a second with them on and then try to get my high beams right into their windshield. If I were to be able to meet them in person I would slap them. Having no compassion pisses me off more than anything else, and if only your high beams work, get them fixed, or don't drive at night.





In my personal truck, I have the blue lights, and I really like them. They seem to have a soft glow about them, and I have never been "bright lighted". They are only stock wattage and are DOT legal. It feels like walking into a garage that has a 15W light bulb hanging from the ceiling, compared to my Dad's '05 that feels like a 75W or 100W hanging. My truck has soft shadows, and my Dad's truck, shadows are sharp. Now the Blue vs. Yellow vs. White light debate still has me curious, but I do like the soft light cast onto the road, and since I don't drive too much in the middle of the night

and more at dusk and dawn, I prefer the look the blue lights give my truck. ( I can be vain )





Merrick

This is about the same treatment that I give. If someone doesn't return the favor of the dim then they will get the dreaded fog light/high beam does... du. . du . . du. Where I live (in a college town) we have the most inconsiderate and low life, non-signal using pieces of S%#T I have ever came across. I probably need to seek counseling for some of the road rage I have. I have actually gone so far to follow some one until they pull over and well... I will leave the rest for you to decide. Sometimes it is a win; others it is a loss. :-{}

 

[TAbbott]

This is in response to those of you that have Silverstar headlights. They suck. Pull up to a wall sometime and look at the pattern the Silverstars throw. Now back away from the wall a little and look again. See the bright lateral streak of light that moves up the wall as you back away? It goes up at about a 30 degree angle and does absolutely nothing to light up the road. It lights up the tree tops. It also shines right in the mirrors of every truck to come up behind. Next time you come up behind a big rig, as you close the gap watch the top of his trailer. The bright lateral swath of light will start at the very top of the trailer and work its way down right into the mirrors. Thats about the distance behind that many folks like to follow before they pull out to pass. Obnoxious and worthless is what the Silverstars are. You can correct this problem by placing a strip of duct tape across the clear portion towards the bottom of the lens. Not only will you stop blinding those you come up behind, you'll also stop blinding oncoming vehicles as well. A side benefit will be that you'll actually be able to see the road better than you could before. I installed a set of Silverstars, in m;y big truck, tried every way possible to adjust them so I could see with them and finally took them out and put in "Cool Blues" from Wal-Mart. Got a pair for the price of one silverstar and could see twice as well and no longer offended everyone around me with lights that are bright as **** when your looking at them from the front and worthless or worse when you're sitting behind them. My $. 02.

 

[JSchutz]

I disagree about the Silverstars sucking. I do a fair amoumt of night driving and they made a world of difference on my truck. Honestly, the lights are still lousy but they are much improved with the Silverstars.



It's hard to figure: My Ram has the worst lights af any vehicle I have owned and my '05 Durango has the absolute best.

 

[DBond]

This is in response to those of you that have Silverstar headlights. They suck. Pull up to a wall sometime and look at the pattern the Silverstars throw. Now back away from the wall a little and look again. See the bright lateral streak of light that moves up the wall as you back away? It goes up at about a 30 degree angle and does absolutely nothing to light up the road. It lights up the tree tops. It also shines right in the mirrors of every truck to come up behind. Next time you come up behind a big rig, as you close the gap watch the top of his trailer. The bright lateral swath of light will start at the very top of the trailer and work its way down right into the mirrors. Thats about the distance behind that many folks like to follow before they pull out to pass. Obnoxious and worthless is what the Silverstars are. You can correct this problem by placing a strip of duct tape across the clear portion towards the bottom of the lens. Not only will you stop blinding those you come up behind, you'll also stop blinding oncoming vehicles as well. A side benefit will be that you'll actually be able to see the road better than you could before. I installed a set of Silverstars, in m;y big truck, tried every way possible to adjust them so I could see with them and finally took them out and put in "Cool Blues" from Wal-Mart. Got a pair for the price of one silverstar and could see twice as well and no longer offended everyone around me with lights that are bright as **** when your looking at them from the front and worthless or worse when you're sitting behind them. My $. 02.

Did you do the same pattern check with your other lamps? The light pattern is defined by the reflector, changing lamps is supposed to give essentially the same pattern.

I'm not saying that the light pattern of this lens design is good, it leaves much to be desired. The DOT spec requires there be a certain amout of this uplight, though we may be getting more than the minimum requirement. The reason is to lightup overhead signs. Euro specs also have some uplight, but less and more controlled. I think the US spec is moving (has moved?) to something closer to the Euro spec.

 

[BSkinner]

I was pretty unhappy with the factory lighting on my Dodge. In fact, the Dodge headlights are the poorest of any truck I've owned. Things improved when I put on the Buckstop and installed Hella 500 driving lights. I could drive on I90 or I25 around here and not get flashed with the Hella's turned on while on low beams. (We do have some wide medians in Wyoming, though).



The lights on my Tacoma are vastly superior to my Dodge as are the lights in several friend's GMCs & Chevys. Sure miss my Buckstop in this deer and antelope infested area.



BSkinner

 

[DRead]

headlight adjustment

I get flashed all the time too. especialy in mexico , two lane roads. I could not find adjustment in little book . Can any one point me to adjusting screws?

 

[osiris]

i get flashed quite regulary, but mostly by lower sitting cars. I dont have a lift on my truck. I also find that most of the time when i am being flashed it is along part of the road that has no other lighting other than the headlights from other cars. I am guessing that people dont realize sometimes that our eyes adjust to the amount of light available and then when there is more light all of a sudden its "blinding" same thing happens after you have been in a dark room or been sleeping and then turn on the lights. When people drive with their brights on or flash me it doesnt really bother me as i dont look directly at their lights. They are on the other side of the road i just divert my eyes to my own lane and keep on driving. I think some of you guys may need couseling for the amount of anger you have for something that seems really trivial to me just my 2 cents tho fellas

 

[MChildress]

I don't run mine accept in fog and always turned them off to oncoming traffic. Here in Texas you can get a ticket for (unnecessary use of auxiliary driving lights) I know for I have wrote it.

 

[CRuth]

I can only think that anyone that doesn't think these headlights are completely pathetic has never driven a vehicle with good headlights. How bad are they? A few weeks ago I had to drive a long (2hours) stretch of road and the high beam light in the dash was bothering me so I put a piece of black tape over it. Forgot all about it. Friday at dusk I turn on the headlights (more so people could see me than needing to light up the road) and didnt notice I had the high beams on. Six vehicles pass me (two lane mountain road) including two highway patrol vehicles. Not one flashed me. Thats how bad they are.



I've tried the silverstars and others. Nothing gained me a noticeable improvement.



So this is what I resorted to. Ones on the outside are Hella auxiliary headlights (e-code type) with 65/90 h4's.

The middle ones are lightforce 170s with the diffuser covers installed. Now that makes so much light when I kill all my aux lights it feels like I just turned off my lights with just the stock high beams. All are wired so they only come on with the stock highs. And needless to say don't get used in town.



In low beam mode the e-code lights by design throw a lot more light to the passenger side of the road, and the lightforce with the diffuser lens will make sure you never miss a deer while still throwing a heck of a lot of light down the road.



Oh, and as for the fogs, those only go on in bad weather.

 

[TAbbott]

In retrospect, I should have limited my response to only Silverstar Halogen Sealed Beams, the larger rectangular variety, as they are the only ones with which I have any experience. Trying to drive with them in the fog was just ridiculous, with the duct tape over part of the lens the only workable solution. But really, all anyone has to do to check out their beam pattern is do as I suggested or just watch an overpass as you come up to it and drive under. If on low beam you are brightly lighting up the top of the overpass, then your lights, in my opinion, need some work. Otherwise fog or snow becomes a real challenge.

 

[mwhals]

I don't drive with my fog lights on at night, because I HATE it when others do it to me. Fog lights should only be used in fog as their name implies.



Mark H