| Author | Message | ||
     S1owner |
Ok so I have kept my mouth shut but really people in the world need to get a clue AIM YOUR HEADLIGHTS! Really if you are on my bumper which is wrong in many ways as I have 15 cars in front of me with a farmall hauling hay in a no passing zone and I am in a lifted fj with 35" tires and you are in a sedan you should not be shinning me in the mirrors! People headlights are a maintenance item they do need aimed. If you put a lift kit it you need to re aim your headlights. If you put an hid kit in with a mod to run all lights including fog lights realize what you will do to on coming traffic if you dont aim correctly! Hid lights have a larger throw and distance and need aimed accordingly. Lighting up the entire riad for a mile is great when there is no onconing traffic but when you get hit head on because we are blinded really! | ||
| Hughlysses |
Yea, I've noticed headlights seem to be a big issue in traffic recently. My pet peeve is I believe you're supposed to use driving lights like you would high beams, yet people drive around with these things on continuously. I find I'm using the "night dimmer" thing on my rear view mirror a LOT more than I used to. The only thing worse is the people that think as long as they can see a vague outline of the road ahead of them regardless of time of day or weather conditions, they don't need to cut their lights on. | ||
| Pwnzor |
The top of my car is about the same height as the tires on a stock pickup truck. I removed my center rear-view mirror completely, and tinted all my windows far beyond legal levels. My low beams are very effective projectors, and my high intensity YELLOW high beams are my answer to oncoming traffic with HID's or several rows of broad beam LED's that don't belong on the front of a vehicle. | ||
| Tq_freak |
WOW I thought I was the only one that had this complaint. Couldn't agree more. If you want to add those giant LED lightbars to your truck / car/ what ever more power to you but DON'T USE THEM LIKE DAY TIME RUNNING LIGHTS Use them with your high beams, when no one else is around. And I have put HID's in almost everything I own but the Purple or super Blue Kelvin rating do nothing for visibility and are a giant distraction to other drivers. Pwnzor - Side note, how do you like the Yellow? I have been contemplating putting Yellow bulbs in the fog lights in my truck but have been wondering if they actually work better. | ||
| Fast1075 |
Here, we have a LOT of lifted trucks with big tires. That puts the beams directly into my mirrors. On top of that most lifted trucks have HID lights installed. Makes it completely blinding. I took my center mirror off, and adjusted by side mirrors so you have to "lean" to see behind you. That cures the problem from the rear. Hugh mentioned the people driving in twilight with no lights. That is absolutely the worst. Light colored cars are very popular here. In the twilight the horizon is blue/gray. They are nearly invisible. What catches your eye is the movement. We have a lot of old people here. A lot of wrecks happen because of the no lights idiots that aren't seen by some people. | ||
| Etennuly |
I have never understood the engineering idea behind the factory driving lights only coming on when the low beams are on. Logistically they should only be on when the high beams are lit up. It is really the only time you need them. When you click back to low beams your driving lights come on to keep the oncoming driver blinded. It seems really stupid. Of course that means they are on in busy traffic when they are absolutely no benefit to the driver. I was riding the Uly, my wife was following me home one evening where her Durango's driving lights were on, as they always are, I stopped my bike in a road side parking lot, got off walked back to her vehicle and turned off the driving lights so that I could see the road in front of me. She did not even know they were on or that they could be turned off. Such a stupid arrangement. When I was a kid in Pa if you turned on a fog or driving light with a car coming at you it would get you a ticket. This wrong way lighting programming became the norm when I lived in Florida where I asked DOT officials if it were legal and their response was that if it was factory it was legal. It will never make sense to me. I want and need more light when the high beams are on, not the low beams.  | ||
| Njloco |
Head lights, HID, I'm installing laser's along with strobe lights front and back, I'm installing a laser on my helmet so, when I look at someone they definitely see me ! I've been thinking about this for a week and a half while sitting here with broken ribs, broken wrist, scrapped up knees after some f__king idiot said she didn't see me and , made a turn right in front of me ! Oh I guess the headlight low beam on, on a bright red bike, with me wearing a bright yellow helmet, yellow black and white leather jacket, wasn't enough. Oh, it was a sunny day @ 3:00 PM with the Sun in the southern sky, I was coming east and the moron was facing west. I'm also putting the brightest lights I can on the truck, I have a schedule 40 pipe bumper on it and plan on using it........ for trees that is. No vehicles between us, I saw her from 300yds away | ||
| Sifo |
I saw a pickup last week with a LED light bar mounted in front of the grill. Talk about blinding! This was just outside of town at the beginning of rush hour. Lots of people getting blinded that morning. | ||
| Greg_e |
How many people with lifted trucks lower the lights back down to the legal limit or lower? Yes there is a maximum height in most states and no most lifted things do not comply. So before you guys with lifted vehicles start venting, I simply ask, are you complying? The two things that bother me the most in my practical vehicle are HID conversions (illegal here), and lifted vehicles with lights far higher than legally allowed. OK 3 things, the jack holes with lifted trucks running HID and LED driving lights all the time, these jerks deserve to crash in a big way. One must also consider the difference between fog lights and driving lights, and also the difference between SAE/DOT type accepted and illegal (for road use) beam shapes. People gave me no end of grief when I went through such painstaking work to improve the lights on my 9R with real DOT legal lighting, most said I was stupid and should just jam some HID in there. Yes this is fairly heated topic with me because I'm tired of jerk offs blinding me. (Message edited by Greg_E on November 18, 2016) | ||
| S1owner |
Also add that fog lights do no good when aimed up they are put low on the vehicle and have that kind of power so it lights up the road if they are aimed up you light up the fog making it harder to see! Glad to see others agree I have no issues with bright lights ained correctly. Had hid on my buell but aimed correctly for the beam. When I leveled my crew cab I reained the lights! I work with a guy that put the hid in and the dual headlight mod thought he was cool would not listen so me and one of our class a drivers put him in the cab of the semi and put his truck out 40-50 ft he could not see so we asked how he would feel having an 80,000 pound 18 wheeler hit him just because he is cool! | ||
| Ratbuell |
Fog light: low, short (top to bottom), wide beam. To be used with low beam headlights. Focus should be BELOW the main headlight beam (point your car at a garage door to check). Designed to light the road (ONLY the roadway) in poor visibility conditions because they are low, and won't reflect off the rain/fog in front of you. Driving light: looks like a fog light but a pencil beam output. To be used with high beams for extra distance visibility. Daytime running lights - will be our downfall. Dumbasses think "my lights are on"...but THERE ARE NO TAILLIGHTS. Automakers need to add taillights to the DRL circuit or simply say "•••• it" and put auto headlights on everything. High beams - need to be turned OFF whenever there is another car in sight. Front or rear, if you can see em...TURN OFF THE HIGH BEAMS. Lately there's been a trend here (Maryland) of people leaving them on with they're on the other side of a divided highway. As if that makes them less blinding. I've done e-code conversions on my Daytona and my XJ Cherokee. With HID lamps. Properly focused. I never get flashed, I don't blind anyone, and I can see. Same for the HID and LED conversions on the bikes. I also added a 12" LED bar to my '14 grand Cherokee...switched with the high beams. Done properly, lighting upgrades are just that. Upgrades. Done wrong? They're a threat to other vehicles. | ||
| Airbozo |
Hey S1, what year FJ? Cruiser or old style? I have a friend that got so upset with the fools running up on him with brights, he installed an airplane landing light on the back of his truck. Amazing how fast they shut down the brights when he flips that thing on. Highly illegal though. | ||
| 86129squids |
Hey all, slightly off-topic but not really: My GF has a '99 Solara, with those super-crappy stock plastic headlights that glaze over like Homer's donuts- HORRIBLE lights, just barely adequate. I'm thinking of sourcing some small, maybe less than coffee cup diameter LED's, and cutting them into her front plastic grille just inside the stockers. Been looking at several ADV type bikes with light farkles, trying to decide what's best. Can't find any <good> stock replacements, so this is the best I can think of. Any ideas? Thanks! | ||
| S1owner |
2007 fj love it Squids You can get projector kits with brackets you just use the templat and cut the hole and itvall fits right in the ones I had were fully adjustable. | ||
| S1owner |
Exactly Rat!!!! | ||
| Reepicheep |
Properly aimed headlights (even on a motorcycle) protect that vehicle. Blinding and stressing the crap out of oncoming traffic that is dealing with who knows what else isn't making you safer. I've thought seriously about putting something pointing backwards on my car that is basically a mirror or light back in a tube that will only impact people behind me with &*^&&* headlight aiming or mods. If you meet code (and common courtesy) about cutoff and aim, you wouldn't see anything. If you slapped the uber-hid kit in, or never bothered to aim your headlights, and you are lighting up the back of my head with 1000 watts, you get some kind of brain piercing 1000 lumen 1/2" square that will stay burned in your retina for the next hour. Because &^^% you too. But I won't. Because I am not an jerk like they are. Probably. :/ | ||
| Tq_freak |
Squids Get some of the Novis polish. Same stuff you use on XB plastics. Will fix those headlights pretty quick. Use to do it on the Mrs Old WJ Jeep Grand Cherokee about once a year to kill the haze | ||
| Airbozo |
"2007 fj love it" My friend has the same year and loves it as well and he is normally a dodge truck guy. Mines a '75 FJ40. Great truck, but a little bad on gas. Speaking of headlights, the new lights I got for the FJ40 do not have the coating on the bulb, so they shine back out of the hood vents. I second the Novis polish. Made the lenses on my old mustang look brand new. | ||
| Wolfridgerider |
The LED headlights are so bright I stopped using them on my morning commute to work. but I love them!   | ||
| Aesquire |
They make headlight polishing kits with a foam ball for an electric drill w/polish. Takes some time but worth it. I run yellow head light in my Cyclone. Luminetics 55/100.... technically off road only but the low beam is legal as is yellow in NY. Aimed properly. I get flashed back all the time when trucks are running low beams plus "should be used with high beams only" spots. Morons. Simple courtesy is in short supply. But it's not dead. You can still use your good judgment and be nice. I used to adjust my inside rear view mirror to shine straight back. Takes a second car and a few minutes of work. Pretty sure that takes me out of nice guy territory so I don't anymore. | ||
| Fast1075 |
I've thought of making a mirror polished stainless steel cover for my tailgate, but nahhhh. | ||
| Bandm |
http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/chinese-driver s-are-scaring-off-people-who-abuse-their-high-beam s-with-creepy-decals/ar-AAksKtW?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=sp artanntp | ||
| Aesquire |
I was running Hela Quartz halogen lights before they were legal for road use in the U.S. On my Dodge van, so I already had an altitude advantage, and a sense of responsibility about not tailgating short cars. Because.... courtesy. The reason the lights I used back then were illegal was they didn't have the aiming bumps on the lenses. So I had to actually do the math and aim them properly with marks on the garage door & a level car. Leveled using clear plastic tubing & water.... I suspect the only reason the neighbors didn't seem to notice is they never had a clue what was coming out of my garage next. Hang glider? Ultralight? a go-kart with a Kawasaki 750 triple motorcycle engine that went over 100? ( that one almost got me arrested..... we tested it in an empty mall parking lot on Sunday morning and I had circled the mall and returned to the gas station next door, parked, and removed my helmet before I heard the sirens. The gas station owner told me to come look, and the mall had 3 police cars racing around looking for me. The crew at the station were laughing like mad... apparently I had just put my foot in it and instantly had a cop behind me... losing ground and sanity as the kart walked away from him. One of the crew at the garage ( they specialized in English cars & sponsored a Formula Ford car ) bought the kart on the spot. I was happy to see it go. Beat the daylights out of me and reality was simply a blur. Fastest I've ever been 2 inches off the ground. ) I did learn to be courteous and polite running illegal headlamps. One time I was annoyed at an oncoming car and flashed my brights.... and he flashed back. We were both running the same rig and it was like a visual bomb went off... you could see dust motes in the air. Back to low beams and a chagrined wave from both parties as we passed. I did have my reasons for better lighting. I live in serious deer country, and worked second shift. As a buddy in the 'hood who would wait for me to come home to share some beer after work put it.."I know it's you when the sun rises in the South at 12:20 am. " Running the Taconic State Parkway at 3:00 am with zero traffic and high beams was scary as heck... thousands of deer. Common sense isn't. But it should be. | ||
| S1owner |
I love my fj. Had lifted crew cabs for years these are way better! | ||
| Torquehd |
Nowadays, "kids" like to lift and "level" their trucks, which is really not level, as the rear end of the truck is a little lower than the front. 1. it looks stupid 2. it aims headlights way higher 3. the hood obstructs everything in the parking lot. My pickup was that way when I bought it and I hated it until i finally corrected the orientation to where the front fender height is 3" lower than rear. I used to get folks flashing their brights at me fairly often. No one has flashed their brights at me since i fixed it, and my parking lot field of view is immensely better. I also hate this trend of running 12 trillion lumen light bars in town. Saw one just today in fact. I have a laser pointer that requires tinted glasses for the operator (when it's pointed away from you). If you don't wear them, you get a headache and a blind spot for the rest of the day.... I can't imagine what that thing would do if you were on the receiving end. no... i'm not that mean. Maybe a stupid bright handheld LED spot light would be good for countermeasures... | ||
| Pwnzor |
Side note, how do you like the Yellow? I'm very pleased with them... My fog lights are the stock clear/white color. My low beams are Silverstar Ultra bulbs in the stock projector housings, and my high beams are PIAA yellow bulbs. The yellow bulbs really throw a lot of light, and are very good at getting attention. On these dark Georgia roads, they do a very good job. Getting rid of my center rear view mirror has done more to improve my driving experience than any other modification to this car so far. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Forgot to mention, I also run yellow fogs in my Grand Cherokee (2500k) and Ram 2500 (3000k). The Ram lights are so dinky and basically worthless for light output (especially with the Sport headlight upgrade and 4300k HID low beams)...I've wired them as DRL's. If the key is on...the fogs are on. Don't do squat for what I see out the windshield...but do a lot for other cars seeing my silver truck, especially in gray conditions or mottled sunlight through tree cover. My Grand Cherokee? Love them. Factory HID headlights in "true daylight" factory color. Everything looked flat through the windshield. Then I swapped in the amber fogs and there is now a ton of depth with the lighting. Like when I do stage lighting - two different lights from two different angles throw two different shadows. Make those two different lights two different colors? The shadows of one light take on the color of the opposite light, giving HUGE depth perception. Strongly recommend going to amber fogs for anyone out there. Added bonus is, amber cuts through fog and rain better than white. So...they WORK better. | ||
| Aesquire |
The yellow light on my Cyclone work fine. I lose a little sharpness in detail, but it's fine since I have enough photons going out to illuminate well. ( stock S3 headlight bucket ) Most improved is my visibility to others. Yellow is unexpected, and makes people look twice. I'm still invisible to cars, but other bike riders see me instantly. You're just plain invisible on a bike for psych reasons. That's why the "left turn in front of you" accident is the #1 car/bike crash. Every one of those accidents is with a non-riding person. A person who doesn't really know anyone who rides. You are not an object listed in their Universe. They may look right at you but their brain does not process the image into meaning. Don't be fooled. You are invisible. The opposite of that is easy to point out. Ever buy a new to you brand or model of car? Then you notice every other same model/brand on the road, when a week before they all blended together without you caring? Same thing. Just the other way kills you. | ||
| Firemanjim |
Rat, that is a peeve of mine as well. Took me awhile to figure this out as I drive older vehicles, but after the wife got a new car it hit me. All these newer vehicles light up the dash like the fourth of July when the key is on, not like it used to be, you had to turn your headlights on to light the dash. Now I see dolts all the time driving at night or on a nice rainy day and they have NO tail lights showing, going to get them killed!! | ||
| Aesquire |
My Dodge Caravan has what a buddy calls the "White rings of death" on the dash. I just adjust the interior brightness as needed. Most cars you can find a happy spot that lets you read what you need ( speed, cruise control status ) and still have minimal interior light for maximum pupil diameter. The Dodge needs tweaking from light to full dark, and the default lights out setting is stupidly bright white backlit twin circles. It'd be easy to see why you'd think your lights were on when they aren't. |
