| Author | Message | ||
     Torquehd |
I'd like to know WTF happened with headlights. In my formative years of driving (20 years ago), you seldom saw oncoming traffic with their brights on. And on the rare chance you did, a simple flash of the brights and they'd switch to low beams right away. Nowadays, every single time I drive at night I see folks driving with their high beams on. And I know it's high beams, not projectors or LEDs or HID's because the normal low beam, on the outboard side of the light housing is off, and the smaller high-beam side of the headlight housing, on the inboard side, is projecting the light. Nowadays, you flash your brights at people, and it's like they have no idea that you even exist. I'm willing to bet for every 20 times I flash my brights, I'll get 1 person who realizes, "oh crap, my brights are on, sorry about that", and switches back to low beam. What on earth has happened to humanity!? What grinds your gears? | ||
| Jaimec |
Maybe they used to drive a Subaru? My 2018 model automatically dims the high beams if it detects an oncoming car. Honestly, modern cars do so much for the driver it's no wonder drivers seem to SUCK these days. It's like they assume the car will do everything for them. When I drive my wife's Toyota I have to remember to turn on the headlights and lock the doors. How did we EVER survive? | ||
| Rick_a |
Standard headlights aren't that far off from high beams, either, nowadays. The light pattern is just more diffused. It's annoying to have someone turn off their brights just to still be hit in the face with a high intensity LED. | ||
| Crusty |
Don't worry; in another decade or so, the cars will be driving themselves and everybody will be a passenger. Then, they'll be able to text to their hearts content and not even have to look at the road. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Drug use/drinking while driving. They legalized pot here in the People's Republic of Massachussetts. This means that everyone just drives around smoking up out in the open. Just this morning on the way to work at a light a skank in an beat old car missing a sidemirror was toking up with shaking hands right next to me in a light. The high beam thing is true too. Around here, you can blast them back with your highbeams and often, they will just leave theirs on all the way past you. | ||
| Sifo |
MI has a law against flashing your lights at another driver. Seldom see it done. There seems to be too many people who get off-road lights on their truck/car/minivan/etc. and use them on the road. I really hate that. There's a minivan near by that has a full width light bar above the windshield. Idiot thinks it's a good idea to have it on going down the road. I've learned where he lives. I'm temped to walk over there some night and "fix" it for him. | ||
| Etennuly |
On this subject.....who is the ass hat that made the decision to not only allow driving lights on into traffic, but made it a normal part of night driving to blind on coming traffic with a wall of light?! On twisty secondary roads in Tenn I get them switching down from two high beams to four led low beam/driving lights. Cannot see anything in drizzle rain dark nights, but worse, I cannot see in the dark for the next few minutes. I have always focused my eyes to the stripe on my right, now I'm forced to close one eye to regain any night vision after they have gone. With some jacked up trucks it'd be better to just leave the hi beams on! | ||
| Thumper74 |
I saw a Grand Cherokee at the bank, bone stock, highway tread tires, etc. with a huge light bar on the back. Had it have been offroad oriented (lift, bumpers, tires, etc.) I wouldn't have questioned it. I asked the lady driving it and she said it was for tail gaters... | ||
| Dwardo |
They are the same douche nozzles who squat in the passing lane and can't maintain their speed within 10 mph. These can often be observed driving with their high beams on. I deal with these things every, every, every day on my brutal commute. It gets my blood pressure up even thinking about it. They either have no idea there is anybody else on the road, or they don't care. | ||
| Tootal |
The other day I had the same situation. High beams on so I flashed him. Nothing. Flashed again, Nothing. I hit the brights and left them on. Nothing. I looked at the jerk as he passed and it was a State Trooper!! So much for serving and protecting! | ||
| Ebutch |
Lock Her-Up  Lazie dems  Creepy joe  (Message edited by ebutch on July 01, 2019) | ||
| 86129squids |
It grinds my gears that every thread on BW jumps the shark and goes political. Geez. Surprise, surprise! Ed hates lefties. I bet if he were left-handed he'd cut that hand off. It doesn't grind my gears so much that some folks are so politically polarized, it just saddens me. Caught the last bit of SNL the other night, gawd the "music" was SO not music, just a lyrical diatribe. I miss the Akroyd/Belushi/Martin days so bad... SNL once was the gold standard for comedy. Oh well. Ahem. Back OT, what grinds my gears is the sheer, average, common idiocy of today's drivers. Today's the first day of Tennessee's new law banning hand-held phone use... I'm underwhelmingly hopeful. Always keep your eyes on where the car's tracking in its lane- that's a tell if it's an idiot. Another gear grinder- my neighbor's dogs. If they're outside one barks constantly, the other one squeaks/shrieks. Chick said they were getting bark collars, yeah, sure. There's a reason I chose a Basenji for my dog, yeppers. | ||
| Jaimec |
OFFS. I knew someone was going to stick some idiotic political meme in here. Bye now. PS: You realize that Hillary has been investigated for damn near THREE DECADES and they haven't found anything? Meanwhile, the SHITSTAIN in the White House is guilty of MULTIPLE CRIMES but the complicit, corrupt Republican Party won't life a finger to remove him from office. #•••••••••• | ||
| Crusty |
...Meanwhile, the SHITSTAIN in the White House is guilty of MULTIPLE CRIMES ... Obama's not in the White House any more. To get back on topic, Idiots with cell phones grind my gears. (Message edited by Crusty on July 01, 2019) | ||
| Pwnzor |
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| Pwnzor |
What else grinds my gears? People so blind as will not see. | ||
| Etennuly |
Back on topic......  .....my SO has a Jeep Cherokee, 2015 I believe. The lights are properly aimed. This thing has LED DTRs that are on all of the time, LED driving lights, that we had a hell of a time finding the off switch for, and super brite LED headlights that matters little on high or low beam. She was behind me one evening, totally blinding me in my mirrors, at a safe normal distance. Super brite white lights. I pulled over mad that she might have the hi beams on. Not so. It was just the SIX ••••••• LEDs, a virtual wall of light. Why the hell do those super brite ••••••• go off when the hi beams come on......you know.....when you actually need them an nobody is suffering because of it. When I lived in Pa., into my mid twenties, if you had driving lights or fog lights on while a car was in sight of you, front, rear,and even coming out of a side road, $50 fine. State Troopers really hammered my buddies on this. I never ran them because of it. | ||
| Glitch |
What Grinds My Gears Ann's best friend is married to a fella that has seizures because of a car accident years ago. He's on meds that work, but he don't wanna take them regularly. In April he had a seizure at the wheel. He totaled their van, and five other cars in the process. Thank God no one was hurt very badly. Once the word came out this had happened, everyone looks at me! I'm on the meds as him, and take them religiously. I've not had a seizure in over a year. Why oh why do they think I'm now due for a seizure? The only recourse I could think of was to get my license, answer their condescending questions about my issues. Success! I'm now endorsed to drive and ride! If only it had not been Ann's best friend! Now I've just got to be patient and not lose my cool, when I suggest maybe I'll drive knowing I'll get "that look." City driving? I can live without that, but I'm only in the city twice a week. Baby steps, I know. But this whole saga includes nearly everyone. Dan (Kdan) and Phil (Smokescreen) are supportive. But my one and only, still gives me "that look." That's what grinds my gears. Next time I drive, I'll make it a point to bitch about headlights, they piss me off too. Remember when they were headlamps? Ah the good ol' days. | ||
| 86129squids |
Oh My God!!! Dave Hare, we will ride again!!! THAT is the best news I've heard in a LOONG time, I'm sure you feel the same +1000. YEEHAAA!!! OK, this thread has officially gone from "grinding gears" to a frickin' CVT transmission, with awesome sauce! Well, dangit, that reminds me that my Beemer still has grinding gears. Better fix that before too long. BuelltoberFest will be here before we know it!  | ||
| Aesquire |
Back in the ancient days of yore, ( 1970's ) I had illegal euro-spec quartz halogen headlights on my van. Aimed, properly. ( they didn't have the aiming bumps required on U.S. olde school sealed beam lamps. So I did it myself. With levels & tapes ) With great power, comes great responsibility. ( Stan Lee ) One day I was going down a road, and was annoyed by the oncoming car's lights, so I hit my high beams ( illegal 55/100 watt bulbs ) at the same time the oncoming car did the same. We both were apparently running the same setup, as the explosion of photons illuminated every bug in the air between us like a movie special effect... or an atomic bomb test film. Lights dimmed, we drove past each other with sheepish waves, and I, at least, learned to be a little less quick on the trigger. Unfortunately the concept of power & responsibility seems limited to actual human beings and the world is full of NPCs. | ||
| 86129squids |
Hey Dave. It can't not grind your gears that Ann worries. She lived through what happened to you. Can't blame her at all for giving you "that look". Sorry to hear about her BF's guy, but he made his choices, you make yours. FWIW, we've added a 3rd pill to my dog Rocky's regimen. He's now on phenobarbitol, potassium bromide, and gabapentin. Plus CBD oil. We don't like "Mr. Flinchy", I'm sure you and Ann feel the same way.  | ||
| Ourdee |
With great power, comes great responsibility. ( Stan Lee ) I try to be slow with the brights on Lil Red. I have them aimed pretty good. I try looking to the right when the other person has loud lights. Someone decided to bright light me in my neighborhood (30 mph). I pulled in the flash to pass button. 8,000 lumens lit up the red in their eyes. It looked like a scifi scene in the car. | ||
| Whisperstealth |
Man oh man can I empathize with the WAY too bright headlight issue. It seems to get worse as time goes by. Mostly, I think too many people just don't care about anybody but themselves. Part of it is getting older and losing visual acuity at night, but A-holes with super bright set ups sure don't help. | ||
| Torquehd |
Another thing that grinds my gears is not being able to see when I back up at night. Having tinted windows and a big truck adds to the challenge. I have some LED spots back there now that do a decent job however. I also don't like poor wiring jobs. When I was 16 I put some fog lights on my pickup. My dad took my truck to town and on something in my wiring shorted to ground and filled the cab with smoke. He knew I hadn't put a fuse anywhere in the circuit so he popped the hood and ripped the wire off the positive terminal. Nowadays, I really enjoy building good quality wiring harnesses. Fuses, shrink tube, high quality crimp tools, and weather pack connectors. I helped a neighbor diagnose a wiring problem on his LED light bar, and his connections were all the cheap Oreilly's plastic-insulated-crimp connectors that you just smash with those crappy crimp tools and hope the wires don't pull right back out. It hurts my head to see that kind of wiring work now. I don't like how, on modern trucks, you can't find ignition power to tap into under the dash. Seems like modern wiring is all controlled by computers that connect the grounds to make circuits work, instead of sending power to the unit when you flip the switch or turn the key. Yet another thing that I hate is hearing my dogs bark. For some reason it doesn't bother me as much when it's someone else's dog. | ||
| Torquehd |
These things suck.  However, they can be useful if you pull off the plastic "insulation", use a good quality crimp tool, and shrink tube when done. For everything except ring terminals, shrink tube should cover the entire length of the female connector and most of the male connector so that, when connected, there's no way it could short up against something else metal. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Those connectors are fine, it's that crimping tool that sucks... I'll assume that's what you meant. Heat shrink tube 1000% GLITCH RIDES AGAIN!!!!  | ||
| Froggy |
Do you know what grinds my gears? Worn syncros. | ||
| Hootowl |
Ba dum bum  | ||
| Fresnobuell |
God bless the SHitstain. Signed, white middle class. | ||
| Rick_a |
What really grinds my gears is... When divorce terms are written up as everything she asked for...and she still contests them... When people think it's okay to use the local shooting range as their suicide pad... When people driving painfully slow tap the brakes entering corners that they really don't need to go any slower through... When the girlfriend visits work, and a coworker thinks he'll impress her with juvenile penis jokes... When your motorcycle still leaks after disassembling and resealing everything that's leaking... When the domestic abusing felon stepson moves back in as soon as the pending ex husband has moved out... When "letting loose" out dancing with the significant other means their grinding with every nearby stranger while being expected to happily watch. Women and their double standards.  Those currently top my list. |
