ShropsBri:
Personally I like to see as far in front as possible and unless your lights are high then it’s main beam for me.
Take the other night for instance coming down the A519 from the M6 to Telford,following a wagon doing 30 mph on dip.Now I know it’s narrow in places and it gets tight but this geezer was doing it everywhere.A bit of main beam and he could have seen what was coming up.
I have followed trucks doing 30mph in daylight with clear skys
Have you thought about an eye test?
ShropsBri:
Personally I like to see as far in front as possible and unless your lights are high then it’s main beam for me.
Take the other night for instance coming down the A519 from the M6 to Telford,following a wagon doing 30 mph on dip.Now I know it’s narrow in places and it gets tight but this geezer was doing it everywhere.A bit of main beam and he could have seen what was coming up.
I have followed trucks doing 30mph in daylight with clear skys
Have you thought about an eye test?
I’m trying to get you,really I am…
Try following me one day, be prepared to lose your profoajdjwnal driver status as I will show you how to do 56mph on a SC with dipped beam
Hope you’ve got at least sidelights on whilst writing that,mind you,if we drove with no lights on then we could see if anything is coming the other way.
ShropsBri:
Hope you’ve got at least sidelights on whilst writing that,mind you,if we drove with no lights on then we could see if anything is coming the other way.
Thats another reason why i drive with dipped beam, i can make use of all of the road as i can see if anything is coming the other way long before they come into view, I spend most of my time on SC so it helps alot.
Mostly the other way about for me, i’m being flashed by lorries and buses when I’m in my car who they think I have my full beam on when its only stock/standard bulbs in the headlights.
Sam Millar:
Mostly the other way about for me, i’m being flashed by lorries and buses when I’m in my car who they think I have my full beam on when its only stock/standard bulbs in the headlights.
Yeah but have you got some fat chicks in the back, if not, why not?
Grayham:
It does annoy me when you see an oncoming car waiting til the last minute to switch to dipped beam, I’m not sure if it’s because some new cars have lights that dip automatically when sensing oncoming lights, and might take a few seconds longer to react, but as soon as I see lights approaching I switch mine down so it can’t be that hard.
Sometimes I wish I had a few rows of spotlights to blast em with
Depends on what circumstances you mean by “last minute”.
On a long straight level road I go from main (or high) beam to dipped beam almost as soon as I see a vehicle coming in the opposite direction, unless its a very long straight.
On a windy road, I wait until the last second before going to dipped beam. Just before I can see the other vehicles lights appearing around the bend.
On a hill, I do virtually the same thing as on a windy road, wait until just before I can see the other vehicles lights appear.
I’m not dazzling anyone and I can see anything on the road in front of me.
I don’t think you can see clearly enough on a windy, single carriageway, country road to drive on dipped beam. And due to the glare from my own lights on high beam hiding the little bit of glare from yours on dipped beam, I frequently don’t see a vehicle on dipped beam approaching, so don’t go to dipped beam quickly enough not to dazzle them for a moment. The same applies if they go to dipped beam the moment they see the glare from my high beam approaching some distance away. I may not have noticed the glare from their high beam before they switch to dipped beam and the glare from mine hides the bit of glare from theirs.
On duals and motorways it’s very rare that I switch to high beam lights at all. There is usually plenty of light to see enough, from all the other vehicles about. If there’s nothing around, I do switch to high beam, but that’s usually only for a minute or so.
There is a reason for having high and dipped beam lights fitted. It’s so you can go to dipped beam to avoid dazzling other road users. High beam is to increase the amount of detail or distance you can see.
It isn’t clever to drive around on the road at night with reduced visibility, its plain ■■■■■■■ stupid.
High intensity rear fog lights should be used in the same way. Even in thick fog, there is no point in having bright rear fog lights on if there is a car close behind you. They are there so you show up to other road users at a distance, in fog.
Reading through the pages of the NY drivers manual (highway code) it advises drivers to drive on high beams untill any vehicle travelling in the opposite direction gets within 500 feet of you… yeah right after you have blinded them.
The same book also sugests you drive in the middle lane on 3 lane highways FFS
What about all the foreign trucks coming over here and dazzling us because they haven’t adjusted their headlights. ■■? That could be another item on the VOSA checklist when they pull Johnny Foreigner.
Trukkertone:
What about all the foreign trucks coming over here and dazzling us because they haven’t adjusted their headlights. ■■? That could be another item on the VOSA checklist when they pull Johnny Foreigner.
fuse:
Yes getting worse, what about that stupid practice of putting a flashing beacon on a low loader.
Yeah, this boils my ■■■■, the amount of trucks driving round with amber beacons blazing when they don’t need them.
All this does is cheapen their effect, there’s now that many of them that people don’t take any notice of them anymore.
As for using main beams on the motorway… WHY?
What’s the driver expecting to happen? An unexpected cattle grid perhaps, or a tight corner? Maybe a level crossing coming up they didn’t know about?
What i’ve noticed a lot of lately, is driving down a road with no streetlights, then the car coming in the opposite direction dips his lights, but once he sees you are in a truck, he pops the main beam back on. Do they think it doesnt affect us?
Sam Millar, has your motor got a control on the dash to alter the height/angle of the headlights? My Shoggie Sport is set to 2 notches down from the highest setting (Funnily I could see better than when it was on top setting). My last car I changed a bulb and found it “Pigeon spotting” even on dip. Took it out and put it back in carefully, end of problem.
Yes, too many Bosnian Motorbikes on the roads nowadays.
Whats the crack with driving on side lights only? Especially in fog?
Trukkertone:
What about all the foreign trucks coming over here and dazzling us because they haven’t adjusted their headlights. ■■? That could be another item on the VOSA checklist when they pull Johnny Foreigner.
I know, I was constantly getting flashed by vehicles coming the other way when I was in Europe for the very same reason. Unfortunetely there is no adjustment switch and its not practical by any stretch of the imagination to manually adjust them on each and every crossing of the Channel.
SmashedCrabFace:
I was following a dried up, crusty old wench down a winding single carriageway road the other night. She kept putting her main beam on everytime she approached a corner, just a flash to look at the corner and then off again. It was like she was scared to have them on for more than a second incase they set the car on fire.
Trukkertone:
What about all the foreign trucks coming over here and dazzling us because they haven’t adjusted their headlights. ■■? That could be another item on the VOSA checklist when they pull Johnny Foreigner.
And vice versa. I seem to be the only one who adjust my headlights when going over the water. When I am putting my blindings on them, I can often hear some abusive comments…
As we are on adjustments: I bet that most of the car drivers don’t know that they have this switch to adjust headlight position when loaded…
cieranc:
As for using main beams on the motorway… WHY?
What’s the driver expecting to happen? An unexpected cattle grid perhaps, or a tight corner? Maybe a level crossing coming up they didn’t know about?
Or maybe debris from blown truck tire? Or someones lost bicycle? Or roofbox?
All three happened to me. Thats why I am using main beam whenever possible, provifing that I am not dazzling anyone.
I’m with Orys on this one. Have had the roof box experience myself.
Also a good friend & workmate of mine,who admitted he always thought people who used main beam on motorways were plonkers, had a mind changing experience about 4 years ago on new year’s morning. On the M42 he saw what he thought was a dead badger/muntjac or similar in the road,90kms on the cruise,drifts right to miss it when it stood up to reveal it was a teenage girl lying in the motorway,she stepped across into his line & his evasive action saw him miss her but end up on his side on the embankment.
She ran off & was found later by the police on cctv. She’d had a row with her family & decided to end it all,luckily for her she was unsuccesful.
To quote my friend, “if I’d had my main beam on I’d have realised much earlier & stopped”
After reading this thread yesterday I did an experiment last night on an unlit section of the M5. On dipped beam the rough distance I could see clearly lit ahead was about 1 second travelling time at 90kph,on main beam between 3 & 4 seconds,bear in mind the 2 second rule.
I await copious amounts of abuse
