re: Fog/aux lights blinding oncoming traffic

[C1J1Miller@aol.com]

What, no lighting engineers jumping into this thread?
Several people have posted about "aiming low" for fog/aux lights.  Yes, aiming
is much appreciated; however, these lights are not lasers, and are not as
sharp a cutoff as say eurolights.  Typically, lowbeams are aimed low, not into
the eyes of oncoming traffic, yet they seriously degrade the vision of
oncoming traffic.  By having a second pair of lights on the car, you are
further degrading oncoming traffic's vision.  Think of high beams: in addition
to presenting a pattern focused further down the road, they are a second set
of lights (or filaments).  Remember that these aux. lights are only about a
foot lower than the headlights.

So, if you throw on 45 watt lows x2, then throw on 45 watt fogs/aux
lows/driving lights/whatever, you are throwing twice as much light on the
road, _and_ presenting twice the point-source light.  Sure, you see better,
but the oncoming traffic sees worse.  Solution?  dim/turn off your extra
lights for oncoming traffic, whether they are fogs, high beams, or whatever.

If your DOT lamps are lousy, then buy euros, and aim them properly.  If that's
too pricey, then buy aux. low beams, and turn them off for oncoming traffic.
Don't overdo the wattage in the older model's DOT lights; you'll just throw
more scattered light, and blind _everybody_.

 You say no one ever flashes you? that could be because they didn't want to
blind the guy in front/behind you with their high beams.  And don't drive
right behind someone with the extra lights going; usually the side and rear
mirrors pick up the light from these extra lights quite well.
rant mode off, chris miller, windham nh, c1j1miller@aol.com