Headlights, driving lights, a rant!!!

[Neal]

Please keep it friendly among all. We are all here to enjoy the RV Life and get away from the stresses of life and enjoy the journey in both RVing and life. If you can't post a friendly reply it's best to just avoid responding and stay out of the conversation.

Thanks all...resume FRIENDLY discussion.

 

[rvkev]

The approiate post. Cheers Neal!

 

[Bigblockyeti]

Ignorance is bliss.

There are regulations and those tasked with enforcing them usually have better things to do. I'm not advocating annual inspections but for some, it should be a thing. Either because they are clueless how to operate & maintain the 7000 weapon they daily drive or have modified it to be more dangerous to them and everyone else on the road. When I lived in OH, we only had smog inspections to make the EPA feel better about themselves and eventually it became free (taxpayer funded). I feel for the LEOs, underpaid and overworked so why would they bother with a squatted truck having headlights aimed to hit billboards when the driver has a 99% chance of giving them attitude.

I would bet 99.9% of new vehicles are going through QC checks that do in fact have the headlights aimed where they're supposed to be. Bouncing down poorly or non-maintained roads or having bubba install the latest, greatest 18" lift kit are both likely to keep the headlights aimed somewhere other than they were from the factory.

At some point the government (at some level) has to step in, if it were purely wild west, you could just shoot out the lights of the offending high beam driver, it's not. Their ignorance, incompetence or arrogance unfortunately need protection along with those who weren't put on this earth to be a burden to society.

 

[Knobs]

My uncle was a professional photographer back in the old days of flash bulbs and mostly 2 lane roads. He generally had his on-location photo equipment with him in the car. He had a very large flash reflector unit that used very large flash bulbs he kept loaded, ready, and sitting on the front seat.

You can guess the rest.

 

[GypsyR]

We have no passenger vehicle inspections anymore in SC so headlights are just any which way. Bonus is that everything around me is a rolling hill, all of it. So headlight aiming issues aren't helped by that. Long ago I worked at a place or two and did headlight aiming as part of inspections. I still aim mine in my personal vehicles. I don't personally know of anyone else who does around here.

As much as I hate being blinded by bright lights I've given up flashing my lights at people. Sometimes the result is: "Oh, you think my lights are bright? Allow me to show you my REAL bright lights!" Some quite literally make my eyeballs hurt they're so bright. I've no answer to this but grumbling. I still have my pretty good night vision and rarely use high beams. All my vehicles but one have the older halogen "yellowish" headlights. Even with told yellow lights on low beam someone flashed at ME the other night. They were coming up a hill while I was going down. I hated to think I was blinding someone but really there was no more I could do short of changing to old non-halogen sealed beams or something.

Something I've decided we have to live with. But what REALLY chapped my butt was I rented a brand new Honda Pilot last year with autodimming headlights. Driving around low rolling hills on the edge of prairieland I had people flashing me left and right. Though I could see their cars coming like two hills ahead of time, the car didn't recognize them as oncoming until right up on them and blinding them. At one point I even pulle dto the side to try and figure out how to dim the lights manually. Nothing. No way to do so, the controls just aren't there. Later I called my daughter who owns last year's model and asked her. She said she thought there there was something down in some settings somewhere but she could never find it.

Ticked me off no end. Here blinding people is a pet peeve of mine and I'm doing it to others with no way of stopping it short of just parking it for the night. I hated that car. For other reasons too. My wife will roll her eyes and say "OMG, don't get him started on that rental car."