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As some here may know, my wife lives and works out of state and as such, I log a good number of highway miles every year. More than half of which are at night, so I come face to face with a LOT of other cars, trucks and drivers. One thing I've noticed, is that resently, there are a lot of cars and trucks with fog lights.

More and more auto makers are including fog lights as a standard on their cars and trucks. The big problem is that MOST people don't know how, or when, to use them properly, or even how they work.

High Beam lights, are aimed straight ahead of the vehicle, and parallel to the ground. While they are great for lighting the road in front of you, they have 2 draw backs. They blind on coming drivers, and in fog or heavy snow or rain, they reflect back to blind you.

Low Beam lights, are aimed down at an angle toward the road. While they don't blind anybody, they also don't do as good of a job at lighting the road.

Fog Lights, just like the High Beam lights, are aimed straight ahead and parallel to the ground. These lights work better than High or Low Beam lights in Fog and Snow and heavy Rain, because they are lower to the road and don't reflect back into the eyes of the driver. They do, however, still blind on coming traffic if there is no fog, snow or rain to diffuse their light.

I have no doubt that the members of this board are a courteous bunch. I've seen time and time again, how we come to the aid of others in need. I also know that if any of us were driving down a road at night, and saw an on coming vehicle, that we would quickly dim our head lights, from High Beam to Low Beam. That's a wonderful thing.

HOWEVER, did you know, that on cars and trucks with factory installed fog lights, if your Fog Lights are turned on, as soon as you dim your lights to Low Beam, the Fog Lights automatically come on? In this case, even a driver courteous enough to dim their lights, would still be blinding the driver coming towards them. This can be extremely dangerous on a dark, winding 2 lane road in the middle of the night, as well as a little rude.

PLEASE!!!! If you have a vehicle with Fog Lights, keep them turned off unless it's Foggy, Snowy, or Rainy. No one WANTS to be thought ill of, and I know that I tend to think ill of other drivers who, either through rudeness, ignorance or carelessness, blind me with their fog lights.

As a driver, who drives at night, a lot, I'm writting this to help educate those out there who may not be aware of this situation. I know that niether the auto makers, nor dealers are doing anything to educate their customers as to the proper and courteous use of these lights, so it's up to us. Please pass this on to friends and relatives you may have, who own vehicles with fog lights, if for no other reason than to keep others from thinking ill of them.

Thank you all for your support.

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Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

This is a pet peeve of mine, fully half the people on the road dont dim thier hi-beams at all anymore. They are probobly on thier cell-phone and dont have an extra hand free and couldent care less.

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The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

All those nights coming home from 2nd Shift on the interstate either at 00:30 or 03:00 your already tried and then you get these \"Ass Holes\" that keep their brights on \"ALL THE TIME\".

I found out after 6 months my new truck has fog lights, but I can't drive at night anymore so I don't get to use them .

I bet to Ice you just love those \"Blue halogen\" lights\"? I just started to see alot of them before I retired and those things were worse than \"Hi-Beams\" to me.

Another \"Courtesy \" is Flashing your lights to signal a Semi has passed you and can get back in the right lane , or you passing Them.
It makes a big difference for the Truck drivers .

Keep safe Ice Pirate and your Wife too on the roads.

Goose

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\"Live Free Or Die\"

They're good for fog, rain and snow, too goose. Gotta love these urban wannabe's with their jacked up 4x4's rollong down the road with six sets of lights on. You can almost feel the heat as they crawl up your a$$. Funny thing is on those spring/fall mornings when there really is fog around the river they're nothing but a white glow! I use my yellow fogs in inclement weather and \"flash\" all my 18-wheeler frinds.

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\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

I used to be a lot more courteous to truck drivers than I am now. Once I figure out a good reason for them to ride my ass for two miles with both/all lanes open instead of just passing me while they had thier momentum up maybee I'll go back.

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The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

Thanks for the comments guys. I do flash lights to the truckers. For the most part, they're a pretty courteous bunch, and I reallize they have a pretty tough job. I've towed my 22' sail boat, with a 28' mast on top, and I know it's tough to know where the end of that thing is after you pass some one.

In addition to flashing to the truckers to tell them when it's clear for them to move, I also try to spend as little time as possible next to them, and give plenty of room between us before I pull back in. I also go by the addage that if I can't see their mirrors, then they can't see me.

I've been tail gated by truckers on rare occations, and even had them start pulling into my lane when I'm half way up their trailer, but those are rarities, and just as there are some people driving little S-10's that are real A-Holes, I try not to judge all truckers by the few.

I do hate those D*mned blue lights with a passion, and really hate it when people keep high beam up because they are too stupid, or are just DWHUA, (Driving With Head Up Ass), as anyone who drives while yakking on a cell phone is.

Most importantly, I'd started this thread to both educate and to hopefully get a message out to as many as possible, about the problems with the factory installed Fog Lights. I've been told by some, that they didn't even know they were on, and didn't know where the switch was to turn them off. So it's not just a case of dis-courtesy, as sometimes its just not being familiar with your vehicle.

Goose, thanks for the kind wishes. We'll do our best to keep the shiny side up. My wife can't drive at night either, night blindness, so does her driving when the sun is up. I get to do all the night driving.

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Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

Can't agree more with your comments.

In my younger days I used to find a quick zap with my KC Daylighters was enough of a hint to get folk to dip their beams.

As for fog lights, not sure how your home grown motors work, but most of our ERB's (Euro Rot Boxes) have the fog lights as an extra twist to the headlight dial. So one click is side, the next is dipped and the final is fogs. High beam is on the stalk.

This means when they get home and turn off the lights - and remember the a$$hats have a beeper to remind them to do that, the fogs are automatically turned off.