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Headlight glare at night, car versus truck?
- Thread starter maxhifi
- Start date
I set my side mirrors so I don't get blinded from behind, and I can check my blind spots without turning my head around.
https://seniordriving.aaa.com/improve-your-driving-skills/prepare-drive/how-use-adjust-your-mirrors/
https://seniordriving.aaa.com/improve-your-driving-skills/prepare-drive/how-use-adjust-your-mirrors/
maxhifi
Addicted Member
That's what I was thinking too, until I realized hey, maybe the problem is the answer, and I should just look for a pickup truck.. It's not as though I'm going to be able to get other people to change.
ConradH
Lunatic Member
As you get older, expect cataracts. They come on slowly, so you might not realize you have a problem. See eye doctor. I have a theory about headlights, unproven of course. The smaller the source, the worse the glare, for the same intensity on the road. Old style headlights don't cause much glare problem, but modern ones with tiny reflectors seem to be a nightmare. Also, our state police seem to think light bars that completely blind traffic from both directions are somehow safe. The darn things are so bright, the officer could be standing in the middle of the road next to the police car, and you wouldn't see them until it was too late.
Djcoolray
Addicted Member
There are ski glasses that have light amber lenses that cut the glare completely. I have a classic pair used for sea, sky and ski.....
revo.com Revo Tortoise Shell glasses
They are not a dark lense pair of glasses and you can wear them day or night because they don’t obstruct vision....in or out of the house. The company Revo has always sold this kind of glasses and sell them today in a modern Italian style that won’t break the bank because they are not popular anymore. Fact is driving is a pleasure with tortoise shell glasses and they are even better for your eyes to prevent cataracts.
You eat life....or life eats you !!!
You don’t have to have cataracts......
revo.com Revo Tortoise Shell glasses
They are not a dark lense pair of glasses and you can wear them day or night because they don’t obstruct vision....in or out of the house. The company Revo has always sold this kind of glasses and sell them today in a modern Italian style that won’t break the bank because they are not popular anymore. Fact is driving is a pleasure with tortoise shell glasses and they are even better for your eyes to prevent cataracts.
You eat life....or life eats you !!!
You don’t have to have cataracts......
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They do make a huge difference. I built a relay harness for the quad lamps on my Towncar and got something like 3 volts more at the headlights. Somewhere I found a chart of light output vs voltage but essentially I was at less than half the rated lumen output from the low voltage.
Headlight aim has a lot to do with it too. I recently dug out my old Hoppy headlight aimer and set up the lamps on my Continental. Its the same rectangle glass sealed beam quad that tons of other things used in the 80s. Difference on that was significant just from pointing the lights in the right direction. They were all aimed low and they were crosseyed.
Bill Ferris
Lunatic Member
I used to have a problem 20 years ago with on coming night time drivers on dark two lane roads not dipping their head lights from high beam to low beam and blinding the crap out of me even when I flashed my high beam at them several times to wake them up at of their apparent stupor----
So, I decided to fix their clock, by adding two 100 watt under the front bumper halogen driving lights tied into one of my high beam headlight wires with a steering diode feeding a 30 amp 12 volt automotive relay that engaged the driving lights by powering them off a tap from the battery to supplement my 1987 Astro van`s halogen headlights when engaging the high beams..
After aiming the driving lights to my properly aligned regular high beam focal point @ ~1000 feet, I locked them down..
I don`t know how many total combined candle power the setup was, but it worked perfectly for the drunken/stoner oncoming traffic idiots to dip their high beams/driving lights, as they probably couldn`t see anything with their pupil`s the size of pin heads, rather quickly after a flash or 2 of my Bill`s high beam from Hell behavioral modifier "pupil pulverlyzer " (patent pending)!!
OKB
So, I decided to fix their clock, by adding two 100 watt under the front bumper halogen driving lights tied into one of my high beam headlight wires with a steering diode feeding a 30 amp 12 volt automotive relay that engaged the driving lights by powering them off a tap from the battery to supplement my 1987 Astro van`s halogen headlights when engaging the high beams..
After aiming the driving lights to my properly aligned regular high beam focal point @ ~1000 feet, I locked them down..
I don`t know how many total combined candle power the setup was, but it worked perfectly for the drunken/stoner oncoming traffic idiots to dip their high beams/driving lights, as they probably couldn`t see anything with their pupil`s the size of pin heads, rather quickly after a flash or 2 of my Bill`s high beam from Hell behavioral modifier "pupil pulverlyzer " (patent pending)!!
OKB
MaxxVolume
Lunatic Member
Lots of incorrect and misleading info here....ANY tinted lenses will reduce incoming light by the same percentage as the darkness of the tint (i.e., a 50% grey tint will reduce light by half). This is OK during daylight hours where available contrast allows all objects to be clearly seen. After the sun sets, however, it`s a completely different story....all the contrast is gone, and your ability to see is drastically reduced. Adding tinted eyeglass lenses to the equation jacks up the danger level by a huge amount. Bad Juju !
Much of the problems come from the newer projection (HID) lighting, which uses automatic self-leveling motors....the headlights are NOT in a fixed position like the old sealed-beams used to be. This technology has both good and bad points. When people modify their car`s suspensions, or change tire/wheel sizes, it tends to throw things off, it`s gonna cause discomfort for SOMEBODY out there....unfortunately, there`s no free lunch.
Djcoolray
Addicted Member
You really don’t know what your talking about and it seems to me that you are assuming because colored lenses are not darkened lenses. One, I have a degree in auto tech, then two I have a degree in pre-med anatomy and physiology.
Colored lenses change the colors being interpreted by the cornea which gets rid of glare, people in aviation and sea navigation have been using them for decades day and night. There is no reduction in light when using colored lenses because the color of the lense is not dark enough to create a problem....that’s the reason I placed a white peice of paper under the pair of tortoise shell glasses which are not sunglasses. Those glasses you see are my driving glasses bright boy and I don’t have to look away when someone is coming at me with high beams on...
You really need to read the Revo website.....consider actual info and stop jumping to a conclusion. The enemy of knowledge is not ignorance.....it’s the illusion of knowledge. You have reacted like every other Tom, Dick and Mary...monkey see, monkey do and that’s why most people are afraid to learn something new !!
In fact I’ve walked around Iraq at night while in the military with green colored lens and I never missed a shot...one bullet one kill !!!! You’ve got to get past your own interpretation of there only being cheap sunglasses because of what most people wear.
maxhifi
Addicted Member
Gonna try this, thank you.. If it works out this is a way better idea than trading in my car!
MaxxVolume
Lunatic Member
Ya know, you`re obviously a bright guy, with varied interests, like most of the folks here. I appreciate that. But, please don`t think that you know it all, because you don`t !
For the record, for over 30 years, I have been a licensed health care professional (in three states), with a degree in Optics, so I might have learned something about the subject along the way.
I would prefer to rely on the opinions of eyecare professionals, as opposed to companies that sell sunglasses for a living.
https://www.basicoptical.co.za/files/The Dangers of Night Driving Glasses.pdf
https://www.optiboard.com/forums/showthread.php/38197-Why-tint-for-night-driving
savatage1973
Addicted Member
Headlights have gotten much brighter, and the LED running lights can be absolutely piercing. Also, full-size trucks have gotten huge in the last decade or so. My buddy has a full-size '73 Chevy in mint condition that he inherited from his father, and you can damned near put it in the bed of my 2016 Silverado. Granted, his is a 2wd half ton and mine is a 4wd 1-ton, but my truck is HUGE compared to his.
Ya, they're not supposed to be used to blind oncoming traffic.
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
Increased sensitivity to headlight glare can be a early symptom of cataracts.
Does yours also have the auto-dim side mirrors? Those are cool. Some later Lincolns had that. its driven off the auto-dim rearview. They've had the auto rearview thing for a long while, my 84 Continental has one of the old mechanical ones but around 1990 it became an electrochromatic thing. The old one actually tilts the mirror exactly like you'd do with the flip tab. Internally it has a small motor with a belt and a worm gear to move the glass. It needs some work, mine doesn't respond until things are much closer and more glaring than I'd like. I wonder if anyone makes optical quality capacitors for reduced glare.
the drivers mirror has this bronze tinting lcd stuff that distorts strong light signals. daylight - see perfectly, nighttime, it breaks a cars headlights into like 4 major dots
Djcoolray
Addicted Member
Then why do you take the situation for granted, or maybe your just going along with what others say is right. Or maybe you don’t want to investigate the technology that Revo uses and pidgin hole yourself into the same thinking as the rest of your colleges. Tried until blue is not always true. How about the material that is used in the tortoise shell glasses which is not just tinted glass. Thinking that one is the ultimate expert on the subject of anything without the buttress of actual experience in the situation is a severe limiting factor. That’s kind of like pinning a badge on someone after two years of an academic environment and hoping that they don’t shoot the wrong people.....and we know how that is working out. Chemical color induced glass is not the act of adding a colored polymer into melted glass to create a tint......NOT !!!
Myself, I don’t rely on the opinions of anyone. I will test the technology out for myself just like NASA did and they are using Revo technology also....but that was not the basis for my choice. The point is not being a corporate influenced consumer based upon what everyone else thinks is right. I have photophobia and light bothers me tremendously, wearing Revo’s gives me the freedom to drive at night. I am experiencing better illumination of everything at night....
Truly I think that we as a people have become extremely biased in our approach to protect our lives from future trauma and less likely to figure out anything based only on facts for ourselves based on hands on evaluation. A social collective should not be the authority for anything as the world changes faster than the opinion of the collective....
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