Flashing (no, not THAT kind!)

I have always thought that these flashing signals were cool. I have made it a habit to use them also when driving my car at night time.

John Alexander Baker

 

My ex-wife used to flash the truck drivers. Maybe she started the WoW (Whip 'em Out Wednesday) movement that is asked about on another thread!

 

Is that why she is your ex or was that one of her good qualities?

 

She only had 1 good quality....she left in the middle of the night instead of wasting time and waiting until the morning!

 

Thats a good one.

 

It's always a sticky question when it's safe to move back into a lane so I just use my little formular and that is that I won't move back in untill I see "both" headlights in my mirror and I let the indicator flash at the least, 3 times before I start my move back and it's still a gradual slide across into the other lane. This of course can only apply to overtaking a vehicle on your right. As for using High Beam to indicate to another driver if it's safe, only duing daylight hours, at night it's turn the headlights off for a second or two. I do detest 4 wheelers who turn on their high beam to say they are passing me and "do not" turn them off - that is one situation where an Aussie Bush Driving Light would come in handy - instant daylight.

 

I usually give a quick flash of the high beam or I'll flick the fog lights on. Because of daytime running lights, you really can't tell the difference when the hedlights are on or off.

As for flashing a thanks, as mentioned, some trucks aren't wired for that unless you turn off all the lights. But I've also found that this differs from trailer to trailer as well. I've had trailers where the interupt switch kills all the lights, some of the lights or none of the lights. So it could have been that the guy who didn't flash a thanks thought he did, but that particular trailer is wired differently.

 

I drove Kenworth T600's and a T2000 at Stevens. Both trucks wired the clearance lights on a different switch than the regular headlamps/taillights, which made it easy to flash the clearance lamps on the Utility trailers we ran because the overhead clearance lights were wired to the separate clearance lamp circuit. The T2 even had a courtesy flash button on the turn signal switch. But in 1999 or 2000 Utility Trailers, for whatever reason, started wiring the rear upper clearance lamps on the same circuit as the tailamps, so if you flashed the clearance lamps, only the front and side clearance lamps flashed, not the rear.

 

THe other issue is the kind of truck you're in; in a Volvo, the interrupt switch only flashes the top clearance lights. If you drive for a cheap company (like I did), the trlr only has three of them, and that can be hard to see in the daytime. So I would turn on my four ways for a few flashes, or grab the CB and say thanks.

 

I will admit that I got tired of reading all of the responses to the original post so if this is a duplicate, I'm sorry. The whole flashing lights thing started back in the day when truckers were called Knights of The Road. It is a sign of respect and courtesy. A lot of drivers today don't know the meaning of either word. If a driver flashes you to move over and you don't at least acknowledge it, it is considered either rude, stupid, or that you are too green to watch your mirrors. It is true that trucks are built differently today and each one has a different procedure to do this. Some of the trucks that we drive have headlights that will not turn off when you flip the switch but they have a "flash-to-pass" feature which momentarily activates the high beams. I may be old-fashioned but I believe in common courtesy and it is sad that so many think it is just a frivolous action. Whatever the means, it should never be too much trouble to say "please and thank you".