info needed about driving an 18 wheeler

Interesting first post. Answer: same as a car or probably less since most cars have those super bright idiot headlights.

 

SAE testing is done at 100' it has to meet so many candlepower. So at minimum you should be able to see that far. Traveling at 70 mile an hour you travel 103 feet a second. It takes the brain roughly 2 seconds to recognize an object and move your foot and press the brake. It'll take the truck almost 400 feet to stop depending on the weight.

So if a car is broke down in the middle of the road with no emergency flashers it can be a problem.

I had a lady like that once on the interstate broke down and sitting in the dark. She was over a little hump in the road so I couldn't even see her reflection. I missed her by a couple feet. I was going to fast too get stopped in order to offer assistance. I did call 911. I read the local newspaper there the next day and didn't see anything. Hopefully she made it.

If someone breaks down in the middle of the road they need to get their flashers on. If they are dead they need to go back a good distance and at least flag people. The last thing someone needs to do is sit in their car like a sitting duck.

 

And 100 feet is a bit short of 2 trailer lengths.
Hardly enough to stop in time at 70 MPH, or even 1/3 of that.

Lynda, it has to do with the truck you are driving as well.
A Cascadia or ProStar has better low beams than a Volvo. With the Volvo I have to use the fog lights as well to see anything, because the lows point down and only cover a little bit.
I hate driving at night when I'm in a Volvo.

I can't tell you the seconds before you will reach that car at 70 MPH, but I hope you have very good reflexes because it won't be more than a couple.
I wouldn't be able to stop in time with my 62 MPH Volvo, but I might have just enough time to get around - if I had room to the side.

 

Im guessing you have already tried to adjust your lights or there is a reason you are unable to?

 

At 70.. what you see with your highbeams... is what you are going to hit...

 

That really comes down to more of a matter of adjustment. A lot of people retrofit HIDs with a "plug and play" kit, and they just stick them inside the original headlight housing, at which point, you've got a bulb emitting three times the amount of light that housing was intended for. Those are meant to be put into projector housings, like what the newer KWs have... those are a double edged sword in that they give you a more focused - but also more narrow - beam from the headlamps.

 

There was an exploded deer on the side of 85 at exit 32 in SC and a few pieces of my bumper end to prove that point.

 

Simply amazing how many people will sit in a car in the dark IN A LANE OF TRAVEL. One night, I was running up 40 through Knoxville, when I saw a fourwheelers sitting in the middle lane of the interstate. "Dad" had the hood up with a flashlight under the hood. The entire family was in the car. The car was dark. I saw the flashlight. I've bet you've seen a car back up in the travel lanes before. I have. Baby on board? If you really love your baby, give it up for adoption to someone with brains.

If the guvment would mandate regs for cars like they do trucks, they would stop the vast majority of accidents. Remember the big Firestone/Ford Explorer controversy? How about the demonized Toyotas with the sticking throttles? Now it's the faulty GM ignitions. I was driving my mom and her friend to lunch. Blame the auto manufacturer. Blame the tires. Blame the railroad. Blame the trucks.