Fog Light Etiquette

Fog lights should be aimed so that they first hit the ground at 18" in front of the vehicle.

 

If the DOT didnt permit them then they would not put them on the car, truck semi, ect.

 

It has been my understanding, ever since I began to drive, you can have only two white lights on when facing oncoming traffic.
Any more than that makes it difficult to see at times, hell, with some of the new lights, two can be difficult.

 

§393.24 Requirements for head lamps, auxiliary driving lamps and front fog lamps.

(b) Auxiliary driving lamps and front fog lamps. Commercial motor vehicles may be equipped with auxiliary driving lamps and/or front fog lamps for use in conjunction with, but not in lieu of the required headlamps. Auxiliary driving lamps shall meet SAE Standard J581 Auxiliary Upper Beam Lamps, July 2004, and front fog lamps shall meet SAE Standard J583 Front Fog Lamp, August 2004. (See §393.7 for information on the incorporation by reference and availability of these documents.)

 

Up home in NB Can back in "the day", especially if you ran the back roads, guys used "Jet Aircraft Landing Lights" for driving lights. These are the super brights you see on aircraft when they're coming in for a landing. These suckers are fierce. They "sizzled" when you turned em on just like the old carbon arc spotlights and ran so hot that you had to shut them down if you dropped below 40mph or they'd burn out.

Anyhow, we ran hwy 7 between Fredericton and Saint John, which ran right through Camp Gagetown... a very large Army training base. Lots of moose plus army units doing night exercises and such. Very narrow, twisty 2 lane road with deeep ditches. One fall we had a "local" who drove that road every night in his English sports car... equipped with the English Rallye light package. You couldn't see a #### thing for a good 2 minutes after meeting this clown because he'd never dim em. One night one of the guys reached down and turned on his "running lights"..... "sport" drove right off the road. Next time I saw that car it had all the fancy light pack removed.

Yup, them "landing lights" was illegal as can be but moose, army tanks or a squad of soldiers are very hard to see on dark nights. The DOT guys pretty much ignored the "violation" cause they knew the need for them.

 

Driving Lights are clear while fog lights may be clear or amber what makes the difference is the pattern fog light give a wide short light while driving light give a longer narrower beam of light. but in either case should be aimed as low as they can be so as not to blind oncoming traffic.

 

Sheshh what ever happened to that East Coast hospitality, haha just kidding

My dad had a couple of lights like that on his pick-up, could drive from coast to coast in Canada with no problems, went to Washington State for a day (during the day so the lights weren't even on) and a trooper told him he had 15 seconds to get them off his truck or he was going to break them. My dad didn't bother disconnecting the wires just tore them off the bumper lol. Still have the lights but I'm afraid to put them on my car, might draw too much power and slow the car down

 

393.5 Definitions.
Auxiliary driving lamp. A lighting device mounted to provide Front illumination forward of the vehicle which supplements the upper beam of a standard headlighting system.
it is not intended for use alone or with the lower beam of a standard headlighting system.

Front fog lamp. A lighting device whose beam provides downward illumination forward of the vehicle and close to the ground, and is used only under conditions of rain, snow,dust, smoke or fog. A pair of fog lamps may be used alone, with parking, tail, side, marker, clearance and identification lamps, or with a lower beam headlamp at the drivers discrection in accordance with state and local use law.

I do not see anywhere that it is permissible to shine more than two white lights into the eyes of oncoming traffic.
Fog lights are normally yellow and are, nontheless, aimed downward close to the front, this may be an exception.

 

Nowadays, lights like KC Hi-liters make using these aircraft lights unnecessary. But even they are "off road only" and must be covered unless in active use. We had a Jeep guy go with us once who forgot to take the covers off, burnt a hole right thru the "Smiley Faces".

 

Since driving lights come on with the highbeams and it is illegal to run highbeams at oncoming traffic I will talk about fog lights.

You are correct that you dont see where it is permissible but I dont see where it is illegal either. I glanced through the wv code and cant find anything on fog lights either. Maybe it is more of a courtesy thing instead of a legal thing.

Since my clear lights come on with the low beams and go out with the high beams I am assuming that they are considered fog lights by the fmcs regs. Which I didn't know.