Date:         Fri, 17 Jan 2003 16:39:45 -0500
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Fog Lights - Education Needed
Comments: To: Jahan Byrne <jahanbyrne@EARTHLINK.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <41200315172121075@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 04:02 PM 1/17/2003, Jahan Byrne wrote:
>I have a set of fog lights on my Westy, the German ones that fit next to
>the turn signals. I am a bit confused on how to use them. Do I use them
>instead of, or in addition to, the low beam headlights? Are fog lights good
>for heavy rain, too?

Proper fog lights have a beam that is extremely wide horizontally, and
extremely narrow vertically.  Ideally they are mounted very low on the
vehicle.  They should be adjusted to skim the light along the ground fairly
near in front of the vehicle.

When used in fog or blinding snow, they will light up the nearby area in
front so you can creep (comparatively) along, and the light is well  under
your line of vision so that it doesn't reflect back from the fog or falling
snow.  Under these conditions your low beams will make blinding
reflections, so they should be off.

Other than that they can help illuminate the roadside if there's something
of particular interest nearby -- but they don't have much range at all, and
the beam is only maybe a foot high from the second lane of the highway to
the shoulder.  I find them *extremely* handy when driving very close to a
Jersey barrier, they put a bright line on it that makes it very easy to
maintain the proper distance.  Otherwise for general-purpose driving I find
that the light nearby and to the sides is unnecessary and makes it harder
to see down the road.  Also the usual bulb (55-watt H3) has a fairly short
life.  My opinion is that leaving them on is much more usually an
expression of "cool" than useful illumination.


david

--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"