Why is it that every time one is coming the opposite way from me, their headlights are aimed at the headrest of my driver side seat? I've noticed some of the newer GM trucks are starting to get this way too. It's even more pronounced if they're lifted.
Oh hello there.
You seem to have just woken up from a decade long coma, I hope all is well 
Things on the road have gotten terrible for those of us who still drive cars. The headlight wars keep escalating. The quad headlights of the Fords are some of the worst offenders.
Don't worry, the lights themselves are so far off the ground the drivers don't get that comfortable pool of light in front of them so they turn on their fog lights too, which only makes matters worse.
as a plus, many of them now install "leveling kits" i.e. a lift just for the front, just to make it clear to everyone that they don't haul anything. That not only raises the height of the headlights by 1-2", but angles them up as well, so there's that.
Fupdiggity said:as a plus, many of them now install "leveling kits" i.e. a lift just for the front, just to make it clear to everyone that they don't haul anything. That not only raises the height of the headlights by 1-2", but angles them up as well, so there's that.
I test drove a "leveled" F350 and that was one of my questions: still have all the stock stuff for up front? Answer was "yes. I kept it all in case next owner did a lot of towing." So, he at least had that going for him (or for me?).
My gripe is the LED square lights that the Tacoma crowd is fond of placing at the upper corners of their hood, casting a light with so much glare that it almost physically hurts.
racerfink said:Why is it that every time one is coming the opposite way from me, their headlights are aimed at the headrest of my driver side seat? I've noticed some of the newer GM trucks are starting to get this way too. It's even more pronounced if they're lifted.
It's the ultrabright chineseium bulbs they install because whyever.
I have heard from one of these bozos that the problem with those bulbs is that the low beams are brighter than the high beams unless you put the bulbs in the high beams, too.
I asked him why he thought it was acceptable to drive around with what effectively were the high beams all the time and he looked at me like I asked him what purple sounds like.
Actually they use the same bulbs top and bottom and all four lights are on all the time. I would guess I replace two of those bulbs a week for the three fleets I service who have them.
Can we talk about F250 & 350 headlights? No, they're over your head. Literally in a NA miata that has been the case for me.
There's a special Hell for everyone involved with these lights. The engineers, the bean counters who signed off on them, the salesmen, all of them. They get to drive around in a Mitsubishi Mirage at night with one of these bastards tailgating them. For eternity.
johndej said:Can we talk about F250 & 350 headlights? No, they're over your head.
This may be the brightest comment ever.
The problem is the range that the FMVSS regs allow. Headlight height is 20-54 inches. Truck styling is pretty goofy now anyway, so let's lobby to have that 54" reduced to 30".
I think one of the coolest looks in heavy trucks involves headlights just above or even in the bumper. Why can't we do that?
I just bought a 2011 F-350, but I was really hoping for an '08-10 for a while just because I think they look the coolest of the modern Fords with the headlights right above the bumper and below the turn signal.
Is there anything that can be done to mitigate the issue on existing trucks? I can't think of anything outside of making sure they're adjusted, and possibly to the low end of the range.
People in my area also don't know how to properly use high beams either, they usually turn them on 30 minutes before sunset and leave them on all the time.
My F-250 is the only one left on the planet that is completely stock and I have to say the headlights are probably the worst I've had in any vehicle. They are so dim you can barely tell that they're on and they don't really put any light where you would expect it to be. I can understand why someone would want them to be brighter but I can also see why they drive other people crazy.
Tk8398 said:People in my area also don't know how to properly use high beams either, they usually turn them on 30 minutes before sunset and leave them on all the time.
One thing I really liked about driving around in semi rural Alabama where the RXNC was held this year was that nobody tailgated and everyone used proper high beam etiquette
I have seen this nowhere else lately.
And Jeep Wranglers. Ugh.
I read an article many moons ago about this. Back in the 60s, the federal DOT made rules about headlights, and they basically said they have to focus in a certain pattern so as to not impair oncoming traffic's vision, and they couldn't be more than 55w low and 65w high. Great. Manufacturers stuffed their cars with one of four options: single round, double round, single rectangle, or double rectangle from one of three manufacturers. Then halogens came out, then projectors, then xenon, then LED..... and the DOT didn't do very much to change the regulations. I mean, seriously... how bright is a 65w LED compared to a tungsten sealed beam from 1965? Not saying that car makers are using 65w LEDs, but they technically could under the regulations.
Instead the DOT has since moved to a "well, let's look at it and we'll just give it a yes or no." I don't know what their test process is, but it must be terribly inadequate.
Can we also talk about how manufacturers are making cars with DRLs that have no taillights? I can often count dozens of cars with headlights, dashlights, and no taillights because they started up and saw what they needed to see, but they haven't turned on their actual headlights. There are also dozens of cars that drive on the streets with zero lights at all because the street lights let them forget. It's driver error, and I personally hate car nanny options, but if you're going to put automatic lights in a car, make them actually functional.
I'm also highly frustrated with drivers around here totally forgetting about their blue squid warning light on the dash, even when you flash them to dim. In the 80s and 90s, if you forgot to dim your lights for oncoming traffic, a quick flash of your highs would instantly make them turn off theirs. You often even got a "sorry wave" out the window.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
A lot of vehicles now have automatic high beams that I, a car geek, can't figure out how to turn off, so how hard is it for typical appliance user?
When I started driving the rule was "if you see any vehicles in your field of vision, turn the high beams off". Even if they were three miles up the road. The automatic high beams don't do this and don't seem to care about taillights either.
I had been told that the DOT regs now allow for a lot of light to shine up high to illuminate road signs, since over the road signs are no longer illuminated. I get WHY that is, because it has to be pretty energy-expensive and maintenance-intensive to light up every sign on every Interstate and superhighway, but it still sucks.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I recently rented a Chrysler with automatic brights, and it was extremely useless. I was in the Texas Hill Country, and every time I went down into a small hollow followed by a quick climb out, it would dim the lights. There are plenty of deer to worry about in the early morning, so that was annoying, waiting four or five seconds for the brights to come back up when the sensor deemed it safe.
It also dimmed them for the few flashing yellow crossings where a smaller county road intersected the state road I was on. At least the auto stop/start was easily found.
It was primarily newer toyotas that i noticed, but it has spread to other manufacturers now.
if the light is pointed directly at you, its not as bad but from an angle, its friggin laserbeams in your eyes. I used to like driving at night. Now i hate it since im temporarily blinded while oncoming traffic passes.
at least the light bar fad has faded away.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:racerfink said:Why is it that every time one is coming the opposite way from me, their headlights are aimed at the headrest of my driver side seat? I've noticed some of the newer GM trucks are starting to get this way too. It's even more pronounced if they're lifted.
It's the ultrabright chineseium bulbs they install because whyever.
I have heard from one of these bozos that the problem with those bulbs is that the low beams are brighter than the high beams unless you put the bulbs in the high beams, too.
I asked him why he thought it was acceptable to drive around with what effectively were the high beams all the time and he looked at me like I asked him what purple sounds like.
Most of these new designs people are grousing about are LEDs from the manufacturers. I used to think HIDs in a standard reflector housing were bad, they are minor offenders compared to what all of these new LED headlights can do. My 2023 F-150 has the auto leveling headlights but even then, I still get flashed all the freaking time. My dad bought a new 2025 Silverado and I'm pretty sure it's at least 10x worse than the Raptor. So blame the manufacturers.
I will say even the new F-250s and F-350s with the standard incandescent bulbs are still aimed terribly.
The Ford trucks with the bracket headlights [====] are all high beam all the time. They can blind you in broad daylight.
I've always hated DRLs because generally they just mean that big vehicles you could see clearly anyway now mask smaller hazards like motorcycles, bikes, and pedestrians.
But now that we've bred a generation that thinks DRLs are just what headlights are, and drive around at night with half the light they need and none of the taillights, it makes me despise DRLs even more.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I agree that some of them could be automatic headlights, but I'm talking about mostly junk, like a Camry from the 90s, or a box-body S10. It's primarily driver stupidity.
Just a quick search on Reddit shows hundreds of people asking what the blue jellyfish is on their dashboard, so there are a lot of people who don't even know.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Those cars are too old to exist around here. I am talking about people with lifted trucks (sorry, a "level" IS A LIFT) and putting in super bright bulbs.
hell, even most new hondas are terrible. Accords and Pilots if they hit a bump have such a harsh cutoff that they literally blind oncoming traffic.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:A lot of vehicles now have automatic high beams that I, a car geek, can't figure out how to turn off, so how hard is it for typical appliance user?
When I started driving the rule was "if you see any vehicles in your field of vision, turn the high beams off". Even if they were three miles up the road. The automatic high beams don't do this and don't seem to care about taillights either.
I have two cars with auto high beams -- my Audi and my F-250 (yes the vehicle people are complaining about in this thread). IME they actually do a really good job of auto switching in the same places where I would be manually switching if I didn't have the auto function, yes, including tail lights.
As for how to turn them off, for both of them it's just one more mode on the high beam switch. A slight difference is that the Audi switch cycles "low - manual high - low - auto high" before repeating, whereas the truck cycles "low - auto high - manual high".
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