Fog lights on w/ High Beams, New GM trucks

[Grit_dog]

Works just like on the last couple gen trucks.
New 2020 Silverado

Will see how much it helps.
Last Chebby, 2016 model, it was night and day difference (pun intended, lol).
Well not quite, but the OE fog/driving lights did a nice job of keeping the foreground lit when high beams were on.

Google it if interested. Hardest part is getting the diode wire into the back of the plug receptacle without kinking the wire. Small pair of needle nose pliers and making a "Z" in each diode lead helps.

They make "kits" which consist of 2 scotch locks, and a diode with some shrink tubing over it for $20. I like the cheap method, $1.99 for a 3 pack, A. because I'm cheap and B. No wiring modifications, no cut insulation. Completely removable and untraceable should there ever be an electrical issue (not caused by this).

Highly reccomended simple little mod.

And Karens, please don't bother with the "its against some rule" bs.

[Sjm9911]

Grit dog wrote:

Sjm9911 wrote:
Maybe this wouldn't have happened if they had the fog lights on. Lol. https://youtu.be/Xgom1YMwZB8

I dont see an advantage to having the fog lights on and the high beams at the same time. Eaither im trying to see in foggy weather or im trying to see down the road. I really dont do both at the same time. I never saw a real advantage to haing the fog lights on when it wasn't foggy out. Maybe my eyes are to good still, or im missing something.

It’s not your eyes, your missing the advantage here. But maybe you don’t “need” as much light in Jersey?
I will admit, the new truck, it helps less than on the 2016. The fog/driving lights are kinda anemic on this one. Was a more pronounced difference in the old truck.

The beauty of it is, you can do you and it’s ok!

Your right! And if it helps you see, why not do it.
On my jeep the headlights suck, i think the fog lights are brighter. I need to replace the headlights, but never got around to it. So whatever works.

[NRALIFR]

Please, don’t do it!!! :W



:):)

[Grit_dog]

StirCrazy wrote:


I think there is a misconception that new vehicles have fog lights. they don't the new vehicles are equiped with driving lights in adition to the regular low beam and high beem, people just call them fog lights. so you will see the combanation of driving lights and high beam make a wonderfull fill and light up the whole sightline.

Steve

Agree, whatever you call them, they compliment driving beams. Mfgs call them "fog lights" on many vehicles, and of the dozen or more different vehicles over the last 20+ years with OEM "fog/driving" lights, I can say with a great deal of certainty that none of them could be considered a driving light type beam or projection distance save for maybe our Mustang GT with the big round auxiliary lights in the grille. Every other vehicle with low bumper mounted lights don't project out far at all and they are a spread beam that tends to light up the shoulders.

But, I'm sure all that are providing conjecture here must have different experiences with OEM lights on popular US "tow vehicles?"

[StirCrazy]

BenK wrote:
am not diss'ing anyone for their choices (as one commentor thinks, but took my sentence out of context) and just talking about the technical aspects of automotive lighting and noted that fog lamps in non-fog conditions really doesn't do anything other than to light up very close by.

Here are 2 lighting patterns viewed from above

This one shows, as did the one in the quote, shows their patterns projected onto pavement


This one shows their lighted distance in relationship to each other


The shortest projection are the fog lamps, which are normally in the 20 feet range, +\- a few, because projected any farther in fog will have the light reflected right back at the driver, which will blind or turn everything into a white-out.

For those who state that they are trying to light up the deer/etc on the side of the road...fog lamps are not the correct beam pattern and best to have a flood. As the fog lamps will NOT project far enough to see them, nor blind & freeze them in place. Better would be the flood lamps, which will project farther and just as wide as fog lamps.

Edit...from my rally days buzzing around with small 2 seaters out in the countryside...know well how deer are frozen and fog lamps do almost nothing. I had aircraft landing lamps, but they only have a 20 or so hour rating. Worst were the cows laying on the warm pavement...they weighed about the same or more than my 2 seater...and no amount of lighting would have helped going +60MPH down a 2 lane country road...

Here is a link to the guy who taught me much when researching automotive lighting and in this link he talks about fog lamps

https://drivingintherealworld.com/part-2-lighting-the-way-with-daniel-stern/

BenK wrote:


These are classic lighting beam patterns to give an idea of what they are designed to do.

But...on this thread, these functional beam patterns are not of interest...just cool factor...AKA looks

Nothing wrong with that...I was talking about function and the science...and the subconscious psychology of vision vs steering vs reaction time

Edit...example of the psychology of Vision & steering.

Freeway on ramp.

If you are trying to merge and see a vehicle driver looking/staring at you...careful, they will subconsciously match your speed to create a problem.

Meaning that when driving fast and you've lit up the near ground, you'll focus there
(where you haven't enough reaction time) instead of farther down the road where you do have enough reaction time

I think there is a misconception that new vehicles have fog lights. they don't the new vehicles are equiped with driving lights in adition to the regular low beam and high beem, people just call them fog lights. so you will see the combanation of driving lights and high beam make a wonderfull fill and light up the whole sightline.

Steve

[BenK]

am not diss'ing anyone for their choices (as one commentor thinks, but took my sentence out of context) and just talking about the technical aspects of automotive lighting and noted that fog lamps in non-fog conditions really doesn't do anything other than to light up very close by.

Here are 2 lighting patterns viewed from above

This one shows, as did the one in the quote, shows their patterns projected onto pavement


This one shows their lighted distance in relationship to each other


The shortest projection are the fog lamps, which are normally in the 20 feet range, +\- a few, because projected any farther in fog will have the light reflected right back at the driver, which will blind or turn everything into a white-out.

For those who state that they are trying to light up the deer/etc on the side of the road...fog lamps are not the correct beam pattern and best to have a flood. As the fog lamps will NOT project far enough to see them, nor blind & freeze them in place. Better would be the flood lamps, which will project farther and just as wide as fog lamps.

Edit...from my rally days buzzing around with small 2 seaters out in the countryside...know well how deer are frozen and fog lamps do almost nothing. I had aircraft landing lamps, but they only have a 20 or so hour rating. Worst were the cows laying on the warm pavement...they weighed about the same or more than my 2 seater...and no amount of lighting would have helped going +60MPH down a 2 lane country road...

Here is a link to the guy who taught me much when researching automotive lighting and in this link he talks about fog lamps

https://drivingintherealworld.com/part-2-lighting-the-way-with-daniel-stern/

BenK wrote:


These are classic lighting beam patterns to give an idea of what they are designed to do.

But...on this thread, these functional beam patterns are not of interest...just cool factor...AKA looks

Nothing wrong with that...I was talking about function and the science...and the subconscious psychology of vision vs steering vs reaction time

Edit...example of the psychology of Vision & steering.

Freeway on ramp.

If you are trying to merge and see a vehicle driver looking/staring at you...careful, they will subconsciously match your speed to create a problem.

Meaning that when driving fast and you've lit up the near ground, you'll focus there
(where you haven't enough reaction time) instead of farther down the road where you do have enough reaction time

[Grit_dog]

Sjm9911 wrote:
Maybe this wouldn't have happened if they had the fog lights on. Lol. https://youtu.be/Xgom1YMwZB8

I dont see an advantage to having the fog lights on and the high beams at the same time. Eaither im trying to see in foggy weather or im trying to see down the road. I really dont do both at the same time. I never saw a real advantage to haing the fog lights on when it wasn't foggy out. Maybe my eyes are to good still, or im missing something.

It’s not your eyes, your missing the advantage here. But maybe you don’t “need” as much light in Jersey?
I will admit, the new truck, it helps less than on the 2016. The fog/driving lights are kinda anemic on this one. Was a more pronounced difference in the old truck.

The beauty of it is, you can do you and it’s ok!

[Sjm9911]

Maybe this wouldn't have happened if they had the fog lights on. Lol. https://youtu.be/Xgom1YMwZB8

I dont see an advantage to having the fog lights on and the high beams at the same time. Eaither im trying to see in foggy weather or im trying to see down the road. I really dont do both at the same time. I never saw a real advantage to haing the fog lights on when it wasn't foggy out. Maybe my eyes are to good still, or im missing something.

[GWolfe]

I read somewhere that the glare of the foglights can affect your long range vision at night since the brightest light is right in front of the vehicle and not further out. Driving down the highway at 65 mph I doubt any of us would have time to react to anything that our fog lights lit up before we were on it. I'm not going to lie though, driving down some back road I would love to have as much light as possible on the road in front of me so I could see where it would come in handy.

[Grit_dog]

I’ll admit, I consciously thought that posting up this little helpful trick would stir up the ire of some of our contingent here. Not because there’s any real world issue with doing it, but rather because, a majority of threads here end up in inane arguments.
But as a small sample size comparison, I do not see this behavior nearly as prevalent on other boards or forums I’m a part of.

I’m trying to decipher what it is about the membership here that can’t help themselves from opposing every view put forth, sometimes their own, in contradiction.
I can identify 3 possibilities. Age, intelligence/economic demographic and political affiliation. Unsure what it really is, but average age and politics are different than the other forums I’m on, so, maybe that’s it.

[Grit_dog]

01tundra wrote:

But...on this thread, these functional beam patterns are not of interest...just cool factor...AKA looks

Nice assumption......:R

Right?
Only here on AreVee.net could multiple folks take something so simple, innocuous, yet effective and non consequential to others and spin it to something hypothetical, philosophical and some how dangerous to others.
I call it the “Rvnet, The sky is NOT blue, now get off my lawn” theory!

Me, I’m simple. I like the best chance at seeing a deer or elk while it’s still in the contemplation phase of its suicide mission!
Guess if I lived in the inner city, only drove my EV around locally to the Italian coffee shop on my way to the Bingo parlor and limited my over the road driving to between the hours of 9am and 5pm (notice the flavor of current thread references here), I may not see a benefit to the thread I created here.
But I would also hope that I would be polite enough and observative enough to realize that my little world is not necessarily the same as others worlds, and suppress my inner antagonist just long enough to not reply and show everyone my ignorance...

[ktmrfs]

My experience is that the quad headlights where the low beam stays on with the high beam give the best overall illumination, the low beams still give a wide spread to see the sides of the roads, while the high beam project out.

Once cars started going back to a single light on each side, the high beam doesn't give good side illumination. That's where the "fog" or whatever you may want to call them beams come into play and give and advantage of good side illumination,

projector headlights are even worse in some conditions since the upper cutoff is so sharp. so on a slight uphill visibility is reduced, and high beams if ok from a traffic standpoint overcome that, but then with no seperate low beam, the fog light really helps fill in.

And just because high beams are on doesn't mean one is going fast. Around hear there are many roads with a 35 or 45 mph speed limit with almost no traffic, so on go the high beams.

and having grown up in areas with lot's of wildlife (4 legged kind) I agree with Grit dog, ANYTHING to see them and keep them in the ditch is positive.

[01tundra]

But...on this thread, these functional beam patterns are not of interest...just cool factor...AKA looks

Nice assumption......:R

[StirCrazy]

BenK wrote:


If you are trying to merge and see a vehicle driver looking/staring at you...careful, they will subconsciously match your speed to create a problem.

Meaning that when driving fast and you've lit up the near ground, you'll focus there
(where you haven't enough reaction time) instead of farther down the road where you do have enough reaction time

its more the subconcious acts of the deer I am worried about 😉 with normal high beams they freeze when the light hits them, then they think it has gone by and they jump across the road, only to find that it was the space inbtween where the high beams light and the car. with the driving lights (what you are calling fog lights, but there not yellow but simular patterens ) are on in conjunction the area the deer is hiding remains constantly lit so they tend not to move unitll the car goes buy. I drive 60 miles each way to work and back through deer country and since I did this I hardly ever see them.

Steve

[Lynnmor]

BenK wrote:

Add the driving beam and the fog beam together and you will see the advantage. A few of us here in deer country have a clue about lighting.