Has anyone seen the crazy bright rear mounted lights? I don’t know what that’s about but have a theory.

Was leaving work one night and going down the highway and this car drove past with New York plates which seems to be more and more common these days around here. They had two lights mounted on their rear bumper, not far from their license plate and they were so crazy bright you could barely see the license plate.

I’ll bet you they put them on there to defeat license plate reader cameras.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Do they even make such a thing?

I think as I get older (51 now), my eyes seem to be getting more sensitive to bright light and half or more of the cars on the road now have INSANELY bright headlights. Just the other night I had to move my side mirrors and rearview mirror became this douche canoe with a SUV that had a 10 million lumen set of head lights was right behind me. How are these carmakers even allowed to keep making headlights that blind the crap out of everyone?

I'd love a set of nighttime sunglasses if there is even such a thing.

Don't call folks douche, when it's the carmakers' doing. Yeah, I despise these headlights, too. But, until there are some regulations for these LED headlights, we're stuck.

As to glasses, why not just use sunglasses. That's what I use, my prescription eye-sunglasses.

Last time I saw the eye doc I had a set of glasses made for shooting. Minimal correction but yellow and an anti glare coating. Have found myself using them at night when driving lately. I think the coating makes a big difference.

My prescription sunglasses are way too dark at night.

Prescription shooting glasses like buddy357 just suggested would be what I'd look at. Regular yellow tinted shooting glasses may work for those that don't need a prescription, but I don't know if they can be had with an anti-glare coating.

Much of the really bad super white lights are people putting LED bulbs in older vehicle housings that are not designed for LED's, causing really bright spotlights that don't project properly. Lifted trucks are the worst.

The MKC and Denali have HID but they are properly focused, you can see a definitive line where the light stops as far as height. The ol F150 has top of the line Sylvannia bulbs but the pattern isn't as sharp as the HID.

I remember the same conversation when sealed beams were replaced with halogen, "I can't see", "they are too bright", "someone in government needs to do something", "gonna put some KCLites on mycar and blind people", "I can't see the labels on my BeeGees 8 track tape!"

Buddy uses the yellow shield on his helmet at night, says it really helps with the bright lights and glare, and yep astigmatism or cataracts will amplify the bulb issue.

Problem is, as I age, I need those bright lights. So I avoid night driving if possible.

I have 4 off road LEDS on my Jeep and two of them are "side shooters". Why? I hope to see the damn deer and logging / mining truck recaps before I hit them. I dont use them in town and out in the country, I shut them down when another vehicle approaches me.
Its not what you have, its how you use them.
And I am often approached in town by elderly drivers and women who run their high beams on all the time. Possibly too distracted or dealing with reduced eyesight to use low beams. As a cop, if you approached me with your high beams on and failed to dim them, you got stopped, since it was a violation to fail to dim for oncoming traffic. And you will no doubt be shocked to learn that quite a few who did this were.... Drunk!

I have had cataract surgery and my vision is now 20/20. I don't go out a lot at night, but I do notice how bright some of these lights are.

I nave a pair of yellow shooting glasses and might give them a try.

For shooting I bought
Hunters HD Gold prescription glasses

https://huntershdgold.com/gold/

They work great for shooting

And also work great at night in cutting that glare from the bright headlights

Besides the yellow tint they have a coating that blocks blue light

It just takes some time getting used to the yellow tint

Hunters Gold may be very good, but the $375 price tag rules them out for me!

quote:

Hunters Gold may be very good, but the $375 price tag rules them out for me!

Yes
But if you also needed, prescription glasses, impact resistant lens and frame, photochromic lenses ,along with the UVA,UVB and Blue Light blocking these would work,

Otherwise I would also try just yellow lenses to see if they help.

But
I agree with all of the above posts, something has to be done…

around here, every 3rd or 4th car is some dingbat with aftermarket LED or HID bulbs that blind the shit out of oncoming traffic (shame on you if you do this). And then you have every fifth or sixth vehicle you pass at night is a damn lifted monster truck with stupid tires and again, aftermarket blinding headlights. You have to force yourself to look "away" and focus on the roadway in front of you.

I'm much more annoyed by drivers who have their headlights off well after dusk.

I am another one that feels that aftermarket high intensity headlights should be regulated and tested when having vehicle inspections done and should also be ticketed when to bright by leo.

Also hate the vehicles with the auto adjusting directional headlights. They go all goggly eyed when going over the slightest bump or dip and always point into my sight when searching for the correct direction.

I have been stopped at night when driving loaded or pulling a trailer which would change the light adjustment. These were with factory oem headlights back in the day before all of these new really bright options.

I had a Mercedes and I had it tinted with Huper Optik Ceramic window tint. I had the windshield tinted with an 85% tint, meaning 85% of the light transmitted through. (Paid cash for the windshield) It was clear to the naked eye. You really couldn’t tell it was there. It does pretty good for blocking glare, and it seemed to really help for oncoming traffic and their bright lights.

My purpose of tinting the windshield was heat rejection, which it really helped. Summer, the car was significantly cooler, it also was in the winter.

The unknown side effect at the time, was some good protection from oncoming traffic.

NOTE *** Yes, it is illegal to tint your whole windshield, in all 50 States.***

If anyone is feeling really nerdy, here's a link to FMVSS 108, applying to "lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment."

https://www.govinfo.gov/conten...-vol5-sec571-108.xml

I would see if you have an eye doctor in your area that is a Vaurnet dealer.

https://us.vuarnet.com/product...q=night&_ss=e&_v=1.0

They are made in France from mineral glass. I am setting up an appointment with my closest dealer to get these for night driving, and will also see how they work for shooting.

I have used them previously when skiing, and just being out in bright sunlight and white snow. Very relaxing to the eyes in a difficult environment.

I am puzzled by some of the recommendations.

Tinted lenses of any color will obviously reduce the amount of light that reaches one’s eyes and that will—also obviously—reduce the perceived intensity of oncoming headlights. That will, however, also reduce the amount of light received when trying to see when not being blinded by various lights and, especially, when trying to see animals or other possible hazards either on the roadway or what’s illuminated just by the sides of one’s own headlight beams. How are either of the latter effects desirable? Just get extra bright headlights ourselves? And keep in mind that the brightness of our own lights may not make up for not being able to see things that aren’t illuminated by our lights.

What am I missing?

I went to the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic to have surgery after a botched cataract surgery in Chicago.
I told the surgeon how bad night driving was from bright headlights glaring in my eyes.
He also said try yellow driving glasses.
I have not yet tried them, but plan to.