I believe my work truck has them. They are mounted on the side mirrors so you can see when backing up at night. Probably not supposed to drive with them on. It was one of those weird switches on the dash, like a toggle under the radio. I didn’t even know about them till I turned them on by mistake.
Mine came with them from the factory, they only turn on in park if you have the switch on (the switch turns itself off in a lot of cases too so they don’t come back on by accident).
I’ve used it a lot to work in the dark, especially on camping trips where I need to setup the trailer in the dark.
Person in the pic is a total douche though if they’re just driving around with them on
Yeah I’m surprised they work for them while driving. Mine only work in reverse and park. I use them when backing up at night or to see what I’m doing in the back of the truck while parked. If I put it in drive, they turn off.
There's a strong stripe of assholes lately who must have been starved of attention as children and are making up for it now with shit like this. They don't care if you hate them as long as you see them and have a reaction.
Where I live, it's people modifying every kind of vehicle to remove the muffler and make it backfire.
By me, there is a straight piped Harley, with a loud radio, and a truck air horn. His hobbies include revving the engine, and blasting the air horn, while stuck at a red light.
Like what the hell man? You think those 10 cars ahead of you are just going to run the red light because you're being extra annoying? F'ing idiot.
Back in the 90's there was a trend of putting "glasspack" mufflers on that work normally most of the time, but would let exhaust straight though if you rev the engine enough. Annoying as crap.
pretty sure it's not legal: white can only face direction of motion (headlights and reverse lights) red can only face rear (brake lights) orange can be all sides i think but maybe just as reflectors.
makes sense if you think about it bc you can tell if a car is coming at you or not in the dark. maybe they don't teach this as much anymore.
my mom used to lose it in the car if i turned on the dome light saying we are gonna get pulled over and she'll get a ticket. my kids got that from me too and every time they asked why i told em. maybe they'll tell their kids too.
The dome light ? The roof lights on the inside I assume ? Never heard the term dome light.
I don't think they could be placed in a way so as to be visible from the rear, and even then they'd barely be noticeable, pointing toward the bottom and not being particularly bright.
My friends thought I was nuts when I told them about a truck I was behind. Good to know a. I wasn't crazy, b. they actually have a good use and c. The guy I was behind was just a jackass and it wasn't an "accident".
I was driving down a state highway in between cities in rural Indiana once at like midnight. There was only me and two other vehicles about a quarter mile or so farther down the road. One semi and one driver in a car fucking with the semi.
The driver ended up passing the semi and break checking him to the point the semi had to swerve. Luckily the semi didn't have a trailer attached so he was able to safely dodge the car and then swerved back into his original lane. He then turned this LED bar on that spanned the entire length of the back of the truck. It was the brightest thing I've ever seen and I'm still like a quarter to an eighth of a mile away. The car driver had to have been blinded cause they pulled over but they were honestly lucky they didn't get killed stopping in front of the semi like that.
Wild! I saw something similar happen in western Pennsylvania along 80 going downhill. Guy kept getting in front of the truck and slowing down, then changing lanes, falling back and following him, then swinging around and brake checking him again. The trucker was probably on his radio or something because another truck came along and ended up blocking the guy in the far right lane behind the original trucker. It was fucking cool to see. The second truck was driving pretty aggressively downhill around curves trying to keep this guy trapped, he was either crazy or one of the best drivers I’ve ever seen.
My old boss had one, because we worked night shift in the field a lot, a light bar that covered the width of his truck and was like a small sun. When parked next to a ditch it made working down there pretty reasonable at any time of day. He was an aggressive person though and when a dude break checked us once on a small rural road (which my boss probably earned even if it's always a dick move) he flipped it on. I could swear birds started to sing because they assumed that dawn had arrived from the total darkness of the moment before. The reflected light in the window was enough to make me see stars. Dude swerved wildly and then put his foot down. I presume he drove by psychic impression and luck for the next half mile cuz I couldn't see shit.
On newer heavy duty trucks the mirrors often have built in lighting for backing up trailers in the dark. However, factory installed lights automatically turn off when it’s put into forward gear.
I know for a fact this generation Chevy didn’t come with those lights so someone added those aftermarket, and wired them up with no regard of other people.
My rear fog light is a 150W equivalent LED bulb with a inbuilt projector pointed roughly where someone would be sitting, and I reserve it for people who leave their high beams on behind me.
Let's say it's worked the very few times I've had to use it.
I feel like law enforcement should take stricter action against these idiots. This is a major hazard and letting them off with a "warning" isn't enough when you hand out tickets to people going 5 over the limit.
$500 fines, and they have to come into the station and prove that they removed the lights.
Yeah i live outside the city in a farming community and its gotten ridiculous how many ass holes just casually drive around with their LED light bars. Its absurd how inconsiderate these dip shits are.
It’s doubly absurd when there are counties that will pull you over for going 1 over after dipping the speed from 70 to 35 in 200ft, but leave all of this easy lightbar money on the table.
Yeah man, Ive got a light bar but it only gets turned on if im somewhere where its DARK dark and there arent any other cars visible. The ones who just leave them on piss me off to no end.
I have light bars and spot lights too. But will never understand whats going through the mind of people that keep them on while on the road especially with oncoming traffic.
they should impound cars like this and front windshield tintings that are so obviously illegal. its free cop money but for some reason they don’t, I assume its cops driving these pieces of shit
Nearly got a ticket for doing 10 over the speed limit. Cop pulled out of the station and was riding my bumper when I was doing the speed limit. I sped up to try to get into the right lane and let hime pass. He pulled me over and asked why I was speeding. "Because you're riding my bumper sir. Thought you were in a hurry and was trying to get out of your way"
Pulled over on a road thats 35 an hour doing between 40 and 50. Everyone driving on that road does 40-60 so me getting pulled over was ridiculous
He pulled out of the police station behind me and was riding my bumper for a bit before pulling me over. I got let go without a ticket. If id gotten a ticket I would've probably went to court to fight it cause that was bs. Cop was a dick but was probably looking for warrants and didnt care about my speed
The cops here have been on a “soft strike” for nearly a decade. It’s nearly impossible to get pulled over for anything. Street takeovers go unbothered, hundreds of motorcycles on the highway doing wheelies in those group rides, trucks with a billion lights, trucks with a frame so rotten they’re folding in half, cops do not give one single fuck.
Christ how is that still going on in some cities? I think I remember that starting around the murder if George Floyd because the police felt unappreciated by the public (not sure how failing to respond to calls would help with that but 🤷♂️).
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve lived in Seattle but seems like they had openly been doing that even farther back.
"We're saving too many lives! Whatever happened to natural selection? Survival of the fittest? The kid who swallows too many marbles doesn't grow up to have kids of his own!" -- George Carlin
They should impound the vehicle and revoke their license. This is dangerous to everyone on the road, as well as the pedestrians they might hit because their vision was impaired.
Not everyone, but a better education system and removing money from politics couldn't hurt. Educate the masses and disallow foreign/commercial interests to brainwash them via social media/television would go a long ways
Because it makes money. And that's all that matters the higher up you go. The people who have the most influence are more obsessed with the ability to accrue wealth and they don't care about the consequences.
That’s not how it works. It would be illegal in Switzerland and Italy (just because I know those two places) and that would definitely stop people from getting them, because police would stop you and it’s not even a fine, they would take your car and you would need to call a cab.
The US is bizzarre when it comes to what they allow to be on the road.
Part of the reason we are more lax with what is allowed on the road is we are extremely car dependent so any attempts to enforce car inspections ends up being a regressive tax on poor people that must use their cars to get to work.
They're illegal in all U.S. states. No white light is allowed to be showing at the rear of a vehicle, except license plate lights. Those wheel well lights are illegal as well.
THAT is the intention of these lights, my buddy’s truck has them, but they’re only on in reverse. It appears it’s become a “thing” to wire them to always be on, which is a problem. But as backup lights they’re amazing for hooking trailers at night or backing said trailer into a barn
Probably a cop or related to one. People who drive these have “fuck you vibes.” They would love for anyone to say something to them about it. Looking for a chance to lash out.
In America people love it. It's a dick measuring contest to see how bright the neutron-star projectors on your Dodge Ram can get. The trees and landscape must look like daytime at minimum 1 mile in front of you or you're not a real man.
Some people love it. There are plenty of idiotic automotive modification trends that aren't endorsed by the wider gearhead community; see "Carolina squat".
That’s something I’ve only ever experienced in the U.S. I was driving down the Oregon Coast Highway at night when a Dodge RAM came up behind me. I could see that bright 100k-lumen beam approaching in my rearview mirror long before the truck was actually behind me. I eventually had to pull over and let him pass because I couldn’t see a thing anymore
“I need everyone to notice the 20 different things I added to my oversized mall crawler truck that has never once been used for the actual purposes this truck was made for. How else will I convince everyone my penis isn’t 3 inches long?”
I'm pretty sure they are just the regular headlights, but the regular lights have gotten much brighter and many cars have the auto setting with lights always on.
Not long ago, I thought somebody had their brights on so I flashed mine at them to tell them to turn off the brights. They then turned on their brights which somehow were even brighter than what was already blinding me. I'm now less likely to try that again. If a politician ran on regulating the lumens of headlights, they would have my vote.
I usually go off of how “much” of the light housing is illuminated and if the lower (fog?) lights are also on
I noticed in a lot of cars headlights won’t illuminate the whole housing till the brights are on. The people I’m talking about are the full grown adults with “student driver” stickers on their car
I’ve been noticing these extra lights big trucks are installing on the front AND back of their trucks to blind people. I’m in a smaller car so it’s been a real joy. Love them.
I think also sometimes parents will give their kid to much attention, and then the kids never learns they aren't the most important person around. They grow up and think they are still the main character and are entitled and arrogant.
Same as my friends’ untrained Jack Russel who would get so annoyed we weren’t paying attention to it that it would piss on the floor in front of us and think it was a game when my buddy would chase it after.
The point of the lights for their actual use is for trailer backing lights. When you're backing a trailer the lights come on because the truck is in reverse and you can see better where you're going on either your trailer camera or in your mirrors.
With very little effort these can be rigged so they are on in drive instead of reverse. This is of course illegal. The point of them in this configuration is literally just to be a douche bag. This is further reinforced by the fact that there doesn't appear to be a tow hitch on the truck at all.
Plenty of people remove their hitches when not in use, it’s actually what you’re supposed to do. You don’t actually want the hitch hanging over sidewalks while parked or getting rusty being left out.
They really want to see any threats to their sexual orientation coming. What if something in the dark of the night sneaks up and turns you gay or trans without you even noticing?! How would you eve explain that to your sister wives??
I heard on OAN that can happen if you don’t have enough headlights.
100% rednecks. I live in a redneck area and almost every white giant mega truck has shit like this. They roll coal etc, anything to get a rile out of people. Just fucking assholes and they know it and think its funny.
And they keep those bright ass halogen(?) headlights like permanently in “blind everything within a half mile ahead of me mode”. I hate driving at night now. If you’re from the south you saw that weird takeover out of nowhere. We went from donks with sprite logos to giant trucks too big for anything before I even noticed. There was that jeep phase in between I just remembered.
Not in this case but people need those lights to go down gravel roads and farm fields at night. We turn them on to look at cows who may be injured or horses etc.
It also lets you expand your lights to show obstacles on country roads that are usually illuminated on city streets.
You don’t see them as much now they led lights are so bright but in the old days you needed to add lots of lights on the farm.
My pap had 1 light on his truck and it was off an old sherrifs cruiser with the little handle to move it wherever you needed. Spotted more deer with it than we ever needed it on the farm. We had the old L shaped angle head flashlights for that.
Yeah, they’re lights that help with backing up a trailer or connecting/disconnecting in the dark. I use them all the time but on my truck they automatically turn off when you shift the transmission into drive.
Right, so backup lights that are actually in a usable, functional location for towing a trailer.
One of the little-known things about backup lights is that officially, they're actually intended for area illumination. They're meant to function as rear-facing headlights so you can see what you're doing when reversing. They were never actually intended to alert other people to the fact that you're reversing, and the relevant standard (at least in the US, but I think even international standards on which countries base their own local ones) still reflects that.
At least in the US, though, the standard is so vague that backup lights are no longer designed to throw enough light to actually serve that function. What we get now are tiny LED strips that don't actually illuminate the area. They instead function merely to alert other people.
Edit: At least, this is what I've been told by people far more familiar with the subject than me. The comment below, which actually has an excerpt from the relevant standard and a link to it, is quite interesting.
>At least in the US, though, the standard is so vague...
In the U.S., backup/reverse lamps on newly manufactured road vehicles are governed federally by FMVSS No. 108, 49 CFR §571.108. For passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses, the federal baseline is:
Number: At least one backup lamp; additional lamps are permitted.
Color: White
Location: On the rear of the vehicle.
Operation: Steady-burning; it must activate when the ignition is energized and reverse gear is engaged, and must not be energized while the vehicle is moving forward.
Visibility: Lamps must be mounted so that the optical center of at least one lamp is visible from any eye point elevation from at least 1828 mm (6 ft) to 610 mm (2 ft) above the horizontal plane on which the vehicle is standing; and from any position in the area, rearward of a vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, 914 mm (3 ft), to the rear of the vehicle and extending 914 mm (3 ft) beyond each side of the vehicle.
Brightness: It must satisfy the candela measurements in Table XII. There is not one universal wattage, lumen limit, or single maximum-candela figure; compliance is determined from light intensity at multiple horizontal and vertical test angles.
Photometry: Each backup lamp must be designed to conform to the photometry requirements of Table XII, when tested according to the procedure of S14.2.1, as specified by this section. Photometric measurements are made at a distance between the light source and the point of measurement of at least ... 3 m for turn signal lamps, stop lamps, taillamps, backup lamps, and school bus signal lamps.
Durability: Each backup lamp must be designed to conform to the performance requirements of the vibration test, moisture test, dust test, and corrosion test of S14.5, and the color test and plastic optical material test of S14.4.
The lamp also needs to be genuinely at the rear of the vehicle. NHTSA has said a lamp mounted far forward—for example, on the back of a tractor’s cab rather than near the rear extremity—does not satisfy the required rear mounting location, although it may be used as an additional auxiliary lamp.
Yeah, I'm looking into these for towing and the options are on in reverse or with the cargo lights. Looks like either the CHMSL is burnt out or they are rigged up to just and on / off switch.
I wonder if dude even realized he had his trailer backup lights on.. a total doosh for not paying attention.
I had them installed on my farm truck but I don't think you can get them from the manufacturer and there is a switch on my dash for them (I also have them on the back of my rally light bar on top - they're pretty convenient, especially this past week when we had to work in the dark because of the heat)
I have them on my truck’s utility bumper. They’re bright as hell, but I have them wired to the reverse lights so I can’t accidentally leave them on and blind drivers behind me. They’re excellent for reversing in the dark though because everything is nice and visible behind you.
They're supposed to be for enhanced visibility while loading or backing up a truck, especially with a trailer on that can obscure the regular back-up lights.
Wiring them to be always on is just double d-bag material.
Those are literally for convenience if you were to be working around the truck at night time. No reason for him to be driving with those on, what a fucker.
They’re for backing up trailers at night so you can see. They’re not meant to be on while driving so I’m assuming either something is broken, they didn’t know how to turn them off, or they simply forgot
They're not supposed to be on. They're for seeing after you've parked. Or a little more light at night when doing stuff around the truck. They're either hooked up incorrectly, the driver doesn't realize they're on, they turned them on because your lights are bright, or they're a dick. Probably a combination of a few things with being a dick.
Assuming this is a GMC or has GMC style mirrors. They are backup lights. Depending on the truck, they probably are factory equipment. They are not supposed to be on while driving forward. Unfortunately, there are ways to trick the truck into allowing them to be on while driving.
My truck has them, they are stupid bright. Mine absolutely do not work while driving forward.
I saw an F-150 go by the house last night with these some lights on. First time I had seen them. Apparently they can be switched on while driving forward. Very bright.
these people are assholes and stupid. would you want another vehicle coming at you wile blind. There are counter measures for Bright Lights behind you or coming at you.
They're called back blinders. That way if they're ahead of you and can't blind you with their super bright LED headlights, they can still blind you backwards.
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u/Kayaked1 16h ago
I believe my work truck has them. They are mounted on the side mirrors so you can see when backing up at night. Probably not supposed to drive with them on. It was one of those weird switches on the dash, like a toggle under the radio. I didn’t even know about them till I turned them on by mistake.