Do you know where your dip beam headlight switch is ?

[Clarice]

I believe everyone knows where their headlight dip beam switch is, or so I thought.

It is evident to me that there are some complete idiots out there who have sod all idea of what they are doing in the dark.

Being perched up in the heights in my Articulated Truck cab, I cop for all those fools out there who come at me from the opposite direction with full beam hitting me square in the face.

 As you can imagine Andrew gets fairly cheesed off with this latest folly after a while so they get back what they throw at me with flowers and garlands thrown in.

The latest idiot to do this was rewarded with the four headlight 'thanks for blinding me' set up of the truck at which point his/her lights went off main beam onto sidelights followed by him/her crossing the centre lines into my path.

i had to do a quick dodge to prevent a VW UP becoming a Mascot on my grille, it dawned on me that there are a number of drivers who have absolutely no idea of what the hell the set up of their car is regarding the headlight dip/main beam positions and solely turn on the main beams without any idea that the car has a dip position on the light switch on the column.

It should be mandatory for sales persons to instruct the owners of cars to the light switch positions of side- dip and main beam headlights as one day I will really lose my rag and use the Truck to dip the driver of the offending vehicle into oblivion.

Rant over have a nice day ( and Night )

[rmvf]

You are right, some with no idea, some with just no respect or consideration and even some who blatantly just leave em on full beam even when given a courtesy flash before bends or hills,  i noticed these new Adaptive lights full beam wont come on if the conditions are not right. But still have flash function.

[Clarice]

A Friends daughter took the wife out for a drive last week, wife noticed she was getting headlights from oncoming cars flashing away at her , took a peek at the instrument binnacle to see the blue tell tale light for high beam was on permanently.

Wife asked why friends daughter didn't dip her headlights when other cars coming from the opposite direction

Answer was ' I can't see the road otherwise'

A lesson was sharply implemented towards friends daughter by the wife as to the courtesy of dipping lights when others are coming from the opposite direction in the dark.

The daughter is in mid twenties and not stupid by any means but this appears to be a missing link in her make up.......God help the rest of us.

[twabrigs]

A friend of my Dad's back in the 80s drove a BMW 3.0CSi and always drove on full beam. When, inevitably, some unsuspecting blinded motorist flashed him he would fire up the four additional rally lamps he'd had fitted for just this eventuality. No doubt he thought this hilarious.

The same guy used to drive regularly from Dundee to Edinburgh for breakfast at a favourite restaurant. This perhaps contributed to his considerable obesity and the fracturing of the driver's seat on one memorable occasion.

Takes all sorts.

[Clarice]

Says it all really about BMW owners, to me it means Brainless Moronic W****r

Basedd on the number of these cretins along with AUDi/Mercs/etc etc. The more prestigious the badge usually the bigger the pratt behind the wheel

For those souls out there who are easily offended my apols in advance but it has to be said.

[Anchorman]

The cab of a truck appears over the crest of a hill long before the lights do and it isn’t always easy to see them and the auto dip function certainly doesn’t react until it sees headlights so truck drivers will get dazzled on occasions.  I’ve noticed that one of the cars that can be mistaken for being on high beam is our new Cx5s so I tend to be as considerate as possible but we are all going to get dazzled occasionally with modern lighting systems and its going to get worse.  I tend not to get hung up about it.

[Deeps]

tend not to get hung up about it.

Me neither especially as these 'high beam rollers' are pretty much few and far between. Those blue lights, however - I absolutely loathe them - unnecessarily bright IMHO.  U

[Clarice]

A truck coming over a rise I can accept the driver of same getting the 'high beam' treatment, save for one factor---all trucks have forward facing top and side marker lights on the cab with some owner drivers going around with lights festooned all over the shop and looking like a UFO coming at you at low level.

However there are those idiots with lights on full beam on single carriageways, dual carriageways and Motorways along with coming down or uphill on the roads when I get the benefit of having my night vision completely screwed up by such selfish inept morons who for the major part fail to read the manual and turn on the headlights without having a scooby doo that the light control stalk on the steering column is there just for that reason Dip/Main.

Daylight running lights, coming out of London on the A40 flyover recently I saw a car with only these LED lights on in the dark at the front, as it came by my cab I sounded the horn and pointed to the young lass in the passenger seat to wind down her window which she did. I yelled that the driver (her Mother) needed to switch the normal lights on, at this point girl leant over and I then saw the high beam flash, followed by the same extinguishing as the sidelights then came on then went off again.

The car zoomed off with no lights showing at the rear at all, suffice to say I dropped off my speed and at the time we were in a 40 limit as i didn't want to be in close proximity to some other clown hitting her right up the chuff end of her car. To me the driver had no clue as to what she was doing , didn't even know where the light switch was to turn the lights on and was to me a disaster waiting for somewhere to occur and on the A40/M40 that is a certainty

Brings me to on to manufacturers who changed the dash illumination from coming on only when lights were in use, to putting the dash lights on when the ignition is fired up so that drivers exit from lit up areas thinking lights are on because the dash is illuminated when they have no external lights in play,  Oh!!! the nice little green light tell tale in the dash should do that, but only if the driver knows what it means but that would entail reading the manual which is still stuck in the drawer gathering dust unread , unloved and dismissed.

Liked to have met TWA's father friend as had he put up four rally lamps towards me I would have stopped, followed him and when he halted would have put him to rights regarding silliness on the road towards others..........by all legal means . if that failed well what can I say !!!

Like Deeps I find the blue/white lights the worst, I have however taken steps to lessen the impact by wearing amber cycle  protection specs at night and can recommend them for those who don't have to wear correctional lens glasses, if you do then go for a pair of corrective lens glasses in amber for night time driving, they do knock of the worst of the glare from 'Mr Flash Happy' coming the other way but don't impede on your vision out of the cabin into the dark.

Oh well another rambling rant over just dip yer lights.

[Clarice]

Just struck me today having seen yet another pratt yesterday take a sudden nose dive when the car in front braked in M1 Traffic and believe me the hordes of clowns were out in abundance last night on the Motorway.

Have any of you tested your ABS at all, by that I mean take your jalopy to a road where little or no traffic is, build up to around 30MPH and when safe hit the brake pedal to see how the system operates and feel the effects BEFORE you really need to try it out in anger.

All of you with Automatics, likewise have you tried out the manual sequence of gear shifting ?

Reason ?  with the dark nights , the clocks going back and weather becoming a little more tricky with fog, ice, snow etc associated with the Autumn/winter months an automatic box can flounder in these conditions going into a higher gear when you would be better of in a lower gear so, to keep yourself in check use the Manual set up, it is so easy to use and you don't have to worry as to what gear you think you're in the telltale in the dash will come up with the letter M to indicate you are in manual mode along with the number of the gear you have selected, pull back on the gear lever to go 'UP the gears and push forward to go 'DOWN' the gears.

Again something to practise on a little used road before you try it for real on our congested roadways ( an Hour to get south from J26 to J24 last night )

[rmvf]

Thanks for that advice, im thinking of getting a auto next after 30 years of using a manual box, and would appreiate any more reference using the auto box

[Clarice]

Hi rmvf,

Like you I have been using manual gearboxes for 40+ years and would have steered clear ( sorry about the pun ) of automatics when younger but having in the interim driven HGV 1 Articulated vehicles for 20+ of those years when I got into the first automatic gearboxed truck and got over the loss of a long black gear lever with splitter box trigger and high/low ratios which when you're in heavy traffic can become a real chore.

Using the spare Zanussi knob in the dash all you had to do was engage 'D' and 'Lo' all the rest was done for you, it really did take a lot of the legwork ( sorry another pun ) out of driving and made life SO much easier which is why we went for an autobox in our CX-5.

If this is your first Automatic you really do have to remember to keep your LEFT LEG pinned to the centre tunnel as you will for a few occasions try to go for the clutch ( Non existent ) and hit the brake, it is a right leg only machine, along with the toys on board you should have a great drive though so enjoy any other questions feel free to ask away.

[dunhill1984]

love auto boxes will never buy manual again

[Deeps]

My advice would be to tuck the left foot behind the right for a couple of weeks until your brain tunes into the fact that the left foot isn't needed with an auto box. After that it becomes second nature and on the occasions that you might need to use a manual box it takes quite a bit of concentration e.g. you approach a roundabout in top gear and having forgotten to change down before completing a 3/4 rotation, find yourself chugging around the blessed thing.

[Clarice]

Deeps, as a Caravan enthusiast can you give me an indication as to whether you prefer single or tandem axled vans. I ask as I am giving consideration to going down the caravan route as there is two of us plus the dog. Towing doesn't faze me as i drag single/double/triple axled trailers about and have dragged trailers with cars atop of them when I went racing but that aside for two people plus pooch what would you go for?

I think the answer might be a bit strange but Earthworms ?

Regards
Clarice

[Deeps]

Deeps, as a Caravan enthusiast ......

That should read reluctant Caravan enthusiast as ownership was very much the fulfillment of my OH lifelong dream. Anyway, it was never our intention to be gypsies i.e. set up camp and stay for months on end but rather to tour. A few nights here, a few night there - you get my drift. With that in mind we (well she really) opted for an Eriba Touring model with the current one being a Troll 542 which of course is single axle, comes in at approx 850kg unladen with a max laden weight of 1300kg with an upgrade (only a paper exercise) to 1400kg if required. Designed by an aircraft engineer using a steel cage and aluminium skin these models are a dream to tow also helped by the fact that they sit low as a result of the pop-up roof. Towing at a law-abiding max of 100km/h I often have to look in the rear view mirror to check whether or not the blessed thing is still there. I also like the fact that a mover is not really required although a fair few owners have it fitted to aid maneuverability in awkward pitches. You'd be hard pushed to manhandle a twin axle into position where reversing the tow car isn't possible. It's also important to remember that your choice of twin axle vans is pretty much limited whilst single axles are a plenty.

I too have driven all manner of vehicles from draw-bar trailers to triple axles and to be honest found reversing a 38 tonne a lot easier than the caravan. The ratio of trailer length to tractor unit makes for good reversing maneuverability whereas with the caravan/car combo where there's not much difference in length between them can make for some good campsite entertainment. The trick of course as you well know is slowly as she goes but try telling that to some people especially those that tow once a year but act as though it's there main employment.   

I've not been a lot of help here I realise but in all honesty if it's just the two of you and the dog then I wouldn't personally opt for a 'wobbly box', a name given to the more conventional type of caravan for obvious reasons, but instead would go for one of the Hymer Touring models. There's no fancy microwaves etc installed but unlike the wobbly box they hold their value surprisingly well.