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Flip up lights for SUVs

 Down with those lights.
 
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I hate it when a car with the lights mounted high drives behind me so it is bright daylight in my passenger cabin, always wakes me up. Also oncoming traffic with these lights is bad because it blinds me much longer than a small car. One solution would be to mount the lights so they point down at a steep angle but then they would not reach very far. I suggest to define a legal mounting height for road traffic that is fairly low for all cars (12" instead of common 30". SUVs and similar vehicles can have their lights on movable mounts that allow to raise the lights for off road traffic.
—kbecker, Dec 23 2003

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       This is already mandate in Norman, OK ... a good friend of mine got a $50 traffic ticket because his low-beams were shining too high.
—Letsbuildafort, Dec 23 2003
   

       I agree with the principle, although I'm not sure if the moderators will feel this is a valid halfbakery thing.
—kropotkin, Dec 23 2003
   

       I think the minimum above-ground height for headlights is about 19in.   

       There is no reason that the low beam shields in headlight bulbs couldn't be modified for vehicles with lights set above a certain height. They are already placed in a manner preventing this sort of problem, on passenger cars.
—UnaBubba, Dec 23 2003
   

       [UB] It's just geometry; if your lights are 5ft high and you want them to light things at least 500ft away (which makes sense for safety) they have to point down at a very shallow angle with the result that they blind other drivers over a long range too. On the other hand, a light that starts 1ft above ground never makes it into the critical height range (3 to 5ft) where many drivers have their heads.
—kbecker, Dec 23 2003
   

       True. The point I was making is that there is a small deflector over the top of the low beam element, to prevent light spilling upwards. It could be at a slightly different angle for the low beam setting on SUVs and trucks. High beam will still be a problem.   

       I'm unsure of design rules now, but it used to be 19.5in minimum height, for headlights. That is why many sports cars have popup headlights.
—UnaBubba, Dec 23 2003
   

       At first, I read this: "I hate it when I'm driving and those SUV lights flood the cabin and wake me up." Hmmm.... Like the joke: "I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather..."
—TerranFury, Dec 24 2003
   


 

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