Let there be light

    A vehicle’s headlights are one of the most important items in your vehicle, and yet it’s often one of the most overlooked items. Your ability to see clearly and be seen clearly at night is very important and is all due to your headlights.
    Headlights have improved over the years to help with seeing at night. The introduction of Light-Emitting Diodes, better known as LED, headlights have improved night driving dramatically. Making them shine brighter and more clearly to help identify items on the roadway. Most of the older vehicles have a halogen headlight, which is much dimmer in comparison.
    So let’s talk about some of the things that can diminish the brightness of your headlights. The first one is probably the most common. Some light covers will tarnish and get a film over it causing the light to dim, thus not allowing the clarity needed when using them. It’s easy to tell because your light covers will look yellowish and cloudy when you look at them. If you see problems like that, you might want to change them out or get them cleaned professionally.
    Another issue that happens to headlights is having them move out of alignment. This can happen due to loose bolts or just movement from being bounced around when driving on the roads. You should check your headlight alignment at least once a year. Sometimes you may see one light shining way above the road, or lighting up the ground just in front of your vehicle.
    A vehicle needs to have at least two headlights to the front of the vehicle and at the outer edges of the vehicle. Also placement cannot be lower than 24 inches or higher than 54 inches from the ground to the center of the headlamp.
    When a car is coming in the opposite direction at night, it can sometimes be a little blinding trying to see past an oncoming car’s light. A great tip to help you be able to follow the road is to use the fog line. The fog line is the white stripe on the right side of your lane. Simply use that as a guide to let you know you are still in your lane. By using your peripheral vision for the oncoming vehicle and focusing on the fog line you won’t blind yourself and won’t have to worry about drifting off the roadway.

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