The importance of a rear dust light in the southwest.

[Hillbilly Heaven]

The topic of this thread is suppose to be about rear mounted high conspicuous light but has shifted to driving styles. No one has mentioned the real reason is to avoid having someone rear ending you regardless of your driving style. Yeah you can do all you want to prevent dust but it still helps to have a device that will alert an approaching driver. Defensive measure. You can't stop or control those that chose to drive like they are in a desert race. You can prevent being rear ended by them.

You have headlights so that you can see the highway and to alert on coming traffic. What is the big deal about mounting an auxiliary light to prevent someone from rear ending you. It happens even on paved roads during heavy fog and those folks are not driving like it is the Indy 500. Having an auxiliary rear light could help prevent some of the highway rear enders too.

Guys investing thousands into their vehicles and then whine and cry over having to mount a 30 or 40 dollar light to caution approaching drivers are narrow minded. Wake up this is a defensive device that helps to protect your vehicle. You can not make everyone drive like you do, that is a pipe dream. Bet you have a fire extinguisher on board. Does that prevent fires? NO, then why do you carry it? In case you need it to protect your vehicle.

Stop whining spend a few bucks and protect your vehicle.

 

[proper4wd]

^^^ Thank you. I've been wondering how everyone here can so indignantly control how others behind them drive.

 

[Pilat]

^^^ Thank you. I've been wondering how everyone here can so indignantly control how others behind them drive.

Perhaps because the premise of this thread to begin with was trying to force people in front to behave in a certain way lest they become shunted from behind by people who will not drive according to the conditions?

I, for one, did mention that it is one thing to want to protect their car and themselves by adding a rear facing dust light (assuming it is of legal colour, since we are talking public roads here), and it's a whole other ball game to argue that people should have it because you (collective you) won't drive as you should on public roads, because otherwise you just might shunt them from behind.

 

[toyick]

^^^ Thank you. I've been wondering how everyone here can so indignantly control how others behind them drive.

Have you not driven in California before??? haha pretty much every person on the road...."its their right"...... haha 55 in the fast lane!!

 

[Robert Bills]

This thread took a tangent from the very beginning because TrophyCummins, the original poster, suggested that he and his wannabe desert racer buddies have such sophisticated suspensions that the rest of us need dust lights because they can't drive slowly enough to avoid hitting us, and further suggested that there are circumstances when it acceptable to "nerf" a vehicle one is overtaking in order to push it out of the way. That attitude has no place in the world the rest of us live in, but it shouldn't blind us to the fact that a rear-facing amber dust light is a good idea in dusty conditions.

Sometimes there is no wind and the dust hangs over a trail for quite some time. Even if a group is traveling at a slow speed and the individual rigs are spread out it is sometimes difficult to see the vehicles in front. Not only does a dust light help prevent accidentally running into a vehicle that has unexpectedly stopped in the middle of the trail, it also helps keep vehicles at the front of the group in sight when the group is spread out which can be helpful in determining which way to go at forks in the road, splits in the trail, bypasses around washouts, etc.

I appreciate the rigs in front of me that use dust lights because they are easier for me to see when a cloud of dust is unavoidable. I just obtained one to make my truck easier to see by the rigs behind me, not so much to keep them from hitting me as to make it easier for them to follow me.

I don't understand the negative attitudes. With the possible exception of TrophyCummins, no one has suggested that it is unreasonable to drive slowly in dusty conditions and I am not aware of anyone who currently uses a dust light who has taken the position that they should be mandatory. Use one or don't - its up to you.

This is the magnetic mount LED light I recently acquired to test as a dust light. It works quite well and requires no wiring. Perhaps not the best alternative if one regularly offroads in dusty conditions (a hard wired light would be better), but fine for occasional use and for $25 the price was right:

https://www.etrailer.com/Emergency-Supplies/Custer/HF18A-MB.html

 

[frojoe]

Can we all calm down? Nerfing and speed and all that aside, as an individual user or a group of users, like every type of motorsport across all environments, one should do the best they can to increase their visibility/safety in surroundings. Sometimes a light wouldn't do **** in ultra-thick dust, but maybe sometimes it would. I think the technical discussion of the light spectrums was incredibly interesting, as well as peoples' experiences of various scenarios/speeds/uses were also very interesting to hear when a light was more or less useful than other times. Why don't we leave it at that.

 

[Kerensky97]

Off topic, but closer to the original topic than the current argument...
If you have an SUV/hatchback style vehicle, it's amazing how much of a difference a rear window air deflector makes on keeping trail dust off your back window and improving visibility.

Even though my site has been down a while google still has an image cached of when me and some friends retraced the Pony Express Trail and did some highspeed, cross desert driving. We were travelling in billowing clouds of dust and even though I was behind the leader with the dirty back window mine stayed relatively clean. Of the 5 of us everybody had mud caked rear windows and mine looked like I just got off the freeway.

The SUV brick like aerodynamics creates a big eddy current that causes dust to stick to the back window. The angled rear spoilers aren't just for looks, they do a great job of blowing dust and water down the back.

 

[MagicMtnDan]

 

[Ivan]

****posting.

****posting as far as the eye can see.

If this whole thread got nuked from orbit, we would all be better for it.

Also, it seems this place needs a retiree forum.

Just sayin...

 

[kojackJKU]

On public trails in ohv areas, there are no speed limits. In rough sections, more capable vehicles MUST keep speed up in order to smooth out the ride. It's how high dollar suspension systems work, going to slow could cause a the vehicle to lose control.

Growing up in the desert it's always been common knowledge that the faster trucks have right of way and your *** will get nerfed(rear run into to let you know a faster truck is behind you) if you don't get out of the way.

It's only recently where people have started taking their stock vehicles onto trails previously only used by off-roaders. And I believe that public land is for everyone to enjoy, and in order to do that safely, people need a dust light.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Late to this party. Yeawh buddy...I have a dust light for you....its my mag lite. "nerf me" and guess what, I will NERF your head with my mag lite. If your close enough to hit my rig with yours...your close enough to see me or....close enough for me to block you and see what really happens. Trophycummins = ****wad!

 

[Pilat]

****posting.

****posting as far as the eye can see.

If this whole thread got nuked from orbit, we would all be better for it.

Also, it seems this place needs a retiree forum.

Just sayin...

Yes, and some people need to grow up and drive like grown-ups when they venture out on public roads. If they want to race, go to a race track, join races, and keep the juvenile stuff there.

Just sayin ...

 

[proper4wd]

You can drive as slow and as carefully as you want. How is that going to stop some idiot from plowing into the back of you if they can't see you?

 

[OCD Overland]

Well after reading back through this thread, I've changed my mind about the red dust/fog light idea.

I guess instead I'll need to install lasers to fend off the desert nerf bandits.

Red lasers.

 

[Pilat]

Well after reading back through this thread, I've changed my mind about the red dust/fog light idea.

I guess instead I'll need to install lasers to fend off the desert nerf bandits.

Red lasers.

Go green. Much more visible and for more distance.

http://www.greatlandlaser.com/green-rescue-laser-flare/

 

[Sparse Gray Hackle]

You can drive as slow and as carefully as you want. How is that going to stop some idiot from plowing into the back of you if they can't see you?

With a bit of luck, the idiots will have already qualified for a Darwin Award.