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Comment by jermaustin1 | Hacker News Reader

I'm actually about to buy a truck because of how bright everyone's lights are and how low my car is (Honda Fit).

My car was in the shop the other day, and they loaned me a truck, it was amazing, I could drive at night with NO ISSUES.

My commute is pretty much a single twisty, turny back road that has no street lamps, so everyone thinks they need their brights on... So I'm constantly blinded by high-beams, then they switch to what has to be illegally bright or misaligned low-beams. In the truck though, I wasn't blinded once but people still had their high beams and way too bright low beams.

I haven't driven a truck in 8 years, but maybe its time.

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(As someone who drives a truck in an area much like yours)

This works, until you realize that because you're higher than everyone else, they all think YOU have your high beams on. And then you get flashed and honked at on a regular basis (at least I do). Then I actually turn on my high beams to show people what it could be like and they take theirs off.

But even then, you're still right. The worst case scenario in a truck is still nothing compared to the blinding light of a lifted F250 with upgraded HIDs when I'm in my fiesta.

But you are blinding them. Showing that it could be worse doesn't make it better. (You see that I'm not a fan of trucks.)

Instead of just writing it off as the perks of owning a truck, if that many people are that annoyed about your headlights maybe you should investigate the issue. The issue isn't whether you have your high/low beams on, it's whether you're blinding everyone else on the road.

As aimed from the factory, the headlights on my car were casting way too much bright light up way too high, so I just adjusted them to a slightly more downward angle.

Chances are taking your headlights even a few degrees down from the horizon would solve a lot of problems for everyone else trying to share the road with you without significantly impacting your visibility.

I was thinking about some carefully-sculpted "chrome mudflaps" or something on the back of my small car, up near the window. Obviously they wouldn't do much for mud, but if they're purely passive, I think they'd still be legal. If someone's following at an appropriate distance, no issue, but if they get close enough for their lights to point at my window, they'll be eating their own glare.

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