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MG MGB Technical - fog/driving lights...

Hello again everyone....
I just recently purchaced a set of decent looking 6" round Driving / Fog lights for mounting on a badge bar on a 73-B... My question is ... Does anyone know the proper way to aim a set of fog/lights. I dont want to be blinding oncoming traffic but at the same time I want to get the most from the additional light....
Thanks
Bud
Bud Beck

You will find your fogs make a great set of cornering lights. The beam is wide and flat. Aim them in a vacant parking lot and check with the headlights on and off. The fogs should provide fill light falling just barely below the low beams and spreading wide to the sides. You can bring them up even with your low beams if that suits you. I was lucky enough at a recent swap meet to run across a set of halogen Aris GT yellow fogs with the silver and red octagonal badges in the center. Just right for the MG.
Jim Blackwood

Which are they, or have you one of each? The driving or spot lamp will have a long pencil beam that *will* dazzle oncoming drivers if correctly adjusted, the fogs shouldn't if correctly adjusted.
Paul Hunt

Paul,
I purchaced driving lights because I wasnt crazy about the amber lenses on the fog lights and also I want them so I can be seen and I can see better, Fog is seldom a problem here in Ohio...
thanks
Bud
Bud Beck

Paul, You seem to have forgotten that to use foglights, front or rear, other than when "visibility is seriously reduced" is an offence in the UK. Rightly so in my opinion. As a professional driver covering 40000 miles a year I have used my fog lights twice in the last 12 months and than for less than 20 minutes each time. However I am constantly being dazzled by ignorant or inconsiderate or maybe just foggy brained drivers who use fog lights incorrectly.
philip may

Phil, I echo your comments completely. People over here, at least, seem to use them as some sort of ornament, or mayby they think they are a talisman to keep the evil accident spirits away. I suspect that the use of fog lights is implicated in more accidents than they prevent. Fog lights are only necessary when fog is really thick i.e. very rarely, but pople run around with them on all the time. Why do they put them on in rain? Rain causes enough dazzle without extra bright lights to add to the confusion. How many back end shunts are, at least in part, due to late braking caused by an unnecessary red fog light making the brake lights difficult to distingish. And its the driver behind who gets the blame! If the car behind is obviously following then they can alredy see you - so switch the bloody fog lights off! - if only for self interest.
ian thomson

You in the U.K. seem to not understand the proper fitment and use of fog/driving lights ~ it has nothing to do with seeing better , it's an appearance thing - why else would they make them out of CHROME ?

Aiming is for sissies ! if you don't drive with them aimed so as to blind oncoming traffic and switched on all the time , how else will the other drivers know you're so cool and actually HAVE them ?

Please show some consideration for the cool folks (kids & gang-bangers mostly 'round here) , O.K. ? .

Toung firmly in cheek ,

-Nate
Nate

Bud,

Sounds like you have driving lights, not fogs, so you need to be careful. The lights should be set up so that they only come on when the high beams are on, and switch off when you dim (dip for my UK brothers) to low beam. That way you shouldn't ever blind an oncoming driver. The driving lights, along with high beams, will probably put more current through the switch than you want, so should be set up using a relay (see Paul Hunt's or Bob Munch's web sites). Aim the lights similar to high beams, but perhaps very slightly angled outward. That should help illuminate the edges of the road and rounding corners.
Paul Konkle

Well, I've known of some people who just wire their driving lights so they come on with the ignition. That way you never forget to turn them on.
Jim Blackwood

Over here your highbeams have to turn off when your auxilliary lights come one. I have a set of 130 watt lights on my 75B. They're built into the front STair dam, and the truth is they're for asthetic value more that anything else. The hot bulbs were so when I turned them on to dazzle the lads, they wouldn't look lame. Plus, If you do any driving late at night when there aren't any cars around, on unlit streets, they really do make a nice drifference.

for the original question, the lights should have come with aiming instructions. I forget what they wer exactly for mine, but it was something like the beams should be completely grounded after 30 meters.. that sounds wrong, but I'm not sure. You might wanna e-mail the company who made your lights. I tried looking for my aiming instructions, but I can't seem to find them.

You really shouldn't have your driving lights on when there's oncoming traffic. With that said, it really isn't a big deal if they're aimed up too high. And it's kinda nice to give those pick ups with the roll bar lights a taste of their own medicine.
Dave

Philip - I haven't forgotten, the original writer comes from Ohio. In the UK it is only illegal to use additional front lights in other than appropriate conditions if they are below a certain height, as pretty-well all modern fittings are. If they are installed at headlamp height you can use them whenever you like. I have used my (low-level) front fog lights once in five years, the rears about two or three times, and then only if I can see no one behind me. The Police nicknamed front fog lights 'millenium furry dice', used by people who are compelled to say 'look everyone, I've got fog lights', but at least they aren't so dangerous as rear fog lights used in traffic in rain. I have mine wired via relays from the side-lights position of the main switch. Someone said the fronts should only come on with the headlights, but if it *is* foggy the headlights will dazzle you so much the fog lights will be almost useless. The factory always powered driving lights off the main beam, fog lights were originally off side lights, then dipped headlights.
Paul Hunt

Paul, Where can I find documents that refer to the hight law. The Highway code rules 201 and 210 make no reference to height of lights. I think you may be confusing the rules about positioning of additional lights which do make height requirements. When you think about it fog lights being thin wide angle lights will light up close to 180 degrees of road and so will shine into the eyes of on coming traffic and traffic from side roads etc making it very hard to see that cyclist/child. Good to see that you agree, my mistake.
philip may

I *am* talking about additional lights, and I investigated this some time ago when fitting fog and spot lights to a Mini. The headlights are so low anyway that the additional lights ended up being at the same heights in order to meet the minimum height requirements that would enable be to use them in other than adverse weather conditions.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 27/01/2002 and 30/01/2002

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