How I kept calm I'm not sure...

Westyfield2 · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:43

rossk26 said:
How can't I see ahead of me? My headlights give me excellent head up light. All high beams offer IMO is seeing things above the level of the dipped beams.

High beams make you see things further away than the dipped beams show up. Seeing something when its further away gives you more time to react to it.

rossk26 said:
As a fact which is interesting and I would like to hear the views of everyone in regards to this. A MK1 focus when the main beam is activated turns off the dipped beam to produce the high beam, this resulting in no light for the first 50 yards or so? Safe? I think not

At 60MPH you'll cover 50yards in under 2 seconds. Good job you saw the hazard whilst it was further away. I don't know about you, but my car won't go from 60MPH to zero in under 2 seconds.

Uriel · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:43

I think if I didn't have use of full beams I'd never drive over about 20 on unlit roads at night. To be honest, if I was out walking in the dark I'd rather have some Muppet that was a little over the limit driving towards me than some fool not using their main beams because they 'knew the road'.

rossk26 · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:43

teaboy5 said:
Honestly stop being a retard! High beam is used to see what is ahead of you on the road, whether it's a deer standing in the middle of the road or the large hole that wasn't there the night before.

I would rather have that extra breaking distance given to me by using high beams over dipped beams.

But what about that small child that jumps out infront of you where your high beams don't cover but your dipped beams would

DAnDan · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:45

rossk26 said:
But what about that small child that jumps out infront of you where your high beams don't cover but your dipped beams would

So the first 50 yards are completely black, even at the height of a child? Stop being so dense.

[TW]Fox · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:45

The Mk1 Focus uses H4 dip/full beam bulbs, so it has the same setup as my Mk2 Mondeo did. I never once found what you are describing to be an issue - without exception every time I switched to full beam, my view of the road incresed greatly.

Which is as you'd expect, as nobody would design a car where the full beam offers less visibility than the dipped beam!

rossk26 · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:46

Uriel said:
I think if I didn't have use of full beams I'd never drive over about 20 on unlit roads at night. To be honest, if I was out walking in the dark I'd rather have some Muppet that was a little over the limit driving towards me than some fool not using their main beams because they 'knew the road'.

But surely you should be walking on the road with a high vis jacket, and a helmet with a light on the front so you can see infront of you, you don't want to miss that headgehog that walks out infront of you do you???

Lopéz · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:47

rossk26 said:
A MK1 focus when the main beam is activated turns off the dipped beam to produce the high beam, this resulting in no light for the first 50 yards or so? Safe? I think not.

Eh? A Mk1 Focus has H4 bulbs. When you flick from dip to main, the dip filament extinguishes and the main filament is illuminated. But this doesn't take 50 yards to do, it takes fractions of a second.

DAnDan · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:47

rossk26 said:
But surely you should be walking on the road with a high vis jacket, and a helmet with a light on the front so you can see infront of you, you don't want to miss that headgehog that walks out infront of you do you???

Are you trying to be sarcastic, funny, or just trolling? I can't tell which, as you're succeeding at none.

[TW]Fox · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:47

rossk26 said:
But surely you should be walking on the road with a high vis jacket, and a helmet with a light on the front so you can see infront of you, you don't want to miss that headgehog that walks out infront of you do you???

Seriously?

You don't think there is a difference between walking along a road and driving a 1.5 tonne car at 60mph along a road in terms of the hazard you present to unseen obstacles?

rossk26 · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:48

[TW]Fox;20872544 said:
The Mk1 Focus uses H4 dip/full beam bulbs, so it has the same setup as my Mk2 Mondeo did. I never once found what you are describing to be an issue - without exception every time I switched to full beam, my view of the road incresed greatly.

Which is as you'd expect, as nobody would design a car where the full beam offers less visibility than the dipped beam!

I suggest you head over to FFOC and find the many threads discussing this issue...

I found it an issue.

-Neil- · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:48

DAnDan said:
Are you trying to be sarcastic, funny, or just trolling? I can't tell which, as you're succeeding at none.

It's obvious he's just trolling, no one can be that stupid can they? Oh wait.....

Neil.

[TW]Fox · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:49

Given the amount of fools who will happily argue until they are blue in the face that using foglights when it isnt foggy gives them credible, usable additional light I think I'll pass on the opportunity to read yet more ill-informed discussion on car lighting.

Being able to see far ahead is what matters at speed on unlit roads. It's no good being able to see a metre in front of you - at 60mph you will hit anything you don't see until it's a metre ahead at full speed.

rossk26 · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:49

Lopéz said:
Eh? A Mk1 Focus has H4 bulbs. When you flick from dip to main, the dip filament extinguishes and the main filament is illuminated. But this doesn't take 50 yards to do, it takes fractions of a second.

Eh? You suggest all drivers MUST drive with their high beams on at all times.

But in a MK1 focus by doing this you cancel out the dipped beam of the headlight. Resulting in no light being distributed where the dipped light used to be FACT.

Howard · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:50

Rybo89 said:
I park my car on the drive and leave the full beams on all night.

You never know!

This is actually a valid issue. Failure to see any hazards (misplaced gnomes, perhaps?) between my car and my front door is a potential and very serious risk.

[TW]Fox · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:50

rossk26 said:
Eh? You suggest all drivers MUST drive with their high beams on at all times.

But in a MK1 focus by doing this you cancel out the dipped beam of the headlight. Resulting in no light being distributed where the dipped light used to be FACT.

What?

There is overlap between where the beam patterns lie obviously :confused:

TaKeN · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:51

DRZ said:
Someone else beat you to it. I've not got a CTRO login but there was aparrently a 9 page thread over there saying it was me that was in the wrong for trying to overtake a CTR. I think CTRO was the source of the inane comments on YouTube.

Type-R Owners was a lot more on the side of reason, the thread there is a mere 7 pages and almost entirely full of condemnation/glad to be rid of their EP3 so they aren't tarred with the same brush as plebs like this.

Ah great. Does'nt suprise me. A large quantity of the owners are complete *****.

Howard · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:52

rossk26 said:
Eh? You suggest all drivers MUST drive with their high beams on at all times.

But in a MK1 focus by doing this you cancel out the dipped beam of the headlight. Resulting in no light being distributed where the dipped light used to be FACT.

Put your foglights on to counteract this.

[TW]Fox · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:53

Howard said:
Put your foglights on to counteract this.

DONT GO THERE ARGHHGHGGH

Lopéz · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:54

rossk26 said:
Eh? You suggest all drivers MUST drive with their high beams on at all times.

But in a MK1 focus by doing this you cancel out the dipped beam of the headlight. Resulting in no light being distributed where the dipped light used to be FACT.

Okay, from the top. I didn't suggest anything.

Drivers should use main beam on unlit (or lit) roads when there is no traffic approaching. This is what main beam is designed for, this is why it exists.

When traffic approaches, you flick back to dipped beam, to avoid dazzling the oncoming driver.

On any car, Mk1 Focus or otherwise, the action of flicking the stalk cancels the dipped filament and illuminates the main beam filament. But this is virtually instantaneous - in fact in many switches the main beam element comes on fractionally before the dip extinguishes. But even if that isn't the case, we are talking hundredths if not thousandths of a second between switches. You certainly don't get 50 yards or so with no light whatsoever, in any car!

rossk26 · 24 Dec 2011 at 17:55

[TW]Fox;20872589 said:
What?

There is overlap between where the beam patterns lie obviously

Not the case, when I drove the MK1 focus you lost all light that was previously offered in the area where the dipped headlights were when the high beam was activated. This was rectified in the facelift MK1.5 Focus.

Drive one, have a go, you'll see. I was shocked when I first activated the high beam feature. All I could see were the trees down the road, I couldn't see anything in the close proximity of the front bumper for about 50 yards or greater in some cases when the road declined ahead.