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The Basics of Fog Lights

When mornings are super foggy, you can always expect for a tricky and slow drive. Good thing that fog lights are here to come to your rescue. These lights have been designed for conditions when heavy shrouds of white blanket the roads. This is a safety feature that outshines traditional headlights. 

How Do Fog Lights Work?

Knowing how fog works is the best way to understand how this vehicle lights work. Fog naturally occurs all over the world specifically in areas near large water bodies. When given the right conditions, tiny ice crystals or water droplets end up floating in the area right over the ground surface. Aside from acting like clouds that can block your view, these tiny ice crystals or water droplets reduce visibility much further through reflecting light hitting them. This is why it can be a very dangerous and frustrating experience to drive through fog with your usual headlights, particularly high beams. 

Fog lights solve this problem that takes a difference approach to the water vapor that hangs over the road. These lights work in various poor visibility conditions such as fog, snow, mist, as well as blowing sand. To help you see the roads through fog, the factory-equipped fog light is installed as low as possible, often in lower bumper cover on many modern vehicles today. 

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In spite its appearance, fog usually does not touch the ground yet hovers at around 18 inches above the surface. Low placement of these lights on the car allows the light beam to hit the road with no interference. 

With sharp cutoff angle above the light housing, no beam will shine up to reflect the fog off and only illuminates the road ahead. When angled downward, these lights don’t have the reach of usual headlights yet they will light up just enough of the road ahead so that the driver can slowly get to their destination. As these lights don’t reflect light back, the rest of the drivers will know that you are present on the road, giving a second benefit of safety. 

Type of Fog Light to Choose 

For cars not factory-equipped with fog lights, this is an affordable and easy upgrade. You can find vehicle-specific kits that allow you to retrofit what was factory-installed yet this is not always a good route to take. If you opt for factory-style lights, it is important to keep in mind that you may have to detach the bumper before adding a grille specific for these lights to achieve a factory look. 

Another cheap option is the universal fog light that you can add to any vehicle. Just choose the size and style you prefer and identify the perfect spot where you can mount them. These often come with hardware to adapt to almost any bumper, griller, or other part of your choice. Just keep in mind that fog lights that come with lenses are more durable compared to lights that feature plastic lenses with the yellow merely for looks purposes.

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