Looking for a guide for aiming fog lights

Got a new RCI bumper and it came with white LED fogs and I'm scared to use them on public roads because they are so bright. Is there a set of guidelines to aiming them? I could park in front of the garage door and put skateboard tape and measure, but since they are sitting in the "outward" side bends of the bumper I also need to know how far to each side, etc...

 

I’ve always aimed the top of the fog light cutoff about halfway down the headlight cutoff (standard 25ft distance). They don’t need to be aimed any wider than the headlights. Never been ticketed doing it that way, but I also only turn them on in the fog.

 

The first thing you should do is figure out if they are street-legal lights. Lots of times people put Baja Designs/Rigid/Diode Dynamic pod lights on after-market bumpers. Unless they are stamped SAE somewhere, you shouldn't be running them on the street regardless.

 

The bumper kit came with these: https://www.rigidindustries.com/d-series-pro-sae-fog-white-pair-504815.html

 

upper cut off, 4" down from level at 25'

 

I'm wondering if one could use a digital angle finder to set the fogs to -1 deg from level.

 

Pet peeve of mine - Those with non SAE lighting, especially incorrectly aimed. Brutal to other drivers, especially in inclement weather.

 

You won’t have a reference point on the housing that’s reliable, so you’d need to calibrate against the beam anyways. Those things can be handy for stuff like table saws where you know the blade is perpendicular to the rotation. But even in a situation like that, if I could fit an infinitely long stick and an infinitely large protractor into my garage, I’d rather use the stick than the digital gauge.

In general the longer the adjacent line is to an angle the more accurate your angle measurement is.

 

I get what you're saying, but considering that you're only supposed to have half a tank of gas to aim the fogs on level surface to -4" @ 25', I think if you place the angle finder on the face of the fog light/lens which is hopefully flat, you should be able to get the -1 deg. But if it's curved lens, then clearly the angle finder wouldn't work.

 

What I mean to say is that all of the components of the light have tolerances and in some cases the error will cancel and in others it will compound. Unless you know what the spec is you’re going to be at -1 degree + some undefined error. Hopefully it works, but you won’t know until you measure at 25 feet.

If you ignore all of the complications of machining, and molding, and assembly then yes it’ll work, but in practice all of those factors will affect each unit. Without knowing what the variance is across the production run you can hope it works out, but you can’t trust that it will.

 

thank you for taking the time to properly aim lights,,,, ie not being another dirt-pickle blinding others

 

should be fine

 

I got perhaps a dumb question......

I dont have 25ft of level surface near me. Not really feeling going to a shopping mall afterhours and bringing tools and taking out the wheel guard thingy to do an adjustment. Dont really feel like explaining to cops what the hell im doing there either.

I do have about 15ft that i can roughly make the truck level in my driveway.

Could i safely do the equivelant using -2" @ 12.5' and be in the same ballpark as -4 @ 25'? My fuzzy maths says yes but i figured id check with the architects and engineers on here that are much smarter at this than me

ps...sorry to revive the dead

 

that was always a point i loved to drive home on hidplanet.. everyone says to adjust headlights on 25' of flat ground, and i'd just ask them where one could find that amount of flat ground that still meets standard engineering drainage requirements...

yes, 12' is fine. i normally just eyeball it though. the goal is to get a slightly tapering output to prevent blinding other drivers.