- If you're driving in poor visibility situations,
especially at night,
and you can't see what's ahead of you,
there's a pretty good chance
that either things aren't gonna end well
or you'll be driving way slower
than any of us have the patience for,
and that's never any fun.
Whether it's dust being kicked up
by vehicles in front of you,
or it's thick, fluffy snowflakes coming down,
and it looks like you're flying at warp speed
through some kind of intergalactic travel,
having functional lights on the front of your vehicle
can make all the difference in the world
in those types of poor visibility situations.
Now, what do I mean exactly by functional?
Not just referring to the off-road exhilarated lights
being wired up correctly so that they don't burn up
and will actually turn on,
no, I'm referring to having the lights
with the proper amount of degrees kelvin
for the exact environment and conditions
that you'll be driving in or through.
Basically, it just breaks down into knowing when,
or if you need amber colored lights
to see better in snow storms, dust, silt,
heavy downpours, or even freezing rain.
So how does an amber colored light work better
in poor visibility situations compared to white lights?
Well, here's the interesting thing about lighting,
first to understand the lighting color scale,
we'll wanna understand that it starts with knowing
what temperatures of colors fall where
in the scale that is measured by degrees kelvin.
The unit of measurement known as kelvin
originated from a professor of natural philosophy
named William Thompson 1st Baron Kelvin,
and set the standards to unify
the many laws of thermodynamics,
including the temperatures of light output
hence the kelvin scale.
On the lowered number's side of the scale
is where we'll find our warmest or orange colors
starting around 1,700k for degrees kelvin
and closer to the highest numbers of the scale,
around 9,500k is where we'll find our coolest
or bluish colors of the scale.
Candle flames or the sunset and sunrise
are around 18,00k
and an LCD computer screen
is between 6,500k and 9,500k.
So then something like these KC lights
with the amber cover is gonna be right around
the 3000 mark for degrees kelvin,
whereas the non-covered lights,
well, they're gonna be closer
to that 5,000 kelvin temperature range.
Once we start getting past 6,000 to 7,000 kelvins,
then we're starting to get into the blues,
and even the violets.
The advantage of running amber lights
in low visibility situations
is that they are going to offer a better contrast
in defining what our eyes are seeing out in front of us.
Amber lighting is a lot less reflective
when compared to a white or a blue light,
because amber lighting has longer wavelengths,
which allows it to cut through airborne particles
much better than white lights can.
White or blue lighting has shorter wavelengths,
which results in more refraction.
Refraction just means it's the of bending
or the way the light bends when entering the eye
to form an image on the retina.
All those weird face filters on Snapchat
is a great visual on how image refraction works,
albeit, in a digital sense.
To put it simply, shorter light wavelengths,
when driving through fog, snow dust, rain,
or anything else like that,
causes the light to create more glare
and more of the light is going to bounce off
those airborne particles
and again, back into your eyes.
Science. Fuck, yeah.
Another helpful tip is,
regardless if you have white or amber,
it's also important to properly aim your lighting for use
in the corresponding conditions.
For use in poor visibility driving,
having your fog lights or the lower mounted lights
on your vehicle, and maybe even including the headlights
aimed or pointed a little bit more downwards,
closer to the ground
to help prevent the light from shining up
into the airborne particles at eye level as much.
And obviously, this is going to reduce the distance
that you're going to be able to see out in front of you,
but for the majority of us
that aren't racing in crappy driving conditions,
I think it'll be just fine.
It may also take a few adjustments
to get the aims just right.
But combine the proper amount of aiming
with amber lighting
and you will notice a drastic improvement
in being able to see in poor visibility driving conditions.
And if you have determined
that amber colored lights are beneficial
for your particular environments and driving conditions,
there are two different ways of achieving
the desired amber color.
One of them is to cover the white lens
with an amber cover or stick-on amber colored vinyl.
And the other is to purchase a fixed amber light.
If you're not sure whether you're going to use
the amber lights often,
then the cover or vinyl is the best way to go
as they are less expensive and temporary solutions
that can be removed.
The drawback to the amber covers or amber vinyl,
is that because the light
was not originally designed as a fixed amber,
covering the light will reduce the lights output
and will not be as potent
as what a fixed amber light will be
as it was designed for, from the factory
to have a certain light I'll put or lumens.
Which guys, we are going to be filming a few more videos
revolving around lighting
as we bring on more lighting companies in the near future,
like Baja Designs and KC Highlights, for example.
So make sure you click that subscribe button
to stay up to date with all of our newest videos.
So if it ends up being that you decide
on purchasing fixed amber lighting,
or even exhilarated lighting in general,
then make sure and click on the lighting filter
found on our accessories page on our website
at trailbuiltoffroad.
And guys, if there is something in particular
that you're looking for,
that you don't see on our site,
definitely make sure and let us know.
Because we may not have it listed on TrailBuilt just yet,
but we do have access to get you guys
just about any lighting accessory you're looking for.
And the best way to find out,
is just by letting us know in the comments below
or by emailing us at info@trailbuiltoffroad.com.
And we will make sure to get you guys hooked up
with whatever you need.
Or maybe not whatever you need,
but you know what I mean.
Also guys, we have recently dropped some new merch,
like the zip-up hoodie that I'm wearing.
So, make sure and check that out as well,
by heading to the store page on TrailBuilt.
And guys as always,
we appreciate all of you for watching
and all of your support.
I'm Josh from TrailBuilt,
and we'll see you guys clearly
out on the trails.
(tapping)
(upbeat music)