There is a good reason for that. I am on record saying its crazy to give up functionality and safety for style. You can play the SEE TEH BIG truck routine all day long, But it still is not as effective as well light brake/turn lights. On motorcycles we flash the brake lights to help destinguish between when the brake is applied and when its not. its gets more attention that way. I use LED to make mine lights extra bright, Maybe its this "I want to be safe" mentality that I can thank for well over 300K miles on a motorcycle without one single accident, Maybe its just sheer luck, But either way I stack the deck for me, not against me by making my rear indicators really hard to see. I am done in this thread, Dont want to get into it any furthur, But I do highly suggest you think it through before you make this VERY POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS modification to your trucks, your life may depend on your decision.

 

well i recommed if anyone do it, dont overcoat, replace the stock bulbs with LED's and its a good idea to have extra brake lights, ill be honest, my non tinted tails with stock bulbs has about the same output as my tinted tails with new LED bulbs, there for it worked out well, and once again i have a very bright LED 3rd brake light.. along with the LED firestrip the size of the whole tailgate therefore if ANYONE ever rearends me it will be because simply werent paying attention, i DO AGREE that if all you have is stock lights and you go super dark, that it's dangerous, but if you can keep it well lit then theres no problems

 

Argue all you want, but I find humor in the fact that you didn't make an attempt to pick apart the rest of my post.

 

Why should I argue with it, You actually got some if it right, Alot of it is complete BS, But some of it is right, If you cant see your tail/brake lights at daytime, Either get your eyes checked or get new lenses/bulbs as that is unacceptable. You have made a correct assumption about rear end collisions, but failed to realize that most other drives that get in these wrecks did not notice the transition from tail lights to brake lights as they looked up. If the lights were really bright, or cycled it may have avoided the wreck. Why do you think they make the back off brake light modulator now. Sinple, Flashing brakes lights work. Making them less visible is still just crazy.
I am waiting for the " I titned my headlights" thread now. Keep expecting everyone around you to know what your wanting to do and avoiding you, It will end up with you being very disappointed. The majority of people dont drive a car/truck, The simply operate it. No real rhym or reason and no thought process in it at all. If they did think they wouldnt be texting/phoning, or making their vehicle less visible to ther drivers. Driving a vehicle is seerious business. And I think this thread it a true testament to the fact that we dont care about the safe aspect of driving, as long as we look cool.

Argue that your tail light are bright enough all you want, But you made them dimmer and less visible. That is my point.

As I stated earlier, I teach motorcycle safety, That requires me to analyze motorcycle as well as car accident as part of my job. I have alot of time and research invested in the safety aspect as well as identifying "what went wrong", and "dont let this happen to you" after the accident investigation, this is not fly by the seat of my pants speculation.

 

Chris101, like you, I come at this from a motorcycle perspective. I agree that we shouldn't be doing anything to our vehicles to make them less noticeable. Living in metropolitan Los Angeles I am often in driving situations that many people from smaller areas can't fathom. I've had people come visit me from my hometown in Florida who are amazed at the traffic we deal with on a daily basis here. When I was building custom motorcycles I always tried to put function over form in my designs. Unfortunately, the custom crowd--whether it be cars trucks or motorcycles--always seems to gravitate towards the esoteric, often pushing safety to the background. Illegal or not, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to be making our vehicles less visible to other drivers. Especially not in this day and age where drivers are so distracted by cell phones, nav systems, audio systems, text messaging, in-dash DVD players, laptop computers and all the other things we do in our cars today that have nothing to do with driving.

 

man the lights look great i may do that down the road myself.

also sounds like there are to many politicians in here any more.
there is no sense in going into a debate over his tail lights he did it to his own truck and he is happy just leave it at that

Keep up the good work the truck looks great

 

You mean since you joined way back in March of 2009?

 

ok so i joined in march 2009 but this is getting like all the other forums i belonged to such as glass forums soon the administratorers will start makeing rules on what you can and cannot say.
i joined this forum because i found some usefull info on here. but alot of useless info and lot of bickering back and forth just like all the other forums and getting off of topic.

the guy was just showing us what he did and probably does care what you say about it, or your rules you follow by if you like it then say so, if not then say so and leave it at that

 

I don't see where anyone was blasting the OP for doing this. Just some discussion back and forth on the subject. And the reality is that it is illegal in many states to do this, a point worth bringing up in case someone is thinking about doing this to their own vehicle. What some people forget is that some mods make less sense depending on where you live and drive. In the midwest where traffic is light and cops less aggressive this might be no big deal, but here in L.A. where things like gangs have cops pulling people over for window tint that looks slightly too dark, you might want to rethink doing anything that attracts undue attention from law enforcement.

 

Not sure about your stats laramie - Though doubtless there are indeed far too many people fumbling around with this or that instead of concentrating on driving.
I'd have to say that the majority of times, rear end collisions are caused by the person behind simply not allowing themselves enough stopping distance.
Those damn tail hoggers, **** me off more than anything, and usually an evil look in the rear view will back them off, for those who don't I'll tap the brakes all of the sudden, that usually sends them off into a flurry.
That is the 1 thing sure enough to induce road rage in me every time, and I never, ever ride anyones ***, I don't expect it done to me.

You are right, I cannot accurately judge how dim they are, I already said that in another post.
If its 5% less visible, and I'm sure most are far more than that, I think its a bad idea.

Going the other way, I think they should also outlaw those insanely bright bluish zeon headlight bulbs, or whatever they are called.
Just about everything that you can do with lights, away from a factory setup, has been restricted or banned, whether you are talking about ground affects, cute blue LED's on the hood, or these lens tinters, and with good reason - They are at best a distraction, and at worse a hazard and potential accident waiting to happen.