Winter Driving Tips for Low Beams

Video Transcript

"NATHAN MCCULLOUGH: Hi. My name is Nate McCullough, on behalf of Expert Village. In these clips, we're going to talk about some of the tips and tricks in order to properly winterize your vehicle. In this clip, what I want to talk to you guys about is the difference between high beams and low beams, and some of the hazards that can be created between the two when you're driving in the wintertime. Your low beams or fog lights are going to be the light of preference when you're driving in blizzard conditions. What will happen is if you drive with your high beams on, you will see every snowflake that happens to cross your path. What that'll do is give you a kind of--and I'm not trying to make a joke here--but it'll give you the "Han Solo going into light speed effect". You will see all of the snow that's in front of you, and it'll actually obscure your vision from looking at the roads and the line that are there for you to demarcate where you should be and shouldn't be. A strong suggestion of mine, that if you're in driving in blizzard or heavy, heavy snow conditions, is to run with your low beams on. If it's extremely bad and your low beams are still giving you too much obstruction to your view, it is okay and legal in most States, in those conditions, to drive extremely slow if your vehicle is equipped with fog lights only. Now, high beams and low beams are generally actuated on the same lever that your headlights are turned on with. In my particular vehicle, they're not. My headlight switch is a dial switch on the dashboard. My high beam switch is actually built in to one of the wands on the steering column. You should investigate before you take off into winter driving to figure out which one actually does what. On some of the very older vehicles, and I'm going to take a guess, I'm going to say 1974 and older, the dimmer switch, or the high beam/low beam switch, is located on the floorboard of the vehicle and it's actually actuated with your foot. Those are just a couple of the hints and tips in order to increase your visibility to the maximum possible level while you're driving during blizzard conditions."