Personally, I find excessive lights on rigs gaudy/tacky; about as bad as scrawling "JESUS" or crosses or "John 3:16" in the dirt of the back of a trailer.

So I have a few possible theories on reasons for this excessive lighting phenomena:

(A) Owner has OSD (obsessive-compulsive disorder).

(B) It is simply a case of "monkey see, monkey do".

(C) Owner is an exhibitionist (i.e. "look at me!").

(D) Owner is too skeer'd to drive at night without them.

Anybody else got any other theories? Or which one(s) of the above do you think is the most common reason? I am simply curious. The folly of man truly amazes me at times!

 

Kind of like the CB's too. Do you really have to be the loudest on the road?

I am happy with mine when it can talk over the median and I can get a weather report from a truck going the other way.

 

I've seen guys that bought their rigs second-hand, and they came with all the lights. I've also pulled trailers that were lit up like it was Christmas, and I didn't like it much.... Neither does Georgia DOT. They won't give you a fine for company equipment that has TOO MANY LIGHTS, but they won't give you a sticker either. It gets listed on the report as a violation.

Now, those "BIG RADIOS" on the other hand, I always had a real problem with them. Don't these guys know that.... Never mind... FCC isn't regulating them anymore. But, a CB radio is AM modulated, and according to the FCC, 85% of the RF envelope being modulated is classed as 100% modulation. You can go a bit higher, but after that, you start to DISTORT the audio. If they could have a look at the signal on a scope, they would see what they're doing to it, and why few people can understand them. All the "big radios" do is show how an IQ that doesn't go any higher than the channel selector.

 

...of what law? I understand that, if the chicken lights are there and not working, that it's a violation, but if they are, then what's wrong with that?

 

Perhaps some of these guys like to make their lights bigger and their signal louder to make up for other "short comings?"

 

EXACTLY!!!

I also stipulate that they do the same thing with over-sized stacks.

 

... some of the guy's were wonderin'...nawt meee...
they're wonderin', nawt meee... what would be considered oversize, annaways?

 

Larger than factory original; typically anything over 5" diameter.

 

i've been saying the same thing for years.. what gets me is the trucks so loud you can hear them with your windows up at the back of your trailer! i have a radio peeked and tuned.. its nice for way down the road to hear what the deal is. but then again.. if i use my radio 2 times a week for more then 10 min thats a lot.

 

there have been occasions (usually between November and March on I-81 between Syracuse and Alexandria Bay) where I have wondered if fog and chicken lights on my front bumper would have gained me an inch or two of visibility.