Ranger Ambulance

Skit hjälm

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Interesting, it appears fitted with rear foglamp. I wish my US 'spec Ranger had that too !
In the video, It being illuminated maybe have to do with the car operating its emergency lamps.
 
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LaBalbe

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Interesting, it appears fitted with rear foglamp. I wish my US 'spec Ranger had that too !
In the video, It being illuminated must have to do with the car operating its emergency lamps.
I don't think that it has anything to do with the emergency lamps. This truck is from Germany, and in much of Europe (at least Western Europe), vehicles are legally required to have a fog light like that in the rear. This is because much of Western Europe gets covered in thick fogs on a regular basis, and regular tail lights can't be seen from very far. The single rear fog light lets someone know if there's another vehicle off in the distance, so that it doesn't just "appear out of no where" when you're practically on top of it already. There's no reason for them to tie that into the emergency lights, since they alone would create the necessary visibility; on the other hand, the fog light would have to be capable of operating independently of the flashing lights, for use when there's fog but they're not responding to anything. My guess is that the driver turned it on either by accident or as part of the demonstration of the vehicle's overall visibility, and that it has nothing to do with the flashing lights specifically.

North America doesn't really have fog of that consistency and regularity, so they're not a thing over here. It has to do with the Gulf Stream trade winds; I'm not an expert, so I might have some of the specifics wrong, but from what I understand, the Gulf Stream winds will begin in the Gulf of Mexico, travel along the Eastern Seaboard, before crossing the Northern Atlantic, picking up moisture all along the way. Then it slams into the Norwegian fjords, which primarily run north-south; for whatever reason (I think that it has something to do with atmospheric pressure), it seems that heading south is the path of least resistance, so those trade winds head south, bringing all of that moisture with them, and dumps all of that moisture over the Low Countries (UK, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and northern France & Germany primarily). I used to live in Belgium, and it averages about 300 days of rain/year; not necessarily heavy rain, although it can definitely come down in buckets. Belgium in particular gets heavy fog, to the point that all but the most residential streets are so brightly illuminated, it's actually possible to see them from space; at least, that used to be the case, although supposedly higher energy costs are seeing that reduced to just major roads and highways. That's the BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands aka Holland, & Luxembourg), right in the middle of this picture, with the UK (also notorious for rain and fog) in the upper left.

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If you were to bring your vehicle from North America to Europe, you would have to have one of these rear fog lights installed before they would deem your vehicle road-worthy and issue you a license plate. You're required to have one on the left side (although I think the middle is also acceptable; not sure about the specific legalities of that), but some higher-end cars will have them in both tail light clusters. Those that only have it on the left will usually only have one reverse light, which is the counterpart in the right cluster, just like this Ranger does.
 


Skit hjälm

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North America doesn't really have fog of that consistency and regularity, so they're not a thing over here.
Appears you not familiar with California Central Valley...

Anyway,
Last I known, a fog lamp is to be located on the drivers side (customary to the country) and a distinct distance from the regular brakelight.
 

LaBalbe

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Appears you not familiar with California Central Valley...

Anyway,
Last I known, a fog lamp is to be located on the drivers side (customary to the country) and a distinct distance from the regular brakelight.
Nope, I've never been to Cali. Mind you, I'm not saying that thick fog doesn't occur in N. Am. I drove through the thickest fog in my life in the Blue Ridge Mountains; I couldn't even see the end of my hood. I was driving on memory of the road, and by keeping my drivers side tires on the centre line, so that I could feel the "bump-bump-bump" of those little reflector lights they like to put in roads in the South. I was simply saying that as a rule, N. Am. doesn't have the wide swaths of fog on as regular a basis as W. Eur. does; I'm sure that there are plenty of local areas that have a lot of fog, but this is about generalities, not specific areas.

You're correct; the fog lamp is located on the driver's side. Since most of Europe is left-hand drive, it tends to be on the left, but you're absolutely correct that vehicles from the British Isles will have them on the right-hand side; off the top of my head, I can't think of any other European countries that are currently right-hand drive. That was my mistake, and I should have been more accurate. As for distance from the brake light, I'm sure that there are specific regulations to that effect, but as I'm not familiar with the details, I wasn't going to comment on that specificity.

Should N. Am. adopt the fog light? I've driven through enough white-out snowstorms and fog that I'd be prepared to pay a little extra to have them be a stock option, but that's just my opinion. Honestly, I'd find them to be more valuable than DRLs, which I find pointless, and borderline dangerous; I've seen too many idiots in Ontario driving in the dark without any tail lights because they can see their DRLs in shining (dimly, but then we are talking about dimwits, too) in front of them.
 

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Nope, I've never been to Cali. Mind you, I'm not saying that thick fog doesn't occur in N. Am. I drove through the thickest fog in my life in the Blue Ridge Mountains; I couldn't even see the end of my hood. I was driving on memory of the road, and by keeping my drivers side tires on the centre line, so that I could feel the "bump-bump-bump" of those little reflector lights they like to put in roads in the South. I was simply saying that as a rule, N. Am. doesn't have the wide swaths of fog on as regular a basis as W. Eur. does; I'm sure that there are plenty of local areas that have a lot of fog, but this is about generalities, not specific areas.

You're correct; the fog lamp is located on the driver's side. Since most of Europe is left-hand drive, it tends to be on the left, but you're absolutely correct that vehicles from the British Isles will have them on the right-hand side; off the top of my head, I can't think of any other European countries that are currently right-hand drive. That was my mistake, and I should have been more accurate. As for distance from the brake light, I'm sure that there are specific regulations to that effect, but as I'm not familiar with the details, I wasn't going to comment on that specificity.

Should N. Am. adopt the fog light? I've driven through enough white-out snowstorms and fog that I'd be prepared to pay a little extra to have them be a stock option, but that's just my opinion. Honestly, I'd find them to be more valuable than DRLs, which I find pointless, and borderline dangerous; I've seen too many idiots in Ontario driving in the dark without any tail lights because they can see their DRLs in shining (dimly, but then we are talking about dimwits, too) in front of them.
Some European made cars sold here have the rear fogs.

Can't tell you how many retards I see driving around Denver in Audis and BMWs with their rear fog on.
 
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I was expecting the driver to do a burnout after wetting the tires in the lake! :frown:
 

LaBalbe

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Some European made cars sold here have the rear fogs.

Can't tell you how many retards I see driving around Denver in Audis and BMWs with their rear fog on.
Yeah, I've seen that too. Sadly, you can't fix stupid, but I'd rather share the road with an idiot who's all lit up on a bright, sunny day than one who's "running dark" in low-visibility.
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