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With all this talk of 4x4s at the moment, does anybody know why they all seem to have two sets of rear lights?
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I don't think they do.
They tend to have the normal lights down on the bumper but with the brake lights up on the wings.
The logic for this is that the wings are a much better place for lights to be seen. However, the tail gates and rear doors will block at least one of these if the vehicle is stationery with its rear door open.
Therefore, the brake lights are below the door level and can't be blocked.
Seems dumb to me. I would have thoughts the lights should all have been higher up, and therefore more visible, with an extra light on the tailgate itself to replace whichever light it is covering.
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A vague memory tells me that it's our lighting legislation. In other parts of the world all the lights are used, but here the rear lights are restricted to one set (or is it total light output?) so the other set is disabled for the UK.
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I don't think they do.
I can vaguely remember the Isuzu Trooper having repeated lights in the bumper and on the wings, with a switch somewhere in the boot to turn on or off the other set.
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Down to common sense,, on the very very rare occasion you see a 4x4 towing a trailer check out the visibility of the lights. Hook up a trailer and you can see the lights. Brill. Defender got a set of ex-MoD lamps in response to a comment of the tester when I imported it. Far better.
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Originally, most had them on the wings, but one could become blocked when the back door is open, especially if covered by the spare wheel, so they added lights where there were usually nothing or just relectors etc.. in the bumper..
The EUrocrats made it illegal to have more than one set of tail lights too, so they were renegated to small ones in the bumper like you would get in a trailer. But many owners fitted the bulbs that were omitted during manufacture into the higher lights thus giving four lights as before, them naive dealers started doing this as part of the pre-delivery inspection.
The life of the LandRover Discovery is a prime example.
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Lights in the bumper are stupid. They are the first thing to go wrong after an accident, whereas if they were higher up, like on a CRV, V70 or Focus, they would still work under pretty well any circumstance and be much more visible under normal conditions.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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lights in the bumper are stupid
And the first thing that contacted when you backed into something on a dark and stormy night in the middle of some horrendous agricultural task. Espoecially vulnrable on Discos of a certain age.
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I raised this question a few years ago when I bought a Shogun. I was told by HJ that there is legislaton regarding open rear doors and visibility of both rear lights. I put Pajero lights on mine, which in addition to the bumper mounted ,give (I feel) vastly improved visibility when viewed from the rear.
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