Automotive lighting is essential to ensuring everyone stays safe on the road – from pedestrians to yourself to other drivers. It keeps roadways visible during dark or stormy conditions and alerts others of your presence so they can steer clear. Beyond safety, the right lighting setup can even boost your car’s aesthetic appeal, making your ride reflect your style. But just like other parts on your car, lights can become worn out over time, causing them to stop lighting roadways as they should. When this happens, you must replace them to not only maintain safety while driving, but also to follow state and federal driving regulations.
When it comes to finding the right products for your automobile, Tractor Supply is a go-to destination for vehicle and truck lighting. Whether you need to replace signaling bulbs or want to upgrade your rig with light bars, discover what you should know about different types of car lights.
Headlight Assemblies
Headlights are the most important lighting part on your car, remaining your first line of defense when you need visibility in dark conditions. They’re responsible for shining a beam of light directly in front of you, allowing you to see where you’re driving and what’s ahead. Properly working headlights are essential for safe driving and alerting other vehicles and pedestrians that there’s another car on the road.
Headlight assemblies come with many components, including the housing, as well as other lighting features, such as turn signal bulbs and high beams. They’re usually sold as one unit, but you can also find individual replacement parts for high beams and turn signals.
Backup Lights
Backup lights (also called reverse lights) are designed to warn others that you’re backing up your car. As you put cars in reverse, backup lights automatically turn on to tell pedestrians and other drivers to stay out of the way. They also give you better visibility by lighting up areas behind your car, ensuring you can safely back out without worry.
When backup lights do not work as they should, you must get them replaced. This ensures you follow U.S. driving standards, which require you to have functional, working reverse lights. Not having them puts you at risk of getting a ticket. Backup lights are needed on all vehicles, from trucks to cars, and must be colored white, which already come standard on most makes and models.
Automotive Work Lights
Commercial tasks, especially ones near busy roadways, require ample lighting and warnings to prevent roadside accidents and dangers. As a professional, this means you must have the correct automotive work lights on commercial vehicles to enhance safety. Equipment lights are one option, attaching securely to vehicles to give outdoor spaces more lighting during work applications. Or, choose from a host of other choices, from truck light bars to spotlights, giving you the freedom to customize your job site setup:
Strobe Lights
Strobe lights are another type of automotive work light, designed to warn other drivers to move over and stay out of your way. You may notice strobe lights on many emergency vehicles, such as construction crews or firefighters. When drivers see strobe lights on the road, it usually indicates some sort of emergency, leading to cars pulling over to get out of the vehicle’s way.
If you’re a commercial worker looking for better ways to remain safe on the job, consider purchasing a truck strobe light for your work vehicle. You can also use strobe lights for hunting, installing them on personal vehicles, trucks or even ATVs to give ample visibility on the field or while driving on back-country roads.
Light Bars
Light bars are accessories that fit on the outside of your vehicle, often on your windshield, roof or front bumper. They come in a horizontal configuration to give you wider lighting clearance, and are available in many shapes, designs and configurations, such as work or pod lights, making it easy to find one that fits your vehicle and needs.
These types of truck lights are designed to offer better, more powerful lighting than traditional vehicle lights. This means they’re suitable for taking on unpaved, dark roads during hunting or camping trips, allowing you to see obstacles clearly.
Fog Lights
Sometimes, we need to drive in harsh weather conditions, such as snow, rain or fog. When you require visibility to ensure safe driving in these circumstances, fog lights are your solution, giving you the power needed to take on anything that comes your way. Fog lights usually sit at the front of the vehicle, below the headlight assembly, and angle downward to give the ground enhanced visibility. They often come shaped as a bar to give you a wider light beam.
Different from light bars, however, these have a sharp cutoff located at the top of the light, keeping them from reflecting off foggy conditions. Fog lights may not come standard on certain base model cars, so you might have to add one to achieve ample illumination.
Truck Clearance and Marker Lights
Truck clearance and marker lights are required on most commercial vehicles and semi-trucks, warning drivers that there’s a large vehicle on the road. They also give drivers an idea as to how large your vehicle is and the direction you are headed.
These types of lights usually come in red or amber colors and can be found on the front and/or rear of your truck, depending on how large it is. For semi-trucks, they sit at each end of the top cab, alerting drivers as to the width of your vehicle.
Some trucks, such as those measuring 80 inches or wider, must have clearance or marker lights, according to U.S. federal vehicle regulations. You must follow the rules stated by the Department of Transportation and other entities, especially when driving larger vehicles, choosing from DOT-certified light options to ensure you have the correct type.
What Should I Consider Before Buying an Automotive Light?
Before buying an automotive light, the most important aspect to think about is the type of vehicle you own. When shopping, you must know your vehicle’s year, make and model to make easy work of searching for compatible lights, better ensuring that they’ll fit and work with your vehicle without stress. It can help to check your car’s manuals and other paperwork for exact specifications and measurements, giving you a more accurate fit.
You also want to think about how bright you want your headlights to be. For example, LED truck lights give you better, more powerful lighting capabilities than other choices, making them a popular favorite among many drivers. However, you also don’t want lights to be too bright, as this can flash into other vehicles and give off a glare, which decreases their visibility on the road and causes distractions.
You may notice brightness measured by lumens, with traditional LED car lights offering anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 per bulb. Other bulb types, such as halogen bulbs, only give off about 1,000 to 1,500 lumens. Your LED light rating should not exceed 3,000 lumens to ensure safe driving and appropriate visibility for all drivers on the road.
To make replacements easy and efficient, we offer many tools, allowing you to find what you need. Browse through our battery finder, which lets you search for the right battery based on the type and make of your truck or car. We also offer an automotive part finder, which assists you in hunting down the right replacement parts for your vehicle.
Find Lighting, Mounts and Other Accessories at Tractor Supply
Light up the road to endless possibilities when you shop our selection of automotive lighting. We make it easy to live Life Out Here by giving you the tools you need to thrive anywhere your next adventure takes you. Alongside automotive lighting, you can find other accessories, such as light mounting brackets, wiring supplies and more. To learn more about what we offer, visit your local Tractor Supply store today or browse online.