Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
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Jack Roberts is equipment editor for Overdrive. To read other drive tests by Roberts and Steve Sturgess, scan this code or visit OverdriveOnline. com/drive-tests. Freightliner's move to standardize Custom LED lamps on the Cascadia is a sure indicator this technology has arrived. Not only is Truck Lite progressing with its product's market penetration, Grote Industries has been developing LED headlamp options for an equipment partner and anticipates a much broader market, says Chris Cammack, product manager. My impressions of the new Truck Lite LED headlamps were positive: Crisp, white light that is easy on the eyes and provides longer and wider fields of view. That's a hard combination to beat. Text INFO to 205-289-3555 or visit www.ovdinfo.com that you easily can see reflective signs up to a half a mile away. In fact, with the visibility difference between low and high beams not that dramatic, I wondered if oncoming drivers would find my low beams too intense and flash me as a result. But during this test, only once did an oncoming car hit its high beams, leading me to conclude that the low-beam intensity is not a big problem for other motorists. My eyes didn't feel as strained as they normally would during a night drive on such a dark road. This is perhaps due to the enhanced blue and white light given off by the LED lamps being a much more natural color than what's emitted by conventional lamps, so it's more like daytime light. Additionally, your eyes don't have to work as hard to pick out details on the road. As I discussed these impressions with Van Riper, it turned out there is even more subtlety at work. He said Truck Lite conducted extensive research with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute to develop a light wavelength that's more conducive to producing daytime levels of melatonin in the body, thereby reducing fatigue. The result, Van Riper says, is more alert drivers while on duty and less fatigued drivers at the end of a shift. November 2013 | Overdrive | 43 Test_Drive_1113.indd 43 10/29/13 11:37 PM