Legality of installing off-road fog lights onto road vehicle

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Retired in TN

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Guys,

Should I pay strict attention to Ford’s warning? Of course this seems ridiculous to me, but I would appreciate your input. I am currently waiting on my Ford dealer to get a Ford Performance fog light kit in stock.

I have no intention of using these light on road except perhaps the fog lights.

Thank you,
Bill

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CoronaRaptor

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Up here , you just have to have covers on the lights so you can’t use them when on road, but most cops don’t bug a guy about it, unless they are looking to get you for something.
 

smurfslayer

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Every state is different. I’ll include Canada in there because they’re an eventual state. :)

(L)east coast states can be pretty puritanical about this, it just depends on how bored the officer is. There’s a difference between having them uncovered and deploying them. The former is generally a non moving violation, token fine and almost always used as a pretense offense. That is to say, the “violation” is used as a pretext to stop the vehicle and start fishing. Deploying off road lights is its own moving violation offense and if you get nicked for it, it’s probably going to cost you.

VA inspection code required non DOT lights be covered with an opaque, permanent cover. I keep the covers in my truck for the 1x day per year I used them. TX didn’t care a bit, other than to ask how well they worked.

Generally speaking, be a little more diligent about off road lights and their deployment than high beams. The latter are a minor annoyance but some of the BD lights and other vendors too will night blind onlookers and you could easily cause someone to drift right into you head on.
 

Antho

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The ford performance lights are just the rigid lights. Shouldn’t take that long to get.
Anyway, The ford performance kit comes with Black “Ford Performance” lens covers. So just pop me on when on-road.
 
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Oldfart

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Every state is different. I’ll include Canada in there because they’re an eventual state. :)

Generally speaking, be a little more diligent about off road lights and their deployment than high beams. The latter are a minor annoyance but some of the BD lights and other vendors too will night blind onlookers and you could easily cause someone to drift right into you head on.
PA is just like you said, if you get hassled for no covers, it's because the cop is pissed off at you for something else you did, or you are running them on the street. I set mine up to run the markers and my set of BD wide cornering SAE's all the time, I don't run my others on the street, except for a rare occasion in the middle of nowhere just to try them out for 10 seconds to amaze myself how BRIGHT they are.
 
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melvimbe

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Two of mine are SAE, and I use them like fogs. The the third pair is not SAE, and I use them like brights. In other words, I'll use them on road when there aren't and street lights or other vehicles around.
 
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