craze1cars
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2004
- Messages
- 1,822
Headlights! This is a pet peeve of mine, so I'm gonna rant and hopefully educate a little bit here. Any article/owners manual/forum/etc about safe towing covers all the critical stuff like safe weight limits, load distribution, tongue weight, safety chains, trailer lights, brakes, etc, etc, etc. But NOBODY ever seems to mention the fact that towing a trailer can often make your headlights better suited for owl hunting than night driving.<br /><br />If you're towing with a 3/4 ton full size truck or larger, this probably doesn't apply to you, as their super-stiff springs generally ride level no matter what. But the worst offenders in this area seem to be the very common softly sprung 1/2 ton and smaller pickups, vans, and SUV's, as well as many cars, that tow campers/boats/snowmobiles/etc on vacation. Today's higher frequency of Xenon, HID, and projector halogens on cars make this even more critical, and most people don't even realize they're causing a problem...or how fast and easy it is to correct with just a little one-time research.<br /><br />Do people occasionally flash their brights at you when yours are not on? More frequently when you're loaded? If this has happened to you more than once, it's time to do a quick check...<br /><br />First check for proper headlight aim when your vehicle is unloaded. Just park on level ground (very important it's level....a sloped driveway and your garage door won't cut it.) Also make sure your tires are properly inflated. Now aim your headlights at a wall that's about 20 to 30 feet away, turn on your brights, and grab a tape measure and a piece of masking tape.<br /><br />Now, with your HIGH BEAMS on, mark the center of each headlight beam on the wall with a small piece of tape. If your headlights are properly aimed, your beams should shoot perfectly level and straight ahead when the brights are on. So if the center of your headlights are 24.5 inches above the ground, the center of each light beam on the wall should be 24.5 inches above the ground. When you shut your brights off, both beams should drop down a little lower and to the right of where the brights aim. The actual measurement of the low beams means nothing...aways aim with brights on.<br /><br />If your high beams on the wall are hitting HIGHER than the center of your headlights, your lights are aimed too high. Pop the hood and look at the top of your headlights. You'll find 2 screws on metal shafts, usually can be turned with a phillips, sometimes a torx bit is needed. One moves the beam up/down, one left/right. Crank on one while watching the beam on the wall to figure out which is which, and use the up/down screw to set your high beams perfectly level. IGNORE THE BUBBLE LEVEL ON THE HEADLIGHT. These are notoriously inaccurate and only are to be used as a rough starting point for installing a new headlight.<br /><br />OK, now that you have your high beams shooting level and straight, and you know which screw controls up/down, load your vehicle up with gear and trailer and park it in the same spot and aim again at your tape spots on the wall. Where are your high beams pointing now? Are you an owl hunter?<br /><br />If yes, pop the hood again, turn your headlights down far enough to get them level again WHILE COUNTING THE NUMBER OF TURNS if the screw it takes to get them correct. Note this on a piece of paper as well as which screw/which direct to turn it and keep it with your pre-tow checklist in your glovebox.<br /><br />Now, for instance, you know that before you tow your boat on vacation, you need to turn both inside headlight screws 4.5 turns to the left. After you unhook/unload, you need to turn both screws 4.5 turns back to the right. Congratulations! Your headlights are now ALWAYS aimed properly and you and everyone around you can see better, and you'll no longer get flashed...at least not that way 
<br /><br />As a side note...have you ever had a fender-bender that involved any part of the front of your car? The headlights were likely removed, even if they weren't replaced, to gain access to do the repair. After reinstalling, most body shops do a very poor job of aiming headlights if they do it at all. So you might want to check yours on ANY car if you don't know for a fact that it's factory fresh. And frankly, many new cars come straight from the factory with a perfect "bubble level," which often means they're shooting all over the place. I check mine every time I buy a new or used car. <br /><br />Be safe!
<br /><br />As a side note...have you ever had a fender-bender that involved any part of the front of your car? The headlights were likely removed, even if they weren't replaced, to gain access to do the repair. After reinstalling, most body shops do a very poor job of aiming headlights if they do it at all. So you might want to check yours on ANY car if you don't know for a fact that it's factory fresh. And frankly, many new cars come straight from the factory with a perfect "bubble level," which often means they're shooting all over the place. I check mine every time I buy a new or used car. <br /><br />Be safe!
