Van Headlight Issue

[A930Rocket]

I changed the bulbs in my 14 F150 a year or so back, as the stock bulbs we pathetic it helped but adding an 18” LED light bar down low and wired to the high beams made all the difference.

[pavulon]

Everyone appreciates being able to see well when driving at night. I'm not a spring chicken anymore and good bulbs make a massive difference even in my DD Subaru wagon running 80 miles a workday in winter dark. Not infrequently, a truck (9 of 10 times) running an LED light bar on the front blinds everyone going the opposite direction. Noting personal A930 and I get your's being wired to the highs but WTF? Truck lights are already twice the height of any car and now that too. Damn that's beyond unreasonable.

[Steve Carlton]

Oops. I thought this was a thread about Van Halen.

[legion]

Well, Van Halen is the name of the van...

[brainz01]

Originally Posted by legion

Well, Van Halen is the name of the van...

I'm glad I'm not the only one that saw Van Halen every time this thread popped up. Well done.

[unclebilly]

Have you looked on YouTube?

I’m sure the adjustment is under the hood and sticks up as mentioned above.

[Mr. Merk]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

adding an 18” LED light bar down low and wired to the high beams made all the difference.

Originally Posted by pavulon

running an LED light bar on the front blinds everyone going the opposite direction. Noting personal A930 and I get your's being wired to the highs but WTF? Truck lights are already twice the height of any car and now that too. Damn that's beyond unreasonable.

Mounting it up higher level with your high beams would make it much better, assuming it is a "driving beam" and not a "flood."

It should be perfectly acceptable to wire it in with your highs assuming you're not running your highs against oncoming traffic. The law states you may have four beams active with the high beam switch.

Most newer cars have four beams on already, like my wife's 997 & 957. I installed a relay harness on my 2005 GMC to enable low beams on with my high beams.

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

You could always replace the van headlight with van hagar.
Naw, never mind. That wouldn't work.

I had to read that title twice too. I seen the word "Van" and the next letter an "h" and my brain just fills in the rest as "alen". LOL

[mattdavis11]

Originally Posted by Mr. Merk

Mounting it up higher level with your high beams would make it much better, assuming it is a "driving beam" and not a "flood."

It should be perfectly acceptable to wire it in with your highs assuming you're not running your highs against oncoming traffic. The law states you may have four beams active with the high beam switch.

Most newer cars have four beams on already, like my wife's 997 & 957. I installed a relay harness on my 2005 GMC to enable low beams on with my high beams.

Don't do that. The law is wrong. One day a brighted driver may nail you. I can not stand most headlights of today, so I chose not to drive at night.

[legion]

Originally Posted by DanielDudley

Looks to me like the adjustment screw is located between the two bulbs in the assembly, a couple of inches behind the bulbs and is pointed up.

This was the hint that got me going.

I've got it sorted out. Why couldn't they put this in the manual? It's not like this is a vehicle commonly used by commercial operators who may need to adjust the headlights for specific loads.

I started by pulling a headlight:



I immediately noticed a star-shaped bolt facing upright. This was not visible with the headlight installed but it must be the adjustment mechanism. To be fair, the last time I adjusted headlights was on a sealed-beam unit from the 80's that used set screws. I also noticed some wear on the star-shaped bolt, so the headlights have previously been adjusted (I bought the van used).



I reinstalled the headlight and noticed that the star-shaped bolt aligned with the hole in the frame:



After that was sorted out, I just turned on the headlights against the garage door and brought them up a couple of inches using a 1/4 socket. I'll try them out around town and adjust accordingly.

[masraum]

Outstanding!

[pavulon]

Perhaps they lowered them after having issues when frequently hauling loads or pulling heavy tongued trailers?

edit: If so, maybe change the trans fluid soon.

[legion]

Trans fluid looks new to me. It wouldn't surprise me if it was changed before sale. Rental companies buy these vans, run them for one year, then sell them. It seems to me it gone through pretty thoroughly before sale.