How Do I Adjust My Headlamp Beam Setter?

An important safety aspect in traffic are correctly adjusted headlamps, to provide good exact illumination of the road, with the lowest possible glare to the oncoming traffic. To adjust the headlamps a beam setter is required. Additionally for the adjustment some essential points must be taken into consideration.

Floor surface condition – For the beam setter, irregularities in the floor should not be greater than +- 0.5mm/m in front of the vehicle. The standing area for cars should be 4m and for trucks 8.5m long, and no irregularities in the floor greater than 1mm/m.

Preparation of the vehicle

a) Cars should be loaded with a person or 75 kg on the driver seat and no other load.

b) Trucks and other multi axle vehicles should not be loaded.

c) Single track and single axle towing and utility machines should be loaded with a person or 75 kg on the driver seat.

d) Vehicles with a hydraulic or air suspension, the engine must be run at medium speed until the vehicle has reached the normal level.

e) Vehicles with an automatic levelling system should not be loaded or unloaded before or during the adjustment.

f) Check the headlight levelling system throughout its operation and put it back to normal position.

Set up of the beam setter. Move the beam setter into position in front of the headlamp to be checked, and align the beam setter box with the middle of the headlamp. It must not be more than 3 cm out of line horizontally or vertically. The distance between the front edge of beam setter box and the headlamp should be between 30 and 70 cm. The beam setter must be readjusted before each headlamp is checked.

Adjusting headlamps. For adjusting the headlamps the provided inclination for the cutoff line must be adjusted with the scaled wheel. Note the necessary data from the vehicle manufacturer. After the adjustment the headlamps must be so fixed that unintentional movement is not possible.