Headlight Adjustment While Driving? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Headlight Adjustment While Driving?

Most modern projector headlights have auto-leveling devices to account for different towing/loading/balance configurations.
Some cars even have a knob on the dash to adjust the pitch of the headlight's beam on the fly. (Audi, LandRover, Nissan, Subaru)

Q: Have any of you seen an aftermarket headlight adjustment motor mod?

No need to fuss over an automatic leveling device, but I'd like to be able to flip a switch or turn a knob to adjust my headlights slightly up or down. For now I have them aimed a bit low so as not to blind city drivers, but on rural roads the headlights don't reach very far until I flip on the hi-beams.

I've got some great HID projectors from The Retrofit Source on my Explorer which I love.
The beam pattern is crisp, but leaves something to be desired when driving with various loads or driving conditions. Because the beam pattern of halogens is a gradual fade, adjustment doesn't have to be so precise.

Thanks for taking the time to read this far!
 



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Strangely enough, many the vehicles with auto-levelling headlamps, luxury cars in particular, are ones that don't need them, as they aren't going to be carrying any incredibly heavy loads. Additionally, projectors (whether halogen or HID) have such a sharp beam cutoff that even a few degrees of rear-end squat doesn't raise the cutoff enough to cause much more glare except to perhaps the drivers of the lowest-riding vehicles, and they get plenty of glare from the lights of trucks and SUVs all the time.

Just like headlamps that have motors to move horizontally and turn into a corner, those with automatic levelling are more of a gimmick. Admittedly, they would be incredibly useful on modern SUVs like the newer Explorers with independent rear suspension and soft spring rates for ride comfort, which of course sag when towing heavy loads.

About the only thing you could do short of retrofitting a pair of headlamps, motors, and everything else involved from a vehicle that had them, would be making your own adjustable brackets to somehow mount the current headlamps but make use of one of the available levelling systems, or just go really low-tech and use some kind of mechanical cable.

I would say the best thing to do is just aim them properly rather than low, so you get the best beam pattern for the load conditions the vehicle sees most of the time. If they still don't reach far enough for you, then it might just be the design of those particular projectors and you might need to find another brand to get a more optimal pattern.
 






IIRC, e-spec Explorers have electronic adjusters
 






Strangely enough, many the vehicles with auto-levelling headlamps, luxury cars in particular, are ones that don't need them, as they aren't going to be carrying any incredibly heavy loads. Additionally, projectors (whether halogen or HID) have such a sharp beam cutoff that even a few degrees of rear-end squat doesn't raise the cutoff enough to cause much more glare except to perhaps the drivers of the lowest-riding vehicles, and they get plenty of glare from the lights of trucks and SUVs all the time.

Just like headlamps that have motors to move horizontally and turn into a corner, those with automatic levelling are more of a gimmick. Admittedly, they would be incredibly useful on modern SUVs like the newer Explorers with independent rear suspension and soft spring rates for ride comfort, which of course sag when towing heavy loads.

About the only thing you could do short of retrofitting a pair of headlamps, motors, and everything else involved from a vehicle that had them, would be making your own adjustable brackets to somehow mount the current headlamps but make use of one of the available levelling systems, or just go really low-tech and use some kind of mechanical cable.

I would say the best thing to do is just aim them properly rather than low, so you get the best beam pattern for the load conditions the vehicle sees most of the time. If they still don't reach far enough for you, then it might just be the design of those particular projectors and you might need to find another brand to get a more optimal pattern.

Thanks Anime,
I have been trying to be considerate to those lower cars, but the fact is that even with a standard drop, my headlights will be in their side mirrors for quite a distance. The step in the beam cutoff seems a bit silly to me; it's the reason I've been aiming lower than I should.

What I had envisioned is a small electric motor(1 RPM or so) mounted to the top of the shaft we already use to adjust vertical aim.

With so many plug-n-play HID's and poorly aimed headlights on the road, I'm probably just overthinking this and being way too considerate.
 






IIRC, e-spec Explorers have electronic adjusters

FIND, what does that mean? I couldn't find anything on Google with those keywords and am not very up to date with newer Explorer specs
 






European ones, like from Germany. Not sure about the ones in the UK. I know for sure the first gen European ones with the sealed beam headlamps do, but I believe second gens also have them.
 






I was thinking of using the motors out of an old pair of electric mirrors I've got here somewhere.
You could make the adjustment switchable from left to right just like the mirrors if you want to.

I haven't looked into how to connect the adjuster to the motor yet but I have some Allen head screws that fit onto to the adjuster shaft, that way there would be a threaded fitting on the adjuster.
 






If you are into radio controlled model cars and aircraft, you could probably figure out a way to rig some servos to the headlight adjusters but you would need a transmitter/receiver/servos/ and would be quite a project. Or maybe you could find some slow movement, high torque hobby motors and go from there.
 






I am not going to say it is impossible, but I know for a second Gen, to move the headlights with the adjusting rods, you need to have pretty much the entire grill off, and even there there is not much room. I think it would be a good idea, but it for sure is a tight fit for 2 or more motors, and a bunch of extra wires up there, Possibly you can see how they did it overseas, to get an idea of what to do, because obviously it has been done.
 






my 2 bobs worth
The dodge nitro has a switch inside that adjusts your low beam
and not your highbeam.
3 step s Low,standard and high.
worked well
might want to investigate the set up??
Trev
Ps
i bought some hid projectors of ebay and put 6000k in them.
travelled across to Adelaide in south australia from perth W australia
2700kmeach way.
No kidding i was frying kangaroos instead of hitting them
Awesome lights.

We have over here what are called b doubles a semi traler with another trailer on the back or
a B triple semmi with 2 trailers
Some of them only shut there spotties down when they see you and leave their high beams on.
Not with me tthey didnt Id flick back onto my high beams and they soon shut everyhig down lol and that about a kilometer away from them
 






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