Larger wheels - do headlights need to be adjusted?

[Todd C]

I just moved from 33" tires to 35" tires and something just dawned on me... I'm getting flashed by people at night. Is there a way to readjust the headlights to point down and not in oncoming traffics eyes?

 

[smritte]

Headlights will have an up/down and should have a side/side. My Tacoma is the only vehicle I've owned that only goes up/down.
Look up headlight adjustment. Its pretty simple. You do it on a wall. Properly adjusted lights give you better vision.
BTW, adding bumpers, bigger spare, winch... will effect your headlights because they change height. If you somehow perfectly balanced your vehicle with acessories, youe vehicle would be lower making you adjust up. If its on one end, its more pronounced.

Your going to measure and put some strips of masking tape on a flat surface. Look up the height and distances.

If you have projectors, you will see a line on the top of your light pattern
When you adjust them, your looking at the line (called cut off) and the two bright spots called hot spots. Each side hot spot is put directly inline with its light (on a tape cross you made). Then you line up the cut off line to the correct height.

Ideally that line on the passenger side should be right under a normal car mirror. As I drive down the street I would look at it as I pass parked cars. Your driver side light will be the same or a tad bit higher.

Non projectors will be the same but the lights a little more scattered. Your pretty much lining up the hot spots. The cut off isnt as clear as the projectors.
I do this every year(ish) and once in a while I see one of my lights starting to move out of align.

Lights in general have been a bit of an obsession with me. I'm at the point now where my headlights are only projectors and I only run a certain design of off road light. The difference between properly adjusted lights and not, is actually huge.

 

[Todd C]

Thank you for the heads up on this. Now the actual adjusting the lights, is this pretty straight forward?

 

[smritte]

yeah
You need a flat ground with a wall. Pull all the way to the wall and with tape, mark on the wall the center of each headlight. Back off (20ft?). From the ground you tape a horizontal line (again look up the measurement).
Square the lights side to side then adjust up/down to the line.
Once your on the road, your driver side light should be right at the bottom of the cars mirror coming towards you.
My driveway isnt ideal. I can square side to side but, I need to adjust slightly lower then what is listed.