What beam setter to buy?

eggsalad

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This forum is full of advice suggesting the only proper way to aim headlights is by using an optical beam setter.

A lot of people, myself included, seem to have difficulty finding local shops that actually own such a device.

So I figured, why not just buy one?

Except I can barely even find one to buy in the US.

Susquehanna Motor Sports, aka rallylights.com offers the Hella HL73225 for $1650

And that is the sum total of optical beam setters for sale in the USA to which Google points me.

Alibaba.com points me to several that I can buy from China for significantly less, but I'm guessing Chinese beam setters are about as good as Chinese headlights.

Can anyone point me to another source/manufacturer/vendor from which I can buy one of these, or am I stuck with Susquehanna?
 

-Virgil-

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What's causing your difficulty is that "Beamsetter" isn't really a generic like "screwdriver" or "hammer" -- it's actually the model name Hella applies to their (and only their) headlamp aiming machines. Other options include this, this, this, this, this, this, and this, at a range of price points and features.

Keep in mind you also need good level ground to use it on.

(And yes, I would trust an Alibaba Chinese item about half as far as I could throw it with one hand tied behind my back)
 

eggsalad

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What's causing your difficulty is that "Beamsetter" isn't really a generic like "screwdriver" or "hammer" -- it's actually the model name Hella applies to their (and only their) headlamp aiming machines.

OH! Well that explains a whole lot! Thanks!

Other options include this, this, this, this, this, this, and this, at a range of price points and features.

Keep in mind you also need good level ground to use it on.

(And yes, I would trust an Alibaba Chinese item about half as far as I could throw it with one hand tied behind my back)

Lots to look at, thanks again. Symtech seems good, and there is a local distributor. I will stop by there next week.
 

eggsalad

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Will you be offering a headlight aiming service, as a part time job?


I wouldn't think so, no. The costs of setting up a business in my city are prohibitively high.

It's pretty simple economics of why I would own one for personal use. The low-end unit ("suitable for shops that do 1-2 alignments per month") is about $600. *IF* I could find a shop that would align my headlights (properly!) I would expect to pay $50-60 for the service. Will I own 10 more cars in my life? Probably.
 

Echo63

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I wouldn't think so, no. The costs of setting up a business in my city are prohibitively high.

It's pretty simple economics of why I would own one for personal use. The low-end unit ("suitable for shops that do 1-2 alignments per month") is about $600. *IF* I could find a shop that would align my headlights (properly!) I would expect to pay $50-60 for the service. Will I own 10 more cars in my life? Probably.
Ah, but the headlamp aim will change as the car ages - springs sag, tyres wear differently (you may have new tyres on the front and older ones on the back, etc)

if you have the beamsetter in the shed, you can check/correct the aim every year or so, keeping them aimed perfectly

you may find yourself using it more than you estimate !
 

raj55

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I am sorry to hear that there are so few "beamsetters" in USA. Here in Sweden, every garage has one. They will service your car and even check your head light aim. Even the yearly MOT (vehicle check) place checks it for you and adjusts the level if it is off. So there is very little risk of driving around with badly aimed or for that matter "HID DIY" or "LED DIY" headlights. It must be the darker and longer winter days and nights that make them so light conscious.
 

ken garchow

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am i correct in assuming this type of device won't work on the newer stylized headlights?
 

-Virgil-

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am i correct in assuming this type of device won't work on the newer stylized headlights?

This type of device is required for properly checking and adjusting the aim of fog lamps, driving lamps, and visual/optical-aim headlamps, that is the most common type in the North American market since 1999 (and the only type in use in Europe and many other countries for many decades). This type of device can also be used to aim the older mechanical-aim type of headlamp -- the kind with three nubs on the lens in a triangular pattern -- and VHAD headlamps (the kind with a spirit-bubble vial and/or pointer and scale on top). But the mechanical aimers that used to interface with the three nubs on the face of a sealed beam or mechanical-aim replaceable-bulb headlamp cannot be used to aim visual/optical aim headlamps, VHAD headlamps, fog lamps, or driving lamps.
 

jzchen

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I started looking these devices up, because I'm not quite eloquent at asking "Do you have a headlamp aiming device?". Quite a bunch of different prices!

Any updates on the best? More specifically some seem to be able to adapt to a non flat/sloped floor. (I'm betting I'd have better luck buying a device that accounts for a slanted garage floor than asking someone to make the floor completely flat.)

Thanks!
 

jzchen

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Ah, it's okay. I have tape on the wall and tape on the ground 25 ft away on the driveway. Will shoot for cutoff at 0mm from the height of the headlight bulb, hoping that compensates for error in measuring the height of the bulb/lamp, and unevenness of the driveway surface.

Thanks!!!
 

Alaric Darconville

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Will shoot for cutoff at 0mm from the height of the headlight bulb, hoping that compensates for error in measuring the height of the bulb/lamp, and unevenness of the driveway surface.

The best way to compensate for the unnevenness of the driveway surface is find a different surface.
 

jzchen

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Thanks Alaric.

Last night I had everything set up as carefully as I could: filled the gas tank, had my son sit in the driver seat, removed all tools from the trunk, emptied the car, marked the wall and put white paper just above the blue tape to see the reflection better, and lined the bulbs up as best as I could eyeball it with my as perfectly as I could get the tape markers to 25 feet, and as best as I could get height of the bulb marks on the walls and aligned the lights to as close as possible to cutoff at the line. Son weighs 155.x lbs, but was holding a pillow and iPad to play....

I drove around the block and I had foreground light! Those lamps must have been aiming for the stars!!! The driver side seemed low and so I adjusted it higher some and am just about even with the passenger side. Even with just the H11s I feel like I have "seen the light"!

I'll save the beam setter idea for when my pockets have better weight to them/I have more funds. (I don't have the luxury of disturbing my son to take him somewhere else to have him sit in the driver seat @ 12 years old and possibly cause some issues with cops). Lots of driveway space at home, it's just on a slope.

The markers are all still there, hoping to get the H9 bulbs in within a week....
 

Alaric Darconville

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Thanks Alaric.

Last night I had everything set up as carefully as I could: filled the gas tank, had my son sit in the driver seat, removed all tools from the trunk, emptied the car, marked the wall and put white paper just above the blue tape to see the reflection better, and lined the bulbs up as best as I could eyeball it with my as perfectly as I could get the tape markers to 25 feet, and as best as I could get height of the bulb marks on the walls and aligned the lights to as close as possible to cutoff at the line. Son weighs 155.x lbs, but was holding a pillow and iPad to play....
Do you normally drive around with the tools in the trunk? With lots of "stuff" in the car?

I drove around the block and I had foreground light! Those lamps must have been aiming for the stars!!! The driver side seemed low and so I adjusted it higher some and am just about even with the passenger side. Even with just the H11s I feel like I have "seen the light"!
Or, when you took stuff out of the trunk that lifted the back end some, and when you put the stuff back you'll be aiming for the stars again.

(I don't have the luxury of disturbing my son to take him somewhere else to have him sit in the driver seat @ 12 years old and possibly cause some issues with cops).
Private property, parking brake set, keys out of the ignition, wheels chocked (might as well)-- shouldn't be an issue.

Lots of driveway space at home, it's just on a slope
The slope doesn't just make it hard to find the perfect perpendicular surface to mark on, it affects the way the car sits, affecting the aim. It really takes a level surface to do this right so the car is really 'sitting' right.
 

SubLGT

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There is static headlight aim, and then there is "real world aim".

An excerpt from a DVN article earlier this year:

In his lecture at the DVN US Workshop—one of the best lectures of the event [was presented by] Dr. Michael Hamm…

…..as driven on real roads, a car's headlamps change their effective aim constantly by dint of acceleration, deceleration, gear shifts, and suchlike; all of these lead to effective misaim….Thus, for the coördinate system of a car, the street moves and also introduces headlamp aim dynamics. Combining vehicle and road factors together, the probability for correct aim is a shockingly low 9.9%. That is: less than ten percent of the time will the "perfectly aimed" headlamps of a car be in actual, practical, effectively correct aim...
 

jzchen

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I noticed aiming the driver side light was harder than the passenger side. The cutoff line trailed to the right into the beam of the right side. This cutoff is higher than what is more directly in front of the bulb/lamp. This lead to it being quite a bit lower than the right. When going down or up the driveway or a dip you can see the concentration of light and the difference between left and right was very clear. In observing the beam from my wife's OE HIDs I can see they are very even across the top of the cutoff line, except to the left where it may blind oncoming traffic, there is a dip in the pattern which seems to be designed to avoid this....

I'm definitely better than before, but maybe not correct, like you guys note. Thank you. What I will do is borrow my wife's extra car or one of my parents' if I need to go out in the dark.

As opposed to before the aiming though, I do see a light pattern on the ground now in front of the car. They must have been REALLY OFF!
 

Alaric Darconville

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There is static headlight aim, and then there is "real world aim".
If your static aim is incorrect your dynamic aim will be incorrect.
Properly-aimed lamps with good automatic levelers help with that.

Just like setting your car's ignition timing and dwell and carburetion at the altitude you usually drive at, in temperatures you usually drive at, it ensures the best performance over a broad range of altitudes/barometric pressures and weather conditions, aiming your headlamps properly with the loading you usually drive with is the only correct way.

Sure, you can crank your timing one way and the dwell another and mess with your carburetor floats all you want, in the hopes that there will be a particular driving condition that the random settings you picked will be perfect, or you can just do things the right way.

Let's not prooftext here.
 
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