How to Properly Align Your Snow Plow Headlights

Ensuring that your snowplow headlamps are aimed correctly is important to achieve optimal visibility during plowing operations and to ensure that the headlamp orientation meets Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) 108.

Follow These Simple Steps:

• Park the vehicle on a level surface 25 feet in front of a white screen such as a garage door. The vehicle should be equipped for normal operation and the plow should be in the raised position.
• Ensure there is no ice or mud under the fenders, tire pressures are set to the correct value, and that there is no load in the vehicle other than the driver and proper ballast. Clean the lenses and check for proper beam switching.
• Mark or tape the vertical centerline of the snowplow headlamps and the vertical centerline of the vehicle on the screen. Mark the horizontal centerline of the snowplow headlamps on the screen (distance from ground to headlamp centers).
• Align the top edge of the high-intensity zone of the snowplow lower beam below the horizontal centerline and the left edge of the high-intensity zone on the vertical centerline for each snowplow headlamp.
• Torque the headlamp fasteners according to the installation instructions once the headlamp aim is achieved.

3 Key Points

• Being able to see properly, as well as being seen by others while operating on the road, is important for everyone’s safety.
• Proper headlight aiming allows the operator to have proper illumination distance, which allows the operator to have efficient reaction time while driving.
• Ensuring that the headlights are aimed correctly will also eliminate blinding any other operator traveling in the opposite direction.