Probably a daft couple of daft questions, but curiosity is getting the better of me:
and(the potentially really daft question)
Or even fitting a second pair of headlamps for regular trips? 
1 We never do, I never have anyway.
2 I’ve no idea, but its about time someone did.
I have never been stopped or fined for not having adaptors on the truck or car in Europe despite the warning propaganda signs of a card board cut out of a Gendarme at Portsmouth port to scare the punters in to buying expensive adaptors.
Newer cars have this fitted but ive never known a truck to have it…
We never have fitted them and I dont know anyone that has…
I don’t fit them simply because blocking any part of a headlight is really stupid thing to do in my opinion.
Saaamon:
I don’t fit them simply because blocking any part of a headlight is really stupid thing to do in my opinion.
I’m not sure the bloke coming the other way will agree with that. Definitely worth doing if your vehicle has HID/xenon lights as they’re horribly dazzling when set incorrectly.
If you fit adapters correctly, the light output will be similar to what you’d get driving on the left anyway. When I haven’t got adapters, I stick a bit of insulating tape over the flicked up part of the beam on the lens, making it just a flat beam. You can test it by parking 30ft or so from a wall and observing the flat beam pattern. They will shine just as far up the road ahead, and as your lights will be set to the incorrect side of the road and therefore won’t by lighting further up the verge anyway, there’s no safety implication.
You probably won’t get caught if you don’t bother, but I make the small effort whenever I’m in my car therefore it makes sense to do it in my truck. It’s annoying being dazzled by oncoming foreign trucks without adapters, especially in my car which is obviously lower and more in the firing line.
We haven’t bothered for at least a couple of years now and looking at other cars when we’re on holiday hardly anybody else seems to care either.
Never seen Johnny foreigner use them whilst in Blighty.
Suedehead:
Never seen Johnny foreigner use them whilst in Blighty.
Dutch people do .
I always do them. I was once let go by the Polizei despite that I forgot my vehicle documents, but they saw it and they commended that I did it and that changed their attitude to me.
I personally know one guy who was fined for not having them in France. I also heard about the guy who was found guilty of causing the accident in Poland as the other driver told that he was dazzled by his headling. It ended for him with a suspended jail sentence. I believe it should be enforced, instead of stupid things like alco testers in France etc.
Anyway, it does not matter for me if it is enforced or not or if Johny Foreigner or Britons abroad do it. I do it, because it just improves everyone comfort and safety, and if you do it regularly, it becomes easy. I don’t buy the adaptors, I just use insulating tape as manowar said below:
If you fit adapters correctly, the light output will be similar to what you’d get driving on the left anyway. When I haven’t got adapters, I stick a bit of insulating tape over the flicked up part of the beam on the lens, making it just a flat beam. You can test it by parking 30ft or so from a wall and observing the flat beam pattern. They will shine just as far up the road ahead, and as your lights will be set to the incorrect side of the road and therefore won’t by lighting further up the verge anyway, there’s no safety implication.
and it does not change what I see. If done properly you loose only this bit of light that is supposed to show you the hard shoulder, but instead dazzles the oncoming drivers. In my opinion putting the beam to maximum down position is much more danger, as you can’t see a thing.
I have had several foreign cars, even French ones and you can adjust the headlamps rather than stick things on the headlamps, but in all my time in a lorry I have never used headlamp deflectors or yellow paint, except for decoration when I was a dafter lad than I am now
In either an F16 or a series1 FH I had, they had adjustable headlight beam, but this was just for up and down, not left and right, I used to tilt them down a bit when I got off the boat in Calais, you could always spot the GB motors at night heading for the boat as one of the headlights blinded you!
kindle530:
In either an F16 or a series1 FH I had, they had adjustable headlight beam, but this was just for up and down, not left and right, I used to tilt them down a bit when I got off the boat in Calais, you could always spot the GB motors at night heading for the boat as one of the headlights blinded you!
i used to do exactly the same point them right down i only ever got 1 fine think it was about 150 euro in swiss at the southbound entrance to the gothard
It’s not a requirement to have them fitted but it is an offence to dazzle oncoming motorists.
They’re less common now but the way headlights are made has also changed. If you remember older cars, the glass used to have lines on it to deflect the light. Now, most cars have the deflector element (which used to be the patterns in the glass) incorporated in the reflector at the back of the light and the light lens is clear glass.
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Ste164580:
kindle530:
In either an F16 or a series1 FH I had, they had adjustable headlight beam, but this was just for up and down, not left and right, I used to tilt them down a bit when I got off the boat in Calais, you could always spot the GB motors at night heading for the boat as one of the headlights blinded you!
i used to do exactly the same point them right down i only ever got 1 fine think it was about 150 euro in swiss at the southbound entrance to the gothard
Euros in Switzerland ?
malcolmj:
Euros in Switzerland ?
Swiss will take any currency you’ve got, or a credit/debit card 
I drive a Dutch left â– â– â– â– â– â– and I do get flashed occasionly here in the UK by oncoming traffic but when I drove a right â– â– â– â– â– â– , I never got flashed abroad.
I remember asking a Merc dealer once why they didn’t make the headlights adjustable for left and right and he gave me a very sensible answer which I am trying to remember but basically it isn’t possible!!
Pity BMW didn’t make trucks then 'cos my 530D has small levers to swing the beam from the left to the right