LED Headlights shine high while boat towing

When towing by Lund 17.5" aluminum fishing boat, the headlights on my 2021 SR5 shine high. I didn't have this issue with my previous 4Runners, but they did not have LED bulbs. Any suggestions?

 

How I do it -

Remove the plastic cover over the headlights removing the 13 plastic pins. Use an 8mm on this adjustment nut. This is same for older 5th gen with halogens and newer 5th gens with LED.

Turn clockwise to aim high / turn counter clockwise to lower. I normally count the turns if the lights are level. Eg - if I did 10 strokes on left I do 10 to right.

I should make a video next time when I do it. If you are local to Denver CO I could have done it for you and record a video. LoL.

 

Thanks for this advice. Much appreciated. Do you do this for every time you tow, or just lower the 4Runner headlights when not towing, so it's not as drastic while towing? thanks again!

 

If you want to have different adjustments towing and without towing this method may not work and those plastic pins would easily break if you keep removing them and fix back. I do this as a one time thing when my friends install lift or install bulbs on their vehicles or when they are not happy with factory settings.


When I think about your use case again may be a weight distribution hitch might be a better solution than adjusting headlights? I don't tow so better not take my advice until someone towing advice on this thread.

 

I was driving behind a 4runner with the LED headlights a few nights ago. I was able to compare their cutoff with my own halogens at different distances by looking ahead at buildings and different objects.

I noticed that the LED cutoff was for the most part identical in height to the halogen low beam cutoff. Now, this is totally observational and not measured. But I noticed that the LED’s have a sharp cutoff line and it’s quite bright all the way up to the cutoff.

But on my halogens it was a much more “graded” light (dimmer) as you get closer to the cut off.

What I presume… the LED’s are gonna be brighter to other drivers than halogens when you have weight on hitch or a load in the back and go over bumps, humps, etc.

I’m not making any suggestions. Just sharing observations. In short, if you’re doing a lot of towing with significant weight on the hitch, you’re prob gonna get flashed a little more than you would with halogens.

 

Add air bags.

I got them on the Tundra to stop the ass from sagging so much when towing the boat.

 

Thanks very much for the advice. The idea of airbags sounds great. I even have a hard time unhitching the boat, when I have the 4Runner loaded for a fishing trip. The hitch wheel post will not retract enough to swing under the hitch.