LHD legality

[lloyd]

if you are one of those people that has to do everything by the letter and a bit "worried" it might pay you to get beam benders for the headlights.personally i wouldn`t bother

I would strongly recommend "bothering" with beam benders / masking.
RHD light pattern on low beam = \___
LHD light pattern on low beam = ___/ Light is below level line and to side of kickup
The lhd kickup from lhd headlights WILL BLIND oncoming traffic on rhd roads!! .. as will rhd kickup on lhd roads.

Is the same reason blenders / masking are required when traveling to Europe with rhd vehicle.

Also, US lights are designed for lhd driving, not rhd, and do have a lhd pattern .. and will throw more light at oncoming traffic on rhd roads then rhd lights. They are not as good as European lhd lights, but do have lhd lighting pattern, not rhd pattern!!

["WEAZLECHIN"]

i doubt 1980s t25 lights will "blind" anyone as they are hardly cutting edge state of the art xenon technology, if they pass an mot test it hardly seems likely you are going to cause mass hysteria when on the open road. people in 08 mercs are more likely cause offence. i dont remember ever getting "blinded" by a foreign truck on brit roads yet, and i see a FEW in my field of work. but beam benders are available(obviously)

[peasant]

Not only do they blind oncoming traffic, they also blind you. Because the finger of light shines out to the wrong side, all your left with on your side of the road is a field of vision that's about 10 -15 meters ahead along the edge of the road.

In other words, you can see feck all.

Try that on a dark, rainy night on some unkown country road with lots of oncoming traffic and you'll change your headlamps to the correct ones in a flash.

Fine, if you only use your T3 as a camper during summer when it hardly gets dark. But for a daily driver, changing headlamps to the correct orientation is a must.
Just for your own safety, if nothing else.

["WEAZLECHIN"]

let the finger of rightiousness shine brightly.

[peasant]

F*ck righteousness, I just prefer not to fly blind.

Believe me, there is a massive difference in (your own!) safety between the correct lights (correctly aligned) and the wrong ones.

The fact that you're no longer blinding oncoming traffic is just a bonus.

If you don't believe me ...take your wrong hand drive bus with your wrong hand drive lights on an empty, dark country road and drive on the wrong side for a while ...then you too will "see the light"

["WEAZLECHIN"]

no honestly.. i have driven all sorts of vehicles around all parts of the world, from the middle east to south america and every country in europe including the new eastern eu countries (before they were eu) and i never once saw anyone blinded or felt blind myself. our trucks were designed for euro driving but actually did more miles in britain, never did i see beam benders or light changes for test. we have more trucks than eddy stobart. about 10.000 more. if you drive upto a barn door you can see the beam on it yes, but then you are only 3 feet away?. you dont have to go and spend on benders when a strip of tape will do it. especially t25s, they are candle bright to start with.

[lloyd]

I have been blinded by oncoming vehicles who's headlights were not adjusted properly. These were not RHD on LHD roads or LHD on RHD roads. Many T25/T3's have halogen lights which are quite bright. Maybe it's because my eyes are older then yours, but I find it harder to see past oncoming vehicles at night then when I was younger... even when they have proper lights and alignment.

You do not find it a problem.. and if this is while driving a lorry I can understand why as you are several feet higher then when setting in a car or T25.

I think we just have to agree to disagree on this one.

["WEAZLECHIN"]

i would love to see if the millions of polski cars and trucks currently swamping britain have been advised by the authorities to fit beam benders.
i live in the polands capital city (west bromwich) and cant remember seeing any yetski. probably not a priority police road safety issue

[lloyd]

i would love to see if the millions of polski cars and trucks currently swamping britain have been advised by the authorities to fit beam benders.

I've seen signs posted at Dover, Calais, Roscoff, and Plymouth both ways. Suspect it's posted at other ferry ports as well.
Don't see police here doing anything about road laws except speed traps. Have never seen any traffic officers watching for violations like forcing into traffic (failure to yield), burnt out tail / brake lights, etc. Can't even get police to do anything about hit-and-run, home break-in or theft of vehicles. Sometimes wonder what they actually do. I do know police do not have enough staff to patrol like they should... and did years ago.

[busbuddy]

The speedo is a strange one. Basicly its ilegal to register a car in the UK without MPH written on the clock face and so on imported motors they should check for it (same with jap imports too) and regect if it doesn't have mph (the trip can still be km). Once the papers are sorted your clear and if they didn't bother to check you get away with a kmh speedo - this seems very common making some think MPH isn't required, it is.

slightly confused about this, I've spoken to dvla at length about this because of manchester dvla requesting mph speedo's and in some cases they wanted sva tests for imported t25s.
I've got letters and emails from dvla stating that our vans, if over 10 years old, do not require a mph speedo as the kmh speedo is ok with them.
I posted on all the main vw forums as the head of manchester dvla wanted people who had been asked to fit mph speedos, and any other dodgy requests, to get in touch with her so she could sort it out.

[Syncro G]

If the van has come from the EU it should already be type aproved as a recognisable model of its era so I can't emadgine should need an SVA if its not radicly modifield. If it was from further a field like the states than perhaps theres an SVA issue though it sounds a bit silly. About the only differences will be the lighting on the front and sides. (which admitidly in US spec don't conform to EU standards (should have MPH speedos though!).

SVA laws seem to be a massive minefield, perticularly with vehicles that might be deamed radicly modified. A perticular vehicle eather neads or doesn't need a test and in different classes depending on with branch of VOSA you ask - sounds a mess to me. If your not chopping the shell around though that should all be irelivent. Lets face it, the only mod usally done to a T3 is an engine swap.

[poshbuggers]

I used to design/build kit cars and the SVA was a few crappy sheets of A4 back then.

Nowadays its not much better. Ambiguous is the word, it's always been called the 'grey book' as its got some many vaguaries (sp?) that there seems to be no definitive rules in many cases.

Even since they have tightened things up its not clear. Still, better than the EU where you can't change a wiper without type approval!

[CycloneMike]

From a DVLA/Gov site

"As part of the registration process DVLA must be sure that an imported used vehicle that's less than 10 years old meets European type approval standards, UK construction and use, and road vehicle lighting legislation."

As there are no T3s less than 10 years old then this should have no relavence. Anything older than 10 years will still need an MOT to be registered. Also vehicles kept or used on the public highway in the UK must at all times comply with with con & use and lighting regs. (This includes a MPH speedo if built after 1984). I'm not certain why this should oncern the DVLA or the registartion process. It will concern the Police or VOSA who may enforce these regs once it is registered.

SVA is applicable to imports that were not bulit to Euro type approval such as Jap or American imports and only then if less than 10 years old.