Vehicle Safety, Lights and Technical Condition
This domain tests whether you can keep a vehicle roadworthy in Mongolian conditions, where long distances, unlit rural roads and severe winter weather raise the stakes. Expect items on lights, tyres and mandatory equipment.
Pre-trip checks
Walk around the vehicle: tyre pressure and tread, brake operation, all lights and indicators, wipers and washer fluid, mirrors, engine fluids and any load that could shift. Car tyres need at least 1.6 mm of tread across the central grooves; winter conditions demand considerably more, and winter tyres are the practical norm from late autumn.
Lights
Use dipped headlights at night, in tunnels, in fog and whenever visibility is reduced. Dip full beam when meeting oncoming traffic at roughly 150 metres and when following another vehicle closely. Hazard lights are for breakdowns, accidents and suddenly slowed queues, not for parking or for permission to stop illegally. Fog lights belong in fog, heavy rain or snow, not on clear nights.
Carried equipment
A warning triangle, first-aid kit, fire extinguisher, jack and spare wheel, plus winter tyres or chains where conditions require them. Secure loads: an unsecured load is a technical defect as well as a danger.
Worked example
You are on an unlit rural road at night on full beam and an oncoming car appears. Reasoning: you dip your headlights before the other driver flashes, because glare at that range removes their view of the road edge when you are closing at a combined speed of perhaps 160 km/h.
Traps that cost marks
Driving on sidelights only in poor visibility; using hazards as parking lights; assuming ABS or winter tyres compensate for worn tread; and setting off on a long rural route without a spare wheel, triangle and cold-weather clothing.