Headlight upgrade

Alright guys, I’ve done the research and read through countless threads on here and still can’t seem to decide which headlights bulbs to upgrade to. Currently I have Auxbeam F16’s in right now and am not
Impressed, they’re bright but have no distance on them. I’ve been looking into hids like my last tacoma(2nd gen, I know reflector heads aren’t made for HIDs) but does anyone know what the best hid In terms of reliability and brightness are? Currently I’m torn between xenondepots extreme hid kit and morimotos elite hid kit. If anyone has pictures of these to help it would be greatly appreciated and so would any input!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/hylux-vs-morimoto-vs-xenon-depot-hid-kit.534653/

 

Either one of those kits will work great. I opted for the hylux kit, which was a lot cheaper but just as good. I'm running those auxbeam F16s in my highbeam though; work well for that, but wouldn't want to put them in my low beams.

 

I got XenonDepots in my Tacoma. Morimotos in my Armada. Can't go wrong with either one of them. XDs pricing is a bit less than Morimoto.

 

From my personal experience and from my friends LED light aftermarket anyways won't get you much light down the road.

 

What Modesto said. Due to the nature of the beast, you're not going to get much improvement, if any, with new bulbs.

The "Bro-Cool" factor may be higher though.

G.

 

Check out this thread for proper upgrades. @crashnburn80 has done his homework on the subject and is considered by most to be the "go to" guy for lighting questions.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-foglight-upgrade-h11-not-led-or-hid.435419/

 

...with LEDs sure, but HIDs bring loads of improvement to the table.

 

Wo

Would you happen to have a pic of the hylux kit?

 

Edit: My bad I was thinking of the 'latest' LEDs, not hylux HIDs.

 

? What are you talking about

 

i think this is a top choice for performance, reliability, and easy install:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/hyluxtek-hid-kit-with-cnlight-ball-bulbs.457461/

it's been a while since I've gone through that thread again, but last i checked everyone is happy and there's never been problems. all i know is I've had them a year and they perform as amazing as day one.

 

I had originally got the name confused with an LED brand vs the HIDs. Rather than just deleting the post entirely, I just edited the non-relavent material out.

 

Is it the bulb or the ballast that determines brightness? Wondering because I found A similar kit that has the same hylux ballast but different bulbs

 

Both.

The higher wattage the ballast (35w vs 55w) the brighter the light output, however higher wattage HID ballasts also reduce color temperature and shorten bulb life. Meaning a higher wattage ballast will be brighter but also shift the light output slightly toward the yellow spectrum. While 2 ballasts may be labeled as '35w' it can also depend on how true they are to the specs.

Bulbs will vary in output depending on brand and color temperature. All other things being equal, bulbs near the low-mid 4000k range will have the highest lumen output, the further you go from that color temp the lower the output. Xenon Depot for example advertises Philips bulbs as 4% brighter than the same color bulb from a different brand. Going from 4300k to 5000k color temp also results in a 4% loss in output, according to their specs specs. As a general rule though, a 35w HID in the low-mid 4000k spectrum is going to produce ~3200 lumens. There are other factors to consider like quality, durability, lifetime ect that do not come into play when looking at just the output specs.

I haven't done any output comparison testing on HIDs to validate the specs. Yet.

 

Makes sense, thanks!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...hilips-4300k-bulbs-review-and-install.530187/

Here's my write-up!

 

Thanks for the great write-up on the H11 Xtreme HID Kit and glad to hear you're enjoying the new lights. Those pictures look awesome, and your detailed installation breakdown will definitely help out other forum members.

~Robert

 

happy to help!

 

I have also been reading a metric crap ton on here about this subject and I have even been on xenons website picking out my order. The part I always get hung up on, bulb color. What are people doing with this option?