Headlight Upgrade 2017 TRD

I have them and have compared them to the GE +130s, I don’t have them logged in my database for some reason though. I can get you the numbers at halftime. But the GEs are a good amount brighter. I think Osram got overzealous with their bulb coating in proximity to the filament.

 

LEDs manufacturers are now catching on to the importance of beam pattern, or at least they're mimicking the OEM beam pattern.

The new Supernova V.4 emits almost exactly the same beam pattern as the OEM halogen while in the Tacoma housing, but is significantly brighter.

https://youtu.be/4du3JRoavJg?t=672

Some people who buy LED headlights also install them incorrectly, assuming they can only go in one way. That incorrect installation can really screw with
the beam pattern.

 

I was just curious. I can’t wait to get the GE +130s installed.

Also, thanks for all the testing & FACTS @crashnburn80 much appreciated!

 

Even the ‘hot spots’ shown in there are pretty poor, compared to the low performance halogen. What they don’t tell you is they are comparing to a stock long life ultra low performance bulb. You can double performance easily by going to a high efficiency bulb, outperforming all those LEDs while also greatly extending distance projection.

Here you go:



Output specs
Nightbreaker +150 vs Megalight +130


Normalizing the peak output for the spectrum, you can see the effect of the blue filter causing a dip in the output in the longer wavelength portions of the spectum.



But when you compare absolute (non-normalized output), you can see how much better the GE bulbs perform.



So you can see the GE +130s are 60% brighter than the Osram +150s, which is surprising. GE does a better job with their coil precision for increased focus and Osram handicaps their performance with too much bulb coating.

 

Thanks, for the information.

 

One more thing to consider on the halogen bulbs is that there is a ±15% lumen tolerance allowed in any bulb so a 2000 lumen bulb could be anywhere from 1700 to 2300 and still be in tolerance. There's virtually no way for the average person to know if they've got one at either end or in the middle. We buy these bulbs assuming that they're all the same but they're not necessarily so.

 

15% seems like a lot, I can understand a 5% tolerance. 15% just seems crazy.

 

It does, but that's what Virgil, the moderator at Candlepower Forum says it is and he seems to know his stuff more than just about anyone. I think I've see Daniel Stern mention that as well.

 

Correct, there is an ‘allowance’ on spec per regulations. But I wouldn’t consider this a concern with manufactures trying to push the high performance envelope, as they are more likely to bend the regulations on the performance side than fall on the lower side of spectrum.

Fortunately I’m far from average, and spare no expense in light testing equipment to test these products for the benefit of the TW community.

 

Unfortunately the winter months have my commute in the dark both ways about an hour. If these make the difference I think they will I won't have a problem buying another pair when they burn out. I'll toss my stockers behind the back seat just in case. A recent trip to WV on backroads in the dark and rain left me basically blind with these LED's, gotta change it up!

 

The real problem is that none of us are buying and testing bulbs in any meaningful quantity - never enough for a statistical average. You'll never ever know if the bulb you got was "hot" or not. And most people will just go by a seat of the pants gut reaction, hoping that the money they shelled out was well spent. And none of us here have really high end measuring equipment. In my case, a $600 light meter and a $1500 color meter is really peanuts - great for photography but not the best tools for measuring headlamps. I'm looking up the actual proper device that is used by lighting engineers but it's not at the tip of my fingers.

Right now I have a Philips Xtreme in the right headlight and a GE Mega +130 on the left. Visually they look the same. They measure within about two tenths of an f/stop measuring the brightest areas of the hotspot, with the Philips actually being the brighter of the two, and have a slight but meaningless difference in color temperature. The Sekonic mimic'd the Minolta in terms of foot candles. Both sockets are getting approximately 13.83 volts at the bulb from the truck. Bottom line is that there's no meaningful difference between the two or even the GE Xenon a step down from the Mega 130. All about the same and all more than adequate for the job, unless you have some sort of severely limited night vision.

 

I know a dark commute well! Thankfully solstice is fast approaching, and the sun will start coming back... from the hill at UAF, about 10 minutes from my house last solstice.

 

@crashnburn80 rocks! I just ordered the +130s at powerbulbs, they are 25% right now, so about $33

 

I got the Philips Xtreme vision 100s. I had a long trip into the mountains of WV and didn't have time to wait for the GEs and as we all know the stock bulbs are like candles glued to the front of your truck. These helped, but they are still really poor headlights compared to other vehicles I've owned. I've actually used the Xtreme Vision's in other halogen cars I've had and they were a major improvement. But these on my 18' TRD OR, just aren't. I am telling myself they are better, but I don't know if they really are. Did I miss something in this process? Was there something else I was supposed to do in conjunction with the bulbs that I missed? There's so many threads with so many opinions and reviews. I've considered some of the HID kids, but I've heard every form of review on those from utter trash to the second coming.

@crashnburn80, I've read enough of your posts to make my head spin, can you set me straight here? Is there any possibility that these bulbs were such a minor improvement that it would be almost unnoticeable?

 

I have not tried the Philips Xtreme Vision +100, but I have tried the Osram Nightbreaker Silver +100, which is effectively a similar competing bulb from Osram.

Here is a comparison of stock vs the Osram +100.


Here is a comparison between the same Osram +100 vs the GE +130.


You can see the GEs do quiet a bit better than the +100s.

H9s swapped into the low beams will also provide excellent results, though the GEs come in slightly higher.

 

My +130's came in yesterday and got to test them out this morning, holy hell what a difference. I can actually see!

My only downside is I can notice a slight dimming on heavy bass notes, guess I'll tackle that next

 

I've been following this thread, and @crashnburn80 's threads for months.
Short story, I've gone H9 mod, to VLEDs, to HIDs to Hikaris and now to the Megalight +130s. I'm staying with halogens. My eyes appreciate the color of the +130s and the throw once properly aimed. Paired with the KC G4 clear fog lights the +130s are awesome.

Loved the look of LED, hated the performace. Loved the performance of the HIDs (Morimoto) but hated that after just 5 weeks of use a ballast would not reliably fire upon command.

Thanks to @crashnburn80 for his work and diligence to provide us with actual comparisons and real world data.

 

Halogen output has a direct relationship with voltage. Heavy current draws from amps/subs will cause temporary voltage drop on the battery which is what causes the slight dimming. Putting some capacitors inline with your most power hungry speakers will provide power reserve for the heavy bass hits to stabilize the voltage to eliminate the dimming.

 

My two sets of +130's came in yesterday. Put them in my low beams and fogs. I'm very happy with them and would like to thank crashnburn80 for all of his work and recommendations.

 

For the halogen users, you can add about an additional ~16+% in output to all halogen bulbs by using a standalone harness to drive higher voltage to the bulbs directly from the battery. No such heavy duty harness existed on the market for H11s, so I had Rallylights custom build one to my specs and worked with them to create a product code for them to pass that on to other TW members. I intended it for the H11 fogs on a 2nd gen, but also works for the H11 headlights on a 3rd gen.

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