Headlight Upgrade 2017 TRD

No, that would be a downgrade that would blind others and yourself in fog. What model truck do you have now? Is it a TRD?

 

After reading through several pages and getting conflicting answers, I thought I would just ask my question:

If I have a TRD Off-Road this is the case right?
Low beam is H11
Fog is H11
High beam is H9

So if I wanted halogen bulbs that matched the daytime running lights as close as possible, what would be the best option for all three bulbs? Can I run the same H11 bulbs in low beams as fogs?

I don't want LEDs after reading the post on here and HIDs are too expensive for me but I hate the yellow tone of the current halogens.

From @crashnburn80 GE Megalight Ultra +130 H11 are the way to go for both Low and Fog lights?

 

Get the GE +130’s for your low beams.

I’ve tried XD 4300k HID’s (not Phillips), they were really bright and really lit up the ditches, but the bulb shake was annoying. The GE’s are probably 90-95% as bright on the road and are just as good as lighting up the sides of the road. Both are a massive improvement over stock.

I ran H9’s in my low beams for a while too, and the GE’s have noticeably cleaner output, a better beam pattern, and are whiter. H9’s in the projector were “fuzzy” for lack of a better word.

I’d also suggest aiming your headlights up slightly. It’s my opinion that Toyota’s factory aim is lower than it needs to be to control glare should the truck be loaded all the time. I aimed by low beams up 1/2” vs stock when parked 10ft from a wall and have really increased distance and ditch projection. So far I haven’t been flashed once in several months with the higher aim and even my wife said they aren’t worse than stock after following her to work a few times.

 

Understand that your LED DRLs are around 6000k and no decent halogen will be near that color temp. To get out of the 3000-3700k range with halogen you have to put a blue coating on the bulb which severely reduces output. To get that color temp HIDs would be a better option. That said, you can still get whiter halogens than stock that perform better much better than stock. Stock bulbs are around 3000-3200k. The GEs are about 3500k. You can see the color difference in side-by-side in post #29 of this thread here.

I will be trying out a Xencn +100 H9 rated at 3800k soon, once they show up, and share results. I've tried one other product from Xencn and quality was much better than expected from a Chinese bulb manufacture, but I don't place high hopes on that particular product so I would not recommend it till I've had a chance to evaluate it. It could very likely not meet the specs it claims. For now, the GEs are the best H11 halogen choice for modestly increasing the color temperature and providing better output.

 

If I wanted to go to HIDs, would something like this work to get me to a similar look as my DRL?
https://www.hidnation.com/collections/h11-hid-kits/products/h11-hid-conversion-kits (either 4300 or 6000 versions)

Would I need to buy another kit for the H9 high beams?

 

HID’s aren’t good in high beams, they take too long to warm up and rapid cycling them, as one would normally do with high beams driving on the road, is bad for the bulb. But if you’re ok with the compromises then yes you’d need another HID for the high beams.

I don’t have the led drls but the 4300k kit I had was pretty bright whitish blue light.

 

So basically what I'm hearing is that it is not really worth upgrading your headlights if you want white lights. Halogens are not white enough, LEDs cant make the beam form properly along the road, and HIDs would mean my low and high beams would look different since I shouldn't use them for the high beams. I guess I can try to look for headlight replacement with a housing made for LEDs then.

Like these I guess:
http://www.morimotohid.com/toyota-tacoma-xb-led-heads.html

 

Yes, that would work but I would not expect much from a $36 HID kit. Note that HID ballasts cause EMI, which can affect other electrical systems on your truck. Most often this causes static on your radio whenever the lights are on. A good kit will have filters and shielding to prevent EMI from affecting the vehicle, hard to say if a cheap kit has them or not, but I would guess not. Ballasts can overdraw your headlight circuit if not designed for low amp start, if the ballasts does not say specifically that it is a low amp startup (~4.5A) you would also want to get a standalone relay harness. I would recommend opting for a higher quality kit from a more well known brand.

As mentioned, you don't want to use HIDs for high beams, HIDs are slow to start and cycling a hot bulb on/off is bad for the bulb. Appearances here really shouldn't matter though, as no-one is looking at the front of your truck when the high beams are on. Many OEMs used HIDs for low beams and halogen H9s for high beams. If you really really wanted them to match you could put LEDs in your high beam, but the light will not project nearly as far, which is the intent of a high beam.

The Retrofit Source/Morimoto is working on a replacement LED housing for 3rd Gen Tacomas, it is the only replacement LED housing available. They haven't been released yet, but I think with the pre-order discount they cost north of $1200.

 

You can choose to see better or look better affordable, but to do both it’s gonna cost a lot of money.



Just lows


With high beams, from the same spot.

 

skierd, which bulbs do you have in the pics? They look very good.

 

GE +130’s for lows, stock high beams, headlights aimed up 1/2” or so

 

I did H9 conversion. It's literally a 5-minute mod with a pair of dikes and pliers.

 

I've got the 130s in my lows and fogs, stock highs. Is it easy to adjust the headlights?

 

Is that stock wiring? or with relays?

 

Stock wiring

 

Yes, it’s easy. The manual pages have been posted on TW, but both adjusters are on the back middle of the headlight and look like dull silver geared screws. It’s an 8mm hex head on the screw. You’ll need a flat surface and a flat wall you can back away from by 10’ that’s light in color, preferably white. I used a garage door at my work warehouse.

Pull your truck as close as you can to the wall, find the nub in front of the projector that denotes the center of the headlight, then mark it on the wall. Measure the height of the nub from the ground and measure your mark to make sure it’s the same height.

Turn your headlights on, and mark the right side of the projector cutoff. Back up 10’, keeping the hot spots of the headlights centered on the wall marks. Mark the right side of each projector cutoff again. Toyota’s spec is that both are supposed to be at the height of the center mark, on my truck it’s 40”, but the spec is +/- 1.5”. From the cutoff mark, measure up 0.5, 1, and 1.5”. Turn the adjustment screws until the cutoff is level or just above the 0.5” line. You’ll know you’ve gone too high once you drive at night as the cutoff line will point up and the projector hot spot disappears in to the night vs falling nicely on the road 50-100’ (guesstimate) further than stock.

As a side note, since they’re linked it raises the high beam too so you get a LOT more distance from them instead of them burying themselves in to the pavement about where the stock low beams should end.

 

A basic H9 will almost double a basic H11's lumens while giving much better bulb life than a high-efficiency H11. Plus a basic H9 bulb is dirt cheap. Win.

 

H9s are definitely a good option, I’m not saying they are not. You can see how they compare to the GE performance H11s in the link you quoted, the GEs do noticibly better. Bulb life is certainly something to consider. I personally favor lighting performance over bulb life and am always looking for the very best performing lighting products. In halogen this is usually at the cost of life. It is certainly reasonable to sacrifice some performance for more life. There is something to be said for picking up inexpensive H9s at your local auto parts store rather than ordering bulbs from Europe.

 

so these are the GE Ulrta Mega +130 in these pic?

 

Yes