1st Gen Lighting Improvements - Bang for my Buck?

Hi all, I am seeking to improve the lighting in my 1st gen Tacoma. The specific application I have is safe vehicle operation and address location in adverse conditions; I am a volunteer fire chief and I use my personally-owned vehicle for emergency response, often running ahead of the engine to localize an emergency, determine the best route of access, etc. The Feniex emergency lights I have installed are WILDLY brighter than the factory lighting on the Taco, and I'm realizing this is a place I can make some real improvements.

I am not opposed to spending money for quality product but because this is my own vehicle this won't be on the company, so I'm looking for the best bang for my out-of-pocket buck. I was hoping some Tacoma owners who have installed some different lighting products might weigh in on what they felt was the best enhancement. I have been browsing online and am overwhelmed by the variety of options.

If it helps, my response district is rural, so I am driving a mix of paved 2-lane roads and dirt backroads, and the occasional Class 4 road, logging road, or farm field. The fastest speed limit in my district is 50mph. I am in Vermont and contend with snow and rain frequently, and occasionally fog.

Thank you all in advance for your input!

 

Factory headlights plus the upgrade below is what will give you the best lighting performance and best bang for the buck:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

While the thread covers 2nd Gen, it is the same on the 1st Gen, you just need the ground switched harness instead. Here is someone that did it in first Gen: proper-headlight-upgrade. Don't fall for any kind of replacement LED in your OEM headlights product.

 

@crashnburn80 is our resident lighting expert and he's already provided you with some great advice. So let me address some areas he did not cover as yet. First, are you looking to improve the performance of your general lighting or warning lighting? The reason I ask is that your Fenix LED warning lights use very different optics than headlights. This may appear to make them look much more efficient, but it is only for warning purposes. Headlights need a much more focused beam pattern.

Second question. What shape are your headlight lenses in? If they're oxidized at all, you're wasting your time on better bulbs and harnesses to support them. If you do have oxidation, you can use any one of the numerous restoration kits out there to easily remove the oxidation so that you can now focus on improving a better base.

Finally, if you do everything above and still want / need more, you may want to consider auxiliary lighting in either a fog or driving pattern. Diode Dynamics makes some killer add on LED pods in both patterns that may help you.

 

@crashnburn80, thank you for this insightful advice. I will read this thread.

@Too Stoked I'm pleased with my warning light setup, I'm really looking to be able to see the road and upcoming corners, addresses markers, hazards, etc better. I have already gone through my factory lenses and polished them up nicely. That is good advice, it made a big difference when I did it. I'll check out the Diode Dynamics product for sure, adding some light wider than the factory pattern might really help with reading address markers. If I were to add pods, A-pillar mount would make the most sense, right? There seems to be quality and inexpensive ditch light brackets around that won't mess with my radio antennas.

 

The Ultimate Headlight Upgrade will give you significantly more light - in the existing pattern. If that's not wide enough, additional lighting would be the way to go. Although it won't be technically legal, probably the best thing for illuminating address makers would be Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro fogs mounted on ditch light brackets.

 

A few things to consider. For seeing the road and upcoming corners beyond what a boosted low beam will offer, you need better high beams or driving lights (aux high beams). The halogen upgrade will give you a huge boost in high beam power, significantly improve your distance lighting. If you are looking for a wider forward pattern, the Diode Dynamics SS3s fogs mounted below the headlights in a fog location is likely what you would need, and be safe for oncoming traffic. For poor weather conditions you'd want the fogs in selective yellow, but for general use like you are describing white may be more appealing. Note that their fogs are available in 4000k by purchasing the selective yellow fog and purchasing the clear lens separately. The 'white' fogs come in a high color temp 6000k color, which will have more blue hue. Ditch lights are great for extreme wide angle illumination to the sides of the truck and will help find address markers to the side of the vehicle the best. Ditch lights do have the potential to create glare off the hood, depending on how far to the side you have them aimed, which will negatively affect the ability to see distance, so they are not great to drive around with them on all the time. Ditch lights should also obviously be turned off with other vehicles on the road.

 

@crashburn80 this is extremely helpful, thank you for your input. I am not terribly worried about oncoming traffic, as there is not a tremendous amount of traffic in my response area, and what vehicles I do run into are legally obligated to pull over for me here in Vermont. But it is great to know there are options that are safe for oncoming traffic, which will be handy for non-emergency use.

 

Another vote for SS3 ditch lights angled seriously to the sides to illuminate house numbers. I'd also recommend the Pro over the Sport versions in this application because of the additional power. And thank you for your service!

 

I ordered the LED replacements from superbrightLeds.com. They work great!

 

Haven't seen / read this one have you?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

 

ok?