Single Most Useful Lighting

I REALLY like my Rigid Dually Side Shooters on Rago mounts. The side shooters are designed specifically to shine light off the the sides, and of course forward. I am running a 30” SR light down in the grill as well but that’s a different story, that thing is blinding. Long story short the DSS are awesome and give you much more light than you’d ever need.

 

Don’t do LED in non LED projector. They may seem bright but they don’t throw the light as far. Don’t take my word for it. Try a pair. I got the morimoto off Amazon. I returned them.
Baja designs has a guarantee as well. Try the sport and the sae. Also if you are lifted make sure you aim your headlights. If the cutoff is razor sharp but too high you are still “that douche”

 

if you're an avid camper/overlander that is for sure the way to go. trust the Tacoma guru

 

For the highbeams? I've done LED's in my low beams and the projectors (low beam) seem to do much better than the OEM halogens.

 

HIDs are terrible for high beams. HIDs usually take a few seconds to "warm up" and reach max brightness. A lot of times when you're using your high beams you're using them in situations where you only have them on for a few seconds say to flash somebody or light up a short section of dimly lit road. In those situations, your high beams would never even reach a usable brightness level before you turn them off. And as someone else mentioned, they can be unreliable.

 

Yes. I used Cali Raised’s wiring harness and switch. It’s actually very easy. I just installed a switch panel that I got off Amazon. I think it was like >$100 and I’m now using that. Actually works pretty well for the cost.

 

There is a two year long thread all about fogs in the lighting section.. highly recommend it.
I run squadron sports and squadron pros- both as aux lights with the high beam, not fogs.. I wouldn’t want to turn these on at anyone.

 

I'm leaning towards the squadrons (non SAE) and doing the same, using them as aux lights and not fogs. Then I can swap the lenses between amber wide for winters, and combo clears for summers. Only thing I'm concerned about is losing the ability to have amber fogs in snow when I'm just driving to work or something.

Edit: I'm pretty sure if it was a bad enough snow storm I'd probably say screw it and run the ambers anyways.

 

I groom and coach xc all winter so I’m up to the trails 3 or 4 times a week- back roads, fresh snow- I’ve got Sports with amber combo lenses then pros have spot with an amber rock guard. It gives lots of light, great contrast, and doesn’t make my eyes tired like the clear lenses do.

Plus with BD you can switch and swap lenses in two minutes.

 

On my last two rigs I included a telescoping pole with a relatively low output LED flood light at the top. Without a doubt this is my favorite light on both trucks.

It's high enough to not be in your face as you're working around the truck and throws enough light around camp that headlamps are optional.

Plus it's entertaining to watch bats swoop in grab bugs that were attracted by the light

 

I think if you’re spending the money, you might as well get the dot approved ones. Knowing that you can run them legally as fog lights is nice. They’re bright enough that in a bad snow storm I turned off the headlights and just used them and could see way better than with them and the headlights.

 

Those BD SAE fogs don't even meet the SAE standard for cut off. They now ship with a little black aluminum insert that cuts out half the light. I had better lighting from the stock housing with LEDs.

 

Fog lights are designed to meet a specific set of requirements. Crash has it covered pretty well in the SAE Fog thread.

OP wants more light for getting to camp in the pitch black. Ditch lights are going to be #1, big lightbar #2. Both are going to be off road only.
BD SAE fogs were a misstep by BD to make a light for people who drive around with their fog lights on all the time..

 

That's a great idea!

 

Yup I saw this and crossed the SAE fogs off the list. I'f I'm going to spend nearly 400 bucks on ANYTHING I want the full use of them, and the little black inserts really bothers me. Now, if BD offered the little cut outs on their own like they do the lenses I would just buy the parts and swap them out between cut outs and fully open depending on what I'm doing that weekend. Given the two options I'd rather have the sports with no cut outs and just not run fogs on the street unless its a blinding blizzard where yellow light would likely help everyone out.

 

Thank you for this idea.

 

The Rigid and Diode Dynamics work as fog pods and have the cutoff. I saw pics in another thread and those DD ones are strong af.

 

Borrow this spotlight from grandpa's car. He'll never miss it.

Your truck is always (100%) in the wrong direction when you want light to spot a good campsite.

 

I added Cali Raised ditch lights with side shooters to avoid hitting deer when driving at night in the rural Sierra (when I lived up there), and they've withstood a couple years of harsh winter and summer heat.

They're really bright and I've never felt the need for more lighting, except maybe some scene lighting, but as far as driving goes, they've been great. Especially when off-road in the woods, they give a wide pattern with the side LEDs. I think the fogs, in my opinion, would be a little too low to get effective night driving light when on a pitch black trail. Probably fine for seeing the trail itself, but you also want some more peripheral light to also see tree trunks, low branches, and rocks on your flanks. Higher is better has been my experience.

It's a good way to go if you want subtle and cost-effective.

 

I have a marine grade remote controlled spot/flood mounted, pointing rearward, on the rollbar of my jeep lights up the night for sure.

As an aside, it will make the arse with his brights on rethink things after he “sees the light”. Or at least when he can see again.