The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

You mean the marketing claims of being triple digits brighter than OEM might be false?

 

Likely gotta turn on the Fogs to see thru all the BS some are makin’ about there assemblies.

 

Am I the only one that will be pleasantly surprised if they wildly outperform the OEM headlights?

 

I expect them to outperform stock, but will they outperform stock with a simple stock wattage bulb upgrade like the Philips Racing Vision? Will be interesting to see where they fall in the spectrum.

 

Can’t wait to see you absolutely smash the “500%” to pieces lol

So far, none of these aftermarket assemblies are good. I can attest... distance blows! Not worth the waste in cash.

But, now a reputable company dropped some housings, be interesting if they really did good stuff. But, for $900... ehhhh. Seems like there’s, as their site claims, better bang for your buck.

But regardless, I look forward to the review and honestly, I do hope they made a decent aftermarket option!

 

Might convince me to convert to an 12 -15 headlight style.

 

I think this is my problem. I’ve been jaded by years of aftermarket claims that were more marketing than substance.

That said, IF these exceed the factory headlights with upgraded bulbs and harness I’d be impressed enough to consider buying a set. If all they are is looks ill keep my cash.

 

FWIW, given that the Morimoto XB v2's for 3rd gen outperformed all known 3rd gen headlights, I'm expecting something of interest for their 2nd gen assembly.

It's a much taller mountain to climb with that massive 2nd gen reflector, so I wouldn't bet on a clear W, and who knows how nice the fit and finish are, but from a sheer output perspective, it seems they have demonstrated some level of competence lately.

Selfishly, I kind of want this to go well for them in hopes that maybe they decide to consider a 1st gen Tundra LED headlight. If I owned a 2nd gen myself, I would probably pass even if they are best in class given the price and how excellent the stock housings are with harness & bulb upgrades. I can definitely see how a fresh aesthetic and LED tech would be appealing, especially if that negates any reason to do the harness. It is kind of not thinking about bulb age, one less thing to monitor.

 

$900.00? Not what they are asking direct!

https://www.morimotohid.com/white-tacoma-12-15-xb-hybrid-led-headlights?quantity=1

Have these been tested?

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/Alpharex-Pro-12-15-Tacoma-Headlights?quantity=1

 

I won't be buying these but I have to admit I think they look damn good.

 

Sadly that's the only requirement for aftermarket headlights. Looking good. That's why 90% of members only take pictures of how their truck looks and not how it performs.

 

Well, as i've learned in this thread and completing the Ultimate Headlight Mod... this is true.

 

Yup. Tons of foreground light, but no distance lighting. Translation: That shopping cart right in front of you is very well lit. That Buick 150 feet down the road? Not so much. Pick which one you'd like to hit or miss.

 

Note that Morimoto isn't 'direct' as it would seem. Morimoto isn't even a company, it is a TRS brand, so buying from TRS is about as direct as it gets.
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/xb-hybrid-led-headlights-12-15-tacoma-white?quantity=1

As @Too Stroked pointed out, AlphaRex are not a legitimate headlight product. You can see the comparison of AlphaRex to Morimoto below, these are against the v1.0 Morimotos, the v2.0 are significantly brighter. See my quoted post below.

Stock wattage bulb upgrades, maybe. Seems unlikely for high wattage bulbs plus harness. But TBD. I'm curious to see.

Morimoto's latest 3rd Gen assemblies did significantly up their game in output intensity. But a few points to consider. The bar is lower for 3rd Gen, as their headlights are not nearly as good as 2nd Gen (as shown in your output comparison chart below). Morimotos initial 3rd Gen release with 2 projectors used for low beam was on par with an $16 H9 swap, with a loss in high beam performance compared to stock. For them to get clearly winning output numbers, they went to 3 low beam projectors in the v2.0 lights. The 2nd Gen lights have just a single low beam projector. If 2 low beam projectors matched a basic bulb upgrade in a lower performing 3rd Gen assembly, how is a single low beam projector going to compete to a much higher performing 2nd Gen assembly? Maybe they have some cleaver upgrades incorporated into the new 2nd Gen lights, but as you mention that is a very big mountain to climb.

Output comparison chart with combined data from 2nd and 3rd Gen threads from @daveeasa. It is worth noting these numbers are all run from 13.8v, using a harness for high wattage bulbs should return ~10% higher output numbers. And the voltage booster would bump the numbers even further.

 

Well, shoot, here I was assuming they would have 2 or maybe even 3 projectors and show up ready to play ball, sounds more like they are just dipping a toe in to check the temperature?

Chart with the XB's added since they are of recent interest:

 

I think it depends on the projector used. If they used a projector similar to Morimoto's MLED 2.0 it will be really good. But seeing as there is separate low beam and high beam projectors I doubt they will perform as well as an MLED 2.0. I'm eager to see how they do (good or bad) and if they will in fact be an upgrade over a stock wattage upgraded bulb. I'm hopeful they didn't completely drop the ball like they did by not adding a switchback. I can't see how thats a cost effective solution to produce 2 models instead of just making 1 switchback version. But thats not my area to critique as I don't know production level stuff.

 

Very true on the variable of which projector assembly is used, but these appear to have dedicated high and low projectors so the 2.0 seems unlikely. Another thing the Morimoto brand headlight products seems to always miss is not having any uplight in the pattern like a stock assembly. Toyota's OEM LEDs have uplight. While you could say that benefits oncoming drivers, without any uplight the cut off becomes distracting and you cannot see beyond it due to the extreme high contrast from lots of light to total darkness right at the cut off. The contrast does help output look impressive, but limits your vision to only what is illuminated below the cut off.

 

Wanted to put this out there like I promised. I just upgraded my battery to a x2 agm and getting 14.2-14.8 from start up to idle, and noticed much more potent lights, even from the old dying battery I had with the upgrade. Have the osram 90/100 cool blue boosts (left) and the osram 90/100 (right). The blue ones, don’t do bad, at all. Did a compare photo, the camera picks up the light from the cool blue boost way more than it should. Normal, it gets about right.

The cool blue are on the left and the normal on the right.


Like I said, camera picks up the blue ones more than it should. They’re a little more dim. But the distance, output, is not bad. Definitely much less output than the normal, but still very bright!

Wanted to throw it out there since I know some folks were thinking of the blue boosts

 

Did you add the voltage booster with the battery?

 

I did! I didn’t do the oz one.
Did the diode with fuse add a fuse (https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/agm-battery-charging-alternator-voltage-booster.611314/
and it’s been working great as advertised!