The SAE J581 Aux High Beam Thread

Here are some pictures of the bamf rack with the pods. I'm leaning toward cutting the grill.

I took some pictures of output that I'll put in the Diode Dynamics thread. Snow covered road (Canada in February) and no fixed camera setting but they mirror what I was seeing.

 

Anyone get some SS5’s mounted up yet?

 

just gonna leave this here for @crashnburn80 for his next diagnostic report

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbAxL5fjuP4/

 

Gotta be two or three hundred dollars worth of cheap Chinese LED bars on there. Probably all wired to one switch too.

 

I wonder if the alternator even stands a chance.

 

I know this isn't a Tacoma, but I'm a former (very happy) Tacoma owner. And the vehicle I'm experimenting with better lighting on is a Toyota- 4Runner, so this should all be legal.

The first upgrade I made to my forward lighting was swapping my Diode Dynamics SS3 Max fogs over from the Tacoma. Awesome upgrade and I'd highly recommend it to anyone - but it's not a high beam upgrade.

Next, I did the HIR bulb swap that @crashnburn80 has documented so well on these pages. It's one of the easiest upgrades you will ever do since it's pretty much a straight bulb swap and its way worth the time and effort. But I wanted more. (Remember, my Tacoma had the full Ultimate Headlight Upgrade plus a 30" Diode Dynamics Stage driving pattern light bar mounted behind the lower grill.)

This led to me adding a Rago Fabrications light bar mounting bracket behind the lower grill on the T4R.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/e60/tfwarda/IMG_E1885[1].JPG

Yes, I know it says it's for a light bar, but it works just fine for more conventional lighting, and that's what I started with. My first iteration was a set of classic Cibie Oscar 8" halogen driving lights that I probably should sell to a collector instead. They had 100-watt Osram bulbs and did a pretty credible job of throwing light down the road, but again, not enough.





Even as I was installing the Oscars, I knew that DD had something big coming down the road and I knew I just had to have a set. So, I placed an order and waited. And waited. Finally, a couple of weeks ago my SS5 LED pods arrived. On crash's advice, I ordered selective yellow fogs plus a set of clear driving pattern lenses. This simple lens swap gives one a slightly warmer (less blue / white) color temperature which I very much liked and wanted.

Since I wanted to change a few things with the wiring (and add a harness for the backlight feature on the SS5s), I had to again pull the whole front bumper cover off. Surprisingly, it appeared that I would not have to change anything on the Rago Fab bracket. I loosely installed the SS5s and new wiring harness I made before re-hanging the bumper cover. I did find that the SS5s needed to come up about a quarter of an inch to minimize the obstruction of the grill, so I added a spacer, then carefully centered the lights before tightening everything down.







How do they perform? Although I have to bring them up just a smidge, things are looking pretty awesome. Here's what things looked like on a dark street near me with just the OEM LED low beams on. Just a straight road, right?



Here's a shot with the high beams and SS5's on. The bend in the road is about 150 yards down the street.



If any of you want to do a similar upgrade to your vehicle, I'd very highly recommend both these lights and @memario1214 at Hotshot Offroad. You simply will not find better selection, pricing and service anywhere on the planet.

What's next? I think I'm going to order some clear Spot pattern lenses just for giggles. According to the information online, they'll almost double the distance. Hmmm.

 

So SS5 pros in driving and 4000k w clear lenses and the backlight wired to ?

And they cleanly outperform the oscars? That’s cool. I’ve been contemplating a set if I can figure out mounting. Were you able to get a lens temp?

 

The backlight is wired into the parking light circuit.

I have not had time to get a lens temperature, but they definitely generate some heat!

 

Did you go sport or pro?

 

Could squeeze a bit more distance out if they were sport spots!

 

Pro of course! @memario1214 already has my spot lenses winging their way to my door!

 

Hmmm, I wonder what I should do with today's delivery? Output pics when (or if) it ever stops raining around here.

 

Here's a top tip for anybody swapping lenses on SS5's. Although they may look symmetrical and thus should fit no matter how you rotate them, this is not true. There are two triangular shaped posts on one side of the lens that are designed to slip into two similarly shaped holes cast into the pod base right beside one edge of the circuit board. Both of these features are pretty small, and you really have to look for them. I'm not sure what happens if you have the lens 90, 180, or 270 degrees off, but I'm pretty sure they built these features in for a reason.

Edit: I should have thought of the 90 and 270 degrees off issues. (Horizontal pattern fogs.) But 180 degrees off (upside down) will also be avoided through the use of Poke Yoke. (Japanese for Mistake Proof / Fail Safe.)

 

I think the poka-yokes are featured in all of the pods. Probably to make sure that people don't end up with vertical fog beams or other silliness. It makes it harder for people with rotated mounting positions though. I think they can be gently ground down with a Dremel with no ill effect for those corner case situations.

 

My SSC1s we're indexed as well

 

What did you use for a switch? Or did you run separate switches for the backlight?

 

I didn't run switches for either the main pods or the back lights. The main pods are triggered via a relay by the high beams and the back lights are tied directly into the parking light circuit.