Wanting to Downgrade from Factory LEDs to Halogens

Agreed. It's not like you want to go back 50 years in technology and will be unsafe with the stock halogens. Framing it as some unfathomable "bad decision" seems way over the top. I did the H9 upgrade and that was more than enough for me to be satisfied with the stock projectors. It's not like I'm driving blind as a bat at night, the lights on this truck are 10x better than the glow worms in jam jars that came in my first gen. I'd say you do you, I also avoided going with the factory LED's on my 2020 because of aesthetics, the sequential turn signal looks especially ridiculous to me. To each their own.

 

Lmao agreed, it's really not that critical and the halogens perform fine. Is there better? DOH... but doesn't mean people need to go around bagging on peoples choices an telling them it's a bad decision when it may not be ideal but who cares if its what you want.

 

These halogens are some of the better halogens I've ever used. I still want to swap to the LEDs because they're right up my alley but implying going from LED back to the stock halogens is dangerous or deadly is a bit silly. They're fine, I don't know of anyone who wrecked or killed anyone because their halogens were too dangerous.

If they are truly THAT bad in anyone's experience, I would suggest checking the housing to see if the reflector material behind the projector flaked off. I know that happens in some other cars as they get older and you may as well have the lights off at that point because you truly cannot see anything if the reflector is no longer reflecting.

 

Right on with the last 2 points. And for additional context, I had an opportunity to buy a 2022 that came with LEDs that I couldn’t pass up due to mass shortages. Had I the chance to be more selective, I would have avoided that option. So again, bad decision? No. Not the decision you would make? Sure.

 

I do understand the LEDs on paper may out perform halogens, it’s easy to upgrade bulbs to get much better performance than the oem halogen bulbs.

Where I disagree is in unique circumstances where a person lives in an area that consistently gets snow, halogens are objectively the better choice since they output enough heat to melt any potential buildup of ice and snow when an LED bulb will not do that in some situations.

I made the conscious decision to get a truck with halogens and stuck with it because if I had gone LEDs, I would have ice buildup on my headlights. I’ve seen it quite a lot with people visiting my town in the winter and no matter how good your LEDs may be, they’re useless when covered in a layer of snow and ice.

EDIT: LEDs are technically better (if it’s quantified in output and throw) in most situations, but the performance isn’t too far off what I’ve experienced with halogens and I don’t feel unsafe driving at night with my halogen housing and bulbs.

EDIT 2: I’ve lived in a snowy climate the last half decade and for the last 20 years I’ve spent a good chunk of my winters on the mountain. I’ve always run halogens for that reason and have had 0 issues with illumination even with older vehicles (think 1995 4Runner or 2006 Prius).

EDIT 3: last one I think - LEDs will work in cold and snowy environments, you just have to be aware of the occasional time you have to clear your headlights off. It’s rare but can happen and it happens slowly so sometimes it’s hard to notice until you basically don’t have headlights. It’s usually not a huge deal to have to do clear them off but I prefer to be able to turn my headlights on after clearing snow off my vehicle (once) then just drive without thinking about it.

 

Another reason why I'm sticking with halogens, I read through plenty of crashnburn80's lighting thread and that was a benefit that I'm fully in need of.

 

Shipping cancels out and halogen sale success/price is speculative, so what would be the most you’d pay for a set of used ‘21 leds flat. That’s where I think we don’t see eye to eye.
Sparks has them listed at 1325 before 25% off shipping.
I hear and understand where you guys are coming from, and know it’s moot. Just like a good debate.

 

The blacked out DEPO TRD led strip style ones have a harness for SR5 models as well. I have attached the pictures.

 

If I had a 3rd gen with factory LED, I think I would swap to the Pro LEDs, and consider it money well wasted.

If I really wanted to ditch the OEM LED, I would trade the OR for a Trail Edition.

Most of the trucks, or trims I like do not offer factory LED as an option. My next truck will most likely have Halogens, if I get what I really want. I prefer OEM LED to Halogen.

 

IIHS rates it the halogens as M and I think that was P before auto high beams (which I personally think is useless) vs G for LED.

Granted, an h9 bulb swap helps but even with that the OEM LED assembly is vastly better even after the bulb swap. The 3rd gen lighting thread is worth a read, at least the first few posts.

There are solutions to headlight icing but that's one significant possible reason to purchase a truck with halogens for now. I suspect we will see aftermarket lens heating solutions bloom in the near future and I have some hope that Toyota is working on that one. I still would not downgrade for that reason, if it's a big deal, the washer jet mod could be fun, or a DIY resistive heating ring with timer and relay. I can certainly appreciate buying the truck which best suits your needs though, I have no complaints about someone buying a truck with halogen headlights because they desire the ability to melt snow.

I have some mild, unsubstantiated potential concerns with the circuits given that the LED assembly draws 35w and the high + low halogen bulbs would be 55 + 65 or 65 + 65 if using h9's for lows. That's a nonzero jump, though you can assume the circuits would handle it just fine. But I'm not privy to any decisions made since it's a different harness, nor am I sure exactly how they are fused (I assume exactly the same but I don't own one). There was more discussion about the reverse harness before we had a few years of history on these LED assemblies, they have held up their end of the bargain.

Anyway, all just my opinion of course. But it's worth noting that you don't hear about people doing this and I've been successful convincing the few who have asked in the past to leave their LED headlights alone.

 

@daveeasa I’ve read through your posts in this thread and it seems like going from LED to halogen is a massive hassle. You know more than me about these things for sure but I’m my previous post I only wanted to mention that LEDs aren’t always an upgrade, I don’t know if I’ve convinced you otherwise or if I’m flat out wrong since my evidence is all anecdotal. I’ll admit it seems like it would be better to stick with what you have if your truck came equipped with LEDs regardless of situation.

 

Don't really know what the max I'd pay is. Without trading in my own current lights, probably 1100 or so. It's just hard to justify paying more than that when they are a used product and don't come with the factory warranty, regardless of how new they may be. Granted the warranty is not super long but if you did have some sort of premature failure (it happens, and usually within the warranty period), you'd be pretty screwed after spending all that much on them. Used parts, even slightly used never bring what they sell new for. New parts that are unused but purchased don't either. I dunno, maybe someone else would be willing to pay more than I would, and more power to them and the seller if that's the case. All that means for me is that I'm back to buying the new product at new price like I planned to all along.

As for Sparks parts, Chloe from YouTube has a discount code you can use for 5% off. I'd have to make the basket and such again but last I checked the out the door price to me was right at 1340. To ship a set of headlights as a regular person is not cheap, I shipped a set of Morimotos for my Frontier and it cost like $85 from TX to CA. They come in pretty large boxes so that makes the used trade deal less appealing for sure. And I thought you were saying the halogen guy covers all the shipping to sweeten the deal, my bad on that one.

Edit: Just checked, out the door for me today is $1,311 with the discount applied and shipping is $51.

 

I definitely hear you. I thought my initial price was fair (you were right on what I was saying about the shipping initially btw) but I hadn’t seen sparks pricing and my view of shipping costs are sky high due to living in the frigid north.
In my head it was 200-300 below new cost, but I guess I was just putting my foot in my mouth. I saw everyone frothing at the mouth asking what he was doing with his LEDs and didn’t want him to get low balled. Sounds like op was already on top of it anyway though.
I appreciate you playing along!

 

any of you crazy halogen people know someone with a JL rubicon that's interested in the same odd move? i have a pair of 15 mile halogen takeoffs from my wife's jeep that are taking up space and i'd hate to just toss them in the garbage

 

A lot.... I'm blinder that a bat at night and try to avoid driving in the dark. But for the couple times a year I find myself having to, I am glad for the LEDS. I just hope I am not blinding any one.

 

Lol, you're probably out of luck on that one.

 

I like the halogens too. Took me a long time to find the 2021 OR without LED headlights. I like the mellow yellow look and, ignoring the fanboys, the halogens do just fine at night. I had a Tundra with LEDs and I hated the unnatural white light at night. I like the softer light.
AND THE PERFORMANCE IS JUST FINE.

 

@daveeasa (and @mustainefan since part of this is relevant to what you want to do) the amperage draw I wouldn’t be too concerned with, except for the ground. I don’t have to tell you this obviously (I’ve seen your stockpile of harnesses ) but the LED lights use a single ground. That would be my biggest concern.

Harnesses for this can be built, and if you are going back to the TRD halogen (with the “L” shaped DRL) it is pretty straight forward. I would advise using an additional ground though that you can take straight to chassis. There is a factory ground point by each headlight, so that’s really easy to do. I have built a set of these before, and that is the way I did it. I’m kind of surprised to see this come up again, not a lot of requests for it.

And since I have to throw my hat in the ring: OP, if you wanted to go to a Blacked out set of Halogens that have some… unconventional mods, let me know. I can always sweeten the deal by making you harnesses and making the Blacked out ones do what you want. They have the switchback DRL (white/amber), switchback halos, and where these get a little different (and I think unique? At least I have never seen it done) is the side marker is set up with 3 - 3” switchback strips (think of Meso sidemarkers, but all contained behind a white reflector). My original intent was for these to be on my truck, but I ended up going LED myself. But if you’d be interested, let me know. They are in great shape. Hell, I even have fog lights with switchback halos to match I don’t need LEDs, but a guy I work with would love them. I’ll even volunteer to have him cover all the shipping
also, @no vtec 4me did the Blackening, so you not have to worry about me doing a crappy job. I am much better at wiring than fabrication and painting

Oh, last edit hopefully. The black on these is a gloss black. I did that so they would match the Pro taillights. Just FYI.

 

@Puppypunter I’m curious what the reason was for the one harness you made. Replacing a damaged set? Changing to custom painted? Melt snow?