Looking for guide to install pod light to act as additional hi beam.

Ok guys, backstory is I just recently bought alpharex nova series headlights. My main issue is that this headlight have a very weak hi beam output, low beam is ok (sort of). Now my plan is adding a pod light to act as another hi beam. I am planning to purchase a Baja design S2 Pro. Is there someone by any chance happened to connect it with the hi beam wiring and have no issues? links will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

What color are your raptor lights?

 

amber

 

I have thought about rigging some spots behind the grill for a longer range hi beam. Would probably put it on a seperate switch but wiring to hi beams is an interesting idea. Shouldn't be too dificult to do. If you can't add directly to the hi beam circuit because of amp draw should be able to use a relay.

 

Remove cheap headlight assemblies replace with factory units or shell out the pennies for oe led housings and skip out on the additional pods. Best solution for street use.

Adding pods for high beam assist can be done legally in some places but not all. Generally you need to mount the lights below headlight height. Then wire the relay direct to battery and tie in the relay signal with your high beams. This one I'm not 100% sure on but I believe there are sae specs for street legal aux highbeam lights. But that i recall hearing in passing never looked into it.

Edit taken from Rigid's site on their sae aux highbeam light bar. There is an sae spec for them.

 

Are you going to be adding a switch inside the cab to run the S2 separately?

 

There are SAE "driving lights" which I believe are legal but I was never really clear on what the coverage was like.

 

What my plan is, it will work just like the hi beams. It will turn on when hi beams are on without triggering switch.

 

I was looking at Morimoto 2banger led pods. It looks like they are SAE compliant. Might as well buy this instead of Baja design S2 pro.

 

OP- you could wire them in, but I’m sure the trucks computer will not enjoy the splice(very sensitive electronics). You’ll likely get codes on the dash, as the ECM does not like any fluctuations in OHMS or voltage. Id just wire them to a normal switch, what is the point of adding more lights instead of just fixing the dim factory headlights? Hella h9 upgrade is cheap and easy, made a world of a difference for field of vision.

 

I am looking to do something similar to this.

 

Why not go with a 30" light bar in between the bumper cover and grille. It is stealthy and will give you more light

 

I put a Rigid behind the bumper portion of the grill. Right now it's connected to a switch in an empty slot to the left of the steering wheel and can be turned on whenever the truck is on but I'm planning on changing it so the switch will get power only when the high beams are on. That way I can use the high beams as normal but add the light bar when I'm out in the rural areas upstate and have it operate with the high beam switch. You can grab high beam power at the high beam fuse in the fuse box under the hood. Of course from the switch it then goes to a relay to power the light bar. When I turn that thing on it really is impressive how much light it throws.

 

The easiest way to do this where the additional lights come on with high beam is going to be tapping the high beam and using that tap to trigger a relay. That way the load of the driving lights isn’t added to the high beam circuit.

 

I stumbled upon something a few weeks ago that might make this dead simple for you... It's the "All Lights On" from Fleece Performance.

It somehow jumps or bridges a few relays, keeping your fog lights and low beams on when you turn on high beams. When your high beams aren't on, low and fogs operate per normal.

It wasn't very expensive and installed in under 5 minutes. No splicing, running wires, or adding a switch. Can't comment on longevity since I literally installed it yesterday, but seems to work exactly as advertised.

Best of luck!

 

@quintano20 this is the correct answer.

 

Did your vehicle originally have halogen headlamps? If so, the cleanest way is to replsce one of your highbeam fuses with an "add-a-tap" fuse replscement, with the tap circuit using a small (say, 2.5A) fuse, run the tap leg to a switch in the cab, then back out to a relay and ground the other side of the switch side of the relay to the body. Then run a leg off the positive battery terminal with an inline fuse to the relay, then wire up from there.

If your truck was originally OEM LED, you may need a different setup

 

The below is in regard to those AlphaRex Nova's previously posted by one of TW's experts on lighting.

Yes, if you don’t know what you are looking for then AlphaRex Nova series seem great, for exactly all the reasons why they are actually terrible. The lights provide extreme foreground light and loss of distance light. The hot spots are WAY down in the pattern. All this makes for an illegitimate headlight that isn’t even compliant and a major downgrade from stock. However people judge light output on what is closest to them, so massive increases in foreground light are always viewed favorably by those not understanding headlight optical design. Foreground light doesn’t help you at highway speeds as it is easily overdriven, worse it actually hurts you. High foreground light constricts your pupils so you can’t see distance in the dark, and your lights no longer illuminate distance either, on top of that the lights don’t have uplight so you can’t even see beyond the low beam in the hypothetical that your night vision wasn’t already ruined by an inverted headlight illumination design. Triple whammy on not being able to see. But yes that short range light will make you think they are great. - @crashnburn80

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/what-are-good-headlights-for-2nd-gen.831222/#post-29802249

 

I’d read the quote @YF_Ryan posted above. Sinking more money into bad assemblies is a lost cause. You’d be much better off ditching those assemblies and going with the OEM LED units which will have substantially higher performing low beam and high beam without the need for auxiliary lights. Even if you add aux lights to the high beam and use proper SAE J581 lamps, the low beam issues are not fixable without assembly replacement.

If you really wanted to sink more money into what you have (not recommended) I’d take a look at the J581 aux high beam thread for ideas.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-sae-j581-aux-high-beam-thread.696597/