LED tail lamps...

One thing I liked about the '09 Tacoma was the factory LED taillamps. I liked them for two reasons; one, I realize that LEDs come to full brightness faster than filament lamps, so in my opinion that makes them just a hair safer (following driver's reactions are slightly faster). Two, since they are factory originals, there is no question about them being engineered properly and passing safety/equipment rules.

I think that if someone had taken the '09 taillamps back to '05, they could have made a pretty decent business of selling the "aftermarket" '09 taillamps to the '05-'08 owners. Don't you?

So does it seem a little odd that people pull their stock '09+ taillamps and replace them with just slightly different aftermarket LED taillamps?

 

faster maybe. safer? doubt it.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/buy-sell-trade/169507-scooped-hood-other-items-sale.html

 

I can't stand the LED lights Toyota put on our trucks....Toyota did a good job on the 06 to 09 4Runner tails, the 2011 Sienna lights, and even the RAV 4's....but these look so ricey I want to pull them off and put on the '05's

 

I'll have to dig for the reference, but I read in the mid 1990s that LED brake lights led to a measurably better response time for drivers. The brightness ramps up in a few thousandths of a second, instead of 1/8 to 1/4 second.

Both the quickness of the illumination, plus the quicker response from your retina and visual processing system, mean you respond measurably faster. Faster response should mean safer.

ETA: This PDF might actually be the paper I remember.

 

nah not really. people want to stand out and be different. keeping anythihng stock would just look like everybody else

 

that's what i thought at first too...but idk they kinda grew on me....so much so that i put them on my truck lmao

 

I changed out my '10 factory LED's for a pair of smoked ones off ebay. Probably not as good quality as stock but IMO the stock ones had too much red and they didn't look as good on my BSP Taco as the smoked ones.

 

I'll wait a little bit longer...maybe they'll grow on me.

 

They do look ricey with those stupid clear lenses.

However, they are safer, the quick ramping illumination grabs drivers attention better than incandescent bulbs. I noticed I paid better attention when LEDs first came out. What is really needed is a stutter blink of the brake light like some ambulances and traffic lights have.

The LED lights , however, play havoc with trailer lighting convertors and cruise control by back feeding turn signal current into the brake light circuit, hereby disengaging the cruise when the turn signals are activated. Three trips to James Toyota and they could not figure this out, it came to me at 4am one morning. Changed to a compatible convertor and the problem was solved (Curt convertor, the only compatible one I could find.)

 

I wasnt fond of the stock taillights, especially since my truck has an all black theme. I went with an LED taillight off an 08 that have the rows of LEDs with black housing and I have enjoyed them since. I was iffy at first, but i think they look better on my Red then his bright blue

 

I had swapped my 06 TL for a set of the OEM 09+ LEDs but found in the winter they iced up bad. Maybe not a big deal for owners not in the snowbelt, but the snow really collected and froze on mine.

Plus had trouble as noted earlier with my trailer converter. I went back to my OEM 2006 non-leds.

 

Yeah, they do not make any significant heat to melt snow/ice. But they shine through the ice just fine.

I don't know what the deal is with the trailer converters. I haven't checked to see if my Hopkins (Hoppy) converter, with a trailer attached, affects the cruise control. If it does, a diode somewhere in there should kill the feedback.

 

Anyone want to sell the stock l.e.d tails, or even just the passanger side?