PIAA RF10 10" Driving Light Bar

Before I begin, full disclosure: I received this item from @automatcentral in exchange for a review, however what follows is my completely unbiased review and opinions on this item. On with the show!

First, when I saw that this item was up for review, I knew exactly where I wanted to put something like this...

(https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...lable-on-website.546406/page-36#post-17850247)

Anyway...

The goods arrived promptly and well packaged. Also, free hat!



ooooooOOOOO....


aaaaaHHHHHHH...



The goods... A light and some mounting hardware.



What came in the box...
RF10 light bar
2x mounting brackets the bolt on to the back of the bar in any of the slots
2x slider pieces that slide into the rear of the light bar and hold a nut for you to thread into
2x smaller nuts for said sliders
2x mounting bolts
2x bracket bolts
2x larger nuts for the mounting bolts
1x connecting bracket for summing up lights (mounting one directly next to another)
2x rubber washers
2x long, slim hex bolts for use when mounting multiple lights together, in conjunction with connecting bracket

Surprisingly, there was no manual in the box, but I didn't mind because there's one online here. (eco-friendly I suppose!)





I also got a nice quality P/N 34039 wire harness kit along with this order, in a separate box.



Moving on.

I thought the light bar might fit perfectly into the slot on the TRD Pro (faux) grille and it does! Well kind of... it's actually a bit of a squeeze on the top and bottom and there's a gap on the sides.

The test fit for proof of concept...







I wasn't too comfortable leaving it in there like that long term since it would likely for sure ending up warping that slot given the "squeeze" situation, so I decided it would have to go behind the grille (but still poking through that slot).

Fast forwarding here since I didn't take any shots of the mounting because I'm the worst -- but I'll do my best to describe what happened.

The bar has some good weight to it, so ultimately, some sort of metal bracket like the BAMF behind the grill light bar mount will probably be best to count on it not flying off on a bump (P.S. I'm open to a sponsorship/review opportunity to match my BAMF bed bars and sliders @JLee ). I was kind of in a hurry to get it mounted today, so for the next few days it's mounted directly to the grille. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS since it's a good amount of static weight even, for some crappy little plastic screw threads!

Anywho, warning aside, do as I say not as I did. I ended up cutting a couple of pieces of ABS to both fill in the side gaps and create a mounting point for the light to screw into from behind. The filler plates mount to the grill using the screw threads intended for the TOYOTA lettering and the light bar mounts to those plates with some metal brackets that I cut and shaped into double "L" shapes or more of a "Z" that hold the light to the plates from behind. I put some speed clips on the brackets and put a screw on each side from the front as you'll see in the pictures.

It shouldn't go anywhere while it's sitting in the driveway, but I wouldn't trust this setup on the highway since the weakest point here is those plastic threads on the grille and they are probably prettttty weak. I'll be removing the grille this week for paint anyway and I'll reconsider a more permanent mounting solution once that's all done.

Here's the [semi-]final product:









It's a little guy, but it's actually very impressive!

What follows are some comparison shots with the OEM low beams and a cheap China light bar mounted in the lower grille area. My overall impression of the RF10 is that it's damn good given it's size! I would actually consider running it full time instead of my lower bar since a at least to me it seems to out-perform it.

OEM low beams only...


OEM low beams + PIAA RF10


PIAA RF10 only


China bar only...


Some misc shots...





Cool so that's my garage at about 15 feet or less, now for the road! (Forgive me, I didn't feel like venturing out too far to find a completely dark road with no street lights given my mounting situation. Deal with it (•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■).)

OEM parking lights only for reference...


Low beams...


Low beams + China


Low beams + PIAA RF10


PIAA RF10 only


And some final misc shots...





Final thoughts...
I definitely like the output of this little 10" bar better than my 30" China bar. To be fair, I believe this PIAA RF10 is a wide driving hybrid beam pattern, and the China bar is a flood/spot combo, so take from that what you will. I think the China bar is also at a disadvantage given it's height and depth behind the bumper, but the RF10 is still a damn good light.

The build quality of the PIAA RF10 is also fantastic as I'd expect from PIAA -- quality housing, connectors, wire, and hardware.

Thanks again to @automatcentral for this opportunity!