Headlight Upgrade 2017 TRD

Any good H9s in a “white” hue?

 

No worries. I added a link to my post where another member made an adapter so it is all plug and play.

http://www.rallylights.com/h9-hella-high-performance-xenon-blue-v-2-0-bulb-pair.html

Keep in mind blue coatings reduce output and shorten bulb life. The higher color temp the lower the output in halogen. The one above is 4000k, which will look whiter on its own but won’t match the 3rd gen LED DRLs.

 

You must be referring to the headlight link in my signature which is for H4s, check out the H11 fog link which is what is used for headlights.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-foglight-upgrade-h11-not-led-or-hid.435419/

If you scroll down in there you’ll see it was updated earlier this year with H9s as testing indicated they were similar in output to the 90w H11s but the smaller coils will provide better projection. The H9s do not require a harness but further gains can be had by using one.

 

Yeah... Unfortunately thats what I thought I remembered.... would love to have a bit more output, but want the lights to match the DRLs.

Thanks.

 

I second this. The XD LEDs were great quality and very bright - perhaps would work better in high beams but I'm not unhappy with high beam projection at all...it was low beams I wanted to address. While the LEDs were certainly bright for the area immediately in front of the truck, I lost throw and peripheral (scatter) light along the sides, so bad I was turning blindly in the dark on any sharp turns where a halogen would have thrown more light to the sides. I swapped for a set of Philips bulbs that are rated +100% over stock, and I can certainly tell the difference - especially peripherally and the hotspot / throw that gets you far more distance w/o blinding oncoming drivers. Based on @crashnburn80 recommendation I've also ordered a set of the GEs he recommended. If those are even greater improvement I'll be happy!

 

I've put the

$36 Philips H11 CrystalVision Ultra Upgraded Bright White Headlight Bulb, 2 Pack

Philips H11 X-tremevision +100 bulbs in and they're a massive improvement over the stock Osram Long Life bulbs. I have also done the Philips H9 modification - and you not only have to grind out the plug but also grind the upper mounting tab as well or the H9 will not fully seat and it will be partially turned in the Tacoma projector. Using a Minolta Flashmeter 6, the and and H9 in one and H11 in the other, the two bulbs are within a tenth of an f/stop between each other measuring across all parts of the beam pattern. There is literally no visible difference between the two. Much much easier to just order the Philips and be done with it. Color temp for both using the Sekonic C700 was 3417.

Living in the city, none of this really matters too much as there is so much ambient street lighting. Out on a dark highway there is nothing lacking at all with these lights and the Philips bulbs - assuming you haven't lost too much of your night vision due to age, which is a real thing that no one talks about.

 

The GE +130s were a nice improvement over the Osram Nightbreaker +100 that I compared them too. They actually also outperformed the Nightbreaker +150s, which I think was a bit overzealous on the blue coating proximity to the filament.

Good info. I was going to test those GE +130s compared to an H9 for a direct comparison. I used Osram H9s and they were able to fit into the 3rd gen headlights without trimming the outer mounting tab, though it is slightly tricky to fit as the tabs don't have the additional clearance to slide in like the H11. Could be the Philips tab is just a small amount wider.

The Sekonic C700 is pretty sweet, I seriously looked at purchasing one of those before deciding on an AsenseTek product designed for mobile for better data portability.

 

I'm not sure, but the Philips would only partially insert, or more precisely, insert but only partially turn to seat and lock. Trimming the tab, which I did with a Dremel, worked fine. I finally decided after 40 years as a photographer that I needed a good color meter, and since the old Minoltas can't do LEDs correctly, the Sekonic was it. I'm still learning it, and ironically don't really need it with digital capture, but I just wanted it. The graph they display of the output spectrum can be really telling especially when it comes to cheap LEDs, many of which have a nominal Kelvin rating, but are missing huge chunks of the color spectrum. Daylight and tungsten are pretty much linear with no gaps and the obviously gradual drop in intensity toward the blue end with the tungsten.

What is most interesting is that the

$36 Philips H11 CrystalVision Ultra Upgraded Bright White Headlight Bulb, 2 Pack

Philips H11 at 55 watts produces the same amount of light as the 65 watt H9. All from a more tightly wound filament.

 

H11 GE Megalight +130 left vs H9 Volsa right


Lux pattern readings:
Hotspot: GE 984 vs vs Volsa 784
Mid-beam GE Mid-400s vs Volsa mid-high 300s
Low-beam GE ~180s vs Volsa ~high 190s

Color: GE 3500k vs Volsa 3200k

Volsa H9 left vs GE H11 right


You can see the Volsa consumes ~67w and the GE ~56w.

Bumping voltage by 0.4v to 13.6 to simulate gains using a standalone harness results in the GE hot spot intensity pushed to 1142 lux, which is about a 16% gain in output.

I see no reason to run an H9 when a stock wattage high performance plug and play halogen produces significantly more distance projection intensity, and mid range intensity. While the H9s do better in short range the difference is minor and vastly outweighed by the gains in projection compared to a performance halogen.

 

Full digital spectrometers with spectrum display are quiet illuminating. I purchased mine solely for lighting threads and self education, I also didn't need it but wanted it and thought it would be helpful to communicate concepts. Some LEDs can have pretty bad gaps in the spectrum continually. Interestingly the same is not true for high quality residential LEDs, the automotive ones are just that bad. And if you take a reading from HID or CFL it is quite interesting by comparison.

 

Is there any noticeable difference with a Halogen with 4000k output vs. 4700k output in a Halogen upgrade? Price difference is like $25...

 

There are no legitimate halogens with either a 4000K or 4700K color temperature. You need to have a blue coating over the bulb in order for that to happen and all that does is drop your luminance, which is the opposite of what you're after. The native color temp for most halogen headlight bulbs is right around 3400 Kelvin. Don't fall for crappy advertising claims.

 

Morimoto HID kit from the retrofit source and done! Best upgrade to headlights.

 

As mentioned above halogen coated bulbs reduce output, the higher the color temp, the darker the coating, the lower the output.

 

Has anybody had any issues ordering from this site? I ordered these from your link (also used a 25% off coupon that popped up on the site), I was on my iPhone and didn't receive any confirmation after I submitted it. Noticed my card was charged, but also never received any email regarding the order either.

I just emailed the company for assistance, just curious if anyone has had any issues.

 

I’ve ordered from the sites several times and always had excellent service. They provided order confirmations and shipping confirmations with tracking via email. Desite being in the UK shipping was always pretty quick too.

 

Awesome, I think it was just a glitch or maybe I fat fingered my email address. I shouldn’t have used a guest account.

I did get an auto response when I emailed them yesterday so I’m sure I’ll get it resolved tomorrow during business hours.

Thank you for the recommendation I look forward to the improvement.

 

I found it easier to just order from the same seller via eBay. Seller name is metrodirect. Price for the same item on eBay from this seller is already discounted at the time I ordered. No need for coupon.

 

Got the GE +130 in last week and put them in. They are certainly brighter than the Philips +100 and have a whiter color tone and perhaps slightly better throw, but I'm going back to the Philips. Great lights, but the whiter tone gets more washed out in city driving / rain than the yellower tone of the upgraded Philips halogens. I think what all this tinkering with lights has taught me is my eyes prefer a bright/yellow tone. The wavelengths seem to scatter better without as abrupt cutoff and cut through rain better than the whiter tones. Still learned a lot from your posts - enough that I'm not putting LEDs or HIDs in the projectors made for halogens

 

I haven't measured the color temp of the Philips +100s, but the GEs are definitely a bit whiter than most at 3500k. If you are not happy with them, I'll trade you a virtually new pack of Osram Nightbreaker Silver +100s (which are the competing bulb to Philips +100s) for the GEs.
https://www.powerbulbs.com/us/product/osram-night-breaker-silver-h11-twin