Are These Headlights Legal?

I bought a 2009 TRD Offroad DBLCB last summer and have been gradually modifying it to my liking. So far I have added a new head unit, a new grill (the old one was chrome and slightly damaged), new taillights, and new headlights. Although I love the look of the headlights, especially with my new black grill, they are smoked, and came with warnings that I ignored (my initial thought was that the warnings were for California residents, making them "calillegal" as I like to call it).

My question is, are these headlights legal?

I live in Utah and have had these lights on for over a week and have passed several cops, both at night and in the day with no issues. My concern is that these lights are not a primary offense in Utah and that if I do get pulled over for another reason, the cop will also hit me for having these lights.

The only information online that I could find is that in Utah, the laws regarding smoked headlights are constantly changing. I would prefer to keep these headlights, but I am willing to change them to the non-smoked versions if you forum folks think I should (or if a cop says to). This is my daily driver and I frequently leave or go to work when it is dark.

So far I am loving my truck, and my plans include getting the Fox 2.0 coilovers, new rims (haven't decided on ones yet, preferably black without too much visual noise), and KO2's to replace my lousy all seasons so that I can take it all over the place this summer.

 

Today the issue is lights that are too bright, or poorly aimed or too many.

Not many LEO's have time to stop you because your lights are too dim.

 

Yeah, They look fine to me

 

I would say the primary issues with headlights today are (a) that they are poorly aimed (blinding oncoming traffic), (b) wrong type of bulb installed in a headlight housing (i.e. stuffing a LED bulb into a OEM halogen housing) where it doesn't have the correct cutouts, or (c) a extremely poor design and/or manufactured aftermarket headlight housing that throws a lot of light everywhere blinding oncoming traffic. Guess I could say the primary issue is that they blind oncoming traffic.

One thing I've also noticed is that some rude drivers seem to ignore dimming their lights when they see oncoming traffic, even on divided highways without trees separating the two lanes of traffic. That may have been slightly OK when headlights were much dimmer, but with today's very bright headlights, it's dangerous.

 

D.O.T. Law/FEDERAL vehicle code (which is the absolute)
States may adopt a stricter stand.

says NO tint or other color lenses/bulbs may be used for headlights,tail lights,signals,op lights... specific rules apply to emergency and construction vehicles for the use of such.

basically boiled down to “normal people” terms, smoked ARE illegal UNLESS they come from the FACTORY approved by DOT and all the Fed transportation departments that matter. There are a few cars that have tinted brake lamp lenses due to the high intensity LED set up they use, (I think Cadillac is one)
So as not to blind people.

you are right in that it is a sub section of a law that is applied AFTER you are already stopped. This would be the same as the lowered/lifted height requirements, width of wheels....

the biggest question is: “Why would anyone want to DECREASE the amount of light projected on the road?”

smoked lenses do just that,as do decals, those stupid front end masks the Jeeps use.

 

I agree with the previous poster - your lights likely don't conform to the FMVSS-108 standard for head lighting. Tinted lighting, appliques, too bright or too dim replacement bulbs or fixtures or other minor equipment violations, are like magnets for law enforcement, especially those focused on traffic enforcement (there is a difference). You wouldn't believe how many seemingly "innocent" traffic stops, for an equipment violation, result in arrests for drug and alcohol related offenses.

 

So are the lenses themselves smoked or does it just appear that way because the housing is black? It looks to me like you have a black housing and a clear lens because the DRL strip is nice and white, and I can see inside the blinker bowl and high beam fine.

I'm pretty sure those are perfectly legal and if a cop tries to pull you over for those, it better be because you put HIDs in the high beam reflector or something.

 

This

 

Those are just Tacoma Beast or spyder brand headlights. I can assure you that those will not exceed the light output of stocks but make sure to adjust those or you will end up with headlight output looking like this: