Time to determine if a headlight upgrade needs to be done

Well I made the commitment to my bumper. I went with the C4 overland almost no cut bumper full hoops. As you can see I need to replace my headlight because of a dam bird. I have no right turn signal right now. I figure I need to make the call now if I upgrade to headlights. I would not really want to remove a bumper just to replace the headlights later.

I do some off road, but not a lot. I truly do a lot of highway so quality lighting is key. I need the highs and lows to be bright with good lighting. I need to see the deer, moose, and dam birds as best as possible. I have a 30” rough county light for the front. I just ordered the bumper. I have a few weeks to decide if I just go with stock and replace the one, or do both and upgrade. I do like the look of the TRD pro light but really are they truly better. The Tacoma beast look nice as well. Top quality lighting is more important then looks. If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated.

Side note also getting 5.29 gear installed at the same time made that call at the same time.

 

The lights should provide adequate illumination at legal speeds, especially in traffic.

For non traffic conditions, your auxiliary lighting should fill in your game spotting and other obstacles just fine.

 

the last post gave you little info, typical on TW,

check out @crashnburn80 thread on headlight upgrades WITHOUT resorting to the damn HID/LED illegal drop in kits.

As far as housings, stay away from aftermarket, bad optics, poor construction, and less resilience to impacts.

 

I run LED lamp units in my factory housings and I am very happy with the clear, bright output. The factory projector low beams with LEDs do not cause any blinding for oncoming traffic.

 

Hit up @no vtec 4me and upgrade your projectors. Worth it.

 

For halogens your OEM assemblies will be best. Definitely avoid Tacoma Beast or other cheap aftermarket assemblies, they will perform much worse than stock and tend to leak. The TRD pro halogen assemblies offer no performance improvement, it is cosmetic only. As far as assemblies go, I’d only consider the following 4 options:

1) OEM
2) OEM LED
3) Morimoto XB LED
4) Retrofit with quality components
Note quality components means not getting cheap projectors like Morimoto H1s. Get real quality D2S projectors so you can run a legit German OEM HID bulb, and not cheap China HIDs you are limited to with H1. Best projectors will be OEM like the Lexus RX350.

 

2020 led headlights.

 

German OEM? My interest is piqued!

 

The quality HIDs used by OEMs are German, Osram or Philips.

They are far higher quality and higher performance than the Chinese junk. Like Osrams D2S +200 NightBreaker Laser Xenarc:
https://www.powerbulbs.com/us/product/osram-xenarc-night-breaker-laser-d2s-twin

Using an D2S projector will allow using the best OEM grade German made bulbs like above, and you can pair with a real German or Japanese OEM ballast. You will be able to use the best performing and highest quality components on the market.

If you buy the cheap H1 HID projectors as are popular with brands like Morimoto, there is no legitimate H1 HID bulb, no major brands make one because that bulb does not exist in the automotive supply chain. Meaning you are limited to lower quality Chinese manufactures.

 

At first I thought u were saying German was the brand haha. So D2S is the bulb socket standard?

 

Correct, there are a few legitimate bulb bases, all in the DxS nomenclature for a projector. D2S seems to be the most popular for retrofits.

 

I just pm'd ya

 

thanks for the input. I am trying to digest my breakfast while reading your long write up on HID and LED vs old school upgrades. Don’t know if it is the overload of useful info or my breakfast that is better.

 

Note that covers the OEM H11 projector housing and does not cover retrofits. Also be sure to look at post #2 for further halogen testing, and #3 for further LED testing. The only LEDs worth noting are the Morimoto XB assemblies or the Hikari Ultra replacement LEDs (still not as good as performance halogen).

 

Your picture looks like an obscure metal bands album cover.
What year is your Taco? The new pro ones do look nice. Get them if you like them!

 

Nailed it.

 

Thanks for all the work you did it that thread. Awesome to see. I plan to blackout my headlights once it gets warm again around here. I'll be adding in LED fogs also (likely pro ones) so want my headlights to match.

I satisfied with the brightness of my stock lights so only changing bulbs to match the fogs. When I have the lights open is it worth it for me to change the projectors? Or if I'm happy with my stock output I should be also be happy with Hikari LEDs I assume? Rather not spend the time/money if I don't need to. But also if I have the lights open already it's the perfect time and don't plan to do this twice.

 

2020 off-road. Bought it Nov 30 put a hole in the bumper and broke the head light dec 31.

 

Any insurance help with it? As for the lighting housing, stick with what you have if you're just looking for performance, and change it out with a good bulb. I went cheap on my LED bulb for the projector lens, and so far it has been a good piece of gear. No need in spending $150+ on a bulb, though I'm sure there will be some naysayers.

I think God wants you to change your bumper to a damage multiplier

 

I claim copy right from that band.