LED HIGH BEAMS

Question I drive my tacoma 2017 trd offroad as a daily driver and its on back country roads,deer everwere. im wanting to change headlight bulbs to led my resarch shows the s-v,4 to be what i think i need or want, but for now because of budget. im thinking of only doing high beams those alone are like 160 bucks, then mabe later doing low beams and fogs later, any thoughts or other ideas ??

 

Some LED's don't get hot enough to melt snow when driving in a snowstorm. If you live down south it probably wont matter.

 

Welcome to the forum. See the link above, specifically post #3 in that thread for lots of LED testing. Most LEDs don't project as far as stock, they provide more foreground light and less distance light, which while it looks very impressive initially that is bad in a headlight. The only 2 recommended LEDs are the Hikari Ultra and Morimoto 2stroke 3.0s. Don't put LEDs in your stock fogs, you end up with poor performance and blinding glare. This thread below covers LED fog upgrades, which require replacing the assembly with an LED one. The SS3s are the current market leader:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

 

More light does not help with deer. Deer strikes happen as much in daylight as dark. If you want different lights just ask and dont try to justify it by deer.

 

Helps me see them on the side of road in the brush and trees, on my winding roads late at night, But thanks for your opinion..

 

Deer are most active from Dusk until around 9 PM or so. Another option might be ditch lights. The would help illuminate the sides of the road better.

 

Oh, and I suppose I might be able to interject an opinion on the Hikaris. I have them in both my low and high beams. The low beams are definitely a big improvement over stock. The high beams, not so much. While I wouldn't say they are worse, they are marginally better at best. I bet @crashnburn80 has a good recommendation for high beams that might be more budget friendly to try first.

 

Good lights are not cheap, and cheap lights are not good.

My old blotchy, hot, 100w 6” aircraft landing lights saved my butt more than once back in the day spotting and avoiding moose, elk, and caribou standing in the dark road. They also melted harnesses, fused relays, and beat the crap out of my alternator when they were all lit up.

These days there are some really nice led driving lights out there. I’ve got a bit of a BajaDesigns habit, not Meso levels, but still enough to avoid highways and stay on the backroads with my lights on. It blows me away every time I flip the switch and they light everything up.

 

for high beams, you already have the best in your truck = H9
and the best part, they're free, since they already come in the stock truck

if you want a different beam focus to see elsewhere, dedicated lights are best

 

If you really need brightness than looks, I would go Hid kits. Nowadays is really cheap and much brighter than oem or led bulbs.

 

Is there a better performing H9 though? I ask as someone who is ignorant on those. I know the stock ones are pretty good, but there isn’t an upgrade?

 

HIDs are best in a fully designed housing/lens retrofit = not necessarily cheap

 

the OEM high beam H9 halogens are as good as it gets (for the OEM halogen based housings)

 

Good to know, thanks

 

Xentec H11 (H8/H9) 6000K HID Xenon Bulb with 35W SLBDC Slim Ballast Bundle (Ultra White)

https://www.amazon.com/Xentec-H11-bundle-CANBUS-Ballast/dp/B07FTP9XT6/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=h11+hid+headlights&qid=1612855759&sr=8-4

This type hid will works fine. The hid bulbs dimension same as halogens bulb. Unlike led bulbs size may varies.

I’m running with Philip slivervison halogen bulb. It’s much brighter than stock.
Hid is not good for high beam, because it’s take some time to warm up.

 

HID bulbs in our halogen housings create unsuitable glare due to the uplight design of the OEM housing (without a proper HID projector retrofit such as the RX350)

model number?

agreed, HID bulbs should not be used in our high beams

 

Hid bulb design/dimensions should be same as halogen bulbs. The 3rd gen Tacoma low beam has projector housing, the glare should be at minimum compared to reflector housing.
Good design led bulb will be better than hid, however it will be expensive.

 

You are correct, the dimension of HID bulb emission source similar to halogen
however
there is uplight (for signage illumination) built into our OEM halogen housings
HID is brighter, yes
but it also results in unacceptable uplight in our housings resulting in glare for oncoming traffic due to the design

HIDs should be done in a properly designed HID specific projector retrofit

 

if you need that much light, put a 32" light bar in the slot above the bumper, below the grille...

I have a 32" bar installed there, and a bar in my hood scoop grille (Sport model).
VIOLA! let there be light. Ski