Hey Connecticut, our backs hurt

Morning Connecticut

 

Morning everyone.

Happy Friday eve.

 

Happy Thursday...


Guys its not even close....

 

That's a very generous offer Harry...thank you...but there is no way I'm having you drive an hour to our house on your birthday weekend.

 

We need the story here...

 

Sorry...

This is an Ama zon special. Ordered window visors. They come in a vacuum sealed piece of cardboard so they are not that big. These jokers used this big as box for that. luckily nothing cracked or got banged up but I mean come on!

 

My wife orders a lot of small stuff from Amazon, for her classroom since she's a teacher.

I've seen that same sort of stupidity... small things in a big ass box for no reason.

Gotta love it. LOL

 

Simple, Amazon is run by cats who just want more boxes in each house to play with.

 

Every time my wife has ordered the cats a toy or whatever they 100% prefer the box it came in lol

 

Oh mine like both. I can't bring a box in the house without it being here at least 2 weeks.

 

Yep, I'm not allowed to touch it for at least a week, "it's hers leave it alone"

 

Hi Connecticut! Has anyone here replaced their headlights with AlphaRex lights? Or any non OEM lights.
I'm thinking of replacing mine as they are getting cloudy and buffing no longer seems to work and I'd love to upgrade but I don't wish to open a can of worms.
Looking to remove and replace with no wiring challenges (after 5 years I still have not wired in my raptor style grille lights). Your feedback would be very appreciated.

 

Replacing headlights with non OEM typically results in less than desirable results. Aftermarket lights are designed mainly for looks but output performance is poor. I learned the hard way on a non Toyota vehicle and have read the same complaints here time after time. Your best performing headlights will be OEM. Here’s a link to a good thread on the subject: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

@crashnburn80 - any additional input?

 

From my understanding the argument can be made for the non LED factory stuff but if you have the factory LED anything I 100% wouldn't waste the money on headlights. $1000+ just to get less - at best- the same output is silly. IMHO Taillights are different story but headlights I wouldn't tinker with unless you don't care about function/performance over looks.

 

AlphaRex will be a massive downgrade from OEM. The lights are well documented to have terrible optical design that dumps large amounts of short range foreground light and complete loss of distance light. Looks impressive driving around the city but completely worthless as a headlight and is not a legitimate headlight product. AlphaRex isn't even a manufacture, they are just flipping cheap low quality Chinese lights that have been white labeled at big markups to to unsuspecting American buyers that don't know any better.

The OEM 2nd Gen assemblies are excellent headlights. Reflectors are the highest performing type of light projection technology, and large reflectors are more performant than small ones. The 2nd Gen has massive reflectors. Anything you purchase aftermarket will be a downgrade from what the 2nd Gen assemblies are capable of. The wiring harness mentioned in the thread linked above. Simply plug it into your headlights, the battery and the OEM headlight plug for use with high power bulbs that deliver unrivaled results. Alternatively there are some great bulbs that will deliver excellent output without wiring upgrades, like the Philips Racing Vision +200s.

If your headlights are no longer salvageable via refinishing, then replacing with new OEM units would be best. Note that when refinishing headlights, you need to coat them with a UV stabilizer, otherwise they will rapidly degrade to worse condition before refinishing due to the removal of the UV protective coating.

 

Oh you have one? I have 3, and one is so big she might count for 2 by herself..

 

Also a follow up.....I bitched to Ama-zone about the shipping box being damaged.....got a 20% refund out of them....

 

Hello all!! Fall is around the corner and I'm going to be spraying Woolwax undercoating again! Let me know if we want to make a day of this and get some wrench time in too!

 

Happy Friday folks...you've made through another week...enjoy your weekend

 

I've been so far removed from the forum the past 2 weeks and no way will I go back to read everything, but I hope all have been well!

The missus and I changed up our roadtrip last minute and went to the Adirondacks, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Watkins Glen, then back home instead of our trip to Arkansas. That trip has been moved to late October due to the heat down south. I barely have any photos (typical of me on trips to constantly forget to take more), but here is one of a kick ass camp site we picked up at Wellesley Island State Park in NY, just on the border of Ontario on the St. Lawrence river. I am shocked we got it, right on the water, beautiful sunset from the hammock.

The tacoma did great on the 1300 mile trip, averaged around 20mpg which I still the only thing I do not love about truck life. Camping out of the truck kind of stunk since we are more used to the rav4 where we just roll up, unfold the bed, and we are set up. I need to get my bed pop up camper built!