3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

I’m gonna stay halogen on fogs, maybe go for a cheap yellow halogen and somewhere down the line upgrade to a good aftermarket that works well. LED in fogs defeats the entire purpose of fog lights from what I understand.

 

Sheesh. Everything is fake these days!

 

It all started with fake butter. ​

 

@crashnburn80 first off let me thank you once again for the work you have put into this thread. My 54 year old eyes are enjoying the extra light the H9 low beam mod puts out.

I’m following several of your light threads and know I read in one of them about street legal driving beams, Hella 500/700 I believe. I like the idea of the driving lights to assist with the height beams on dark secondary roads and trails when arriving in camp after dark. The lamps will be mounted behind the grill on my 3rd gen as I don’t have a bull bar to mount them in front of the grill. Do you think this would cause shadows and a significant loss of light from the grill pattern? If so, any suggestions on how to mount them to the factory front bumper? Thanks in advance!

 

I like the below bar better than the Hella 500s/700s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HvJwmXv54M

Weighs a little over a pound, 14 inches long, very easy to mount anywhere. I mounted it with sheet metal screws into a plastic bumper cover, drove 10,000 miles, didn't even loosen one bit.

This is the Hella 350, and it has a peak intensity of about 60,000 candela in the driving beam version. It is about the same as having a third stock high-beam lamp. There is a longer one with more output called the Hella 470.

 

That’s a pretty nice solution, I’ll add that to my list. I’m not sure it would be street legal in the US with only the ECE approval. I’m trying to stay on the legal options since I will be using them on the road when possible.

 

Crashnburn80 needs to start an auxiliary highbeam and offroad driving lights thread, haha. I sent him a LED Cibie Super Oscar to test a few weeks ago. Others should try and do the same. As he pointed out in the fog lamps thread, these lights add up the $$$ quickly, and not all lamps are returnable (and even when they are you lose out on shipping). He hasnt posted an update but I assume he is still working through his issues with his testing equipment from a few weeks back.

Theres a ton of auxiliary lighting options out there, and good reviews with basic comparison information are extremely hard to come by. These couple of threads are the best 1:1 comparisons I've come across on the web. Its hard to justify dropping the dosh when you arent sure what you'll be getting (and again, even if its returnable, you're out the time and shipping).

 

This site has pretty nice pictures of various driving lamps. Pictures aren't objective measurement, but boy, are they nice to look at! The second mannequin below is 100 meters away from the lamps, and every mannequin after is another 100 meters away. The range is over 900 meters (0.56 miles) on this particular Hella xenon driving lamp, and this is with a standard HID bulb. I would love to know how it performs with, say, a Philips XtremeVision +150% HID bulb, or a Osram Nightbreaker Laser +200% HID bulb.








https://www.off-road-light.ru/svetovoy-tunnel/luminator/luminator-led-dalniy-svet-ref-40-ff-led/

Granted, most, if not all of the products here only have ECE approval. That being said, I never had an issue with running a light that only has ECE approval. My state has no vehicle inspections, nor do the cops particularly care about auxiliary lights. I've seen plenty of people running with blinding light bars on during the day....I'm guessing they leave them on because cops DGAF.

 

The SAE J581 street legal driving light thread is one I hope to complete and post soon, I currently have more projects than time.

For my SAE J581 driving lights I selected the KC Pro6 LED driving lights, these have a peak intensity of 131,000 candela a piece in the driving beam pattern and are a 5000k light. For the Hella 500/700 halogen lights I was just pointing out one does not need to buy expensive LED lights to add aux J581 SAE driving lights as there are more affordable halogen options available.

I will mount my lights behind the grill as well. You will suffer some losses due to obstruction, how significant depends on the grill and the light. I've had a custom grill manufactured that has larger voids to minimize obstruction though there still will be some, I'll test and share loss values from behind the grill vs unobstructed in the thread. BAMF makes a behind the grill light mount for the Tacoma, which is what I will be using:
http://bayareametalfab.3dcartstores.com/Tacoma-Behind-The-Grille-Light-Bar-bracket-05-to-20_p_9.html

See post #2177 in this thread for some teaser info.

 

If wanting an similar SAE compliant light bar, you might check out Diode Dynamics SAE J581 light bars:
https://www.diodedynamics.com/stage-series-12-sae-dot-white-light-bar-pair.html

Working on the J581 thread soon. The testing equipment issues have been extremely frustrating and royally pissed me off and I am getting no support from the manufacture or the new owners after their buy out, but I have come up with a temporary and highly inconvenient work around to use if I must.

 

I had my first opportunity to see the LED performance (or lack thereof) in pretty terrible conditions. Omaha just had some nice freezing rain, and my Hikari Ultra LEDs didn't stand a chance. Here's what my low beams look like compared to the stock fogs after a day of city commuting.

The first is with the lights on so you can see where the beam hits the lens. The second is lights off so you can see the ice built up. The last is the fog so you can see how the halogen was able to keep the lens thawed. The Fog just has a bunch of salt on it whereas the LED low beam is completely iced over.

 

Update on the icy lenses: I turned my high beams on this morning with the stock bulb while the truck warmed up. The ice melted and the lenes were quite warm to the touch by the time i left for work. Unfortunately, the halogen bulbs didn't help clear the thick coating of dried beat juice and salt brine.

 

Did a quick stroll through the thread didn’t see this question.... anyone have and idea why my radio goes out with leds?? (from @ToyotaProShop ) trying to figure what’s causing it after about fifteen a minutes or driving. Was thinking of maybe updating the antenna or maybe it’s just their using to much juice ...

 

Hmm . . . Beet juice and salt brine . . .
Sounds like the beginnings of a refreshing adult beverage !

 

Except that the OP is actually a lighting engineer FWIW.

 

Sounds like an EMI/RFI issue from the LEDs. Is it your headlights? Updating the antenna will do nothing to solve the radio issue related to running LEDs.

Nope. Studied Vehicle Design (powertrain, alternative fuels, chassis, materials) not vehicle lighting. Self taught in lighting.

 

Well, my bad, you should be!!!

 

If you are set on keeping the problematic LEDs, look up EMI clamp filters. They have solved issues for others though I don't have any specific models to recommend.

 

Thanks for the replies, I've added that BAMF bracket to my list of truck stuff. I remember the DD bar now that you linked the prior post, checking into it also. Hope you get the testing equipment issues worked out soon. Looking forward to the J581 thread!

 

Ordered the XV2 rebase: theretrofitsource.com/h11-xtr-hid-philips.html?preselect=55978

Using my ol trusty Morimoto 35w ballasts and a new H9 relay. Any "bulb out" error since nothing will be plugged into passenger headlight socket?

Retrofit to come in a few years, after truck is paid off.