Automotive Lighting 101

You can add some auxiliary driving lights, but you have to be very careful with what pattern you get. There are some street legal driving pattern lights available, out there, but most of them are not SAE compliant. So beam pattern / discipline is all over the map. Some are good and some suck. Secondly, a true SAE driving beam is not legal to use with your low beams. (Only with your high beams.)

The beauty of the Ultimate Headlight Upgrade is that you utilize the optics of your OEM headlights which are actually pretty good. You just get more light in the same pattern. And - if aimed properly to factory specs - you won't bother anybody with your low beams.

The first question you need to think about and answer is where do you need more light and when.

 

If you're looking for more light immediately in front of and out to the sides of your truck, you might want to consider changing your fog lights over to something better - but still approved for on-road use. Our resident lighting expert (@crashnburn80) got some great pics of some of the best (selective yellow) SAE compliant fogs in the attached thread. He and I have the same Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro fogs in our trucks and it would be hard to ask for better lighting.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/page-142

If you want better distance lighting, we can talk about that too. Just remember that you shouldn't combine the two because it will mess with your eyesight. You want to use fog pattern lights and driving pattern lights separately. In fact that's part of the reason why your factory fogs shut off when you engage your high beams.

 

I'm definitely most disappointed with the high beam performance. Per your recommendation, I'll start with the ultimate headlight upgrade that you referenced and see how I like it. If I want a little more then I'll look in to some auxiliary lights.

I'll probably plan to do the fog light upgrade whenever my current fogs burn out.

 

If you want my honest opinion, ditch the LED bulbs and go back to stock incandescent bulbs. Not only will your problem go away, but you won't need to hack resistors into your wiring harness - which just causes further problems down the road.

 

Thought I’d try to revive this thread and ask a question I asked in the Fog light thread so it doesn’t get too far off track.

Trying to help my buddy with headlights his hot rod project. He wants to do a vertical style headlight behind the grill or outside of the radiator shroud. The car won’t be driven much on the open road in the dark. Mostly in town at night or long drives are during the day. I don’t know of any light bars that would offer a usable beam pattern mounted vertically to match his idea perfectly or even close.

I’m open to ideas too. I tried offering to build him something small and discrete using 2.5” or 3” projectors and building a custom housing weatherproof them, which I would do for cost since it would just be a fun build and I like helping out my close friends. Heck maybe it would be a gift. I also showed him other options like the Morimoto Sealed beams so it would keep the classic look. But he seems set on this idea of vertical style headlights behind the grill. On the Fog light page we discussed using SS3 Fog light or HXB Fog lights as a low beam. While it certainly isn’t ideal and doesn’t offer a high beam, it would be absolutely better than the 6” Amazon flood light bars he currently has. Not just for him, but for others on the road too. His budget isn’t huge, so $500+ setups are off the table.

The car isn’t done yet and he is pretty set on trying the Amazon light bar setup. So I’m kinda waiting for him to drive it to find out for himself how bad the light output is and how often he gets flashed, then hopefully he’ll take some advice. Lol

(His car) Here is his setup before he tore it down.



(NOT His car, just an example) This is what he’s going for. I think there’s some leeway here for design, but overall his goal is something like this or something very discrete. If he wants vertical running lights like this, I can build or find a running light housing similar to this just for appearance. I think it’d be cool to use a projector and put them in some old oil cans for the housing to give it some old school flare.

 

Since you asked, I'll offer my opinions here. First, neat car. Second, although I think I understand what your friend is looking for with the vertical arrangement, I highly doubt he's going to find an LED light bar designed to be run vertically. I can also virtually guarantee that he's not going to find anything both street legal and capable of putting out any kind of usable light. If he runs anything off the shelf (or the internet), he's going to piss off oncoming drivers to no end with obnoxious glare and his weaving back and forth because he can't see where he's going. As you've already stated, his best bet is going to be some kind of projector retrofit.

As a side note, I've been a hot rod enthusiast for most of my life. That said, I (personally) think a more traditional looking set of headlights will provide him with much better lighting and a look that will never go out of style. Those vertical lights? They'll be out of style by next year - if not sooner.

 

I edited it a little. The yellow car is his (not yellow now) and the other one is just an example he sent me.

I know what you're saying 100%. I can normally find some off the wall stuff because I'm a research fiend! But there isn't really anything out there. The only OEM vertical style light that I could think of is the newer Cadillac Escalades... But those aren't cheap and they are HUGE! Hard to believe that those headlights are only a few inches shorter than the whole grill on this thing! lol If they were cheaper, I think taking them apart and making a smaller housing would potentially work, but again the size is the issue too. He isn't going full on high end show car, but it won't be a rat rod either. Just a good driver that still looks nice.

I agree with you, I prefer a more classic design and would likely go with Retrobrights or build a retrofit like I described. But hot rodders don't always make decisions on what's functional, just if it looks cool....at least in their eyes. Personally, I think function can create great designs and I tend to think stuff like the second picture just look tacky. Plus I know not everyone considers decent lighting. Most people don't even know what good forward lighting even looks like.

If you come across anything though, I am all ears!!

 

Probably best to try and find a set of late 00's escalade LED headlights. They were a multi optic arrangement stacked vertically. I would almost guarantee that the housing itself is very wide and deep behind the front grille/fender area, plus I have no clue if it might be body unit controlled as some sort of anti-theft feature

 

Good point! I'll have to look into those. I don't know if those were controlled by a module internally or by the BCM.

I searched on some headlight facebook pages I am on and thought about "Jewel Eye" headlights. I know people have taken the Acura ones and separated the high beam projectors from the low beam ones, but I don't know if they can all be separated individually? I'm going to have to do some more digging. I did find some chinese made projectors that are called "matrix projectors" that are about 1.5" but they are pretty spendy for not knowing if they are any good.

 

Here is what I would suggest. If he wants that vertical light bar look, do it. But not for headlights. Nobody is going to see how 'cool' it looks at night with vertical headlights, and there are no vertical headlight products like that on the market without building something completely custom or trying to adapt some multi/many-projector units off a production vehicle, and most of those units are much larger than they may seem. Instead, put DRL bars vertically like that which then double as switchback turn signals. There are slim products on the market for that purpose that would be very easy to use and look much better. Then you get the 'cool' vertical look that people can actually see during the day/evening (like the photo), with the addition of it seconding as a turn, arguably adding more cool factor. Keep the original round type lights for the headlights and swap them out to a standard round LED assembly, the options are near limitless for an actual proper headlight without having to hack something together. In that particular style build, I'd consider the Rigids/Trucklites for cosmetics, the blacked out reflectors look on point in the aggressive retro builds. Saw these on a 50s Ford truck retro build, and I couldn't have picked a better fitting product.

 

I agree with a switchback running light behind the grill in a vertical layout too. Plus there is more capability to customize a setup like that further for an even cooler look!

I have thought about getting those Trucklite's for my MR2 since they do look more like a traditional sealed beam than most do, though I do like the fluted lens of the Retrobright's too. I'd be curious if there is a considerable enough difference in output between the Trucklite and the Retrobright.

On classic cars I do prefer the fluted lens unless it's a completely custom and off the wall build. Call me old school but I think most LED sealed beams and retrofit headlights just look out of place and draw too much of the focus to the headlights instead of the car as a whole. I have seen some housings like the old BMW round headlights that are fluted with the center that is clear for the projector, but I don't know of anyone that makes them? I don't think I have seen a rectangle one of those either, just the round ones found in the bimmers.

 

Per -Virgil- post #9 over on candlepower (here: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/holley-retrobright-headlamps-good-bad-or-ugly.478539/ ) the retrobrights are not good.

As far as fluted lenses, I've seen fluted lenses/covers for various 911 models to try and keep a more retro/period look intact.

 

Great linked content.

 

Way too much reading I admit, my question what's the best headlight bulb replacements? I have 2018 SR5, the fog lites are white but my headlines are kinda yellow, any suggestions appreciated.

Be safe

 

I would replace your low beam H11 with an H9. You would have to trim a tab on it to make it fit.

 

Here you go:

3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights | Tacoma World

 

I got some Sylvanias today