BHLM take 2 - Bi-LED retrofits, amber DRLs and cleanup

Looks great. I wish those amber drl’s would have been available when I did my retrofits. I really like how they look.

 

Thanks! They look pretty mean with the black headlights.

 

Looks great. Amber DRL’s are the way to go. Cool that DD finally came out with a dedicated board for that. I remember desoldering all the OEM white chips and resoldering 1w 5050’s on lol

 

I would do this mod purely for the orange DRL. Super cool.

Are the orange drl pretty difficult to install?

 

Here's the finale of the mod. I love all of it.





Look at that damn cutoff. Zero glare either. Amazing.



High beams

 

Excellent work man! Had a retrofit done similar to yours and it was very worthwhile. Amber DRLs are the way.

 

Getting the headlights open is a chore. This is an advanced task because of the permaseal adhesive Toyota uses. I would only attempt this if my taco wasn't my daily driver and could sit for days to do this right or if I had a spare set of headlights. These guys that retrofit earn every penny. Opening and cleaning the headlights sucks and you have to be slow and meticulous and there are a hundred ways to screw it up.

I know I could offer retro services with practice as a side hustle, and there's no way I every would.

 

I bought a extra set of stock headlights to do my retrofit on. I'm thinking I might try these with my original ones off my truck. How do these LEDs compare to HIDs with the distance of the light?

Did you reuse the stock projector mount that you trimmed for the HID retrofit? If you had a fresh set would you still have to trim that bottom section for the led projectors?

 

Looks awesome, I'm contemplating whether I want to upgrade to the BiLed or just keep the stock halogens for now. Did you use a splitter to have dual high-beams or do you just keep the bulb in the bucket to seal it?

 

Do it, go bi-xenon or bi-LED. I went bi-Xenon and couldn't be happier. You need an H11>9006 splitter for the high beams, really easy to do.

 

If you want your stock high beams + the bi-led function it’s a H11>H11/9006 splitter.

 

I stand corrected, I was going based on aftermarket high beams. Why would anyone keep their halogen high beam?

 

This. The Bi-Xenon or Bi-LEDs completely mitigate the need for high beams; you won't even see the stock high beams over the Bi-Xenon/LED.

 

I was talking about adding an aftermarket high beam, completely unnecessary with a bi-xenon/led retrofit...but you might as well go big. Can't wait to get my Profile High Lens 2.0 retrofit done.

 

Oh I totally forgot one more thing I did, I added three of the 'smoked' raptor lights to the 2020 TRD grille. I did it with brute force. Ordered the smoked raptor lights (Amazon I think) and dremeled the lights and the grille and the grille mount until it all fit and then I glued it like a savage. Looks terrible from the back, but GREAT from the front.

The amber DRLs + amber raptor lights looks amazing. I get asked about these headlights more than any other mods on the truck.

 

because the bowl reflects light in a more dispersed area than a projector does. It is spread over a wider area and more uniform all around where the projectors focus the light. I kept my stock high beams on my retrofit and there is a noticeable (negative) difference without them.

 

Hmmm, that doesn't reflect my experience with these Bi-LEDs. I understand that the high beams sends light all over with the chrome reflector, probably more spread than the focused retrofit lenses, but I don't feel going with the Bi-LEDs alone was a downgrade. When those shields go up, light goes everywhere.

 

Pics of the difference would help.

 

Exactly, adding a dedicated projector high beam to the mix would allow you to blackout the high beam reflector bowl as well. If you still felt a need to have separate high beams. I would take this set up over retaining halogen high beams any day.

 

As from this picture, the Bi-LEDs with the shield lifted (high beam) send light everywhere. This is only at 25' for aiming. On the road, the light spread is pretty amazing. I would go so far as to say that the high beams are brighter the 30" lightbar I have in the bumper. I can turn on the lightbar and barely see a difference from the high beams.