Hidden Lightbar Worth It?

Missed the sale, oh well. This thing rocks!


I ordered the combo beam pattern but it sure is concentrated towards the center. I thought my Morimoto XBs were bright!

Interested in salvaging the shrouds though - what do I need to cut to get them to fit?

Does anyone know how hard it is to swap out the LED in the switch? I'd like the "ice blue" color rather than the dark blue. It doesn't match right now.

Just throwing it out there...

 

FWIW, Aironboard has a new blue that’s a pretty close match to the Toyota oem. Color is a good match but it’s just a little bit brighter.

 

Thank you, I'll take a look! I ordered ice blue color LEDs from Aliexpress, and took apart the switch:


Looks pretty straightforward. One 5mm LED and it should be good to go. Plan B if I screw up the switch is Aironboard.

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

The change-up was a success! "Ice Blue" is the color LED that you want. It is nearly an exact match to the cluster illumination and far better than the dark blue the switches come with.

I did both switches, my "LED Light Bar" one I got from Cali Raised and also my "Bat Light" switch from Aironboard. I chose to use the "Bat Light" one in my truck.

It's a pretty simple matter to de-solder the existing LED and replace it with another color. The difficulty is finding "Ice Blue" LEDs, apparently they aren't that common. I ordered a batch from Ali Express and I think they'll get here in October sometime. I did find one kit on Amazon that included the color, it's 5mm though instead of the 3mm the switch comes with.

5mm fits! The pictures don't do it justice but it's nearly a perfect color match. I chose to make the "on" LED white when you push the switch. Looks great when the bat logo lights up bright white!

The only down side is the 5mm LED is a bit too bright in relation to the other lights. I'll look into a bigger resistor in the future to make it a tad dimmer.

 

I have not noticed any light outpout issues with mine, but it's not the OEM grill either. It's an aluminum eBay grill kit that I had powder coated in black, and the mounting bracket behind the grill was a group buy from here over 10 years ago. There's plenty of room for my lights, so aming them in the right direction has not been an issue for me.

 

I put mine in the lower grill area on my 2nd gen. Worked really good but takes a beating.

 

If anyone is interested or doing research I went with the Cali Raised brackets and a 30” rough country dual row black series bar. The bar fits perfectly in the cali brackets. I didn’t want or could afford a really high end light but didn’t want a cheap Amazon one either. The rough country for me was right in the middle

 

I guess I never knew you could add heated seats after the fact. It makes sense, I just never knew it.

 

There are some decent kits out there and it can look pretty OEM, as long as you don’t know what the actual OEM system looks like, since no substitute for the dual climate control panel.

 

I have heated seats, but that's good to know there's an option!

 

I have the 3rd Gen lower grill Caliraised LED; I am very happy with the product, especially for the price. It does not bother me enough to put any effort into learning how to do it on my own, but if it had directions on how to wire the switch to the interior lights would have been nice.

I debating on making a sheetmetal replacement for the plastic duct work removed during the installation.

 

That’s the only thing that is stopping me from ordering these I don’t want to remove the air dams or cut them up to install.

Somebody must make a bracket that does not require removing the air dams.

 

At some point, I may add a light bar to that area in mine. I’ll go with the diode dynamics kit. If it requires removing or cutting, I’ll look at 3D printing to prototype a mount, then have a shop fab it in metal.

 

I just looked these up and viewed the install video https://www.diodedynamics.com/2016-2020-toyota-tacoma-stealth-light-bar-kit.html
No need to remove or modify the Air Dams you solved my dilemma and gave me a new Covid project.
Thanks!

 

You bet!

FWIW, crashnburn is a big fan of their product design. I have a pair of rear facing 6” on my rack. I have a 32” waiting to go on the front of the rack. I’ve fab’d and printed some custom mounts that I now need to have machined. My auxiliary Bussman build is almost done. Another 32” in the grill might be overkill. And, I’m holding out for plans for either the OVTune turbo kit or the Magnuson SC. Might need some of that front radiator space.

All in the name of being prepared for the apocalypse. It’s a part time hobby.

 

For anyone else looking at this thread
Diode dynamics just happens to have a labour day sale going on, 15% off which is great timing for me.
That’s way more than the shipping to Canada off for me.
Now just need to decide on flood spot combo or just spot

 

Is that a single or double row light bar? Hard to tell from the pics.

 

I don’t have it yet I believe it’s a single row but bright and looks right imo
Hopefully @memario1214 will chime in