LED Lighting Conversion

My eyes are sensitive to light. More so than others I suspect. I think it is the result of working in near darkness for 4 years straight when I was fresh outta high school. For the past 30 years I've done computer work averaging 10 hours a day. As a result, I also wear glasses. At the end of a 14 hour day, these old eyes are tired.

The roads I drive on a daily basis at night, weekdays, form work to home are three types in this order. City, well lit, and a lot of oncoming traffic. Highway, lit, oncoming traffic is separated by wide median. Country, hilly two lane blacktop, no shoulders, no street lighting, moderat oncoming traffic, lot's of smaller moving obstacles.

I've been driving for 41 years (legally). I've driven a lot of different vehicles in that time with everything from halogen bulbs to HIDs to auto leveling Twin projector bi-LED headlamps. I've driven under a lot of varied circumstances over a lot the East Coast. Most people don't really drive a lot in a lifetime. I can honestly say I have. Being that each of us are so very unique it's actually quite possible that all the "standards" don't apply to everyone. For instance....I always drive with my fog lights on and feel there is less overall light without them. I also drive with my high beams on in the fog and snow simply because my eyes cannot see the reflected eyes of deer at a quarter mile in fog with the low beams. And yes, of course I have tested driving under these circumstances with every possible option. I do these things because they work for me. They might not be what works for others.

I still feel like the photographs that I saw showed me that the LEDs used to produce them would be ideal for all my driving situations. As soon as I can afford them I am buying them. When I eventually get my light bar and ditch lights, I will figure out a way to have them come on when I turn my high beams on too.

I'm not saying I'm an expert at anything, I just know what my eyes tell me. If I didn't know how different types of lights produced different results then I could see someone saying I don't have a clue, or that I'm an idiot but as it stands, not yet. And if anyone agrees to disagree, that is fine too. I am not trying to tell anyone what to do or not to do, or what they should or shouldn't buy.

I do however appreciate a good portion of the technical information. I still enjoy this thread.

Heck, I'll even go as far as saying that I have noticed the absence in the LED examples of the less illuminated rectangular area that floats above the concentrated beam area like the halogens have but to me, I just considered that a fair trade off for increased light at greater distances. What do I care what the text on the back of the box truck in front of me says at a red light. I know there might be a rebuttal stating that it provides more ambient light at longer distances in an open area, but, I however would and do use my high beams to supplement that missing/non essential feature.

Again, we are all different and each of us sees and perceives things differently.

In the end it should be as @ToyoDrew said, and what others have posted upon purchasing and reviewing their lights, what works best for them/you/me. Everything else is everything else.

 

How are the auxbeam fog lights working out?

 

Pretty disappointed to be honest.

 

I have heard the same thing. I read alot of reviews on it. I just wanted to hear it from an actual tacoma owner. Thank you

 

It is a poor design. At least the channels lock it into only one free range of motion vs some others that don't have channels where you have 2 free ranges of motion, being able to slide in and out. What I would do is remove the lights, use a sharpy and mark zero degrees on the LED fan housing assembly. When reinstalling, use your sharpy mark as a point of reference to be the center top point of the fan assembly, thus insuring your LED lights are oriented near correct in the housing. A much better design is one where the LEDs firmly lock into place with zero ranges of free motion so it is not possible to install them wrong.

Good thing you did not spend the money yet. Baja Designs does not make a pod acceptable for street use with the exception of high beam use scenarios. The wide cornering emits massive glare above the horizon and lacks the beam control to be used with oncoming traffic. Very high quality product, but not an acceptable beam pattern choice for someone wanting to use their pods on the street. Spot/focused, dispersed/wide, or combo are all not acceptable for street use for the same reasons, and spot beam mounted in a fog will not only provide massive glare but very little usable light for the location compared to other patterns. This is an example of why I was going to cover LED beam patterns as part of that thread, it isn't just the product but it is also the designed beam pattern that matters. The only LED pod/fog that is acceptable for street use is the SAE J583 fog pattern, which has clean cut offs and a wide well distributed uniform beam pattern and won't blind coming traffic. Most popular products known in this pattern are the Morimoto LED fog replacements and the Rigid LED SAE fog pods. But there are many more available, and several more powerful than either of those products. I'll try and remember to post a link, it is a little ways out yet.

While the LEDs in projectors clean up glare and have their own other performance issues, LEDs in a reflector like the fog emit massive glare and will fail to control and project the light correctly. If you want an easy conversion, with a uniform beam pattern with real effective light output that does not blind oncoming drivers, you should look at the Morimoto LED foglight assemblies. Since it is a complete LED assembly it is designed to work with the LED light source as a system giving it the optics to perform correctly.

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/assemblies/led-fog-lights/toyota-oval-morimoto-xb-led.html

 

Yes I can vouch for those Morimoto XB LED fog lights. Just installed a few days ago - they were an easy swap for the stock fogs. Added bonus is they look tinted during the daytime which I think is pretty cool.

 

Oops, yeah, meant Brake lights and turn signals...not reverse lights. edited previous post. thanks!

 

Excellent idea!

I've noticed a few people say that they angled their BD fogs down after installing them. Considering how bright they are, it made me think that they might have glare issues. Thanks for confirming it. Good thing about BD design is they can unscrew the front lens and change it without removing the fog housing from the mounts. So if BD ever comes out with a Tacoma specific lens that cuts off of the upward glare (to go with their Tacoma specific mounting brackets), then they could have a total winner!

Morimoto LED fogs seem to always get good reviews. Not only do they seem to perform well, they look good when off AND on. Love the tinted look of them.

 

I have looked through this thread but i havent found it. And i was just curious to the process. Its something i do want to do but i wanna do it right the first time as im doing it. All of us do. But as far as LED upgrades, i have just gotten the GTR lighting low beams and high beams from Headlight Revolution and later to today ima be installing it. Pictures will be posted soon.

 

Has anyone tried these out? Reviews are pretty good. Just wanting to get a second opinion...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01H6NZ7D8/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1519440938&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=led+headlight&dpPl=1&dpID=51eyTXd5FvL&ref=plSrch&th=1&psc=1

 

So, i ordered some high beams and low beam LED lights from Headlight Revolution and iam amazed on how bright they are! Look at them! You can see the progression of work through the photos. On the low beam photo and the high beam photo you can kinda see the difference of the stock light from the left and the upgrades on the right. I also plasti dip my front grille alice looks wayy better now

 

HID projectors for HIDs would be optimal of course, but the HID low beams in halogen projectors is far better than the regular halogen or LEDs in the low beams. You don't get that amazing cut off like you do with retrofitted projectors but it does a very good job without blinding anyone. I'm on 33's and lifted 2" and no one's flashed me before.

 

I recently received the Auxbeam F16 H11 LED bulbs (Amazon link - http://amzn.to/2s0HaAb) and decided to give them a try for my high beams as I am running 35W HID low beams already. Sorry for the giant photos; uploading straight from my phone.

They come nicely packaged and the construction seems solid.




The first pic is my HID low beams plus my amber halogen fogs.



HID low beams + Halogen high beams.



HID low beams + Auxbeam F16 LED high beams.



For fun - HID high low beams, LED high beams, LED 32" Light bar.



The LED bulbs seem to put out a lot more light in general. The sides of the houses and the bushes seem to be lit up more. The only thing I would say is that the throw is reduced just a bit in the back in the last row of trees. This is something I expected but have no need for super long throw since I am not driving on empty stretch of highway for miles but occasionally wooded roads with no street lights. If I really want to see far down the street I can always use my light bar. As for noise, the LED bulbs were quiet enough to where I could not hear them while I was inside the car with them on and the engine off. Outside of the truck you can definitely hear the fans but they are not loud.

Tl;dr - Great replacement high beam with negligibly less distance for more light all around.

@Parker315 @RobP62

 

Damn, I was sure there was at least one thread on here. Maybe just search Google. I would suspect the process is pretty much the same for all headlight assemblies.

So those LEDs you bought, are they the Ultra Series 3rd gens? I watched those HR vids on these. I actually asked early on in this thread about them. I like the warranty they come with. They're definitely impressive .

I hope you post up some pics from the drivers view inside the cab on a completely dark road.

 

Sorry, just saw this post. Thanks
Are you running the fogs in that last pic?

 

Got my Hikari 12k low beams this morning. Ordered Friday night and were inside my front door at 930 this morning. Truck and headlights are dirty but did install.

 

Can't wait to hear your review and see the night time pictures.

 

I'm looking at the houses and the Auxbeam LEDs definitely illuminate them all a lot more. So much so that not only are they more illuminated, the white temp light vs they warmer halogen makes it possible to tell that last brown house is actually either blue or greyish blue. That's incredible.

I'm looking too at how all the roof peaks become visible. I know some may say who cares about roof peaks but there are some areas I drive where the roads are cut into massive ridges and the terrain in those areas next to the road are sheer inclines that would be as high or higher than these houses. On numerous occasions the deer come down those ridges and literally jump onto the road to get to the wetlands on the other side. It's a tree covered cliff but they are sparse. My Lexus has a sophisticated led setup so I can see them and stop in time. In the truck thed halogens can't compete. I've had to swerve as they drop onto the road. Of course this is an area that unless there are opposing cars, my high beams are on the entire time. Deer are a serious problem in the county I live in. It's all corn, soy and horse farms.

Also, even without the fogs on in that picture there is more than enough usable light and the entire side view is illuminated much better. This would definitely provide a better experience for me out in the country. I'm sure it would make it a lot easier to see critters and wildlife.

Thanks for posting up the pics!

 

Let us know how they are at night? In curious to know how far it throws the light down the road.