Looking For New Headlights

I have bought 3 different sets of headlights and housings but I just can’t seem to find a set I like.
I want a set of LED headlights, and would prefer to have black housings. Looking for extremely bright lights because I have dark windshield tint and dim lights don’t cut it in the rain.
Also I know I could always do a light bar in the bumper and have led pods as fog lights. But I would still like to find another set of headlights.
So please share your ideas.
The truck is a 2009 Tacoma

 

Do a proper retro fit to run HIDs. Do Not run LED or HIDs in stock halogen reflective housing the light output seems better. But it’s not and all reality you’re just throwing light everywhere and blinding on coming drivers

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/why-leds-should-not-be-run-in-halogen-reflectors.454371/

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

Not trying to cramp your style just trying to educate and I personally hate being blinded while driving. And this happens a lot on my island

 

Beat me to it was just going to post this too

 

If you haven't yet try re-aiming your headlights. With your lift the beam is probably going right in people's eyes and not on the road. Making the bro lean worse like you want will just make the lighting worse.

 

I didn’t put led or hid in stock housing I got new housings

 

The problem isn’t the aiming, it’s that the lights aren’t bright enough

 

Go into the sub forum lighting. There’s a lot of info in there. Also there’s a few vendors who do retro fitting maybe they can point you in the direction on what bulbs they use or would recommend.

 

Easiest way to go it’s to take the tint of your windshield. When you need they extra bright lights to see at night in the rain something is wrong. I understand it’s a show truck but you still drive it on the road right. There comes a time where safety over looks needs to be thought about. And running a light bar or ditch lights on a public road is illegal in most states.

 

Alright I may just say screw it and sell these housings and get custom made ones or atleast new ones then retro fit them

 

There’s a few vendors who can help you spend your money on awesome retrofits here. They would be in the vendor sub forums

 

Everything about my truck is illegal, tints to dark, too loud, to wide, and when I put the led pods and light bar on it, that’s just another illegal thing. Cause I’m going to use them as long as I’m not following behind someone or approaching another car

 

Regardless of marketing hype, I'd bet your "new housings" weren't designed to properly project LED light, which is why they "aren’t bright enough." Before you spend more money to be disappointed, strongly suggest you peruse the previously recommended Why LEDs should not be run in Halogen reflectors and The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID) threads. The info there will enable you to spend money once and be happy with the result.

 

simple solutions, buy a BMW 8 series, salvage the laser headlights, retrofit into some really cool looking Spyder housings. I’d bet money you’ll never have anyone slowing down your lane. and you can probably see everything happening 3 counties ahead of you.

 

I do not understand windshield tinting in a daily driven vehicle, this is an exercise in Darwinism in a vehicle that is driven at night.

For fun lets look at a little math. Hypothetically, lets say you tint your windshield at 18%. Why, I'm not sure why anyone would but I've seen several posts lately that are around this number, some a little higher and some a little lower. 18% meaning 18% of visible light will be transmitted though the windshield. The stock 9003 headlights are 910 lumens. Allowing only 18% transmission through the windshield means that you are effectively getting 164 lumens of output visible to the driver, a loss of 82%. Children's toy flashlights literally put out more light than that, and they are not barreling down the road at 60+ mph. Looking at doing my halogen headlight upgrade to boost low beam output to 1750 lumens about 2x that of stock, your effective output with the window tint is still about 315 lumens. Still in child's toys flashlight territory, but good children's toys. My 5yr old runs a 550 lumen flashlight, so he's still way up on you at this point. Even with a 2x lighting upgrade you are around 1/3 of the output of stock. So lets just say you upgrade to the very highest output light available and do a full $1000 HID retrofit boosting output to a staggering 3200 lumens using HID. 3200 * .18 = 576 lumens or still only 61% of the output of sucky stock bulbs. In other words, spending $1000+ and putting in the brightest light source on the market will still result in a massive 39% visibility lighting loss compared to stock, just so your windshield can look darker. There is good reason this practice is illegal, it is because it significantly hampers the safety of the vehicle when driven at night. As mathematically demonstrated the answer is not upgrading your headlights, the headlights are fine, it is removing the tint blocking out all the visible light that you have elected to install on your windshield.

 

Holy knowledge bomb there, I don’t understand why people put tint on their windshields either. I suffer from terrible migraines and couldn’t even get a medical exception for 70% windshield tint. But special sun glasses did the trick.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

 

Don’t think he cares much that’s his quote at the top