Show off your diode dynamics!

I was wondering about that. Are they really supposed to be covered up? I've heard of people getting cited for not covering their "off road only" lighting. I've seen plenty of people not having covers, but still... Tickets suck!

 

Not sure about other states, but in CA, my understanding is any auxiliary lighting that doesn’t have DOT/SAE stamped on it above the headlamps must be covered on public roads. That’s why I ordered the covers for my combo beam SSC2 pro ditch lights. I have a 42” combo beam light bar which is going into the Caliraised premium rack I ordered. I selected that rack specifically because it has the hinged cover over the light bar. The rest of my forward facing lighting is going into my BAMF hybrid front bumper so will be below the headlights and it’s all SAE/FOG pattern so shouldn’t have any issues.

 

So my suspicion was confirmed and I’m glad. The SSC1 in the SAE/Fog pattern has the same more orangish lens color and matches the SS3 Max and the Stage Series Light Bar perfectly. I already have a pair of Maxes in my stock bumper but ordered another pair of Maxes and a pair of SSC1 and an SS30 to install in my BAMF bumper. This way everything matches. Now just waiting on that bumper

 

Looking forward to seeing them mounted and how much light they put out!

 

You and me both! 10-12 week lead time on the bumper; 8.5 weeks in so far and status shows in fabrication. Hoping for an early July pickup. But that may be optimistic.

I’ll probably start on my wiring harnesses in the mean time and get those loomed up and connected the Spod.

 

That is a great plan. This way you will be ready to go once you get your bumper!

 

Quick comparison of just the OEM TRD Pro headlights (Phillips RacingVision bulbs) in my 2012 and then SSC1 ditch lights turned on. The pool of light around the truck is way, way bigger. I often have to drive home late on very poorly light roads at night with feral horses all over the place. Makes for much better situational awareness as to what's off to the sides of the road.

 

Awesome! What beam pattern is that?

 

Sooooo, without reading 15 pages of content, I'm sure I'm probably the outlier here but this is a thread about DD experience and it said post pros and cons, so I'll go ahead and share mine. I've stopped buying Diode Dynamics as of a year and a half ago (March 2021). I initially tried a bunch of their bulbs on my first Frontier (tail/brake, amber turns f/r, amber side markers, white license plates, XPR white backups and cargos). The backup/cargo XPR 921s were decent, everything else was super underwhelming. The amber turns were barely visible during the day. The tail light bulbs were too bright at night and barely brighter on braking. Not how a two stage bulb should be.

I installed a Kenwood aftermarket radio in that truck first, and then all the DD bulbs. Had a bunch of alternator whine. Installed ground loop isolators which fixed most but not all of the whine. Never did associate the DD's with the whine until later. Soon after the radio and the DD's, I flush mounted Rigid SRQs in my rear bumper. The DD XPR backup bulbs being in place made my Rigids emit a super high pitched squeal when they were lit up. I pulled the DD bulbs out and the Rigids immediately quieted down. To see if the Rigids were the problem, I installed some other bulbs and no squeal was heard, so the culprit was DD. Now suspicious of them, I pulled all their other bulbs out and went back to stock, and the radio whine went down to nothing. Of course. So then I stumbled upon VLEDS bulbs, ordered all their bulbs for the applications I needed and lo and behold, no issues at all. Rigids were still happy.

Later I found the DD SS3 series and despite the experience I had before, wanted to give them a try because everyone spoke so highly of them. I went with the SS3 Max SAE fogs in the yellow color for the cool look and better poor weather use. They were right at $520 for the lights and the plastic adapters.

Initial Impressions:

• They were very bright and nice color
• They did not fit the bumper hardly at all, very poor fitment. Once the light was in place if you gave it just the tiniest tap with your finger, it would pop out and fall down into the fender well
• Seemed decent build quality at least, and I did like the light output

Driving impressions were good at first, as the road was lit up very yellow with those lights. However, I began to notice their flaws. First, was that the radio no longer had any reception at all with those lights on. None whatsoever, just all static. Second, I left the fogs turned on all the time (as I always do in all vehicles) and I started to realize that I could not lock the truck from more than about 5 feet at night. The auto headlights feature leaves the lights on for a bit and so since the fogs were still on, they were completely blocking my remote's ability to reach the transponder. I brought this up to DD and their only response was that I should put some ferrite beads on the wires to lessen the radio interference. That to me is not a great solution. 1) it doesn't always work, 2) I spent $520 on those lights, they should be perfect out of the box and 3) I found numerous other threads here and on Ford forums that said the same thing and had the same results from customer service. So obviously, they know about the problem but choose not to fix it.

IMO no light, no matter how bright, should cost $520 and still have any issues whatsoever. That was the last straw for DD for me and I have very much been enjoying Rigid and VLEDS products instead which are typically cheaper and in my eyes definitely improved in all aspects over everything I tried at DD. I wanted to like them, the way they talk about things makes them seem like they know what they're doing and inspires confidence, but my experience with their products did not even come close to meeting any expectations. Kind of a bummer. Somehow other people have the same lights and some say they don't have these issues, so who knows. I know for a fact their bulbs act up on different trucks. And I found numerous reports of the lights doing the radio interference on forums so I know it wasn't just me.

The one positive I can say is that their SS3 were indeed the brightest lights I've ever seen with a very nice cutoff and perfect color. Everything else about them did not work for me though.

Pics of the lights from the Frontier which is not a Tacoma but still, same results. I'm going to go with Rigid Yellow 360s on the Tacoma.

 

Its the wide beam pattern

 

That looks great! Thank you for posting this

 

Thats odd, real odd. Never experienced anything like that on my truck.

 

Soon…my word I will lol!

Thanks man!

Thanks man!

Soon!

 

Would be curious about how the 360s do. Obviously DD's test very well, but as you said lots of people seem to have issues with RF or fitment. 360s cost a ton though

 

Yeah, not thrilled about the price, which is why I haven't bought them. Based on the talk here I think they will be about the same brightness but cover more area than my D series Rigids covered. We'll see. I have the D series kit from my Frontier left over that I have not sold yet, I considered trying to find the brackets to install it on the Tacoma but I just think it doesn't look great or natural. So I'll probably just sell them as a frontier kit so someone who wants the now discontinued kit (plus they were never offered in yellow in that kit) can stumble upon a unicorn for a fair price.

The 360s on the other hand look right at home, as if they were OEM but yellow. So that is the plan, despite the price. I'll be sure to post about them once I do get them, though new tires and the OEM LED headlights are happening first. Rigids are next after those two.

 

Just sayin… lol

 

installed @Diode Dynamics stage series reverse light kit SSC1 Pro













I need to figure out how to make better brackets. Current ones were quickly whipped up with random 3ft Home Depot 90 degree angle aluminum bar (medium thickness) cut with a hacksaw + holes drilled after approximate marking with sharpie

 

2 questions if anyone knows; 1 relating to above

1. Is it recommended to run the protective covers from @Diode Dynamics? I imagine for front ditch lights it may help protect the glass lenses from getting hit by rocks.
Not sure about the rear, unless you go 60mph backwards behind a gravel truck.
The smoked versions look cool; but would they reduce output?

2. I see DD has a full plug and play ditch lights kit for 3rd gen Taco, but not listed for 2nd gen Taco. Lets you pick which ones you want to use, SSC1, 2, 5, etc. and comes with bracket, lights, wiring kit
Is there any reason that kit can't simply be used/installed on a 2nd gen, given the trucks are very similar? Or any other of their wiring kits?

I'm seeing a relay (probably bolt to sheetmetal), button (probably run to interior through firewall via grommet), fuse, connectors to lights
I don't see why it wouldn't work
Unless it's just the brackets that are for 3rd gen and not 2nd? Because if so, no problem. Many of us already have 2nd gen ditch light brackets from other brands that I'm sure would also work to hold the lights

My problem isn't that I don't have or need ditch light brackets; I have them already. But that the current ditch lights suck and would be nice to upgrade them.
Current ones were free/$0 coming with a Hooke Rd roof rack (comes with 4); gave away the other 2 - I have NO doubt that any light from DD way outperforms any $0 Hooke Rd light, in addition to looking better, especially the SSC2



Only other thing I want to figure out is anti-theft hardware so some random person can't just come up, grab the light to rip it off or unbolt with generic hand-tools, then run off with it (not cheap)

 

I ran amber covers on clear combo lenses on ss3 's for a while. Eventualy changed the lenses to amber and ditched the covers and after some miles have not noticed any damage.

As to the anti theft hardware...I'm sure it may be a concern but mine are just 3/8 bolts with nylock nuts and havnt had any issues after 15-20k miles. Someone could get them but it would be a major/time consuming PITA

 

The hood brackets are different for 3rd & 2nd gens. They are actually the only Tacoma-specific part in the whole ditch light kit. Everything else is universal. It might actually be cheaper to just get what you need, rather than the whole kit if you don't need any brackets. They sell pods, wiring, switches, etc. separately. Just make sure everything works together. If you get the backlight option you'll need the extra conductor in the harness, different switch, and whatever else.