Tacoma Beast Headlight Upgrade

I was looking into upgrading my headlights as they are starting to crack and turn yellow. After looking at the many options I decided on the Tacoma Beast headlights. I see alot of people have them and they seem the best option. What do you guys think about them and is the installation fairly easy? Although now I can't decide which color should I choose. The black or chrome headlights are both good options but cant decide which one will look better. I have a Speedway Blue Tacoma.

 

The black set for sure. Just seal them up before hand. Nothing beats oem quality but the Tacomabeast units gives the truck a modernized look.

 

I went with the black set. Output is just as good as stock imo.

 

Very nice. Where can i order a pair of black lights for a 2006 taco

 

Yeah what this guy said.

 

Where the hell did you get that grille and headlights... links please!

 

Note they are only a cosmetic ‘upgrade’. OEM lights will outperform aftermarket ones, if you want a more aggressive looking OEM light I would recommend the smoked chrome TRD Sport/Pro lights.

You can see the OEM smoked Pros along with best prices Ive found to buy based on year, and how to actually improve headlight performance here:

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

 

Headlights, i believe theres a promo code floating around for $100 off. Try "exclusive"
https://tacomabeast.com/collections...-projector-headlights-light-bar-drl-version-2

Pro style grill for the early 2nd gen.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Latest-TRD...Sw5r1cJ1up:sc:UPSGround!94572!US!-1:rk:2:pf:1

 

Dude you rock. Just ordered the grille off eBay. As far as headlights I'm at a loss no idea what I want to do...

 

Thank you for the headlight info!

 

Are these plug n play or no?

 

How sealed are these? I bought a set of ebay lights, and no matter how much I seal them, they still fog up. I may go another direction, and these look really nice

 

I’ve had mine on for a couple months now with no issues. We’ve definitely had plenty of rain, heat, and humidity here in Louisiana. Most people put silicone around theirs just to be safe. I’ll probably do mine soon.

Drewbert41 these are plug and play. Just unbolt your factory lights and install these. It uses your factory blinker bulb and side marker socket so that whole assembly comes off the factory light straight to the tacomabeast headlight

 

I almost just started a thread to specifically tag you in, but found this and figured I'd ask here. TacomaBeast's website says "Does not support LED or HID bulbs. Please note that using these kinds of bulbs voids the warranty" and I'm wondering why. If you could do your ultimate upgrade or upgrade to HIDs or actually get an LED bulb to obey the cut-off, do you have any ideas why they won't "support" these bulbs? Is it a fitment issue? Temperature? I don't give 2 shits about voiding a warranty if I can have this upgraded design with actual good lighting. I haven't purchased them yet as I'm sure the light output is terrible with the bulbs they've built them for. Also.. why not build them to be upgradable (rhetorical)!?

 

I’d speculate they know the products will leak or get condensation on the inside and it is a super easy out for them on the warranty since many of the people purchasing these lights will also likely change the light source. LED and HID run cooler than halogen, so it shouldn’t harm the assembly. Note that LED is a significant downgrade as the light will not project as far and your beam pattern won’t be as full. And bulb aside, the optics in those housings will not be to the optical design quality of OEM Toyota meaning performance will suffer. I have had more people message me about trying to ‘fix’ the output of those housings more than any other light assembly. They are designed for looks, not performance.

 

Exactly what I figured. I wonder about buying a nice set of Morimotor projectors to replace the ones in these.. whether I'd be able to seal it properly and how it would look as I'm pretty particular about things. Thanks for quick reply! Definitely looking to upgrade the look, but I'm slowly starting to value light output over aesthetics.

 

Wouldn’t be that much different than any other retro as long as the projector size fits. Personally I’d look at Lexus RX350 projectors, because high quality OEM > made in China aftermarket. But when you start to add up the cost, using a single projector high/low full retrofit would likely provide better output at a lower cost than buying expensive cosmetic upgrade lights and trying to fix the optics. Even once you do the low beam, the stand alone high beam is likely equally as well underperforming.

 

I've heard good things about the RX350 projectors... I'll look into pricing those used maybe. For the high beam I considered doing some rendition of your Ultimate upgrade. In the end it's a bunch of work, likely some decent coin, and who knows if it'll meet the standards I've somehow come up with my head, haha.

I also like the look of the smoke/black OEM headlights and wonder if the reflector is any different in cheap ones on Amazon/Ebay. Have you any experience with them? It's a "simple" reflector housing, but I'm sure they've (China) managed a way to screw that up, too.

 

For the high beam you’d want to follow this thread for best H9 performance. But a good bulb in a poor housing still produces poor output. Can fix poor optics with a bulb upgrade.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

Specifically for the 2nd gen I have not. The last pair of stock looking aftermarket headlights I bought were literally on the vehicle a week before I removed them and put them straight in the trash. Brand new headlights into the trash can. Optics sucked horribly and the reflector bounced in the assembly. The adjusters did not hold things tight and didn’t have the full adjustable range to align like stock so I couldn’t correctly align them. You’d be surprised how well the Chinese manufactures can screw it up. Leaks, condensation, lack of UV protection leading to fogging/hazing, bad optics greatly reducing performance, poor adjustability, ect ect ect. Obviously some are better than others, but nothing is going to match OEM quality and performance.

There are links in this thread with the cheapest place I have found to buy the OEM smoked chrome units:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

 

When looking at these, I've noticed most have one projector lens and one reflector housing. Is it safe to assume that these assemblies are made with a shutter-less projector, and therefore would not work as a standalone high/low beam?