Anyone running retrofit projector headlights?

I don't doubt that you can install brighter lights yourself, but they wouldn't necessarily be DOT approved. If you spend a lot of time driving on public roads it's generally a good idea to install something safe and legal to use as your low and high beams. You don't want something too bright since you'll be using them around other drivers.

If you own a 95-97 there's no risk in just spending the money to get DOT approved LED H6054 kits. Once the harness is installed they drop in like the original sealed beams, no guesswork in pairing up compatible bulbs and housings.

There's plenty of other ways to increase your light output for offroad driving, but you shouldn't expect to only use your low and high beams for that. For the sake of other drivers on the road, go with the DOT approved options for your headlights.

 

I get what you're saying but buying H4 bulbs for an H4 housing isn't as hard as you make it seem. If it is then your headlights are the least of your worries cause what else are you putting on your truck that's wrong or paying someone to install that's wrong because of a lack of basic car knowledge. You could also do a complete DOT compliant projector if you use Hella modular projectors if you really wanted to stay compliant. I'm not concerned about it and it's not what this particular thread is about anyways.

 

My experience with LEDS was pretty horrific in the 7x6 lens,

While they worked ok for what they are I got caught in a snow storm 2 years ago and I literally could not see 30 feet infront of me. I was driving into a wall of reflection off the snow and was probably one of my most
scariest driving situation I’ve ever been in going down the interstate at 15 mph.
I will NEVER own another set of LEDS.

 

Amber tint film is super cheap, you don't have to stick with the bright white that comes with aftermarket LEDs. It's why you see so many JDM headlights with amber film, the old bluish white HIDs suck in fog and snow.

If you frequently get bad snow then you probably should install proper fog lights.

 

big fan of that option but I was referring to the D2S lenses inside of a rectangular housing.

 

You don't need to put film on HID headlights because you can just get a lower kelvin bulb to accomplish the task of a film without losing output. The as you say old bluish white that sucks so much in HID's in fog and snow is the same or even worse with LED. You keep trying to talk up LED's like their superior to everything else in every way but they just aren't. Even when it comes to longevity they seem to fail as frequent as HID's and even as fast as halogens in some cases.

 

Yeah, it's the old way of doing things. HIDs and DIY projector retrofits used to be the brightest, but that's not the case anymore.

See for yourself in this comparison of current generation LEDs vs HID:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygPiFvCth3U

Which also comes with disclaimers like:

Do you want bright or do you want legal? Either way you don't need to play with the housing.

 

That's funny, these tests prove the exact opposite. Hmm
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

 

The video I linked above was from November 2019, whereas the TW thread linked above was from January 2019. That's a 10 month difference, and new LEDs have been coming out practically every month for the past 10 years.

Just a couple months ago they came out with a LED that uses the fan to circulate the heat into your headlight housing rather than blowing it out the back, which means you won't need a separate heating element to keep the lens warm in the winter. Of course HR did a review on that one too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWDjFQuT7Gs

I remember the days when LEDs sucked and that's why I waited until recently to do the upgrade. But if you haven't been paying attention you might have missed back in late 2019 when LEDs caught up with HID, and now in 2021 you've got crazy universal LEDs that don't change no matter which housing you use.

 

I see what this is. You clearly ignored the fact that @crashnburn80 has been updating his info on a regular basis and isn't trying to sell you a product. Well enjoy TW then. I'll just ignore you from here on out.

 

Oh okay, so the word of some random TW user is more trustworthy because they have nothing they're selling you? Get off your high horse, half the point of these forums is to provide a place for people to sell their custom Tacoma gear.

I don't work for HR and I don't sell headlights. I know how to make my own custom headlights and I chose not to because there's absolutely no point to running illegal low and high beams. You have plenty of space on the front of the vehicle to mount offroad lights that turn the night into day, I don't know why it's becoming a dick measuring contest to see who can install the most annoyingly bright lamps in the one location that is highly regulated and the cops will ticket you for.

Why do you have to be such a jerk to other drivers?

 

Just curious where do you live where the cops are on it like that. Here in Florida people can drive just about anything on the road with no issues with cops.

 

Is this how you did yours?

 

I am in the process of a retrofit as well, and wondered if anyone who has painted theirs black has had any luck separating the lenses from the side markers to paint them black as well?

 

Despite your joined date, you must be new here.

Yes, the random TW user that pitched/helped bring the first selective yellow SAE fog pods to market by presenting my ideas to Rigid execs. The random TW user that caused Baja to recall their SAE lights, since I recognized they were not compliant when their own engineers failed to do so. The random TW user called out by the worlds top automotive lighting expert in an interview for demonstrating why replacement LEDs don't really work as advertised. I could easily go on if needed.

Headlight Revolution is well known to produce highly misleading "marketing" videos and not considered a reputable company by any lighting experts. Headlight Revolution owns the GTR LED brand and you'll note in nearly every comparison video GTR is declared the winner while making it seem like it is an independent 3rd party company, not letting the consumer know they are actually just declaring themselves the winner with inaccurate information. That would draw obvious red flags, so hide brand information from the consumer by creating an alias brand to make yourself appear independent while trying to turn a quick buck by recommending your own product in an 'independent' test. You didn't actually fall for that pathetic garbage did you??? Their best performing light is covered in this thread in post #2816 here. It is literally one of the worst performing lights in this thread, that they declare as the best. But I'm just a grass roots vehicle design guy that is an extreme lighting enthusiast supported by our community that is recognized and known by most major aftermarket lighting companies, enough to bring new products to market, cause product recalls and be cited by top automotive lighting experts. I do this because it is my passion and I hate to see people mislead in automotive lighting. I don't get paid for it.

But I do see the allure in blindly following the brand well known for misleading consumers, recommending their own products under an alias name to hide from the consumers they are actually recommending their own product even though it isn't actually the best performing. It is almost like they are trying to profit off you, because they are selling something. I'm not, so you can judge who is more 'trustworthy' (the answer should be extremely obvious).

In discussions with a professional automotive lighting expert on the illegitimacy of HRs videos, he had this to add
"…and how much time they spend babbling about irrelevancies and making
recommendations that can _charitably_ be called self-serving and
technically unsound…"

And you seem to have missed this thread is always kept up to date. Posts #2 and #3 are constantly updated, though I haven't moved the latest Morimoto posts there yet. This thread was last month with the latest Morimotos 2stoke 3.0s.

 

I didn't do it but I'd think the lens would.come off the same way once baked in the oven.

 

This is getting frustrating