Meso Total Tail Stage 1 vs. Morimoto Ultimate LED tail lights

I've been searching for LED tail lights products since my new AG Sport will have LED headlights and DRL's. I have come across the $150 Meso Total Tail Stage One kit and I've also found the rather expensive and very sick looking Morimoto Ultimate LED tail lights that cost $650. Does anyone have either? Do you like one over the other? Are there any pros and cons to either? The Meso product kit is affordable, but I'll have to justify $650 to the wife or work a lot of OT at work to purchase the Morimoto tail lights. At the moment, I'm leaning towards the Morimoto because I know they will look awesome and set my Taco apart from others in my town.

Let me hear from you!

 

I like the Meso Stage 1 kit but I didn’t like the brake bulbs. I ended up running 4 incandescent bulbs as brake lights which are plenty bright for the job but then you have the cool switchbacks as your turn signal and backup lights. I really like those. I do wish my brake lights were instant on like LEDs but every led I tried just wasn’t that bright in the daytime and their darker color made them not very eye catching. At night they were good but daytime matters too. Still, doubling up on stock bulbs makes you twice as bright as stock and there’s no problems with telling if you are turning or braking or what anymore, so I consider my incandescent setup to be a vast improvement.

personally I don’t like the Meso/Morimoto tail lights. I am not a fan of Morimoto products in general, they’ve had hit or miss quality for me and they’re not anywhere close to cheap. I think the Tacoma Morimotos are ugly myself, and from the videos they appear to not have the brake light visible when the turns are running. Maybe it’s just the camera and I’m incorrect, but it sure appears that way. RAM does their latest LEDs that way too and I hate it. Just my opinion. Whereas stage 1 looks stock, but is simply much better.

So my personal recommendation is the stage 1 and then play around with the brake bulbs to see what you like. I thought the Meso bulbs were too bright on low mode and not brighter enough on high mode. Low mode if it’s too bright will wear people’s eyes out and fatigue them at night, and then when it’s time to brake they will have trouble noticing the difference when braking. So for me doubling up on stock bulbs got it just right. Still have the same tail lamp, but double the braking and a noticeable different color turn. I’m also just really picky and probably analyzed this way more than I should, but I just want the best setup I can easily obtain with reason.

If you get the stage 1, go ahead and order this kit as well, it will tie into the switchback bulb and add a bit of resistance to the turn signal circuit so that you don’t hyperflash in reverse. If you are parallel parking it’ll hyperflash otherwise. No big deal, but annoying. For $20, why not fix it? It’s plug and play and takes 5 minutes to add into the Meso setup.

Good luck.

 

Not OP but thanks for the link to the resistors. I had been looking for that since I have said hyperflashing.

To OP, I personally went with the Meso Stage 1 because its cheaper and I actually like the look of the stock taillights.

 

I've had the Total Tail Stage 1 kit for just under 2 weeks now and I'm very happy with it. I was not going to spend $650 for tail lights, and $500 cheaper makes me even happier.

 

Yeah I basically never parallel park but knowing they’d hyperflash in that situation I couldn’t let it go and just had to buy the resistors.

If you have an SR/SR5 and are hyperflashing all the time, you need to get the 6 ohm resistors instead. I don’t think 15 ohm will be enough. The lower the ohms, the higher the draw on the circuit and thus more hyperflash protection. 15 happens to be perfect for an all-LED TRD+ Tacoma but I hear the lower trims are more sensitive to load and need heavier resistors to fully replace the bulbs being led swapped.

 

I been running stage 2’s for 3 years now and love them to date

I do like the meso / morimoto tails but to me and my taste they just aren’t my style. Better looking than most all after market taillights. Those look too out of place and don’t fit the styling of the rest of the truck. Also for headlights*
Same goes for my tundra which is why I went with hottails (think of it as a Meso stage 2 for tundras) vs aftermarket.

 

Yeah mine is SR5, but I have DD SS3 max fog lights (not sure if that affects any draw). Either way its too late now as I just ordered the kit. But I'll try it out and if it doesn't work, not a big deal. Its only $25 with shipping. As of now I only hyper flash in reverse with a blinker on. Its not too big of a deal but I'll occasionally parallel park on my street. I'd rather fix it then leave it since a few times already I've been tailed by cops to the front of my house trying to parallel park and they just park behind me and run my plates I assume. Rather not give them a reason to light me up.

 

Oh okay, for some reason I thought the SR/SR5 hyperflash all the time. In that case you should be perfectly fine just like the TRDs. I only hyperflashed in that same situation.

I was able to put led turn signals up front as well and still don’t hyperflash, even in reverse. You might give that a shot too if you’re wanting led. And yeah, def don’t want to get any extra attention if you can keep things working normally.

 

I had the stage 1's, but upgraded to the MESO/Morimoto tails. I definitely like the tails a lot more than just the bulbs. But that's just personal preference. Both are fine products.

 

I have the Meso Stage 1 kit and I haven't regretted it at all. It was a simple install, it improved the brightness and look of my tail lights. I have had it installed for almost a year now and have zero issues (no hyper flashing or blown fuses).

 

That's what I wanted to hear...Thanks!