Performance halogens

So I was recently going to go the LED route for my set up but quickly realized how bad of an idea that would be with halogen reflectors.

I don’t want to put the effort into a retrofit so I was curious about just a better set of halogens. Is it possible to achieve similar white tints that LED bulbs produce by going this route?

As far as I see the main negative would be the quick burn out time of around a year or so.

Any one go this route or have any opinions on it or maybe even a bulb recommendation?

 

I highly recommend you read this thread. It'll tell you everything you need to know and are asking for, much brighter and higher performance halogens, and you can choose bulbs that are whiter in color as well.

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

 

You can achieve excellent headlight performance with performance halogens, if you are willing to accept they will not look like white LEDs. The bulk of the halogen spectrum output is yellow, placing blue filters to filter out yellow light so that the blue light can be more prominent will reduce output. The whiter a halogen is, the more the yellow light is filtered out, meaning the lower the output. For best performance you don’t want to be removing any of your output, you want all of it, which means not filtering the bulb with a blue coating. Unfiltered halogens run in the low-mid 3000k range.

If you were really set on whiter output, I’d suggest not going above a 4000k range bulb, they will be filtered and not as high performing as clear bulbs, but their performance will not be nearly as bad as a higher color temp like a 5000k bulb.

See this thread for halogen performance options, lots of info:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465

I’d look at 3 options, 2 are covered in the above thread. FYI stock headlight color is about 3000k.

1) Hella Osram Hyper H9 -3260k
2) GE H11 Megalight +130 -3500k
3) Using a 4000k H9 such as Hella H9 2.0s. While blue coating will make it the worst performing of the bunch, the H9 will be better performing than the stock H11.

Good recommendation, but he is 3rd Gen.

 

After obsessively reading about this on Tw I’ve decided to go the ge mega route. It seems to be the best rated and performing bulb while being noticeably more white than stock halogens. I’ll be swapping fogs, lows and highs for them soon.

 

The Hellas will provide a bit more full beam pattern, but not as white as the GEs. Note that the H11 GEs will not fit the H9 highs, you want the Hellas for the highs for better output.

To set expectations appropriately the GEs are about 500k whiter than stock. It is a nice minor bump on its own, but if looking at the lights compared to the DRLs the color temp increase may be washed out by the DRLs.

 

Well I know that with halogens it will be impossible to match the drls without drastically sacrificing light output. I’d do led but don’t want to put bulbs into housings that they aren’t designed for and I don’t really want to run hids out of fear of water exposer (rivers) and messing with wiring I’m not comfortable messing with.

I figure the ge’s will be a sufficient and cheap upgrade until I’m ready to do real retrofit for real led fogs and real led headlight housings.

 

Great, it sounds like a balanced approach. Just making sure your expectations are inline with reality and you understood. The GEs are really great bulbs. The only legit LED headlights are those new assemblies from TRS for $1250 and the new 2020 OEM headlight housings. Quite a bit more expensive to say the least.

 

Yea that’s the real upgrade I was speaking of. If I were to do it I’d do it right and that’s pretty much the only way.

Now I’m just debating on the ge 130’s or Osram nightbreaker unlimited. As for fogs, I still don’t know yet. H9’s are not as easy to find for me it seems.

 

The GEs completely blow away the night breaker unlimited, no comparison at all. Definitely go with the GEs. Hella Osram Hyper H9s are available here:
https://www.rallylights.com/hl78178-h9-12v-65w-xenon-bulb.html

 

Awesome thanks for finding those for me.

That’s what the consensus seems to be about the ge’s. I appreciate the input man.

 

To be clear, this isn't a weak objective consensus, this is measured fact. The GEs are the best H11 bulb on the market. If you are willing to do some bulb trimming on an inner tabor's of the bulb you can get a bit fuller beam pattern with the Hellas, but they require modification and are not plug and play.

 

Oh I wasn’t disputing the quality of the bulbs whatsoever. I’d trust ge over Osram anyday. Me debate with myself was stemming from color output. The ge’s sit at around 3625 and the Osrams sit at around 3700.

The ge’s out preform though.

 

According to my measurements the GEs are actually whiter than the Osram +150s. But even if you were to use your numbers, the color difference is small but the performance difference is huge.

 

I went with SilverStar Ultra's. They're a little whiter/brighter than stock, but nowhere near as much of a change as I was expecting for the $$. Pretty disappointing.

 

Silverstars are not a performance bulb, they are a whiter cosmetic one. Definitely a product to avoid if looking to increase performance. The GE +130s are in a completely different league by comparison.

 

I went with the GE H11's after reading crashnburn's extremely comprehensive thread. Ended up getting them off ebay for $30-$35, shipping took a few weeks since they came from the UK. I was originally planning on running these to hold me over until the new TRS LED headlights came out, but these are such an improvement over the factory bulbs that I don't see a reason to upgrade unless those TRS lights end up being way brighter. They have yet to release output numbers for them though, so I'm doubtful that it will be worth spending the $1,000+ over the GE's. They're so bright you can actually make-out the cutoff from the low beams while the high beams are on in certain situations.

 

I just ordered GE 130's for my low beams. Can they also been installed in the fog lights? I have a 2018 trd or.

 

Yes GE H11s will work in the TRD truck’s fogs. If in Canada, double check what bulbs the fogs take as not all TRD trucks got the higher power H11 fog option.

 

After many testing what is the best halogen for the stock housing? Looking for brightest.

 

You appear to be a 2nd gen, so:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/