papabeach
Member
LED Bar in Hood Scoop Write-Up (3rd Gen 4runner w/ TRD Supercharger)
Idea
This was not an original idea. I saw a thread on Tacoma World where this had been done to a 2nd gen Tacoma. I wouldn’t be surprised if other 3rd Gen 4runner owners have already done this and maybe did it easier/better…I just haven’t seen any so I went for it. The write-up from Tacoma World (below) is excellent and covers more details than I do…but I will highlight my experience below.
LED Hood Scoop Mod - Page 6 - Tacoma World Forums
Realizing my hood & scoop are different from a 2nd gen Tacoma I wasn’t sure if I could get it this mod to work but thought I would give it a shot and see. Here is what I did…I welcome any comments/questions etc.
The one comment that is sure to come up is cost…I will address this now. Total cost was $464. I am hoping to get around $100 for my old scoop which will help bring the cost down a bit. A new scoop isn’t necessary to do this mod but I went that route incase I trashed my existing one in the process. So…was this expensive…YES, was it worth it to me…YES. As with many of you, my 4Runner is as much of a project/hobby as it is anything else, so to each their own right? As a bonus, my wife loves my 4Runner and thinks this this mod is BA…that may be priceless!
1. Purchase LED bar
a. Rigid Industries 91061 SR-Series White 10” Driving LED Bar-$260 (Amazon)
2. Purchase new scoop (keep old one for back-up just in case) and assoc parts (Toyota of Dallas)
a. Scoop $108
b. Plate (“Metal Mesh you can see”) $12
c. Guide (“Plastic back plate you can’t see”) $12
3. Modify new scoop
a. Cut the back of the scoop off with a dremel
b. Cut out the back of the guide to the size of the LED bar (I did not cut out the metal plate as was done in link above
c. Line-X Premium Hood scoop-$65 (gotta match the rest of my 4Runner!)
d. Assemble scoop/guide/plate
e. I used some misc small bolts/nuts I had around since I don’t have a rivet gun…I found out later my neighbor did and I could have used it but no big deal here…just secure them together.
4. Removed old scoop (4x-10mm nuts)
a. Only problem here was when loosening the nuts, 3 of the 4 bolts came loose within the old scoop and attempting to loosen the nuts just resulted in separating the bolts from the actual scoop. Not that big of deal…the bolts pulled right out and I lifted the scoop straight off. I was able to get the nuts off the bolts with a vice grip. The bolts were subsequently reinstalled in the old scoop with some JB-Weld (you can see it squeezing out in the pic above) and are now probably stronger than before. I am pretty sure I read another thread where someone else experienced this problem when removing their hood scoop.
5. Install new scoop
a. Dropped right in and reinstall 4x nuts
6. Make mounting bracket for LED Bar
a. Disclaimer…I am not a welder, but my neighbor is and was happy to help!
b. 2in x 1/8in x 36in flat bar plain steel (Home Depot)-$7
c. Fabricated 2x “L” shaped mounts utilizing bolts from scoop for attachment point. Only problem here is that there is not much room above the supercharger to get this to fit without rubbing/resting on the supercharger (I found out the hard way). With a little trial & error and trimming it fit! I had to get rid of the bolt holding the mounting foot for the LED bar to the mounting bracket and replaced it with 2x rivets. One of the rivet heads still rubbed a little initially but this seems to have sanded itself down and is no longer an issue. I was a little worried when I saw the rubbing on the s/c (silver portion behind bolt in picture below) but it didn’t cause any serious damage only cosmetic… if I were to rebuild the mount I would try to come up with a better solution…maybe actually weld the mounting foot to the bracket to eliminate anything sticking through the bottom of the bracket or make a step on the bracket to raise it a little higher as there is still some remove between the LED bar and hood to work with.
d. Painted bracket with some black high temp spray paint
7. Install mounting bracket/LED Bar
a. Just had to tighten the 4x, 10mm nuts, easy!
b. Run the wires...pulled behind hood heat shield (high temp wire loom on order), attach to battery…drill hole in firewall pulls wires through and mount switch. I broke the switch that came with the bar…doh! This wasn’t a big deal as I was planning on installing some OTRATTW switches in the future. I just used a spare switch for the time being. But to be honest, after using this current switch for a while I kinda like it. It may not be the most attractive setup but it is different from my other switches and easy to identify without looking at it…makes it easy not to flip the wrong switch.
*LED bar is switch on bottom right…bottom left is for my floor lights, PIAA fogs top left
8. Final thoughts
a. I love it!
b. Light is super bright…mounting behind metal mesh on the scoop doesn’t seem to be an issue and this way it is somewhat hidden. I think this is cool but to each there own…I am sure I am loosing some lumens in there somewhere but I don’t mind.
c. The hoop on my silly brush guard gets in the way of the light output just a bit…this is more of an annoyance than anything. I have planned on replacing the front bumper/brush guard for quite awhile but can’t decide on what setup I wanted to with…this may force me to make a decision sooner than later. Any suggestions?
d. Main concern at this point is how the LED bar with hold up to the heat of the engine compartment, not sure if I should coat the bottom of the LED bar with heat-shielding or just let it go…I guess only time will tell but for now…no problems!
e. Next step is to cover the wires with Hi-temp loom and tidy things up...and get a new front bumper!
9. Night pics (unedited iphone 6 pics)
Few comments
--There is more glare in these pics than in person…not sure what else to say, I am not much of a photographer and night pics are challenging…I can take more if these don’t suffice.
--The hoop on my brush guard is in the line of light projection. This creates two issues.
1) Glare on the back of the hoop on my brush guard.
2) Shadow in foreground out front.
The glare doesn’t really bother me much as it is not in my line of site while driving. FWIW the glare off the gauges on my A-pillar and my scangauge2 (mounted in front of speedo) is more noticeable to me and these really don’t bother me (I keep them dimmed). As I mentioned before, I am planning to replace my bumper so both problems should be solved unless I get something with a large hoop.
--When comparing the Rigid LED bar to my headlight output keep in mind my headlights are not stock…I am guessing that folks with stock headlights are likely to see more of a difference than what you see in these pics. I am running Morimoto 5Five DSP ballasts with Osram Xenarc 66240 CBI bulbs in LS460r projectors.
--Also, the LED bar pattern is a Driving Pattern. While this pattern provides quite a bit of usable light what I notice most is that it does a really nice job of illuminating the foreground outside of the headlight beam pattern. Though, if I did this again I might consider getting the combo pattern to get more light in the distance. But to be honest the headlights are so bright I don’t know if I would notice much of a difference. You can check out the Lux graphs for the various light patterns @ http://www.rigidindustries.com/sites/default/files/catalog/25.pdf
Low Beams
High Beams
LED Bar
Low Beams + LED Bar
High Beams + LED Bar
Idea
This was not an original idea. I saw a thread on Tacoma World where this had been done to a 2nd gen Tacoma. I wouldn’t be surprised if other 3rd Gen 4runner owners have already done this and maybe did it easier/better…I just haven’t seen any so I went for it. The write-up from Tacoma World (below) is excellent and covers more details than I do…but I will highlight my experience below.
LED Hood Scoop Mod - Page 6 - Tacoma World Forums
Realizing my hood & scoop are different from a 2nd gen Tacoma I wasn’t sure if I could get it this mod to work but thought I would give it a shot and see. Here is what I did…I welcome any comments/questions etc.
The one comment that is sure to come up is cost…I will address this now. Total cost was $464. I am hoping to get around $100 for my old scoop which will help bring the cost down a bit. A new scoop isn’t necessary to do this mod but I went that route incase I trashed my existing one in the process. So…was this expensive…YES, was it worth it to me…YES. As with many of you, my 4Runner is as much of a project/hobby as it is anything else, so to each their own right? As a bonus, my wife loves my 4Runner and thinks this this mod is BA…that may be priceless!
1. Purchase LED bar
a. Rigid Industries 91061 SR-Series White 10” Driving LED Bar-$260 (Amazon)
2. Purchase new scoop (keep old one for back-up just in case) and assoc parts (Toyota of Dallas)
a. Scoop $108
b. Plate (“Metal Mesh you can see”) $12
c. Guide (“Plastic back plate you can’t see”) $12
3. Modify new scoop
a. Cut the back of the scoop off with a dremel
b. Cut out the back of the guide to the size of the LED bar (I did not cut out the metal plate as was done in link above
c. Line-X Premium Hood scoop-$65 (gotta match the rest of my 4Runner!)
d. Assemble scoop/guide/plate
e. I used some misc small bolts/nuts I had around since I don’t have a rivet gun…I found out later my neighbor did and I could have used it but no big deal here…just secure them together.
4. Removed old scoop (4x-10mm nuts)
a. Only problem here was when loosening the nuts, 3 of the 4 bolts came loose within the old scoop and attempting to loosen the nuts just resulted in separating the bolts from the actual scoop. Not that big of deal…the bolts pulled right out and I lifted the scoop straight off. I was able to get the nuts off the bolts with a vice grip. The bolts were subsequently reinstalled in the old scoop with some JB-Weld (you can see it squeezing out in the pic above) and are now probably stronger than before. I am pretty sure I read another thread where someone else experienced this problem when removing their hood scoop.
5. Install new scoop
a. Dropped right in and reinstall 4x nuts
6. Make mounting bracket for LED Bar
a. Disclaimer…I am not a welder, but my neighbor is and was happy to help!
b. 2in x 1/8in x 36in flat bar plain steel (Home Depot)-$7
c. Fabricated 2x “L” shaped mounts utilizing bolts from scoop for attachment point. Only problem here is that there is not much room above the supercharger to get this to fit without rubbing/resting on the supercharger (I found out the hard way). With a little trial & error and trimming it fit! I had to get rid of the bolt holding the mounting foot for the LED bar to the mounting bracket and replaced it with 2x rivets. One of the rivet heads still rubbed a little initially but this seems to have sanded itself down and is no longer an issue. I was a little worried when I saw the rubbing on the s/c (silver portion behind bolt in picture below) but it didn’t cause any serious damage only cosmetic… if I were to rebuild the mount I would try to come up with a better solution…maybe actually weld the mounting foot to the bracket to eliminate anything sticking through the bottom of the bracket or make a step on the bracket to raise it a little higher as there is still some remove between the LED bar and hood to work with.
d. Painted bracket with some black high temp spray paint
7. Install mounting bracket/LED Bar
a. Just had to tighten the 4x, 10mm nuts, easy!
b. Run the wires...pulled behind hood heat shield (high temp wire loom on order), attach to battery…drill hole in firewall pulls wires through and mount switch. I broke the switch that came with the bar…doh! This wasn’t a big deal as I was planning on installing some OTRATTW switches in the future. I just used a spare switch for the time being. But to be honest, after using this current switch for a while I kinda like it. It may not be the most attractive setup but it is different from my other switches and easy to identify without looking at it…makes it easy not to flip the wrong switch.
*LED bar is switch on bottom right…bottom left is for my floor lights, PIAA fogs top left
8. Final thoughts
a. I love it!
b. Light is super bright…mounting behind metal mesh on the scoop doesn’t seem to be an issue and this way it is somewhat hidden. I think this is cool but to each there own…I am sure I am loosing some lumens in there somewhere but I don’t mind.
c. The hoop on my silly brush guard gets in the way of the light output just a bit…this is more of an annoyance than anything. I have planned on replacing the front bumper/brush guard for quite awhile but can’t decide on what setup I wanted to with…this may force me to make a decision sooner than later. Any suggestions?
d. Main concern at this point is how the LED bar with hold up to the heat of the engine compartment, not sure if I should coat the bottom of the LED bar with heat-shielding or just let it go…I guess only time will tell but for now…no problems!
e. Next step is to cover the wires with Hi-temp loom and tidy things up...and get a new front bumper!
9. Night pics (unedited iphone 6 pics)
Few comments
--There is more glare in these pics than in person…not sure what else to say, I am not much of a photographer and night pics are challenging…I can take more if these don’t suffice.
--The hoop on my brush guard is in the line of light projection. This creates two issues.
1) Glare on the back of the hoop on my brush guard.
2) Shadow in foreground out front.
The glare doesn’t really bother me much as it is not in my line of site while driving. FWIW the glare off the gauges on my A-pillar and my scangauge2 (mounted in front of speedo) is more noticeable to me and these really don’t bother me (I keep them dimmed). As I mentioned before, I am planning to replace my bumper so both problems should be solved unless I get something with a large hoop.
--When comparing the Rigid LED bar to my headlight output keep in mind my headlights are not stock…I am guessing that folks with stock headlights are likely to see more of a difference than what you see in these pics. I am running Morimoto 5Five DSP ballasts with Osram Xenarc 66240 CBI bulbs in LS460r projectors.
--Also, the LED bar pattern is a Driving Pattern. While this pattern provides quite a bit of usable light what I notice most is that it does a really nice job of illuminating the foreground outside of the headlight beam pattern. Though, if I did this again I might consider getting the combo pattern to get more light in the distance. But to be honest the headlights are so bright I don’t know if I would notice much of a difference. You can check out the Lux graphs for the various light patterns @ http://www.rigidindustries.com/sites/default/files/catalog/25.pdf
Low Beams
High Beams
LED Bar
Low Beams + LED Bar
High Beams + LED Bar
Last edited:
