What did you do to/in your 5th Gen today?!

[Mutant138]

Nobody's hating anything. I'm not anti-LED, I own and use several LED lights all over my truck. Take a look:

The ones up top (Diode Dynamics bar and Baja S2 ditch lights) are for offroad only. The ones on the front end are actually SAE compliant and street legal (fogs and driving lights by Diode Dynamics). Of course, the driving lights are legal only as auxiliary high beams, which means I don't use them with any opposing traffic. The big difference is that the optics and heat control of these lights are designed with LED light sources in mind. This is important.

In fact, I also used to have LED drop-in bulbs in my headlights (Morimoto 2.0 low beams, XD Xtreme high beams, and Philips fog bulbs). I took them out and went back to halogen bulbs because the actual performance and SAFETY of the LED bulbs was severely lacking. I now advocate people to do their research instead of spending dozens or even hundreds of dollars on unsafe junk. Yes, I'm lecturing you on your poor purchase decisions- because I also made those same poor decisions.

You're not arguing with me- you're arguing with science and research by engineers many times smarter than me. LED bulbs are junk because they increase brightness 20 feet in front of your truck and severely reduce your distance vision, which is what you actually need to drive at night safely.

And while I support everyone's decisions to mod their trucks the way they see fit, lighting is the ONE modification that directly impacts the safety of yourself, your family, and other drivers around you. If you can't see down the road properly (or worse, have poor glare control and are blinding other drivers), YOU ARE A HAZARD ON THE ROAD. I'm sorry, but I can't abide by that.

Reading and gaining knowledge are free, I suggest you capitalize on the opportunity. Or don't, and continue to be proud of ignorance.

Why Most LED Headlight Upgrades Don't Really Work: An Expert Explains

3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights | Tacoma World

All this plus your just blinding everyone else on the road like an ass. If people want to pay money to limit their field of view and blind people then **** em.

 

[Gamma Ray]

FWIW: I'm eyeing the Lasfit 4Runner-specific LED lowbeams. Hoping I've been good enough this year to get them for Christmas.

I have the Lasfit 4Runner specific LEDs and am happy with them, but if I was to do it all over again, I'd try these first. I actually bought myself a set as a backup which I keep in my truck at all times, but I kind of wish I bought them before the Lasfit ones. I could have saved a lot of money if I liked them.

Amazon.com: PHILIPS 12362XVB2 H11 X-tremeVision Upgrade Headlight Bulb with up to 100% More Vision, 2 Pack: Automotive

The good thing about this is that you don't have to do any tab clipping like you would with an H9. It's kind of funny that the proposed alternative to using LEDs is to modify an H9 and stick it in your headlight slot.

While I respect the arguments against LEDs in halogen-intended projectors, there are a couple issues that I take with them. The first is actually something that I read in an article in a reply in the past few posts. Sometimes you actually do get an LED that works in the halogen projector because enough of these particular five characteristics are being met. I'm no lighting expert, but I have to wonder if the Lasfit 4Runner specific headlights (don't get the generic ones from Lasfit) do meet enough of the five characteristics. They seem to work really well for me, and they definitely have an edge on the stock halogens. The second is that it's as if it's the halogen defense force coming out with a newly written explanation every time. It's the same information every time, but it's always a freshly written paragraph. I get it, poorly apportioned LEDs are a bad idea. It's a new wall of text every time. It's hardly ever "Hey bro, you might not want to use those LEDs. Here's a link to a really good topic with more info." It's just blah blah blah get a life.

If I need to kvetch about this again, I'll just link to this post. But I doubt I'm going to do as much as think about this post much longer after I post it. I will continue glossing over the 800,850,069th post about HEADLIGHTS LED BAD H9 GOOD, though.

Anyway, those Lasfit 4Runner specific ones. Pretty good. Surfaces all the way down the block reflect the light. I've tested it in the dark. I can see a stop sign from over 450 feet away with them on. (Measured with Google maps.) If I stop in that very spot 450 feet away and turn the headlights off, the stop sign's gone. Turn them on, it's back. I like it.

 

[NoGaRunner]

Installed a new set of Coverking neoprene seat covers to replace the worn out Caltrend set I threw out last week. They seem thicker and of better quality than the Caltrends.

 

[SpeedyKevin]

Replaced my alum rci front skid with steel

Alum did its job well! Survived several big hits but has quite a few dents all over.

New steel one

 

[mynameistory]

All this plus your just blinding everyone else on the road like an ass. If people want to pay money to limit their field of view and blind people then **** em.

Interestingly enough, the current era projectors actually do a good job of limiting glare above the low beam threshold. Projectors have a glare shield meant for that purpose specifically. However, this isn't the only criteria one should use to judge a light's performance.

The problem is physics: there is no current technology that will make LED emitters thin enough to replicate the tiny size of a halogen filament. Your light assemblies depend on this tiny focal point of light to project far into the distance. By trying to replace this filament with bulkier LED emitters, you've ruined this focal point and your lights are out of focus. This is why drop-in LED bulbs don't "throw light" as far as halogen bulbs, even dim factory ones.

The Morimoto 3.0 bulbs (if their promo literature is accurate) might actually be getting close with a 2mm face thickness. I'm actually curious to see how they perform against factory or performance halogen bulbs.

The good thing about this is that you don't have to do any tab clipping like you would with an H9. It's kind of funny that the proposed alternative to using LEDs is to modify an H9 and stick it in your headlight slot.

The reason why the H9 modification is a popular one is that the bulb is the exact same shape, size, and filament placement as the H11 bulb, but with a brighter filament. This means that the factory optics and focal point are retained. The tabs are there because the H9 is a high beam bulb and manufacturers do not want people using them inadvertently. H11 performance halogen bulbs are also a good choice, though their improvements come from smaller filaments that promote increased focus.

You may be right that the Lasfit bulbs meet all of the necessary criteria by sheer luck. A great way to check would be to do an instrumented test. I actually sent my Morimoto 2.0 bulbs to Crashnburn80 last year so he could test them (spoiler alert, they are brighter up close but they taper off below factory levels after about 40 feet. I don't know about you, but I drive faster than 20 miles an hour at night).

 

[sn_85]

Replaced my alum rci front skid with steel

Alum did its job well! Survived several big hits but has quite a few dents all over.

New steel one

Do you even wheel brah? J/k. Made good use of those skids

 

[SpeedyKevin]

Do you even wheel brah? J/k. Made good use of those skids

I don't wheel that much...I'm just atrocious at picking lines :tape: hahah

 

[sn_85]

I don't wheel that much...I'm just atrocious at picking lines :tape: hahah

Those curbs at the starbucks can get a little spicy i see

 

[SpeedyKevin]

Those curbs at the starbucks can get a little spicy i see

Coffee bean man coffee bean!!

 

[JustATallDude]

Got my new tires put on yesterday! 285/70/17 Falkin Wildpeak A/T3s love them so far! And only a little rubbing full lock reverse. Garage parking is no longer possible

 

[RusPro17]

Got my new tires put on yesterday! 285/70/17 Falkin Wildpeak A/T3s love them so far! And only a little rubbing full lock reverse. Garage parking is no longer possible

Nice!! Now take that roof rack off lol and then it you can use the garage again.

 

[JustATallDude]

Nice!! Now take that roof rack off lol and then it you can use the garage again.

I wish! The GF already claimed it for her Prius

 

[jimday1982]

Lasfit front and rear LED turn signal bulbs installed today. What a difference!

Fronts were a piece of cake but man, I thought I was going to have to take a hair dryer to the wires to give me every possible millimeter of slack. That fit was beyond tight.

 

[smeerun]

Lasfit front and rear LED turn signal bulbs installed today. What a difference!

Fronts were a piece of cake but man, I thought I was going to have to take a hair dryer to the wires to give me every possible millimeter of slack. That fit was beyond tight.

SAME. I actually had the most issue with my rear drivers side blinker wires... barely enough slack in the wires.

Very bright :boink:

 

[rhadam]

Installed Ellis Precision shifter. Definitely worth the wait, the quality is superb and I love the aesthetics.

 

[Mutant138]

Finally caved. Not gonna have the garage to fab up a rear bumper for some time. Tired of not wheeling because I'm afraid to smash the rear cab tubs in more then I already have. Tired of looking at the mangled bedlined plastics. Ordered the C4 Half Swing using the veterans discount.

Also flipped on my thinking and I'm swapping out my -10 offset BR6's for the -38. Thought process being it will do a better job at pushing the body of the truck further away from obstacles much like a slider kickout (which is worth the added weight and wear IMO). I also decided I don't like the look of the black -10's and I want more dish (aesthetics). I got the -38's in gunmetal but I'm strongly debating powder coating the barrels super white to match the truck. They will prob be super dirty all the time but it could be cool.

If you are local to az and want a set of 4 black -10 SCS BR6 with only a few scratches let me know (I WILL NOT SHIP SORRY).

Now to figure out my coil situation...

 

[JeuTheIdit]

Finally caved. Not gonna have the garage to fab up a rear bumper for some time. Tired of not wheeling because I'm afraid to smash the rear cab tubs in more then I already have. Tired of looking at the mangled bedlined plastics. Ordered the C4 Half Swing using the veterans discount.

Nice choice! Sucks that there are not a lot of tube options - they always look bad ass. Hopefully I will be able to get one with a tire swing out one day. No way I am building one myself though lol.

 

[Mutant138]

Nice choice! Sucks that there are not a lot of tube options - they always look bad ass. Hopefully I will be able to get one with a tire swing out one day. No way I am building one myself though lol.

Yeah hopefully one will come out down the road. Hard to say. I'll prob be pretty temped to swap it out if that day comes.

 

[Chrisa]

Interior led lights!

 

[sn_85]

Finally caved. Not gonna have the garage to fab up a rear bumper for some time. Tired of not wheeling because I'm afraid to smash the rear cab tubs in more then I already have. Tired of looking at the mangled bedlined plastics. Ordered the C4 Half Swing using the veterans discount.

Good choice. Honestly I kind of wish I gone with a single half swing myself. Would just be much easier to use. I can always modify mine down the road if I need to.