When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
School me on lighting upgrades for interior and exterior
1993 2wd pickup xtra cab is what I am driving right now. I am bored, and I have some money. I would like to modernize the lighting on the pickup. On a general note before going into options, is superbrightleds.com a reputable website? Anyone have experience with ordering from them?
HEADLIGHTS:
I was looking last night into LED headlights. Brighter than stock would be nice, but don't need to burn retinas of oncoming drivers. The Truck-lite ones look like the best option and also avoid adding a bunch on complexity compared to other LED systems that need the relay harness. To be honest, I don't much like the idea of adding a bunch of cheapo, complex Chinese components to my headlight system. Losing headlights suddenly would be very bad.
Only problem with the LED Truck-lites is that they are not heated. For driving in heavy, wet snowfall, this is a 100% no go option for me. I am not going to get out and clean my headlights every couple of miles. LOL
BUT!!! Truck-lite also offers a halogen upgrade! Very expensive for halogen at $60-$75 each, but they are heated, and brighter (hopefully) than standard halogens. Napa carries them in stock near my house. Could get them in 20 minutes. Also might be worth paying more at Napa if they fail. Napa guys are usually pretty good about replacing defective parts, even past warranty periods.
Now, I haven't had much luck looking into HID lights for the truck, but I think that runs into other issues of complexity and compatibility. I also am not sure how warm they get compared to halogen bulbs.
INTERIOR:
My truck only has a dome light inside and nothing else. OEM is barely bright enough, so a new LED bulb doesn't need to be too much brighter. The 4000K unit from superbrightleds.com seems like a good balance of brightness and natural color temp. Not so sure about the exposed circuitry though. I might go for the upgraded brighter one they sell which is fully enclosed. Any thoughts on that?
With a tinted canopy on the back, it can be tough seeing things and people at night when backing up. superbrightleds.com offers a 420 lumen LED bulb for around $10. Would 420 lm x 2 be TOO bright? On the other hand, 420 is a lucky number!
Thoughts on any of this? My biggest question is whether or not the Truck-lite Halogen lights are actually an upgrade in brightness over stock h6065 units.
Thanks for the help/looking. Maybe this info might help others with similar questions and concerns.
I'm also trying to learn about the Hella Vision Plus Halogen Conversion kit but can't seem to get any solid info on parts and installation. Anyone here do the Hella conversion? It's better than the OEM sealed beam bulbs, and on top of that it can take the replacement bulbs rather than replacing the whole unit. I would also think that I could run LED bulbs in there most of the time and swap them out for halogen if I plan on hitting snow.
Found this kit which seems to have the relay harness included, but also appears to require a bit of wiring work and is not as plug and play as I would hope? Is this not the correct setup? I don't see any part in this that hooks up to the existing headlight system?
Sorry if I am asking too many questions at once here. But, from what I can learn, upgrading to an H4 wiring relay kit will result in brighter lights no matter what is in there right now? I could install a relay kit and my current halogen bulbs would burn brighter?
Of the relay kits, which ones are considered to be the highest quality? There are tons of them on Amazon which all appear to be the same product with countless product names.
I found this one, which is over twice the price of the others, but it appears to be made from the same parts, but with different colors?
Harness Upgrade FIRST is most Essential, regardless of stock or upgraded bulbs
Voltage Drop Difference between stock and upgraded harness is significant.
With Sealed Beam & Engine off. Still need to figure how it translates to brightness.
Stock Wiring
Low Beam:
Batt: 12.05V, Across low beam filament (pins 1 & 3): 11.15V
Voltage drop in wiring: 0.9V
volt drop = 7.5% of battery voltage
High Beam:
Batt 11.94, Across high beam filament (pins 2 & 3): 10.07
Volt drop: 15.7% of battery voltage! After Retrofit:
Low Beam:
Batt: 12.31V, : Across low beam filament (pins 1 & 3): 12.11V
Volt Drop: 0.2 = 1.6% of Battery voltage
High Beam:
Batt: 12.24V, Across high beam filament (pins 2 & 3): 11.78V
Voltage drop: =0.46V = 3.75% of battery voltage
...Then there is also this Hella H4 universal conversion kit.
I would check Hella's website if it really makes that. However, if reviews and price are good I'd get it. Cost of unknown maker does not warranty quality. Painless is a well-known brand so probably good. However, if you want to be sure of quality for less best bet is buying authentic Hella or Bosch relays (made in Europe?) and putting one together yourself.
Last edited by RAD4Runner; 01-01-2021 at 12:15 PM.
It seems to use all high quality parts. Although, all of the reviews are from Jeep owners, so maybe this isn't compatible with Toyota? All the connectors seem to be similar and I can't discern any major difference other than the length of wires.
The cheaper Chinese junk ones on Amazon going for $20 were just too shoddy to trust for something as critical as the headlights.
Just saw that Bosch relays, made in Portugal, not in communist bully, are $4 from Summit Racing But I guess you don't wanna go through the trouble of building one yourself.
I'm pretty sure it would work with Toyota IF, and only IF, made for switched-ground stock circuit. I suggest you ask Painless or distributor for schematic / block diagram.
Edit: I'm all over the place with my decisions here. LOL
I canceled the order for the Painless $150 unit, as it does appear to not be compatible with the double ground Toyota system. It's more for Jeeps that have double positive and just want to put in a relay harness to avoid cooking other parts when using high powered lights.
I ordered this for $25, which converts the grounds:
If it works, I will order a second one and try to rig up a dual harness system that runs in parallel. That way, any failure in one is less likely to cascade into the other at the same time. I'm really paranoid about losing headlights on a twisty logging road where a misstep for just a couple of seconds would put me off a large cliff. I don't trust the Chinese junk much, but if one fails, then driving for a short duration with just one lamp on is no big deal.
On the '87 4Runner, I found it helpful to upgrade all the interior lights: two map lights, overhead dome, and cargo light by rear door. It was too long ago, so the part #'s are no longer valid, but it made a huge difference inside. Plus, your battery isn't going to be flat nearly as quick if you accidently leave one on.
Harness Upgrade FIRST is most Essential, regardless of stock or upgraded bulbs
Voltage Drop Difference between stock and upgraded harness is significant.
With Sealed Beam & Engine off. Still need to figure how it translates to brightness.
Stock Wiring
Low Beam:
Batt: 12.05V, Across low beam filament (pins 1 & 3): 11.15V
Voltage drop in wiring: 0.9V
volt drop = 7.5% of battery voltage
High Beam:
Batt 11.94, Across high beam filament (pins 2 & 3): 10.07
Volt drop: 15.7% of battery voltage! After Retrofit:
Low Beam:
Batt: 12.31V, : Across low beam filament (pins 1 & 3): 12.11V
Volt Drop: 0.2 = 1.6% of Battery voltage
High Beam:
Batt: 12.24V, Across high beam filament (pins 2 & 3): 11.78V
Voltage drop: =0.46V = 3.75% of battery voltage
I would check Hella's website if it really makes that. However, if reviews and price are good I'd get it. Cost of unknown maker does not warranty quality. Painless is a well-known brand so probably good. However, if you want to be sure of quality for less best bet is buying authentic Hella or Bosch relays (made in Europe?) and putting one together yourself.
I've been considering this for headlights. I haven't resurched it a whole lot just yet any suggestions? I may look into the idea of putting it all together myself.
nevermind I found your write up on it! Those are some great testing numbers thought.
Headlights-JW Speaker 8910 Evolution 2 heated LED's. They're great, super crisp cutoff, could have bought another truck for the same amount of money. Took a little massaging of my '85 sockets to fit right.
For interior lighting, I replaced my dome light with a dimmable LED, and since I disconnected my deck light, I reran the wire to the xtracab section and added a dimmable LED dome. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZZ46W27/
Real happy with my setup, no need for light bar or anything with JWspeaker high beams, they turn the night into day. I need to add standoffs to the resistor and relays to get them away from drips under the hood.
Need to add standoffs, the relay and the resistor get some drips. Heated LED Dome wired to deck lamp switch Dimmable dome light
Last edited by OldBlueMidnight; 01-01-2021 at 04:50 PM.
Headlights-JW Speaker 8910 Evolution 2 heated LED's. They're great, super crisp cutoff, could have bought another truck for the same amount of money. Took a little massaging of my '85 sockets to fit right. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0784PRXJM/
For interior lighting, I replaced my dome light with a dimmable LED, and since I disconnected my deck light, I reran the wire to the xtracab section and added a dimmable LED dome. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZZ46W27/
That dome light is cool! Good work on that setup. Nice that those LED lights are heated! Pretty pricey though, wow.
I might try going with non-heated LED lights for general use and swap them to halogen when needed.
The JW Speaker LED's are heated, they call it SmartHeat technology: https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/l...0-evolution-2/
But also very expensive. I did have to bang on my '85's sockets a little to get them to fit, but after I did that they ended up real snug. I have no clue if you'd have the same experience on a '93.
The LED lights are pretty cool. I was tempted to go with some. I could only imagine all the people flashing me with their High beams around town 😁 my 4runner is lifted so it would be a little obnoxious. Once a week I was getting hit with people's high beams with just the stock headlights on my FJ. One day I was thinking maybe they aren't as bright after 11 years and then somebody hit me with their High beams. Lol
I get flashed every once in a while, not much lift on my truck. If I had to do it over again I probably would have gone with a more basic H4 conversion as a first step. The way technology is something way better will probably be a lot cheaper in a few years. But at the time my hope was this would be the last time I'd buy a headlight for the truck. We'll see...
So, I installed a cheapo Amazon relay harness today, but only hooked up the passenger side light and left the drive side light in the original harness. Still using sealed-beam 6054 lights.
What's strange, is that they appear to both be putting out the same amount of light. I would have thought the relay one would be brighter even if just by a little.
Is it possible that by taking one light off the original wiring harness, it somehow frees up the other one to draw more current from the original wiring harness?
EDIT: Never mind. I put the lights up against a white wall at night and the one with the harness is brighter by a noticeable degree, but not enough to see much of a change on the road.
If you didn't pull the plug on the driver's side light, but, of course, you pulled and re-installed the one on the passenger side, it could be that simply wiped the contacts on the one bulb, not the other. Removing and re-installing the plug for the lights does clean the contacts. Cleaner contacts, brighter light on the passenger side than the driver's side.
Naturally, putting the relay in on one side will provide slightly more power on that side. The current doesn't have to go to the switch on the steering column, then back to the bulb. Less wire, and no components, in the circuit, the more current available for the bulb.
Of course, if you didn't pull either plug, disregard all my babbling...
Pat☺
So, here's something VERY interesting. A company has recently put out an LED H4 bulb that uses the air inside the headlight housing to cool the bulb, while also heating the housing. It's also a very highly rated bulb in terms of light distribution. It's quite a simple solution to cold housings in snow, and I am surprised it took so many years for this to be implemented. For vehicles with custom halogen reflector housings, the higher output halogen bulbs might melt stuff, or prove too much for the wiring harness. If LED bulbs with housing fans can heat things up enough for snow driving, then it's a great option for upgrading. For those of us lucky enough to have generic standardized headlights like h6054, we can swap all sorts of options. But for OEM-custom setups, the options are far more limited in terms of upgrading light output, keeping things warm, and not frying the harness.
01-01-2021, 09:12 AM
I would like to modernize the lighting on the pickup. On a general note before going into options, is superbrightleds.com a reputable website? Anyone have experience with ordering from them?
The Truck-lite ones look like the best option and also avoid adding a bunch on complexity compared to other LED systems that need the relay harness. To be honest, I don't much like the idea of adding a bunch of cheapo, complex Chinese components to my headlight system. Losing headlights suddenly would be very bad.
But I guess you don't wanna go through the trouble of building one yourself.
