I am planning on putting driving lights on my 4runner. I just want some recommendations/pictures/opinions of how lights look on a stock bumper. I don't have the money right now to upgrade the bumper, but I still want driving lights. My bumper is stock without a grille guard. You can look at my 4runner here. I was looking at these, but any suggestions would be great!! PIAA 580 Series, PIAA 1500XT Series, P-1000XT PLATINUM XTREME, Hella FF75 . Thanks!

 

bnnext to the headlights should be fine

 

I'm looking at the Hella FF 75's for my Taco. They look nice for the price, and would look good in the valence sp? vents. There is a metal bar that runs under the main bumper, behind the plastic valence that could be drilled for lights. Perhaps a little low for driving lights though?

 

Hella 4000 Eurobeam, 100w. These took quite a bit of creativity to mount, which includes a set of custom formed 1/4" thick support struts from the frame head to the mounting bolts. The stock bumper is way to flimsy to support a lamp of this weight.

An awesome lamp though.



Andreas

 

that looks great, how exactly did you mount those to the bumper?

 

as always, i recommend and love my optilux 1000's... theyre about 50 bucks (i got em for 30-something on sale) and they have lasted so long and been so tough. they just needed to be sealed, and once i did that, i have yet to have a bulb go out.

 

Dibble,
Because the 4000s have a very stout, rectangular-shaped base, I decided to carefully notch out a portion of the plastic bumper trim in order for the mount to sit primarilly on top of the bumper, rather than hang over the edge. These lights are very deep, so it was almost impossible. Once this was done, I bolted them in place and wired everything up to a Toyota fog light switch.

The first night I used them, I realized that the bouncing beams would drive me insane. As I said before, the stock bumper is simply too flimsy for this. So I found some sheet metal, cut it to a manageable length and width, and set about forming a support strut template for each side. The idea was to tie the Hella mounting bolt to the frame. After I formed the two templates, I bought some 1/4" x 1.25" or so steel bar stock. Then I took my templates and the steel to a local welder/fabricator. The guy then spent an hour on an enormous brake bending these struts exactly to the right angles. Then it was up to me to drill the correct mounting holes, clean them up and paint them. As you can tell from one of the pics, I simply used one of the existing frame head bolts to tie into. The end result is a rock-solid mounting and no more flicker. Let me know if you have any other questions.










Andreas

 

Another option would be to put in the OEM fog lights (or PIAA's like Jason B has to avoid the Hella corrosion problem), swap out the fog bulbs with Sylvania SilverStars 100w "off-road only" bulbs, and wire up your Toyota dash switch so you can turn them on & off independently of your high beams. That is the way I set mine up. When you drive with high beams (using Silverstars, Wagners, or something else better than stock) and flip on the fogs (which are now 100w driving lights) it makes quite a difference, and you will have a clean factory looking setup.

 

I Thought of doing something like that but I still want to use them as fog lights. Maybe i could set up the lights so they are sort of "in the grill" I dont want the lights to protrude out too much, then its too easy to break off.

 

I've got all kinds of Hella lights on my truck, including the FF75s. Check out my site for pictures, and let me know if you have any questions.

 

I've got the Hella Black Magic lights waiting to be installed. Those look pretty cool.

 

I can get all the Piaa's now but haven't added them all to the site. Another choice are the Jaos lights, which are 8 inch in diameter. There are a few versions. One is low beam H3 version, and the other is a dual hi/low beam H4 version. Both come with a remote control so you can activate them from outside the truck. A bunch mor einfo on my site.







The lights above are 8 inch in diameter. Here is the smaller version, which are 6.3 inch in diameter.

 

I'm looking at getting 2 sets of FF75's. 1 fog and 1 driving. Trying to decide how to mount them to the stock bumper though. All 4 under the bumper by the valance or just the fogs under and the driving on top of the bumper. Any suggestions?

 

Another options is the Jaos lamp stay which will let you mount 4 lights all together.

 

Aren't these big ol lamps illegal for street driving though? Can they be on during harsher conditions?

 

that light bar is neat, jason.

 

Yeah, as soon as it's spring I'm getting the new hood and emblem, but you get teh idea.

 

I like the idea of the Jaos but the earliest year for the 4Runner is 92.

 

Performance Products sells a valance that has mounting points for several types of driving/fog lamps. This is on my mod list since I want to add some hella 550 driving lamps to my truck. I think the valance was like $100 with no paint. It will look like a clean install too.

 

yea, i like the jaos bar. Anyone have more pictures of their installs without a TJM bumper or a grille guard? Just the stock bumper. I guess ill just buy some see if I like it. I can always sell them on ebay, or maybe someone on here would like them.