The Ultimate Headlight H4, Fog Light and Revers Light Upgrade Not LED or HID 1st Gen Tundra Addition

I received my HIR backups and am looking forward to the install. Bed is full of scrap at the moment, will have to wait till after a run to the dump.

 

So what do you think?

 

Nicely. Brighter. The yellower light is making me lose chicks though.

Seriously, they are better than the Sylvania Zevos that were in prior. I still feel like I want more light back there, but for now these are better. Pondering some other ideas and in no rush to get there, yet. Thank you.

 

Throw some 6 inch led bars below the bumper and tie them into your reverse light circuit for mucho brightness.

 

I’m probably going to do 2 of these under rear bumper and tie them into the Cargo Lamp Switch as an Alt. Reverse Light. It will be used as needed and on demand.

 

Haha I am glad they are working out.

Has anyone else gotten their reverse lights in? Thoughts?

 

Not sure if I replied here but: Yes, my new reverse lights are much better. Great for using the reverse camera in the dark.
Thanks for the thread.

 

I have LED bulbs in my reverse lights that are very bright but my brake LED bulbs outshine them so with my crappy backup camera all I see is red when reversing. Lol.

 

I like the idea of using the cargo switch.

Do you know if the reverse lights and the cargo lights circuit are available to access in the kick panel? If so, you could use a diode one one circuit to activate the other. This would allow the cargo lights to kick on when your truck gets put into reverse but still allow them to work normal as well. I've seen this done over on the Ford forums on some of the f150s.

 

Not sure. I’ll probably just do a tap at the Cargo Assy when I install a new one whenever down the road. Good idea though!

Here is a pic of the HIR Bulb for future reference.

 

Baja designs largest laser light... now you can see for miles!

 

Cleared the bed and installed the new backup bulbs. Lights seem brighter, will have to backup at night for confirmation.

Old and new bulb



Spread on the contacts in the socket is too wide for new bulb


Used a small tool to bend the contact tabs closer together, perfect fit.

 

Update:

Lights are brighter than before, but not amazing. Just like normal working headlights, which is fine. The backup bulbs are definitely brighter and the backup camera has a great image at night now, so that's a win. However, my battery was dead in the truck after not driving it for 5 days. Thought maybe I have a drain somewhere (likely) that slowly killed it. Second thought was I noticed that when I turn my (now 170w) headlights (and 110w fogs) on at night when the engine is running at idle, the volt meter drops significantly. It does not drop when I turn my 185w rated LED light bar. I'm concerned that the increased draw could potentially not be letting the battery charge up properly when driving at night? Battery is relatively new and has given me zero issues until the lights. I jumped the truck and drove it around and it has started fine the last couple of days. It will be parked at the airport for 4 days and I'm worried it will be dead when I get back.

 

Sounds like it’s time for a tow
Package Sequoia alternator install and a larger charge and main ground wire

 

This was my fear on our trucks and the reason I was reticent on doing an incandescent over powered bulb on full time headlights. Chasing electrical gremlins with new components as mentioned by Empty might sound like a good idea but I’d regroup, for simplicity sake, and go LED Morimoto 2.0 MLeds.

 

Here is the amp draw of the common lights. Someone tell me if my math sucks but the difference between stock and the Hella's is 24 watts? What size alternator is in your truck? There are a lot of people running these on old TJs and XJs.

 

The 80 amp alternator 960-1100w. How much power do these trucks need to run?

 

Knabores has 170w Headlamps and 110w Fogs.

Our 2000-2002 4.7L Tundras have OEM 100amp Alternators.

Stock Bulbs are 60w Head and 55w Fogs.

 

So stock would be 9.5 amps. Not quite 10% of the alternators rated output. The new setup would be 23 amps?

So in terms of percents
Factory lights 10% of total capacity
Hella Upgrade 23% of total capacity or 13% additional.

That does not seem unreasonable to me, but could definitely push a taxed system.

 

The sequoia tow package alt (slight mods needed on 00-02 to fit) is 150 amps. More than enough for added load.


Also, my anytime fog light mod is done. Used an add a fuse and re pinned the connector to it on the stalk. Fogs will work on high, low or by them selves as long as the ignition switch is on. If I can figure a way to tie to the original headlight timer like stock, I’ll update. But now the headlight harness works flawlessly on the tundra. I’ll run these gt200 bulbs till they blow and try some 100w bulbs on for size

 

Thats about 7 different mods and $$$$ and a weeks worth of work right there just to get the man some proper light again.

 

How many miles are on your current alternator?

 

So you think this is a healthy electrical system and this truck requires more than 77 amps to run? That would mean the difference between a charged battery and not is only 13 amps.

 

If he needs a new Alternator, then doing the ‘7 mods’ would be worth it I guess. Otherwise, we are creating more work for ourselves is my point. Not arguing if it is possible and proper. Just saying its not worth it at least imo.

I went back a read this entire Thread again and seems Knabores went from a high watt bulb (100w) to a higher watt (170w) along the way without letting us know.

 

For anyone following along, the recommended bulbs are the 100/90 osrams. So far they have had the best performance to longevity for most people. On top of that they use a few less pixies.

https://www.powerbulbs.com/us/product/osram-super-bright-premium-h4

 

Any other source for the reverse/ backup bulb?
The Amazon link has them currently unavailable.
TIA

 

All of them. 258k or so

 

Figured I would update here in case someone stumbled upon this thread searching the light upgrade. My light upgrade did work in that it creates a lot more light than before. But it's having some issues. My battery is dead in three days if I don't drive the truck, it coincided with the installation of the new harnesses for the lights. I've pulled the fuse for the new harness and will be investigating the relays here for "leaks".

 

PHM Update on HIR Reverse Bulbs: Still holding nicely. No problems. Sockets/wiring look good upon inspection. Light is brighter than the LED Sylvanias (360 Lumen) that replaced the ok stock reverse bulbs.

If you want a no nonsense easy plug and play upgrade to the reverse light then the HIR Bulb is a great way to go. It provides more light than the OEM stock bulbs and the LED Sylvanias mentioned above for about $18 (both HIR bulbs). Might cost more now as they seem to have sold out right after this thread. These provide just enough extra light to keep me from adding some auxiliary lamps back there thus keeping with the OEM Plus Look.

As far as the Headlights, I’ll still be holding out on LED Morimoto 2.0 or hopefully their next generation and do those. These incandescents bulbs seem problematic with wiring, bulb life, and potentially causing other problems as evidenced here and in my other readings.

This thread has been useful and I have enjoyed the give and take banter which is like iron sharpening iron. I was open to be convinced on the Incandescent Headlamps, but ultimately was not.