My lighting journey 2012-2019

These are my trials and tribulations of trying to see while driving at night.
1. Purchased new 2012 Tundra Sr5. After 3 years it fails to start one day. Mice have invaded the under hood fuse box. Fixed at reputable local shop. Have been running Silver Star halogen bulbs. I find that I often have a headlight out. Once a year or less. Thinking the mice damage might be to blame. I put around 160k miles on 2012. Take it to Costco for new tires. I’m informed I have swollen lug nuts. (Painful). After a long story I end up buying new 2018 Sr5.

2. First night driving I find out the headlights are horrible! Decided to upgrade the bulbs. Found out 2 things. First,the life expectancy of the higher end bulbs averages about 140 hours. Around 15% of the life of stock bulbs. Second, on the 2018 Sr5, you have to pull the front end of the truck apart to change a headlight bulb. Not interested in doing this yearly. Now I know why the old Tundra had this problem.

3. Thought I’d upgrade the fog lights instead. I bought the Baja Design Tundra kit with the Squadron Sport lights with the clear combo lense. Awesome lights. Hard to aim. Super bright. Tried to run them on the street to supplement the inadequate headlights. Too much for oncoming traffic. I don’t want blind others. With the Baja Design, you can change the lense/pattern without changing the light. I ordered the wide cornering lense. Not DOT approved,but haven’t been flashed.

4. Now, I still have the horrible headlights. Didn’t want to go aftermarket with LED bulbs in the halogen housing as I’ve heard about bad diffusion. Ordered the OEM led headlights from Cool Springs and the harness from ihacker. Ihacker was great to deal with! The combination of the led headlights and the Baja Design fogs have completed my journey. Sloan