May 22, 2023 With the Tacoma living in Las Vegas now, it's harder to perform various maintenance tasks as they pop up and between trips. As such, with a few general maintenance issues - oil changes, tire rotations, etc. - and a few items in recent Rig Reviews needing attention, I drove the truck home from the Three Days of R&R trip for a little TLC (Tacoma Loving Care). On my list for a warm spring day were the following tasks: Routine maintenance - Change the oil, Rotate the tires Grease drive train. Check the new SPC UCAs for play in…
10 CommentsMods and Maintenance: Lighting
Ever since I got into this whole adventure thing, I've always sort of turned my nose up at aftermarket lighting. Looking back on it, I think there are three reasons for my prejudice: I'm not a fan of the "Instalighters." We all know these folks - they are the ones that install several light bars - on the roof, behind the grill, maybe one in the rear, as well as pod lights, ditch lights, fog lights, and any other lights they can possibly fit on their vehicle. Then, whenever they take a photo - boom! - all the lights are…
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I never win anything. I think we all sort of feel that way when it comes to raffles and drawings. I must have entered hundreds of them when I was younger - never winning a single one. Eventually, I gave up even throwing my name into the hat at all - it just wasn't worth my time (or giving away my email address and other random personal information that they usually asked for). But the other day, I was browsing around the internet - as one does - and I stumbled on a giveaway of some Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport…
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In this photo, note the clearly defined beams of the fogs and Hellas, with a nice transitional area between the two. Additionally, note how much yellow light reaches the mountainside some quarter-mile away.
TL;DR - I love these lights.
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I'm not as happy with the HIDs in the Hellas as I was when I initially installed them.
TL;DR - My Hella's are working less and less now; I'm biding my time until the end of the year, when I hear that Diode Dynamics may have something fun coming.
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TL;DR - I need to figure out why my Hella's don't come on all the time. Low priority though for me right now.
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LED headlights on the left; upgraded halogens on the right. Both color and light output are improved!
TL;DR - I ditched the LEDs for high wattage halogens and couldn't be happier. Works great in all conditions.
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If you've been following along for the last couple of months, you'll know that after 18 years of running my original halogen headlight bulbs, I finally had enough of running blind at night and replaced them with some LEDs - allowing me to see again! Now, after a mere 6 weeks - and really, within two weeks of the switch - I'm changing it up again. I knew as soon as I installed the BEAMTECH H4 LED Headlights that I had some reservations - mostly around the much-bluer-than-halogen light color that was emitted from the housings. It turns out, however,…
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19 years, 1 month, 28 days. That's how long it's been since my first mod to the truck - when I disabled my daytime running lights (DRLs) - so that I wouldn't have to replace my headlights so often . OK, that, among other reasons. Anyway, I thought the DRL disable mod had been working just fine for the last 18 years - that is, until I went and made my Hella 700FF offroad lights turn on-and-off with my hi-beams. That mostly worked, except that - for some reason I didn't understand at the time - when the Hellas were set to…
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For years now, I've felt like the headlights on my 1st gen Tacoma left a little something to be desired. More than a little something, really. Some of it is my fault - the bulbs I have installed are over 20 years old, surely not as bright as they once were - but it seems to me that 1998-2000 Tacomas have always had the crappiest of the 1st gen headlights. Initially, I added Hella 500FFs to the front bumper to solve this problem. They were great until they got destroyed when I hit a deer for the first time. I…
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TL;DR - the headlights are better, but I still have work to do to make them work well in inclement weather.
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It's no secret that the the quickest way to massive numbers of broverlanding points is by adding more lights. Light bars, rock lights, ditch lights, reverse lights, amber lights, raptor lights, camp lights, interior LED lights - you name it, and you can drop a few hundreds or thousands of dollars to make your truck look lit - literally - in daytime photos. That's not what this mod is about. I mean, it's about auxiliary lights, but it's about how to make them more functional. Specifically, how to make it so that extra light can be switched by both your…
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September 2016. When I initially mentioned to Dad that I was going to get a winch and plate bumper, he had two questions for me. How's that going to be for your gas mileage? You gonna get some more lights? Hella's or PIAA's? Little did he know that I'd already purchased some Hella 500's, and they were sitting in the dining room collecting dust. I mean, who wouldn't buy some Hella's, knowing that a new bumper was coming in 6 months, right? Plus, they were a great deal on Amazon (well, they were the same price as always). I ignored…
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March 20 - April 28, 2016 Courtesy lights are those little lights around the car that turn on when you open your doors. They generally include the dome light, some door lights, that kind of thing. Now, I know what you're thinking - "How in the world does disabling the courtesy lights take five and a half weeks?" Electricity. And negative switching. For years, I've wanted a way to disable the courtesy lights - mostly so that when camping, the doors can stay open without having to worry that the battery will run down. But of course, finding the right…
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August 1, 2001. While the ABS brakes may have been a lucky break (in certain on-road situations), one thing I wasn't going to put up with were the daytime running lights (DRL) that I couldn't turn off. Three things bugged me: First, what if I wanted to drive around a campground with just my parking lights on, so as to not disturb other campers. Second, they used the same bulbs as my headlights, and I didn't want to have to pony up $3 too often. And lastly, just imagine what they'd do to my gas mileage. I mean sure, it…
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