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,…
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…
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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…
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TL;DR - I love these lights. I had the opportunity to use the fogs for the first time on my Rady Can't Wait trip to British Columbia, Canada. All I can say is wow. I had no idea what I was missing, and quite frankly, I figured that the install…
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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. I originally thought that my HIDs in the 7" Hella 700s were not turning on because there was a…
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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. I noticed on this last trip (or at least recently) that the Hella's - into which I installed HIDs - don't always come on when power is…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - Bulbs burn out. Replace them and move on. I noticed on this trip that my passenger rear indicator wasn't working when I got out of the Tacoma to take a photo of it in the middle of the highway as I descended into the Valley of Gods. I'd…
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TL;DR - I ditched the LEDs for high wattage halogens and couldn't be happier. Works great in all conditions. As I noted in the previous rig review - I generally liked the LED headlights - more than I thought anyway - but had some issues with them when it came…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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. I tweaked the headlights in several ways after returning from The 3C Trip - I replaced the headlight bulbs with LEDs, upgraded the Hella 700s with HIDs, and fixed…
Leave a CommentTL;DR - My forward facing lights suck - I need brighter headlights, at least. I've not liked my headlights for a long time; they are extremely dim. I believe that part of this is inherent to '98-'00 Tacomas - they all seem to have low light output and no good…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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