Good mod: Hella 80/100 watt H4s in my '06 Taco

asteffes

Explorer
I installed Hella 80/100 watt H4 bulbs into my '06 Taco tonight. Very nice improvement in lighting. The beam pattern is very full with a more defined, sharper cutoff. The light color is pretty stock-like, just brighter - no super white or blueish tint at all. Stock wiring seems to hold up fine - no hot wires or other signs of excessive load on the system. Not bad for about $25 shipped from rallylights.com. :)
 

goodtimes

Expedition Poseur
Just be sure to keep your headlight lenses clean. Dirty lenses cause the light to reflect off into undesired areas.....like into oncoming traffic. The brighter the bulb, the worse the effect is.
 

RAM5500 CAMPERTHING

OG Portal Member #183
Hey Adam

Congrats on the light upgrade! I just did the HIR Bulb and Harness upgrade on my FZJ and couldnt be happier!

A Few notes though:

Be carefull with those lights. I had them in my 99 Taco and they melted some of the headlight housing and one of the plugs in the harness(used them on high A LOT) . Not sure in the difference between the 99 and 06, but be careful with them and keep an eye on the plugs and harness!

I agree they were a 200% improvement over stock and worked great for awhile!

I will say though, that mine were on high beams ALOT (Which also contributed to the heat of them) when driving on back roads!

Just keep an eye on things!
 
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asteffes

Explorer
I'm considering a harness upgrade, too, just to ensure long-term reliability. I'm going to check the wires several more times after driving with the lights on for awhile, to see if things are getting too hot. The first trip out seemed to go fine, though.
 

asteffes

Explorer
So during some more driving this weekend, I checked on the lights several times to see if the wiring or connectors were heating up. I drove with the lights on for varying amounts of time, anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour and a half, almost 100% low beams, and checked each time I stopped.

I noticed no significant heat from the wires or the connectors. The lenses felt a little warm after stopping for a minute with the lights on, but I attribute some of that to infrared radiation and not simply from the bulbs getting hotter than usual.

I was reading some pieces on lighting that suggested the quality bulbs have better insulation between capsule and base, preventing excess heat from reaching the connectors. I'm not sure if this is true but it's an interesting idea. The stock wiring isn't really any lighter than the wiring that comes with the Hella Rallye 4000 lamps I purchased (two 100 watt lamps in the kit with a Hella-made wiring harness.) My gut feeling is that the wiring should hold up fine.
 

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