I emailed
Daniel Stern Lighting asking about recommendations here is the detailed response. I am not affiliated with the site just thought Id pass along.
Cliff notes version:
J.W. Speaker is the best option if you can afford it. Otherwise dont buy cheap LEDs.
My take: if you use his shopping list you are in for ~$700 so why not just save up the different and get the J.W. Speakers?
Response below:
The original headlamps are sealed beams. No matter what
brand or when made, these are primitive and barely
marginally adequate. They produce a dim, narrow, brownish
tunnel of poorly-focused light, very little light on the
road surface, no side spill, and a great deal of upward
stray light that causes backdazzle in bad weather. You can
do much better than these, but you have to be picky and shop
carefully because most of what's on the market is junk
(though all of it is advertised as an "upgrade").
If you want the top-of-the-heap option, it's these
American-made LED headlamps, which are phenomenally good:
Amazon product ASIN B01N21IYHBand
Amazon product ASIN B01N9QTCJA(As you can see, they come in low beam and high beam, chrome
and black, and with or without lens heater -- you'd want the
heated-lens version if you drive through sloppy winter
conditions where a non-heated lens would tend to collect
snow and slush.)
A step down from those is these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I5VQSOM/?tag=2402507-20 (low beam)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I5VJUCO/?tag=2402507-20 (high beam)
No heated lens available.
EIther of these will drop right in place of the sealed
beams, and won't require relays or any wiring modifications
(power consumption lower than even the weak sealed beams).
They are not cheap in any sense of the word; this,
especially the JW Speaker item, is a commercial-grade
headlamp popular with over-the-road truckers and bus fleet
owners. They work and hold up extremely well. But they also
cost a lot of money! You'll see a whole lot of imitations of
these products, including presentations right on the Amazon
pages. JUNK, all of it, do not buy.
If that much money isn't in the budget for headlamps, then
the shopping list looks like this:
Cibie high/low beam ($189/pair) and Koito-Stanley high-beam
($168/pair) parabolic-reflector replaceable-bulb halogen
headlamp units
Tungsram +120 precision-focus, ultra high luminance 60/55w
high/low beam ($43.18/pair) and high-beam ($35.18/pair) bulbs
All of this equipment will operate safely (i.e., no fires or
other such badness) on the unmodified stock wiring, though
you will need a pair of adapter pigtails ($52.80/pair) for
the outboard lamps.
If you want maximum output, put in a relay harness. You've
got two options for how to do it. Toyota's headlamp
circuitry is sort of from another planet, i.e., it's
different and more complex than other makers' circuits for
no discernible reason, it's just the way they chose to do
it. This somewhat complicates the installation of relays,
because if you do it the usual way you'll get problems: your
high beam indicator light on the dash won't work properly
and you'll sometimes have difficulty switching from low to
high or high to low beam. Specifically, you need to add some
diodes, resistors, and jumpers per the diagram attached to
this email. I can't supply the resistors or diodes as
separate parts, but you can get them locally or online from
an electronics supply house. "R1" is an 8-ohm, 2-watt
resistor. D1 and D2 are silicon diodes with at least 2-amp
rating and at least 50v peak inverse current rating.
The resistor and diodes will need to be purchased locally or
online; I don't supply them. Everything else is in the parts
kit RIK-4, which is $99.
The RIK is not a harness, but a _parts kit_ containing all
relays, brackets, terminal blocks, terminals, plugs,
sockets, fuses and fuseholders. You supply your own wire (or
your mechanic does) and use the parts from the kit to build
up your own wiring harness to take the workload off the
switches and bring full power to the lamps. Specific
instructions are provided, and the concept is explained at
Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply .
Parts are specially made premium-grade items (e.g. ceramic
headlamp sockets) that accept large-gauge wire; this is not
the "consumer grade" junk you can find at the parts store.
Or, I can have my harness builder custom build you a
ready-to-install harness assembly using the same components.
Cost for this option on your Toyota-built vehicle is $189
including all parts and build -- diodes and resistor and
all. You pick _either_ one relay kit _or_ one custom-built
harness to do the entire job. It costs more than the cheap,
failure-prone prefab harnesses because it is not a cheap,
failure-prone prefab harness. Installation is simple: you
run the marked wires to battery positive and to battery
negative, snap the harness plug onto one of the vehicle's
original headlamp sockets, snap the harness sockets onto the
headlamps, and secure the cable runs and relays neatly out
of harm's way.
Either way, parts kit or built-up harness, the in-car
switches continue working normally, and you will not need to
cut or otherwise disturb any of the vehicle's original wires.
. A good set of H4’s with a fresh harness and some decent bulbs will be a major improvement. You could then mount some led driving lights on the bumper wired into the high beams for some extra light. Then you have a ton of options. The Baja designs squadron pros work great.
