I been spending a lot of time on the tacoma world forum because of the most excellent SAE fog and driving light threads there. Seems like the Tacoma people have a very similar problem that us 15-20 F150 owners have. Stumbled upon a thread of a member there who fixed the issue and started his own little sideline business for those who wanted his solution. Best thing about this member, he is an active duty service member doing his part to protect our way of life and freedom around the world. If you go to his thread and want to support him just know that he just got sent out overseas and will not be able to fulfill any new orders until the end of the year. I told him he'd probably have a receptive audience from f150 owners and he asked me to make him a template. He was not able to make them like I asked before deploying. I wanted them to fit inside the cutout and I am going to whittle away at these until they do.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/...#post-27092149

 

Solution for a problem that doesn't exist...?

 

those who don't like the tailgate all lit up or those who put bright LED plate lights that wash out the back up camera may possibly disagree.

 

K...so...every single light in, on, inside and out on my truck is LED...Except the license plate lights...they're just regular old fashioned filament bulbs, and dimmer than the rest of the LED bulbs.

So maybe thats the reason???

So why are people putting bright led bulbs in the bumper then installing something to cover them up?

Seems redundant...people doing this must be government employees!

 

What exactly is the problem? Is it that the license plate lights are bright and aimed at the backup camera, therefore making it like any other camera pointed at a lightbulb/sun?

Not provoking anything -genuinely trying to understand what is happening.
If I wanted to mimic this, I could lay a flashlight on the step bumper, throw it in reverse and have a similar experiences to the problem I'm asking about?

 

Sometimes the reason to install LED bulbs is for longevity, not brightness. People that can't understand this are probably in management.......

 

I agree, sitting flush inside the housing is a better concept.

 

First lights I replaced were the cab mounted cargo lights, followed by the license plate lights.
Why?
Because I could not stand the **** yellow color of the factory bulbs!

 

I installed the morimoto led license plate lights, and yes they do tend to wash out the back up camera at night, but whatever... never really bothered me that much.

 

I just stuck a piece of electrical tape on the top portion of the light.