The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

The KC G4s are pretty stellar. You do bring up a good point about foreground light though, as the foreground light from fogs reduces night distance vision. Fogs should only be used when needed, and not at high speed where distance vision is important.

 

Got some Rigid amber covers to try out thanks to @TRD2010SpeedwayBlue. Update coming in the near future on how the amber covers affect output with the Rigids.

 

Who says Rigid amber pod covers cannot mount on an 05-11 Tacoma. The adapter brackets just need a little convincing. @TRD2010SpeedwayBlue

 

Many people have asked for an amber fog comparison to the white fogs tested in the thread. Here are the Rigid pods with amber covers in testing.



Uncovered Rigids on top, amber cover on bottom


Output and color temp numbers


Spectrum comparison


All colored filters reduce light output, which is why I always recommend against color filtered headlight bulbs. You can see in the numbers here the output loss by using amber covers is near 50%. This number seems far higher than the advertised loss promoted by Rigid. However, the amber covers put output about on par with the OEM TRD Pro LED fogs. It is easy to see the loss in the spectrum comparison graph. The color is a very nice amber, coming in around 2700k in color temperature and should perform very well in poor weather conditions but does pay an output tax in overall output.

The original post was updated with an amber fog section.

 

Have a 2005-2011 Tacoma and looking to run amber LED fogs but no product exists to do so? KC G4s only fit 2012+ trucks, and the pod brackets for 2005-2011 fog pods will not allow fitment of pod covers to run amber.

Modify the pod brackets to work.

Barely enough room for the pod, not enough additional clearance for covers.


Covers do not fit.


Approximation of material that needs to be removed.


I always promote very high quality well built products. actually built their light mounts out of cold rolled USA steel, these things are built well enough to be suitable as armor. Who builds light mounts out of hard cold rolled steel?! Using the highest powered Dremel model available, I picked up a 5 pack of extra metal cutting Dremel discs for the task. Cutting the mounts consumed 4 cutting discs.


Raw test fit before finishing work.


Rough edges filed down, raw edges hand painted with anti-rust paint, assemblies resprayed in antirust paint for uniform appearance.


Done.

 

Silver can is just water for refreshment, real beer is served with dinner.

Don't go BD if you actually want to run your pods on the street.

 

Thanks for another great thread. I'm surprised that there's been no mention of the OEM Lexus LED fog lights which are a direct swap into our trucks.

They were inexpensive and the swap took only 5 minutes per side. They've got a nice cutoff and wide beam. So far I've been happy with them but I suspect they don't have quite as much effective output of the Rigids or G4s.

 

That is another option that was not covered. Being OEM I’d anticipate them having comparable output to the TRD Pro OEM LED fogs. I’m happy to test them and return them if someone wanted to send some my way.

 

I'd be happy to loan you mine for a few weeks. I just need to find time to get them off the truck and package them up to mail. PM me your shipping info.

 

PM sent, thanks! It would be a good addition to the thread.

 

@crashnburn80 In your summary you mention the Rigids being the most expensive or highest budget option at this time I can find the rigids for cheaper than the KC G4.
Thanks for the testing on the amber covers that was really informative.

 

That was taking into account the adapter to plates required to run them in the factory bumper, which the G4s do not require. But even that pricing can vary, it is easier to find deals on the Rigids than it is the KCs for sure.

 

Got ya! Yeah thats a good point is some of those adapters will make them just as or more expensive than the g4

 

As usual, one hell of a down-to-earth, scientific look at a subject with lots of misinformation attached to it. I have several friends who swear that amber actually increases the amount of usable light on the ground. As your Light Meter readings show, that's just not the case. Of course now the same friends are playing the "wavelength" card and saying that although the meter shows less light, the fact that it's a different color actually makes it easier for the eyes to see. Although I can buy some of that argument, the reduced light output more than makes up for it.

I'll leave my clear KC fogs just the way they are and keep the amber in my overhead warning lights where it's required by law here.

Keep up the good work!

 

Just because LEDs don't produce warmer temps efficiently doesn't mean they aren't desirable. LED technology may not favor warmer color temperatures, but amber-ish wavelengths do actually have some advantages as he points out earlier in the thread. The point, I think, was that most filters are inefficient and inherently reduce light transmission.

 

In this case it is the amber filters are highly inefficient. It would be very interesting to see how they compare to the actual amber light LED source of the Amber KC G4s.

 

Hmmmm do I smell an amber g4 vs rigid with filter shootout? So if the filters are that inefficient how do LED companies keep the efficiency up for amber lights like the G4s? Or do you suspect or theorize their efficiency will be hurt on a similar level to that of the filters?

 

Working on sourcing some amber G4s for comparison.

The issue in Rigids case with trying to turn a 7400k light source into a 2700k one is you are filtering out a bulk of the light output to get it down to that temp. I’d expect the closer in color the light source is to the filter color, the lower the output loss.

In the case of the amber G4s, the peak intensity is 580nm with equal slopes on both sides, which I believe will place the light in the 2600-2800k range. It is a design challenge to produce an amber LED while keeping the intensity up. Even so I would anticipate better efficiency than a 50% loss caused by a filter.

 

Damn nice write up. So glad I went with the G4s way back

 

@crashnburn80 If I could get your opinion on something. I currently have 9011 HR1 Phillips bulbs in my factory fog light location. I will be changing to a steel bumper that has two sets of the 3" cube cut outs. Would the OffRoadTown SAE pods that you tested be a good choice to replace the 9011 bulbs? I assume the SAE pods will not be as bright as the 9011 bulbs. I'm planning on having one set of cubes being J583 for the street and a set of spot lights for off road in the other cut outs. Have you tested any of the 3" spots for off road use or is there some that you would recommend? There are so many on Amazon but not too many get good reviews and its hard to tell if the specs are accurate. Thanks and keep up the good work. All of your lighting upgrades and reviews have been very helpful.