New 2018 Tacoma - Need fog light recommendations

Long tabs outward.

 

I second the no Leds in the halogen housing - they will blind oncoming traffic.

I also recommend the Nokyas they have a really nice amber color and work wonderfully.

 

@squarenone those rigid ambers are sweet.

 

That is the opposite of what the KC tech support guy told me today. He says long tabs toward the centreline of the vehicle. Shrug. I am not going to worry about it, they seem to be doing the job and I am pretty sure only I am going to see the 3-4 mm gap. Nothing in that space that can't get wet, water will just drain out the drain hole.

 

I was told the same. So how did you install yours? Mine can only be installed with the long tabs outward.

I’m hoping @Taylor@KC HiLiTES can chime in to clear this all for us. Tagged him in a previous post a week ago but so far he has not responded.

 

I don't actually remember but I think I have the long tabs toward the longitudinal centreline of the truck. When I looked at the back of the housing, I saw the words "driver" and "passenger" with a fastener hole near each word. I put the one where the silver/aluminum fastener was nearest the word "driver," on the driver's side. But I think the lights may have been designed for the 2nd gen, because the pics in the instructions were of a 2nd gen truck, so who knows.

What makes me think I have them installed wrong, is that there is a gap measured parallel to the longitudinal centreline of the truck, between the plane of the lens and the plane of the plastic surround opening, on the sides nearest the fenders. The gap is around 3-4 mm and is mildly annoying. If I get motivated to take a pic tomorrow I will try to post it.

KC needs to up their game on instructions for sure.

 

KCs are good for the money

 

Yes, they were originally designed for the 2nd gen Tacoma. I suspect yours were also installed with the long tabs outward, unless there are variations on how they make them. I tried but there was no way they can be installed on the 3rd gen with the long tabs directed towards the center of the vehicle.

 

Just finished installing mine a couple days ago.... the short tabs face towards the middle. The aim/adjustment screw is located at the bottom when installed on the correct side.

 

Yes, same as mine. Short tabs towards the middle and long tabs outward.

 

Hey guys!

I am pretty sure you 3rd gens have it correct on the short tabs inside and long tabs facing the tires. That said, I've never actually installed these (or been there for an install) on a 3rd gen. Let me chat with some folks tomorrow and talk to our employee whose 3rd gen stock bumper we still have but removed from the vehicle.

@mrCanoehead who did you talk to? Our Customer Sevice team is small. Either way it's great to have these conversations so I know exactly what needs improving. Our install directions are officially on my list for review. Thank you!

 

Any night shots by any chance?

 

Hard to tell from the pic which way the tabs face, but I think mine are long tabs toward centreline after all. I ain't removing the lights to check because of the risk of dropping that bloody screw again.

You can see the word "driver" molded into the plastic in the picture. It is near bottom right of the back face of the light as shown in the pic. That pic is of the driver's side light.

Gap seems to be around 3.7 mm on the side closest to vehicle longitudinal centreline (gap pic is of passenger side light). Taylor@KC HiLiTES Do not recall to whom I spoke, I think you just need to improve the instructions and make the tech support guys aware as far as 3rd gen goes.

 

You've got that installed on the right side, but to me looking at those pictures, the bottom short tab isn't inserted into the slot all the way, causing the long tab you secure with a screw to not sit all the way towards the midline. On mine, the screw is pretty much centered in the slotted hole of the long tab, and your picture seems to show it is situated not centered.

 

You definitely have the long tabs outward based on the first photo but the short tabs look like they are not inserted fully into the slots.

 

Hey CrashnBurn, can you explain the benefit of amber fogs? Is this just a preference or do they actually provide some advantages over whiter/bluer lights?

 

Selective yellow is best. Some mistakenly refer to selective yellow as amber, but there is also amber light. It largely comes down to how your eyes process light, and that human vision actually does poorly with high color temperature light. While knowledgable articles specifically mention refraction off rain/snow/fog back to the driver isn't a significant issue, I've noticed that running selective yellow/amber produce much less back scatter than a whiter fog. Selective yellow offers much higher output intensity and increased visibility over true amber as well. It is somewhat difficult to explain, but using lower color temp lights is less straining, and more comfortable to the eyes to drive in.

Here is an article from Daniel Stern on the subject
https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/light_color.html

 

Planning on getting the Rigid Amber covers for my Pro fogs. Curious if there is a way to double stack fog lights for higher output without blinding oncoming drivers.

 

The D-series takes about a 50% loss in output using the covers. See my post #186 here. Going with Rigids selective yellow by comparison takes only a 20% loss. See my post #261 here. The OEM setup does look sharp, but the D-series SAE pods are nearly 2x the output of the Pro Rigids. Rigid is launching the new 360 Series fogs this month, designed to mount in the OEM location (non-Pro), boosting the output an additional 76% over their existing D-series fogs.

I haven't seen anyone stack the fogs in the Pro location, but it looks like they might fit size wise. I like your stealth D-series in the lower grill. What did you use to mount it?

 

So basically the benefits of the amber are negated due to the compromised output with the filter on?

The setup isn't mine, but Ill check where I found it. If i remember correctly he either used the two light bar brackets or retrofitted something off of a UTV.