The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Thank you!

I figured the roof rack would introduce glare and harm night vision, maybe headache rack is the best option if the bumper mounts are not enough.

 

Mounting further back certainly eliminates the hood glare vs windshield mount, though it also reduces some of the angled down light output that is helpful for reducing shadows. I've seen some shelf type light shields to go under the light bar to help reduce hood glare. And the Pro6 bar offers much less glare as the LEDs are rear facing into the reflector giving much better light control with tighter pattern and less light spill than forward facing light bars, which reduces hood glare over standard light bars without needing any kind of shielding mechanism.

 

Thank you, You rock!

 

Is anyone running these?

 

Can’t be 100% certain but that kinda looks like the first set I had before my KC’s. They eventually fogged up with condensation.

 

I got them for my wife's 4Runner. Awesome fogs for the money and better than the Morimotos. Crash test these in the OP.

 

Covered here in post #733: Toyota LED fogs

 

Test fitting the Rigid Selective Yellow fogs with Rago mounts. Initial night output tests are exceptionally promising.

 

Well I gotta steal of a deal on a set if baja sae's. Wanted the rigid but couldn't pass this deal up. Hopefully the mounts are the same. I know they are not as good as the rigid but are definitely better than my halogens. Still cant wait for crashnburn shots with the selective rigids. On another note I swapped the clear covers off my dually d2 to amber covers and it killed the light output by 60% or more.

 

Can you post some output pics after install?

 

Yeah, I should have them on my the weekend if I get time. 12 hour shifts are whooping me right now. If I dont get any shots after I install I'll get some on my way in to work one day. I'll try to get some before and after, I dont have a Toyota but my 13 f150 has the Hids factory. Love them but the halogen fogs lack, a lot. I was saving up for a set of rigids but when this guy got a steal on a pre runner bumper and got a onx6 bar I jokingly offered a number for the lights and he took it. Now just to replace my dually d2 with squadron pros in combo.

 

looking into getting the BAJA Designs SAE amber fogs for my taco, i was going to get the sports before i found out that they make the SAE's. because of the strict laws here in Louisiana i will go with the SAE's, but are they really worth the high $$$? they seem a bit pricey to me. worth it?

 

Theres a tundra forum where a guy shows the difference between drl, the factory led low beams, baha sae in amber, combo of low and baja sae, finally high beam leds. He locked his iphone so it wouldn't try to mess with the picture much. I need to mess with my phone to see if it can do the same. Usually if I take a picture of my cubes on they look dimmer on picture than in person.

 

Do you have the link for the Tundra pics?

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/baja-designs-squadron-sae-shipping-now.47506/page-3

Post 88 is the one I'm referring to.

 

This is derailing the thread a bit, but since the discussion has turned to roof-mounted bars: I'm really impressed with the Stage Series bars by Diode Dynamics. They're not nearly on the same echelon as the big boys mentioned here, but as far as "mid-range" bars go I think they're the top of their group. I tried (and promptly returned) a few bars in the same price bracket, for extremely poor optics and blinding hood glare unless I pointed them super high.

This is their 30" bar, set up along with Baja Designs S2s as ditch lights. It's set up on my 4Runner rack and the hood is only gently illuminated when switched on- not blinding glare like the others I tested.







Grill mount is more ideal- just mentioning it for others in case they insist on a roof bar. Apparently the secret sauce is in their use of TIR (total internal reflection) optics, which are used to control scatter. It's a very efficient output for the size, consumption, and price.

@crashnburn80 I'm not sure if you've seen other instances of TIR in other consumer offroad lighting? I'm out of my Tacoma and into a 4Runner now, but you're clearly the most thorough resource on the boards. Appreciate your contributions.

 

That is a nice clean low profile look! I have not tried the Diode Dynamics TIR bar. While I am familiar with many bars, I have not tested or spent time researching/testing light bars in general, though I have had many ask and several vendors offer to loan products. Something I may consider in the future.

But as to your experience, yes a TIR designed bar will produce much less hood glare because it significantly reduces/eliminates the uncontrolled forward escaping light typical in most light bar/pod style products. The best way to control light is to bounce it off a reflector. A TIR unit operates similar to a reflector headlamp where there is a cap over the light source to eliminate stray light and make sure the light escaping is going in the direction desired or bounced off a reflector to go in the direction desired. Alternatively you can aim the LED backward into the reflector like KC and optimize the reflector design to utilize 100% of the light rather than caping the light source, though that requires a much larger assembly. Lastly you can use a projector to block the undesired light above a cut off, but projector designs are the least efficient.

Here is a graphics showing how TIR is different than standard light bars for others.

 

They also offer SAE compliant "mini-bars".

Although these wouldn't really fall into the same category as stock fog-bucket lights. They'd have to be a custom install or steel bumper mount.

Thanks for your input!

 

Yep, Rigid and others offer the same in both J581 high beam and J583 fog. You just need to use a hidden light bar mount on the crash bars linked with a universal flat bar light mount to link them to provide a mounting platform spanning the lower valence.

 

how are you liking these? almost bought a pair of the BD SAE'S but then I saw this and it's beautiful. seriously contemplating doing this exact same thing.