Cali Raised light bar vs. fog lights

Hey folks, quick question. I’m about to pull the trigger on either the Cali Raised upper grill mount light bar combo or the fog light combo for a specific purpose. I’m driving down to the Lower 48 from Alaska via the ALCAN in November and I’m looking for upgraded lights to hopefully mitigate some risk. I was wondering which you fine people would recommend? Thanks!

 

I went with the combo. My dad got the same for his tundra. We love them. Really come in handy on our drives to Colorado. Good spot 100+ yards away and a good flood to the side when you need to see deer and other critters

 

Thanks dude, just to clarify, the light bar combo?

 

Top to bottom
Stock low beam
Stock Low beam + Rigid sae fogs
Low beam + fogs + Cali Raised hidden lower grill led light bar combo beam

 

Dude, I think I saw your post about this a few days again when I doing research for a company in another thread. Sadly, budget constraints got me limited to one set or the other so I think I’m gonna go with the upper grill light bar. Again, I really appreciate the feedback!

 

Caliraised all day. Great light output. Customer service is awesome.

 

Very nice! Would you go with the lower mount again or would you do the upper grill mount?

 

IMO the lower mount fits perfect and still projects pretty good light at low to moderate speed. Not blocked out by as much material as the upper and I'm not sure if the upper interferes with the TSS or not, but it looks like it might

 

Oof, I’m looking to be doing highway driving. That’d be some shit, spend the $$ on a light bar and overdrive the beam doing 60 . Would that be an issue with the fogs as well you think? I haven’t had issues over driving the stock ones till I hit about 65 or so, at least that I’ve noticed.

 

Should not be an issue on the highway but if doing 60+ offroad then a higher mounted roof bar would be better. Biggest issue with the bar vs fogs on highway is the bar will blind the shit out of people if you do not turn it off fast enough. It also may lead to a traffic stop if you run across a cop with it on on the highway. I use my fogs more for highway driving because they wont blind people and they do project a good bit out to the side to give me a hair more reaction time if there is game along the road etc.

 

If this is for highway use, you really should go with an SAE compliant light(s). No Caliraised lights meet this compliance unfortunately. You will probably blind some people and get pulled over on a drive that long with anything non SAE on highway.

I have the Rigid SAE fogs and they are amazing on dark roads for illuminating the lines and sides of the road where deer and what not can jump out. The basically fill in the gaps that your headlights don't. I also upgraded my low beams to H9 bulbs and that helps a ton too (for only about $20 and some Dremel work). Ping @crashnburn80 for how to do it.

Rigid also has an SAE light bar line. Honestly the SAE stuff is more expensive but if you are after safety and not getting an expensive ticket, it's well worth the money for highway uses.

Just my 2 cents though.

 

Ok, sounds like I’ll be looking into the fog lights. I definitely don’t want to spoil my ticketless driving history because of something as asinine as lights, however it doesn’t appear as though Alaska has a requirement for that. At least through cursory research. I don’t trail ride at night either so I don’t really think a light bar would be as multi functional as I initially thought. Haha, I’m super not confident with a dremel though. I’ll check out his stuff though. If it’s not too bad I’ll look into it.

 

@sidetracked has really good pricing on the full rigid sae fog kit
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/killer-deals-on-rigid-lights.396993/page-54

 

I suggest reviewing this before buying fogs, if you actually want fogs. It shows what real fog patterns looks like vs Cali spots in the fog position.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

Check this out for headlights, specifically see post #2 for more info on halogen upgrades:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

Aux driving lights/light bars are ok, just recognize you cannot use then when other vehicles are ahead of you, even way ahead of you, which can really limit their practical use for the street. Even 'SAE Driving lightbars' are still a high beam pattern and the same rule applies. If you are in a remote area with no-one else though, aux driving lights/light bars can be very handy. Again pattern choice is important, as demonstrated in the fog thread.

 

Yeah it sounds like some SAE fog lights and a low beam headlight upgrade would be your best bet. I'm not sure about Alaska, but I know of at least a few of the states really go after people with light bars especially. In CA you can event get tickets for one if it's turned off (it's supposed to be covered with an opaque cover at all times on highway).

Also the Dremel work is super easy! I think when I did my H9 bubs I couldn't find my Dremel so I went to town with a metal file and that even worked fine. Check out all @crashnburn80 threads on here. He is the lighting guru around here in my opinion. Super helpful info!

Good news is there are quite a few SAE compliant lights out there for the stock Fog location that are a wide range of prices to fit your budget.

 

Why?

Faster than the speed of light?

Not trying to be a smarta$$ but I'm having trouble understanding these comments. Please help the dumbest kid in school.

 

Did the Philips H9 bulbs for low beams ($7 each), modified the recommended wiring extension ($6), and Toyota OEM LED fogs with black bezel ($120 pair) as recommended by @crashnburn80 threads above.

Both huge improvements over OEM in terms of actually seeing down the road, simple install, great values. H9 bulbs are already in the OEM highs so flipping those on with same bulbs in lows at the same color temp is sweet.

Still might add a bar at some point but fixed what was already in place for <$150. And all legal, even in State of Jefferson! If you use your fogs a lot, appears there are better ones for more $ with a taller pattern and/or more functional color for inclement weather.

 

Higher mounted lights give better perspective and cast less shadows. Driving distance lights should be mounted at least similar in height to the headlights. Many put them in the lower grill with a light bar, which is less effective than an elevated position. Roof mounting though can have issues with hood glare which reduces your ability to see distance at night.

Overdriving your lights is when you are covering the distance they illuminate in less time than you would be able to safely react to something they illuminated.

For an extreme example, let’s say your lights project 50ft, and you are going 70mph, 100ft/sec) at night. You cover the distance your lights illuminate in 0.5 seconds. By the time your lights illuminated an object in front of you, you have 0.5s till you hit it. You are overdriving your lights as your speed is too high for the distance your lights illuminate to have time to react. The example is extreme, but shows the concept. Your lights need to project far enough, with enough intensity, to provide you with visibility to have adequate time to safely navigate your truck.

 

Thanks, yeah hit me up if you want a quote on rigids.

 

I’m just leaving work, gimme a few to reply to this. Also, that thread basically took two hours to read, holy shit