The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Good point on the white. I’ll be looking to go amber.

 

In that case, I would recommend the selective yellow instead. KCs produce great amber color, with greater spectrum frequency coverage and larger area coverage than the amber Morimotos, but the light intensity is significantly lower than that of the Rigid selective yellow fogs. This comparison is of the D-Series, not the 360s:

 

Sorry. Meant to say yellow. Overall performance numbers will be my largest deciding factor, with color hue being secondary but still a factor.

If the BD had an appropriate fog level cutoff, they’d be perfect IMHO. Love the color, love the look. Just too much throw all over, specifically up, for a fog light.

 

Curious to see how the 360s turn out. Also, was discussing LED fogs in a Facebook group when the D series was mentioned. I know @crashnburn80 did the freezer test, but not sure how they hold up in real slushy conditions. This guy was not too impressed.

 

Is that the white with a cover or selective yellow pictured? My selective yellow set get hot even in cold weather.

 

Problem with the freezer test is it doesn't continually add more snow/ice like many real world conditions. The Rigid SAE D-series selective yellow should do better as the actual lens self heats from filtration, unlike the white version where the lens does not get hot and relies on radiated heat from the body. The Rigid SAE D-series selective yellow are the hottest lens LED fog I am aware of. Now this isn't to say they will not fall victim to snow/icing, just that of all the LED fogs on the market, they stand the best chance. The 360s will likely not be as hot at the lens, because the LEDs being used are warmer in color, which makes then lens more efficient in filtration to hit selective yellow, and a more efficient filtration means higher output but also less heat. Similar how the Baja's 'SAE' did not get as hot at the lens as the Rigid SAEs, because Bajas 5000k white LEDs were warmer in them than Rigid's, so the filtration was more efficient meaning less losses translated to heat.

Ideally there should be an electrically heated lens. Trucklite (Rigid's parent corp) and J.W. Speaker make heated lens LED headlight products, among a small handful of others. I've mentioned to several companies they need to make a heated LED fog, for those of us in snowy climates but the idea does not seem to get much traction. Doesn't help that many of these manufactures are based in hot southern climates.

Looks like the owner of the pictured Taco also made the mistake of LED headlights.

 

I just need to rig up some high pressure spray nozzles to my rock lights and fogs night wheeling when they are covered with mud and muck doesn't help any at all

 

All good points. I'm not sure exactly which lights he has on his truck.

 

He has HID for his lows. And I believe PIAA halogen for his high beams. He's not running any LED lights now, since he lives in Colorado.

 

HIDs also don't do a great job of producing adequate heat for cold weather climates either. My favorite quote from an industry professional on PIAA products, was that their number one product is bulk shrink wrap.

 

Well he and most others have no issue with the HID not melting snow off the headlights.. You know your stuff. Not trying to argue at all. Love reading all of your testing. But that is definitely some misinformation.

 

HIDs do better than LED headlights in snow for sure. I admittedly did not do HID lens temp readings on the Tacoma housings, perhaps that is something I could add, but I've also seen HID conversion headlights ice over.

 

Maybe depends on the quality or brand of the bulbs. I'm pretty certain the morimoto elite bulbs which are Philips. Unsure of model number, do produce quite a bit of heat. In both 35w and the 50w

 

My apology. Just asked him. And he is using halogen for his low beams.

 

It isn't the bulb, it is the ballast. A quality ballast like a Japanese made Denso unit will actually be 35w. A 35w ballast will be very efficient, and produce the lowest amount of heat for an HID bulb. You get in these China made ballasts by aftermarket companies and quality is all over the map. I've tested '35w ballasts' that were actually much higher, and they were name brand aftermarket. As you increase wattage over the 35w mark, there is rapid diminishing returns, meaning the bulbs only produce a little more light but start producing a lot more heat, which is really bad for bulb life. So running lower quality over-spec ballasts will actually make your bulbs run hotter and therefore would do better in preventing lens icing. Overdriving the ballast can be a quality control issue, but I also suspect it is an attempt for the Chinese bulbs to be driven to higher output to try an match the output of a legitimate German made HID, which they still don't. No reputable lighting manufacture offers 55w HIDs because of that diminishing return. 55w HID bulbs do not exist. You end up with kits being sold way overdriving a 35w HID bulb and gain some more light but a disproportionately ridiculous amount more heat, while trashing bulb life. This is a hack upsell.

Pretty sticky snow if the headlights look like that running halogens. LED lights stand no chance there.

 

They've had some pretty wet snow lately.

 

Would be interesting to see some testing results. Especially for those in the colder climates for winter driving.

 

I'll see about adding lens temp across all 3 technologies to the 3rd gen headlight thread. It is a valid issue that would be good to have data on. Over here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

As for your friend, they should consider an H9 swap, as covered in the above thread. The H9s will run roughly 20% hotter for better icing resistance and cold weather performance.

 

Thank you sir. Will share this with him.

 

i saw these years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekbDLY_cWYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2NeFoMbaa8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfkLTePzYaA