The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

@Diode Dynamics
Any chance of a group buy for TacomaWorld?

 

Amber Pros showed up. Hoping to install today, but I may have to deal with the water heater elements tonight.

 

I misunderstood your previous statement as relating to some other product of DD. I went back to your website and read the warranty page, and you are correct. The warranty is clearly written. It even acknowledges that your product may be installed and used in a way that requires some modification. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

I've been burned by this warranty for the "lifetime of the product" noise before, and it's a sore spot.

 

Looking forward to seeing some pictures of these after install. I've been leaning towards these as well, but haven't pulled the trigger on any.

 

@crashnburn80: So with what you know up to now and all things considered, would you on your own truck go with Rigid D, Rigid 360, or DD SS3 pro? I've been leaning towards 360, waiting for a mounting bracket. But output of rigid D and recent DD SS3s info has me questioning. Thanks for any opinion you can provide.

Also thank you for all your work on this. I've read this thread over months from the beginning and am embarrassed about how much I've read about fog lights. But nice to see an issue truly and expertly assessed.

 

This was my struggle as well. I wanted the BD fogs until that shitshow was revealed. I love the look of the 360s, but decided to save some money and buy the ss3 pros. Based on initial testing they seem to be on par, if not overpowering the competition.

 

Based on the initial review, kind of wish I had saved some money and gone with the sport option. Those are some good lux numbers all around. Kind of what I was hoping to see from the BD SAE’s. cant imagine how bright the clears actually are, if the yellows are this intense.
thanks again Crashnburn80.

 

Are these the PRO or Sport models?

 

This has me wondering if I should return my 6000K driving lights for some yellows, and then do the lens swap when they become available...

 

I have the yellow sports, just been waiting on the lenses. Seems like this will be popular, and we can always switch back to yellow if we want. Best of both worlds.

 

how do you like them? Seem to out-perform stock fogs well?

 

I haven’t even installed yet. I was planning on doing the lense swap first. Just waiting on diode Dynamics to release the lenses.

 

Can you explain the lens swap? This is placing the clear lenses on the yellow fog assembly? I’m lost beyond this.

 

Yes. The yellow SS3 uses a 4000k led so if you swap over a clear lense on the yellow fog, you will have a 4000k light color. Post #2388 shows this tested. @Diode Dynamics said the different lenses will be available soon.

 

Thanks. It sounded like it was that simple but for some reason I thought the lights were part of the lenses, like a whole unit. That clears it up.

 

I am torn between the Sport and the Pros, I think the Sport will be better for daily driving and power consumption. Is there a massive visual difference in lighting ability between the two (hard to tell on your garage door)? Id rather have something that is not annoying, but still capable. Here in Idaho we get some nasty weather at times and the fog lighting really helps. Just want to make sure I get the right thing and not regret it. The $120 difference seems pretty large between the two.

 

This lean manufacturing technique is called Poka-Yoke (Japanese for mistake-proofing) and is an excellent demonstration of design for manufacturability. By designing the parts so that they fit in only one orientation, you build quality control right into the process and reduce the need for extra checks (is the part installed in the correct orientation?). Car manufacturers especially have found value in parts designed to only fit one way, as it eliminates errors and waste inherent to production. It also helps the consumer if they decide to modify or swap parts later. Excellent homework @Diode Dynamics !

 

Being an automotive QC engineer, I live with poka-yokes everyday. It does make life easier.

 

Rigid's 360 3rd Gen mounting brackets are launching next week, Jan 15!

I presently run the Rigid SAE D-series in selective yellow, but my 2015 uses angled mounts that aim slightly toward the sides, providing wider area coverage. The D-series have a narrower width pattern than the 360s and SS3 Pros and in a direct forward facing mount as used on a 3rd Gen, the area in front of the truck will be illuminated very well, but you will lack the shoulder illumination provided by other offerings. The purpose of a fog is to illuminate the shoulders so you can find the edges of the roadway in poor weather conditions, so they should illuminate wider than the headlights, which you will not get with the D-series in a forward facing position. I intend to redo this test comparing the SS3 Pros to my current side Rago angled mount D-series and determine what works best on my truck for my use.

The SS3 Pros are higher intensity output than the 360s, with a wider area pattern. The 360s do offer a slightly taller pattern and much sharper cut offs than the SS3 Pros, though I don't think there is much benefit to the pattern being much taller as appropriately aimed that extra illumination height falls below the hood line where you cannot see it anyway. The 360s also have a very nice OEM style screw aiming adjustment, whereas the SS3s are a very basic hinge where you manually point the lights. Not a big deal once adjusted though.

By the specs the white version is about 10% brighter, which actually is an impressive low loss. Baja lost about 15% and Rigid about 20% because as you step up the LED color temp the filtration losses to correct it back down to the selective yellow chromaticity window are greater. And since Diode Dynamics uses the lowest color temp LED at 4000k for their yellow lights, they have the lowest filtration loss in correcting to selective yellow.

The 4000k white is a fantastic color, I would far prefer it over 6000k for driving lights. Depending on your setup you could then also seasonally switch out to yellow driving lights for poor weather if desired.

I wouldn't worry about power consumption, even the Pros 36w/ea is much less than the stock TRD fogs drawing 55w/ea. Diode Dynamics specs about 10% difference between Sport and Pro in peak intensity, my initial rough measurements with a color calibrated LED light meter were closer to 25% difference. I'll repeat the measurements with a more accurate digital spectrometer. The Pros do not look 'massively' brighter in intensity. The big difference between the two is the pattern height, where the Pros have a noticeably taller pattern. The Sports have sharper cut offs, and the Pros offer significantly more heat to fight icing in cold weather. The Sports will still be quiet a bit higher in intensity than the stock TRD fogs, so either one will be an improvement over stock. For poor weather I would get the selective yellow fogs, and if you want white later get the clear fog lens for 4000k.

 

Please excuse the dumb questions, but is it possible to swap the OEM Rigid LED lights with the SS3 pros? We get a lot of fog here and I'd really like to get yellow fogs. Assuming it is possible, how difficult is the swap?