The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

You can see some initial thoughts in post #2369 below. Hope to have the gear back up and running this week.

 

It was pretty foggy leaving work on Friday night. Cycling through lights with a fixed exposure (should have chosen a lower ISO but oh well).

1. Everything off
2. H9 halogen low beams
3. Low beams + DD SS3 pro fogs
4. 9011 halogen high beams + low beams
5. Low beams, fogs, and Baja S2 ditch lights
6. Everything in 5 + DD 30" roof bar

These are a bit exaggerated due to the exposure setting I used, but you can see where high beams and roof mounted lighting become useless and even detrimental to seeing in heavy fog. Low beams + fog lights offer the most useful light in these conditions. After that, there's simply too much light being reflected back into the driver's eyes. I know that everyone here is saying "duh" but it still amazes me to see how many people on the road turn their high beams on to see "better" in the fog.

 

Back online.

Teaser of the yellow sport SS3 w/white lens swap in a chromaticity plot (one of the new features).

Edit! And database restored! Wasted $100s on new unnecessary equipment.

 

Is there a dimensional diagram for these and the bracket available? Rough is OK for now.

Edit: https://www.diodedynamics.com/stage-series-3-sae-dot-yellow-sport-standard-led-pod-pair.html has the bare light and generic mounting bracket shown. 3.3" high and wide, 2.4" deep, exclusive of connector.

I'm considering mounting on an non-Tacoma vehicle and knowing some rough dimensions before I dive behind the bumper cover would be helpful to know how much more than relieving the hole in the cover would be required. Yeah, pretty useless fogs with a 50 mm reflector design, even with a decent H11 in them. Been bugging me for 14 years and it finally seems as though there may be alternatives.

 

If you scroll through the pictures on the product pages there is a diagram of the pod and bracket

 

I have the sport ss3 yellows on my 4runner and crashnburn is right. There is some glare. I have the fogs pointed correctly and the road signs still light up yellowish. I walked about 30 feet in front of my vehicle and the fogs showed more glare than the headlights. I like to use them as supplemental lights since the 4runner headlights are garbage.

At this point I may go back to the toyota LED fogs I had on initially and put the flood pattern lenses on the ss3s when they become available. Then I will mount in the grill and use for offroad only.

 

So anyone with ss3 pros in a 3rd gen, does it seem like the pods adjusted downward enough to get the lights at the "correctly" aimed location?

I installed mine this morning and initial thoughts seem like I have them in a good spot. Here's a picture from inside my garage so not exactly the best wall for aiming, but I didn't want to deal with the cold this morning. I also have retrofits with rx350 projectors and 5500k HIDs for reference

Edit: here's a better picture ~5ft from the garage door

 

I'm more concerned about the daisy chain outlet with the burn marks and what looks like Rusty water stain runnning down the wall. Other than that I think you need to be a little further from the wall to get a proper aim.

 

I posted some comparison photos in an earlier post of thr ss3 pros in yellow and I was concerned about the glare. I've been messing with the adjustment quite a bit and it seems to be a fine line between lighting up freeway signs above you from 300ft away to not. After getting them dialed in they still slightly light up stop signs but it's very slight, and my headlights do the same thing. I have not been flashed once and have been running them quite a bit. I'd have to say they are okay for oncoming drivers if properly aimed.

Here's a picture of them at stevens Pass. After using them in snow/rain driving down highway 2 I don't think I can ever go back to not having decent fog lights, it jsut lights up so much more of the road in front of the truck.

 

gotta love rental properties and their abnormalities. This place is kind of a shithole, but I needed a place to go so here I am.

 

Looking at your first picture they seem a little too high. When I aimed my morimotos I did per the vendors instructions. 10 ft away, just below halogen cutoffs. I got it ball park drove around a bit and adjusted as I felt necessary. Of course mine are a totally different light and are much more shorter beam than the ss3's. Plus you have retrofits.

Not judging brother. Just looks very unsafe.

 

Your drivers side is higher than than your passenger. To get enough aiming distance you must push the light as far back in the bracket as possible. Tighten as much as possible without breaking anything. Park within 6 inches of a wall, mark your fog cutoff line, move 25 feet back, push on the lips of the fog lights up or down so the cutoff is 3 to 4 inches below your original cutoff mark. You might have to block your headlights with a towel or unplug them to see the cutoffs at 25 feet.

 

No hard feelings, I appreciate your insight as my electrical knowledge isn't the strongest. I haven't used the outlets either so they may not even work.

 

I noticed the height difference between them when I backed out of the garage so I did a rough adjustment. I will give this a try when I can find a good flat area, thank you

 

Could i also get a lil message for what you can get a pair of the ss3 round pods sport in yellow and a separate message for the pros?

Also do you have any information on the angled pods?

 

Line through the name means they have been banned and will not be able to respond.

 

The amount of light above the horizontal (uplight, or glare) for the SS3 is below the 150 candela maximum requirement. In yellow, it is considerably lower than that limit. They are extremely bright lights overall, so it is probably more than factory fogs, and certainly more than projector headlamps with a cutoff shield. But they are compliant and safe for on-road use in both the Sport and Pro version, as dictated by the existing SAE J583 standard.

 

I am looking for something direct plug and play, great in snow, and a better visibility on the sides.

What would be better reccomended?
Looks like the DD3 (sport or pro?), and morimoto’s are the more popular right now, and affordable. Opinions?


diode dynamics or the morimotos

 

You’ll have to make the call between sport or pro but my vote is for the DD3 over the morimoto based on what has been said here on this thread.

 

I was thinking the same thing after a stumbled on some more info after posting. It’s extremely hard to tell the difference between the two online.. and a $120 difference.