The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Sooo those rigids are super bright how is that even legal.. .. it made the Phillips x-treme vision look like a candle..

 

Which Rigid model?

 

D series sae dot ones

 

Like I could drive everywhere just using my fog lights I don't even need my headlights on

 

Kinda blurry cause I was driving but this is with the rigids and the low beam x-treme vision +130s

 

Are you using the flush Rago mounts?

The D-series SAEs put out about 1000 actual lumens (not raw) IIRC, your headlights are brighter, but they are projecting that intensity much further out, whereas a fog is a short range pattern, which will provide high intensity light very close and seem relatively brighter. It is somewhat challenging to tell the relative height of the LED cut off on the left with the elevated road, but are your fogs aimed like stock.

Until the release of the SS3s, the white Rigid D-series was the highest intensity fog on the market, their output intensity is impressive for sure. But yes, they are SAE compliant and have some of the sharpest cut offs with minimal light spill above the cut off, meaning they will not bother oncoming drivers if aimed correctly.

 

I have an aluminum sos front bumper so it's hard to say if they are aim like stock being so closer to the headlights.. I'm usually the mounts that came with the rigids but I did flip the mounts to get the lights closer to the mount and bumper

 

Just got my ss3 pro yellow fogs installed, and holy shit. First impression is that these are great and more than worth the money. Got them aimed and walked around in the street in front of the truck, squatted down, sat in the street for a sec, etc... to make sure I didn’t have them aimed too high. They’re bright, but nothing that I think will cause issues for oncoming drivers.

 

Perfect!

Aiming is important guys

 

The lights are reversible, in that you can mount the light up-side-down and the pattern is the same. The important thing is the fogs should be aimed with a slight tilt down. At 25’ you should have about a 4” drop at the cut off.

 

I can’t wait to install the pair I got. Mmmmm

 

Yours look like my SS3 Pros and yes, your aim is perfect. I played with my aim pretty extensively and although I got flashed once or twice initially, I haven't been flashed in weeks now. The amount of usable light these things put down is incredible!

When you couple these with The Ultimate Headlight Upgrade, you have just about everything one could wish for in everyday (or night) usable lighting. These things are so good that they have me wondering if maybe I should replace my behind the lower grill LED bar with a set (or two) of their spot pattern pods for long distance illumination.

 

That CaliRaised bar isn’t going to compete with some higher quality lights. If going spots, check out the candela rating on the Sports vs Pros in the spot pattern, the Sports have higher Cd do to their smaller emitters providing better focus. Also the DD 18” driving light bar provides higher Cd in a driving pattern.

 

Testing the @Diode Dynamics SS3 fog mounts on a 2015 2nd Gen. Being designed for 3rd Gen these have similar mount spacing differences as the Rigid 360s did.

Tab insert mounts vs stock fogs


Screw mounts vs stock fogs


Since the screw mounts don’t both align, you need to use a single screw to mount, like 3rd Gen. Even though the stock 2nd Gen used 2 screws, 1 should hold fine.

The lower screw is not the right one, this results in the light not being level left to right.


The upper screw is the correct one. Not perfectly level due to Taco lean.


So for 12-15 Tacoma’s installing the SS3, be sure you only use the upper screw mount on the bracket for the SS3s. Using the lower screw location or attempting to use both will result in a non-level light pattern.

 

That's exactly the issue I ran into and noted in the original post on my installation. Based on your recommendation, I'm going to remove the lower screw in each of mine. Thanks for sharing!

 

I used both on mine, 2013.

 

Hmm. It is pretty obvious showing the mounts placed on the truck both holes will not align properly to the screw locations at the same time. The mount will either be tilted for both to fit, or the screws are angled to compensate, or the mount is stretched under tension. Seems to have worked for you so I wouldn’t mess with it, but it doesn’t seem like results would be very repeatable vs just using the one screw for a level mount.

 

Now to wait till nightfall.

 

Whelp. My local night shot location away from urban light is full of 100s of parked cars, that I’m guessing are out for Saturday night dinner/drinks in the area. Seriously interrupting my light Sciencing mojo. Comparison shots will need to wait till tomorrow night.

 

The world is waiting and you come up with a lame excuse like that?

I can't wait for your pics and observations!