Tri color Fog lights and Auto Highbeams

Just a quick question. Is anybody running these with the auto high beam function? Does the ON/OFF autoswitching of the high beam affect the fog light setting?

R,
Mike

 

I’ve never used the auto high beams but I have dual color fogs and if I flash my brights the fog lights change color

 

Definitely avoid any company trying to sell you such a product to use on the street, as no reputable company sells multi-colored fogs. And for good reason, as any reputable manufacture could tell you, they produce the worst type of glare for drop in replacement LEDs, far worse than a standard replacement LED (which is already bad) and will be hazardous to oncoming drivers, while performing poorly in the conditions for which fogs are designed.

 

CaliRaised are a reputable company and their tri-led fog bulbs have great reviews.

 

Caliraised sells rebranded Chinese lights. They have demonstrated a lack of understanding of their own lighting products, selling consumers spot lights as fogs, which are not street legal and blind other drivers. See this thread for info with product examples. Tri-color LED fog replacements are regarded as hazardous gimmicky toys to put it nicely, hence why no major lighting company sells them. To enable multi-color output you need multiple emitters to support multiple colors. For LEDs in a halogen assembly to even attempt to work correctly you need the emitter exactly centered in the housing, if it is off center even slightly it causes significant glare, loss of focus and loss of distance projection. If you have 2 emitters, to support multiple colors, neither emitter can be placed where it needs to be, so both end up being off center, meaning both now cause significant glare, loss of focus and loss of distance projection. The light doesn't work at all the way it is designed. The product is fundamentally flawed. It is just more China product that has been around for years but never taken off, and for good reason. You can see a review here of using multi-color LEDs in the headlights, they were not shown in the fogs since everyone already knows they should never be used in reflector fogs... And lots of horrible LED products get great reviews, unfortunately most people have no idea what to look for. Just look at the BeamTech LEDs that get raving positive reviews on Amazon with 4.3 stars and members promoting them on TW, despite a massive loss in measured performance from a stock used halogen headlight bulb, to the point they are actually dangerous to drive with. But a crazy amount of people gave them great reviews anyway. CaliRaised also doesn't offer a single lighting product that meets any kind of SAE lighting compliance standard, meaning their products are not tested to be street legal or street safe, unlike Diode Dynamics, KC, Rigid, Baja, Morimoto and many others.

 

If you don't know crash is the subject matter expert on TW for lights.

 

Fuck me, I was about to get a light bar from them...
cheers!

 

Ok so I myself don't have a single led bulb outside the cab in operation currently. I live out in the boonies... shit tones of wildlife and long & narrow roads that give you tunnel vision after a bit and I want to upgrade the headlights... would you oblige me with your knowledge crash?

 

You wouldn't run a lightbar with oncoming traffic or in poor weather where beam pattern cut off is critical, so there isn't any real negative harm in that case. But there are drastically better performing options. I would highly recommend checking out Diode Dynamics Stage light bars, which are made in the USA (vs China product). Their TIR optics are unmatched in performance and efficiency in the light bar size and far outperform anything else on the market. At a very reasonable price point too, especially with the current sale. They do only made them in a real SAE-style driving pattern (not a combo "driving" pattern) so these will be best used to see a wider area at long range. If looking for a near field short range flood bar for trail off road use, it may not be a good fit. To beat out Diode Dynamics TIR driving optics, you have to go to KCs Gravity Pro6 line, which is significantly more expensive and a much larger product.
https://www.diodedynamics.com/off-road-auxiliary-led/light-bars.html

 

Thanks for the link. Living on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the small surf town of Tofino, population about 2,500. Its pretty isolated out here and the weather can get pretty gnarly. Shit tones of rain and winds and there's only one road to and from. Visibility has been an issue many times for the 3 years I've been out here... and I'm hoping to remedy that's soon. Aside from adding lighting components, was thinking of retrofitting the headlights when I can afford

 

See the 2nd Gen headlight thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-headlight-upgrade-h4-not-led-or-hid.398066/

I'd start with the headlights and then see where you feel like you need more light.

If looking for wider light and to keep things SAE, I'd look at replacing the fogs with Diode Dynamics SS3 Pros, which are the brightest (by far) and widest pattern fog on the market. You can see all the fogs compared here, with the Diode Dynamics SS3s linked at the top:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

If wanting more distance light (which might be hard to believe with the headlight upgrade) you might consider adding a stage series driving light bar. If you wanted even wider area short range awareness, you could consider a set of side aiming ditch lights. After doing the headlight upgrade you'll need to evaluate where/if you want more light.

 

I've been to Victoria... I know the touristy part. Note they also have the light bars in amber, which isn't as high intensity as white but will do better for visibility in poor weather. High color temps like 6000k led white will reflect back at you off all the precipitation in the air, making it so you see the rain/snow/fog extremely well, but have a hard time seeing beyond it. Long wavelength low color temps like selective yellow and amber will not bounce back at you to the same extent, allowing you to see beyond the rain/snow/fog but are a lower intensity than white which isn't as advantageous for clear weather use.

 

Crash, you know your shit !, I respect that

 

Personally I wouldn’t spend any money on headlight upgrades. Fog lights and auxiliary lighting.

I put in the rigid dually SAE fog lights on my truck

I’ve got a set of dually SS ditch lights I use on occasion in the rural areas

like crash said, you definitely want amber for weather, otherwise you just see the weather instead of the road

 

Note that a difference between headlight upgrades in 2nd Gen vs 3rd Gen, is the 2nd Gen headlight upgrade also boosts high beam output, significantly, not just low beam. To where the high beams have greater output than HID, in a very large high beam reflector which is also more performant than a projector or small high beam reflector. Not the same function as fogs or ditch lights of course, but also more useful than just a low beam upgrade.