The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

The problem with that plan is the wife will notice. I'm doing this without asking b/c I'm certain she will be annoyed, just like I did with the headlight upgrades (H9 low beams and HIR toshiba high beams at Crash's suggestion).

This is the dance we do, the married life.

NOTE: I did disclose the intent to mod the coffee grinder up front. She was annoyed.

 

Pull the fuse & tell ‘er WE need new fogs. Just keepin’ you safe Dear.

 

I think we're anticipating a bigger drop in intensity than normal for the yellow, because of the darker filter. I'm curious to see how much, and if the color correction is as nice as the sport/pro offerings with their 4000K emitters. They should run warmer too- will heat management curtail them further as well? Per @Diode Dynamics they already have to limit output on the SS3 pro due to heat capacity.

 

I'm a strong advocate for selective yellow for poor weather use. Short wavelength 6000k is much more reflective, which isn't as ideal in rain/snow/fog as selective yellow. I'm in the PNW and we get plenty of poor weather so I'll be using selective yellow. While the selective yellow Max will take a larger filtration loss than the selective yellow Pros or Sports due to the Max's 6000k emitters, the output will still be substantially higher than the selective yellow Pros with better cut offs. The heavier filtration will also cause the lens to run hotter, which is beneficial in snow conditions.

I'm looking forward to getting ahold of the selective yellow Max optics when they are available, as right now I just have the clears.

 

Guess I'll be replacing my Rigids selective yellow. Any good mounts for the DD lights on the 2.0 gen trucks?

 

They come with an integrated mount when you buy the vehicle specific kit.
https://www.diodedynamics.com/ss3-led-fog-light-kit-for-2005-2011-toyota-tacoma.html

 

@Diode Dynamics does The SS3 Pro use the XPL hi intensity LED? Your site says they do 5796 lumens but Cree lists that LED as 1095 which doesn’t add up when X’d by 4.

 

LEDs can be significsntly overdriven if there is sufficient heatsinking.

Here's a link to some xpl hi testing on budget light forum.

https://budgetlightforum.com/node/52227

 

Yes, the raw lumen value is based on the max potential of the chip at the maximum drive current, not the nominal lumen rating. The raw lumen value is frankly not too useful or precise. We just have to include that because most sellers only give the raw lumen number. I would focus on the measured lumens, and candela instead, which are a much better representation of total light output.

 

They have them listed as raw lumens. If they are overcharging the lumens wouldnt that number be measured lumen output that they list at 2,700 lumen since raw lumens is what the LED is rated at by Cree? Are they pumping 25% more power into the light but only getting 60% of what the LED is capable of, but listing the raw lumens as higher than their rating? Am i looking at wrong LED info?

 

DD posts that its the theoretical max output of the led's. Not the max output they typically see.

Going by Crash's reviews on the pro's, his latest showed they stabilized at 2.66A and 13.8v draw. That's 36.7 watts. Given thag there are 4 LEDs each with a nominal forward voltage around 3v, and its being fed by a nominal 12v system, the driver circuitry (buck/linear depending on input voltage) is probably using less than 3w power, maybe more on a 24v system. So 33-34W across 4 chips, we're talking 8.25-8.5W each, that's around a 2-3/4 amp drive. Using the output testing I linked above, thats in the neighborhood of 950 lumens per LED, well under the rated max spec and definitely far under the max current these LEDs can handle. Given that Crash's testing shows power draw drops a bit as the lamp heats up, theres some control circuitry throttling them back dependent on temperature (so guys in canada/alaska are getting better performance than the texas panhandle).

DD gains some efficiency by not using another front lens over their optic, which is nice, they don't have to push them as hard to meet a target level of performance that way.

Lots of people just compare big numbers without taking things into account, so it's definitely a marketing move to list the theoretical max/led chip x total # led's for this number, but their level of actual, out the front performance makes up for the marketing jargon, imo.

 

so, I ended up getting the Diode Dynamics Stage Series 30" White Light Bar as suggested and having it installed, and it works great - only problem is the switch is down by my left knee and difficult to access while driving. how do others deal with this - is it possible to have it rewired so when the switch is on the light bar comes on with the high beams, do people just add a larger push button type switch, or is there a solution I haven't thought of? the light bar is just not that functional if I have to reach down to the switch as it's arranged now

https://www.diodedynamics.com/stage-series-30-white-light-bar.html

 

Personally I’d wire it to automatically come on with the high beams. You just need to tap the high beam circuit at one of the high beam bulbs to activate the relay to turn on the light bar. The 30” bar isn’t street legal, so if you have state inspections and depending on how thorough they are that might be something to consider in having it automatically activate with the high beam.

 

Lots of options.

Switch-Pros is what I have and the 9100 allows one aux trigger which could be high beams. Or a custom rocker to swap between on, off and auto (high beams) like MESO puddle lights.

You are only limited by your imagination and budget.

 

I wouldn't get too hung up on lumens, the metric isn't very helpful in comparing lamp performance, especially since not many publish actual lumen output. Candela is a better determination of measured performance. If you had a very inefficient optic like putting in an opaque block off plate in your lamp to control light spill, vs a very efficient reflector or TIR optic, the former could have far more actual lumens but still produce far less light than the later twos highly efficient optical designs.

 

Here's the way I wired my driving lights up using a single rocker switch, a relay, some 22 ga wire, and a few fuse taps (I'd recommend a fuse tap over cutting/splicing/tapping wire harnessing, as it doesn't permanently change any factory wiring).

The switch is from anytimebackupcamera.com and it's the third one on the right in this photo.



Instead of using the SPDT switch (single pole, double throw) to control 2 accessories, I'm using it to control one accessory in 2 different ways. I'm sort of using it "backwards" from its intended design.



The first is by connecting one side to the +12V accessory circuit. This means I can flip the switch down to turn on my lights anytime. In my 4Runner, I fuse-tapped the USB charger circuit as it comes on with the key, turns off while cranking the starter, and isn't too important if I somehow pop a fuse (I won't, you only need a few milliamps for low power switch circuits).

The other side of the switch is fuse-tapped into a high beam fuse (left or right, doesn't matter). Now the driving lights come on when I toggle the high beam stalk.

This is obviously a simplified view, the switch itself has a few extra wires for its lights and you will need to use heavy gauge wiring from the relay to actually power the light. But this was an easy way to have the most flexibility with my driving lights (seen below in my upper grill) using only one switch. Good luck!

 

I added one of those old school foot dimmer switches in my truck for forward aux lights. Quick and easy to operate rather than fumbling around in the dark.

 

Is there a comparison picture between the SSC2 and SS3? Looking at the specs it appears the SSC2 PRO has less intensity than the SS3 SPORT, but is it a huge difference? I know the info is probably in here somewhere, but thats a lot of digging!

 

There is no comparison pics between the SSC2 and SS3 in this thread yet. Based on specs for fog, the SS3 Sport has 10,600 candela vs the SSC2 Pro at 8543 candela, meaning the Sport SS3 is about 24% higher in peak intensity by spec. However the pattern area is likely different and the Sports will have sharper focus with crisper cut offs.

 

Subaru OEM LED Selective Yellow Fogs

A while back I experimented with running Subaru fogs in my Tacoma, which were a direct swappable replacement and offered some advantages over the OEM Tacoma fogs. However, these Japanese Subaru fogs (part #H4517FL011) are for 2015+ WRX and do not fit the Tacoma platform. But I figured I'd share the data anyway.

The fogs are a selective yellow F3 spec fog, similar in design to the Valeo OEM Toyota LED fogs, though unfortunately Toyota does not offer a selective yellow version.



As typical with this style fog, the cut off is extremely sharp, and the pattern is nicely uniform with a very wide angle of projection (not shown in the photo).


After 15 minutes of run time to reach a stable operating temp, the fogs pull about 6.1w.


The fogs do have a greener hue than say that of the Diode Dynamics Sport fogs, which are also an F3 spec fog. The dark yellow projector optic of the Subaru fogs would imply they are running 6000k emitters. Due to the low power draw of this lamp, the front lens barely gets warm meaning it will provide insufficient heat to combat icing in snowy conditions.

Output as measured at 18'. Subaru F3 fogs vs Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport F3 fogs
The SS3s come in at over 2x the intensity.


Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport fog (top) vs Subaru fog Bottom
The projector cut offs of the Subaru fog provide much sharper cut offs than the Diode Dynamics Sport fogs. The photo doesn't do the best representation of color, but the SS3 is a bit more yellow vs the Subaru unit more green. I did verify the Subaru fog does fall into the SAE selective yellow chromaticity window.


Based on my measurements and some basic math, these look to have a beam pattern of 69 degrees wide by 6.6 degrees tall.

Subaru fog chromaticity plot