The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

I've turned you into a light snob. Welcome to the club. Those Toshiba 9011 HIRs are killer. Hopefully you are enjoying the OEM LED headlight swap as well. Thanks again for letting me borrow them for review.

Oven mitts definitely advised!

Excellent question! The numbers reported are peak intensity output, aka the brightest spot. Typically fog patterns are not very tall and pretty evenly distributed meaning there is a little variation in output hotspot location within the pattern but the pattern typically tends to be relatively even. The pattern is also a short range pattern, meaning small variances in peak intensity location in the pattern are relatively inconsequential.

Headlights on the other hand is where this gets far more complicated and a completely different animal. A halogen bulb in a halogen assembly will place the hot spot right up at the top of the beam pattern, at the cut off. This is crucial for proper light distance projection, which is the purpose of a headlight. When using an LED in a halogen headlight fixture, the LED is larger and less focused, and that hot spot that is supposed to be at the cut off will dip down in the pattern reducing the distance projection in a disproportional way to the peak measured intensity, since that peak intensity is now lower in the pattern. Unfortunately this dip increases foreground light (not desirable) and causes people to have higher perceived performance, even though they have potentially lost distance light performance. So for headlights, just looking at peak output isn't enough, it also needs to be where that peak output falls in the beam pattern. How close is it to the intended hot spot. There are a lot of variables about headlight type and size and what the light source is that affects the headlight performance. But generally speaking it is extremely important for headlights to evaluate where that hot spot is in the pattern. In many of my replacement LED headlight reviews I've shown where the hot spot falls within the beam pattern to demonstrate the pattern shift but numbers reported are still peak numbers. I've tried a few times to compare to measured values to where the hot spot should be and present both values, but lately I've just reported peak and commented in the review if the peak output isn't where it is supposed to be. It seems simpler and easier that trying to explain the relative drop in where the pattern intensity is supposed to be vs where the pattern intensity has fallen to and the delta difference between the measurements which would require a light source change in the test vs side-by-side comparison, when ultimately any product with a significant shift isn't going to be recommended anyway.

 

And a thought on published specs, a reputable lighting manufacture should provide actual measured performance product data. Candela, lux at 10 meters, beam distance, measured actual lumens, beam angle, ect. You as a consumer should know the actual performance of the product your money is purchasing. These are effectively industry standard units of measurement for lighting companies. KC, Rigid, Diode Dynamics all provide data tables of these specs. None have them all, but there are enough to draw relative performance comparisons. Only one major brand does not produce any output performance specs and instead just relies on raw lumen values, which is completely worthless in evaluating product performance. Consumers should know what their money is buying with actual product performance data.

 

I've only been able to source non-HIR 9011 spec bulbs, including from candlepower. Do they even still make actual HIR bulbs anymore?

I brought that up in this post, so things might change soon.

 

No Toshiba does not make the bulbs anymore. I believe @daveeasa was able to source new old stock off ebay. Supposedly the brand new Sylvania 9011 HIRs out of Korea may be actual HIRs, a first for a manufacture to bring back true HIRs and performance is supposedly higher than the outgoing Toshibas. However, these are based on posts off Candlepower, I have not tested them personally. And there is good chance if buying a Sylvania 9011 bulb locally that you end up with a German Osram 9011 and not the brand new Korean 9011 HIR Sylvania product.

Yeah weird. It is almost like I have raked them over the coals enough that they have decided to actually test their products and publish real specs, like all the other manufactures.

 

Thank you. I was going to write something similar, but wanted to take some time to not just go off. The only thing I would add, is that before the SS3 sport/pro came out, the "best" recommended fog has been a moving target, with multiple leaders. When I first started watching the thread, I had the Morimoto XBs, which were rated as a decent amber/selective yellow light based on price. The KC G4 and Rigid lights were the top dogs. Before I could talk myself into dropping coin on those, the DD selective yellows came out, and the DATA provided by Crash convinced me that was the way to go.
I have never perceived any bias towards any specific manufacturer, and have stayed around due the data driven test approach that has been used since day one.

 

If you get your hands on the Korean Sylvania 9011 HIRs, I did wind up ordering a second set of the Toshibas so I can send one for comparison photos.

 

And that major brand would be? Let me guess. It begins with a "B."

 

Good call on the spare set. However, I don't have any 9005/9011 assemblies to test them in so that wouldn't happen any time soon.

 

Have you tested the Rigid SAE 37100's in white or amber vs the testedRigid SAE pods ?

 

Both, here: Rigid 360 Series

 

Will this melt my bumper at 210 degrees lol? Talk about a beast of a fog light!

 

I just installed one of my new DD ss3 Max on my FJ, holy crap these are awesome! So far I only installed one on the driver side to see how much difference there was compared to the 6-in diodynamics in the same sae fog pattern. WOW! What a cut off!
While the 6-in bar was great, I did get flashed about 2% of the time. You can see the dazzling on the passenger side versus the new one on the driver.
You can also see the much more defined light control on the other picture especially on the bricks on either side of the garage.

 

Ridiculously higher output intensity with significantly improved focus and sharper cut offs with less glare. Awesome product, as demonstrated by your photos.

Edit: Nice comparison pictures by the way. Simultaneous side by side comparisons like that is how I recommend comparing lamp performance in photos to eliminate camera bias and accurately show comparative performance. Nicely done.

 

Thank you! In your opinion, is amber or selective yellow really better for fog/snow/rain conditions vs white?

 

I'll answer for crash. Selective yellow is the way to fly in those conditions.

 

Selective yellow (not amber) is definitely the way to go for use in poor weather conditions vs 5500-6000k LED. Remember that fog lights are not driving lights and should only be used when conditions call for it, and when they do selective yellow will perform better.

 

I too would like to know if the SS3 Max would be too hot to run in the factory fog location

 

Keep in mind, those temps were on top of the pod body. The mounting bracket from the pod to the truck fog mount is plastic. Plastic is an insulator and won’t get anywhere near that hot. Temps shown are also without the fog pocket extension on the front, which will act as an additional heat sink reducing the temp a bit. There should be a small gap around the pocket extension on the front and the bumper. And when you are driving there will be cooling airflow over the pod to help cool it. In short it won’t be a problem.