The SAE J581 Aux High Beam Thread

Yep. Because of the darker color, the yellow optics on the bars are less efficient and the output is more significantly reduced. Also there is no spot pattern for the stage series bars- only driving, wide, and flood (and any combos thereof).

 

I have this post covering mounting an 18" Stage Series driving light bar behind the grill. In this case the 2nd Gen Pro grill provided minimal obstruction as the entire top part of the grill is open. Note that Diode Dynamics calls these bars 'amber' not selective yellow which is incorrectly stated in the post below. Unfortunately my test tool was offline at the time due to a software upgrade issue, so I don't have data to compare color temp and chromaticity.

 

In the review I see that it mentions two 12" bars to be SAE compliant but I can't find mention of this on the DD website. I think only two 6" bars are compliant.

 

Note the 2 12” bar set is listed as SAE Driving under the optics choice but going to 18” it is just Driving.
https://www.diodedynamics.com/stage-series-12-sae-dot-white-light-bar-pair.html

This is kind of a funny point where 1 light bar can be too high in intensity to be compliant, even though 2 smaller bars will have greater combined out, because the spec is per lamp. Rigid’s 30” SAE bar gets around the regulation by putting a break in the center of the bar so their bar contains 2 separate lamps.

 

SS3 Max Driving (not SAE compliant due to intensity)


SS3 Pro SAE Driving


Pro vs Max


The max pattern is more rectangular like the Sport, covering a slightly smaller area. But the Max output is extreme, nearly 60% higher in intensity by my measurements than the Pros. The Max performance is incredible for a pod product, though again the Max is not SAE compliant with the driving optic as output intensity is too high.

 

Seems like the max would make a great A pillar light pointed straight forward that doesn’t have a big footprint.

 

Wonder what the Spot optic would rate?

 

Here:

 

Ah true. However in the description for all bars it says this:

Not just off road. In six-inch size, when installed as a pair and aimed in accordance with your state's regulations, the Driving pattern meets SAE J581 as a Driving/Auxiliary High Beam Light, and the Wide pattern meets SAE J583 as a Foglamp, for legal on-road use. Please check your local laws and regulations for aiming, installation, and applicability.

 

Really impressive, certainly makes me desire to use them for a driving light.

Hmm. I think you are correct. Would help to have that peak candela requirement from the SAE spec for a J581 compliant light. I’ll see if I can dig that up.

 

Holy smokes!

I’m thinking of an ultimate LED off-road/driving light setup of two Max spots center aimed for distance and two Max driving for shoulders...

 

DD 30" Stage series bar (all driving pattern) on CaliRaised brackets.

 

I’m not sure if the Hella 700ff’s are j581 compliant, but I’ve been using them for 2 years now and I love how well they work. I’m bringing them up to help folks understand the practical differences between spot and driving pattern lights as I found it somewhat difficult to visualize it in practical terms before I got my lights.

Not as clean as @crashnburn80 ’s garage. Hella 700FF with 100w halogen bulbs. I don’t have a real light meter, but a light meter app I use on my phone for photography puts the Hella hot spot at roughly 2x brighter than the stock h9 high beams. Distance is 20’ from the door.



High beams alone.


High beams and Hellas.


Though listed as a driving beam pattern, I’d say they’re practically close to a mushoom-ish spot beam?

Originally I had them aimed straight ahead vertically and horizontally, and they provided an immense amount of light directly down the lane I was driving in. I now have them aimed straight ahead and slightly angled to their respective sides of the road. The patterns of both lights still converge at about 250-300 yards out so the middle of my lane is still well lit, but I now have about 2.5 lanes of coverage at the far end but sacrificed some ultimate distance projection to get the wider coverage. Ideally I’d like to aim them so they cover a little less of the shoulders and more down the lane to balance down road performance with shoulder moose spotting...

A driving pattern will give you something more like the stock high beams, that’ll cover more of the sides of the roads but won’t shine as far down the road as a spot pattern. Spots will cover your lane and maybe the ones on either side of it, but not much else.

edit - this is why earlier I said an ideal setup would be two spots, for max distance down the direct path of travel, and two driving patterns, angled slightly out, to cover as much of the shoulders for as far out as you can to watch for critters. The only downside I’ve noticed so far is that the Hellas and high beams make my low beams seem ridiculously dim, despite running new-this-fall Phillips h9’s in the lows... I can only imagine what a set of 4 SS3 Max’s would do!

 

Ironic timing! I was just in a PM discussion about 'value based' driving lights and I mentioned these as well as the 500 variants. They are not technically US J581 compliant, but they are European ECE driving compliant according to the specs. Of course that is with legal 55w bulbs. In the original thread I focused on LED options, but there are certainly good performing less expensive halogen options as well and by spec the 700FF hits a great sweet spot of performance and value. You'll get more performance for the dollar with halogens compared to LED. I would be certainly interesting to add some of Hellas offerings to compare.

And that garage depth.

 

That’s my work’s warehouse and unfortunately for aiming of lights and taking comparison photos purposes my last day is tomorrow. New job starts Monday, fortunately the only downside is no more being able to park inside in winter to thaw the truck out.

As far as value, I’m at something like $160 all in with these. The lights are $67 on Amazon right now, 100w h3 bulbs are like $15, I modified a MICtuning wiring harness I got for $20 on Amazon to work as I wanted but one could easily build a high quality 12 or 14ga relayed harness for about $30-40, and the n-fab light mount bar was a $60 Amazon warehouse deal.

I believe KC daylighters have significantly better performance than the Hella 700’s, but at roughly 3x the cost. They can also be upgraded to the gravity LED tested in this thread.

 

Looking around at bulbs just now, I noticed that Hella now is labeling their 100w h3 as a +150% bulb.

HELLA H3 100WTB Twin Blister High Wattage Bulbs, 12V, 2 Pack

$13 HELLA H3 100WTB Twin Blister High Wattage Bulbs, 12V, 2 Pack

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078SHPZWM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_HTDYFb0D4PVZJ?psc=1

And Osram makes a 55w h3 in their Night Breaker Laser +150 line. They’re only $25 at power bulbs after the discount, maybe I should try a set..

2-PK Osram H3 64151NL Night Breaker Laser 55W 12V Automotive Bulb

$25 OSRAM 2-PK H3 64151NL Night Breaker Laser 55W 12V Automotive Bulb

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RC6B21D/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_xODYFbFP4NXDM

 

Great notes, as I pointed out the same. Though Daylighters are bulkier and don't offer a true driving beam in halogen form, something to consider. The Gravity upgrade seems like just swapping in the Pro6 optics, which can be had for the same performance level in a more compact package at lower cost with just buying the Pro6 up front.

I don't think Hella means "+150" as other manufactures state a high efficiency performance bulb as a +xxx there. I exceptionally doubt they have an exceptionally rare 100w +150 bulb, more like their 100w bulb puts out 50% more light than stock. But also note that Hella does not make their own bulbs, they are outsourced. So quality varies, their better ones tend to be made in Korea.

 

I agree, I think they’re trying to say the 100w bulb offers 150% of the performance of the standard 55w. That’s what makes the Osram laser interesting to me, as a 55w bulb with the same performance would offer similar performance at a much lower power draw. I’m considering adding a second set of 700ff’s; 4 55w lights would draw around 16amps while 4 100w would be 29 amps.

 

It isn't the same though. Hella's numbers are reflecting 150% more lumens whereas the Osram numbers are reflecting 150% more focused intensity. The Osram's will produce less light, but the light is more focused for more concentrated output. The performance gains really depend on the lamp.

Just as an example here is a peak lux chart comparing different bulbs in a 2nd Gen H4 lamp (different lamp but also a large reflector)



Good gains can be had over standard 55w stock bulbs, but I would not expect them to compete to the 100w bulbs in the 700FF (unless the 100w bulbs are poor like the Hella in the test above). In the H3 platform I'd also chose the Nightbreaker Laser +150 if looking for a performance 55w bulb. If staying with 100w bulbs, I'd consider the German Osram SuperBrights instead of the Hella bulbs (they are listed as Osram 100/90w in the chart above). Nokya also offers a clear stage 2 75w H3 that could be interesting to experiment with as four 100w bulbs is a lot of current draw.

I should note in the chart above, the Hellas were the only ones to have a 130w high beam. Higher wattage leads to thicker filaments, which reduces focus and at some point starts to reduce output intensity. The test was for low beam, but I suspect the entire bulb used thicker filaments, resulting in the poor test numbers.