The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

I know. The site is very valuable, but some struggle with the lack of reviewable examples (not at all saying you).

 

It certainly is an insightful forum. But I think they take some things over the top, some are strictly against high wattage anything in OEM housings and recommend only OEM from the dealership bulbs. Some members on there are completely against LED's for anything, even off road lights. Are they wrong? Yes and no. But ultimately it's up to the owner to weigh the pros/cons and decide for themselves. Even with properly designed LED marker lights, fog lights or driving lights that all meet SAE Standards, some practically refuse to even look into them. But you'll get that kind of stuff with any forum I suppose.

 

Just confirming - the backlight is just a backlight, or an accent light. Although it may potentially be passable as a clearance light or sidemarker, it is not certified or recommended for such use. It should definitely not be used as any kind of a rear fog light, turn signal, or other required vehicle function. That said, there's always the possibility down the road for a more specific LED pod product that we'd design with more true lighting functions in mind.

Paul

 

What about a self contained headlight LED projector similar to what HELLA has?

 

Repeat after me...
Rear fog light
Rear fog light
Rear fog light

 

What's the purpose of a rear fog light? Is it so drivers behind you can see you?

 

Yes

 

Gotcha. Glad I only have to deal with fog maybe once every other year here. It was worse when I lived in Southern California but not so much up here in Northern Nevada.

 

What kind of style placement are you looking for? There are many alternatives that would work well depending on your placement and style you want.

 

Don't want to mess up crashes thread since I already have a rear fog thread started. Short answer, a LED that will melt snow. You know for days like this..

 

do you have the fog only mod?
Would be interested what it looks like with only the fogs on.
I have that mod. I'll try to get some video or pictures next time in snow or fog.

 

Man, its been Silent Hill vibes for the past 2 weeks now lol

 

Looking at the website, there seem to be a good amount of options for these fog lights. I do a lot of freeway driving, so I was considering the white driving light. Do they actually help to see further down the road as they claim on their site? I usually don't have my fog lights on unless there is fog...

Also, how would the white driving lights do with fog? I do encounter thick fog driving out in the country and going up to the mountain a few times a year.

Also, I can't seem to figure out exactly what it is that the amber backlight does?

Thank you!

 

Should be asking about the driving lights in the driving thread but yes. You'll see much further down the road.

 

Driving lights will do very poor in fog. A fog light is designed to have a wide short beam to illuminate the edge of the road in low visibility conditions so you stay on the road. A driving light has a much narrower beam, focused on distance illumination, it is highly effective for distance illumination allowing you to see further in clear weather, it will be completely ineffective in fog. 6000k also will give you a lot more reflection off of fog, making it more difficult to see beyond it compared to selective yellow.

A fog light will not extend your distance illumination, and does not help you see further. It is wide and short range to see the edges of the roadway for fog.
A driving light will not help you in poor weather and will be ineffective in fog. It is narrow and long range to help you see greater distances in good weather.
For driving light examples and more info, check out the driving light thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-sae-j581-aux-high-beam-thread.696597/

The backlight just illuminates the lamp like a running light. It does not project significant output.

 

oops my bad! I’ll head over there. But wow, what a difference they make!!

 

I second Crash's previous post. As far as fog lights go, I highly recommend going with the Selective Yellow Diode Dynamics for the fog light position. I knew the benefit before I got them, but it still surprised the hell out of me when I encountered snow and rain!! Especially if you have the OEM LED headlights, that white/blue color temperature really does reflect off moisture more than you might think compared to a halogen bulb. While the SS3 Fog lights aren't necessarily made for throwing light down the road like a headlight or driving light, they do reach out pretty far depending on your aim surprisingly, especially if mounted on a car where the fog light position is lower and the drop in aiming is not as much. Heck, if you order the selective yellow you could also order the clear lens and swap them out to see what you think or swap lenses seasonally. My buddy has the Max Fogs on his Outback and swaps the lenses seasonally, the clear lens absolutely increases the distance where the headlights don't fill like the ditches. But again because they are mounted lower on the car they don't require much drop in aim compared to the fog location on the Tacoma.

Something to consider when choosing from the SS3 power ranges is your weather conditions. If you frequently encounter snow or freezing rain you should get the SS3 Pro or Max. The SS3 Sport is still a great light but the lens doesn't stay warm enough to keep snow or ice from building up and blocking the light. The SS3 Pro and especially the Max maintain a high enough surface temp to keep snow and ice from building up.

What are your overall goals? More distance to be used as an aux high beam when no traffic is around or something that can be ran at any time with or without traffic? There isn't are high quality light that does both at this time. If you're looking for distance there are also a few options from Diode Dynamics depending on what you're looking for in form factor and beam pattern. The form factors are the SS3 pods (or SS5 if you want to spend that much) or the Stage Series Light Bar. Both options have a Driving and Combo beam pattern available. The difference is that the Driving beam focuses more on distance without much light for ditches. The Combo beam pattern combines the Driving and Flood beam patterns. The plus side is that it lights up the ditches and helps when rounding corners. The down side is that it doesn't reach out as far as the Driving pattern, but it's still a huge improvement!! Since you mention going through the mountains I would think a Combo might suit you better.

Sorry this is a bit wordy, I'm not good at condensing my thoughts and I hate leaving things out. lol

 

Thank you for posting this! Well, at first I thought I was going to be able to buy a light that would do both things, but I think I have since figured out my end goal. I rarely do driving where implementing a high-only light would be beneficial. I want something I can run all the time. And I frequently have the issue where my fog lights are frozen over. Having said that, I'd probably go with the Selective Yellow SS3 Pro to replace my factory fogs.

 

Maybe a stupid question, but is the backlight basically like DRL where it's always on? Does it have any bearing on the brightness of the unit compared to the ones without the backlight? I had pre-ordered the Pros w/backlight, but given the delay I may opt for the Pros w/o backlight or Max w/o backlight.

 

You could do what I'm in the process of doing. Select yellow fogs, I chose Pro because I wanted more up light for off road, and a second set of select yellows (again I went with Pro) add clear driving lenses to then and mount behind the grill as aux high beams. I want to wire them so they can be switched between aux high beam and run independently when off road. BAMF makes a nice mount for behind the grill.