The SAE J581 Aux High Beam Thread

@crashnburn80

Given a 6" round opening, which "driving pattern" light would you recommend for maximum output?
SAE J581 compliance isn't a requirement, nor does the light have to be round.

 

A 6" round hole is really asking for a KC Pro 6, 6" round 5000k driving light, it would look perfectly at home in a round hole that size. The driving pattern specs 131,000 Cd. My tests shows about 93,500 Cd. They are covered in the original post. Alternatively there is the Diode Dynamics SS5s, they are a 5.1"x5.1" square light, mathematically that works out to 7.2" diagonally which will be slightly large for the 6" opening, resulting in having 0.6" obstruction at the corners and about 0.5" gaps top/bottom and sides. For the SS5s, I'd consider getting the selective yellow units and doing the clear lens swap for 4000k rather than the white 6000k, especially if you have halogen headlights. The SS5 sports are spec'd at 131,300 Cd and the SS5 Pros at 170,000 Cd.

You could cut out a 5.1"x5.1" piece of cardboard and place it in the hole to see what you think about the square light in a round hole look, or maybe scale and print a picture of the SS5 in that size and tape it in there. If you are leaning toward the Pro 6, I've got a spare set, PM me if interested.

 

Hey Crash,

Sunday morning coffee thoughts: If you were to get an SS5 selective yellow 5 pod “light bar” and you were swapping lenses to get the 4000k light - what patterns would you set the 5 pods up with?

Is there benefit from moving away from straight combo or driving patterns to say:

flood-driving-spot-driving-flood
Or
flood-spot-driving-spot-flood

 

I would look at what your most common use for the lights would be. Personally i would wire up the two outers as flood on one switch and then the 3 center on another switch for distance. 5 ss5's would be blinding on some tight forest roads in my opinion.

 

It is going to depend on how you plan to use them. I wouldn’t go straight combo though, the combo optic is 2/3 flood and 1/3 driving. With 5 SS5s That would give 15 emitters focused on driving, which is less than 4 SS3s, all the rest of that expensive SS5 setup would be flood lights, which seems like a waste. The strength of the TIR performance is focus and flood is not a focused pattern.

I don’t wheel at night anymore so I’d opt for more of a highway distance pattern and do one of:

1. driving-spot-driving-spot-driving
Or maybe
2. combo-driving-driving-driving-combo

I’d consider combo on the edges for those worried about suicidal game running onto the highway without going full dedicated flood.

In 1, I’d use Pros for the driving patterns and Sports for the spot, since the better focus of the Sports have higher Cd and will reach further, and the later coverage being flanked by driving Pros makes the smaller pattern of the Sports a non-issue.

In 2, I’d give consideration to using the Sports for combo to further help not overpowering the foreground light and use Pros for the driving patterns. I toyed with adding Spot in 2, but driving is going to be a more useful pattern. 2 spots with 1 driving and 3 driving emitters on each combo is going to be a narrower distance pattern than using 2+ driving. I don’t think it would be good to have a flood light then narrow distance beam. You could arguably put one spot in the center, if doing so I’d likely go with the less focused Pro for a larger spot area since you’d only have one.

Now if you were buying these to use for night wheeling, using 2 full floods would have a greater benefit. I do like @Aws123 suggestion of having separate switches for distance beam and flood for that use. Of course any flood beam you’d want to mount forward of the hood so you don’t have blinding hood glare.

But it all comes back to what is your intended use?

Edit: Another way to look at the combo optic, using 3 combos and 2 driving is about the same as using 2 floods and 3 driving as you will have the same number of emitters in flood and driving in both setups.

 

That’s an interesting idea of using both Sport and Pro, wonder if DD would allow you to “build a bar” like this?

 

Intended use is predawn and post dusk wheeling.
Mounting would be front bumper in front of the grille.

 

Too bad DD doesnt offer the ss5 in a fog or wide pattern. For trail use I run 4 ss3 yellow pros in fog behind the grill aimed straight ahead. Its alot of light in the mid range without blowing out your forground.

 

They sell everything individually, but that would be a more expensive route I think. Maybe if you asked @memario1214 nicely.

For wheeling in more open areas of AZ, I'd go with a base of:

flood-driving-x-driving-flood

Then for x think about the type of wheeling and speeds, and where that 5th light would be most useful in illumination. For slower more technical stuff go with more foreground flood light or split it with a combo light, for moderate speed or the need to see greater distance go with another Driving light or Spot. Since near field illumination is important for wheeling (unless high speed desert running) I'd opt for Pros for the better flood spill here, vs my previous suggestion to use Sports for street use. I'd go with Pros across the board if possible on this setup, unless you were interested in the single longer range sport spot for the center, but even there I think the Pro would be a better fit for a larger spot since you only have one. 5 SS5s will provide incredible illumination, so I don't really think there is a wrong answer for the 5th light, it come down to more about fine tuning/optimizing your pattern for the type of terrain and wheeling you do.

 

Very interesting and easily obtained with lens swaps!

I like the idea of: flood-driving-combo-driving-flood all Pros

As we are not talking high speed so a spot might not be warranted.

 

Not an Aux High beam, but seemed more appropriate than the fog or headlight threads.

DD SSC1R came today!

 

How strong is the brake light? Do you have the flashing module?

 

It’s pretty bright, pictured was the running light only.
It comes with the flash module already installed.

 

Took some more images about 12:45, full AZ sunlight out.

Running lights



Brake light



Reverse light

 

This is GREAT!
It’s surprising mounted that far back on the roof there is still hood splash.

 

That makes more sense, thank you for the clarification.

 

Wowzers - I just read through here and appreciate the endless knowledge. I'm looking to supplement my LED high beams and also replace my fogs. I really don't do off roading (especially in the dark), but I do live in Alaska where we have the same dark roads and hiding nighttime critters others have mentioned.

I was originally leaning towards the DD Stage Series 30" Driving with the stealth kit, because I like the tucked away, clean look. But I wanted something higher, so now I'm thinking about get a BAMF behind the grill mount with a pair of SS3 Pros in Driving White (or maaaybe SS3 Max or even SS5 Pro if I don't think about the $$$$$$ too much.) For fogs, I'm feeling good about the SS3 Pros in yellow.

Thoughts?

Also, folks with behind the grill lights... how much of a PITA is cleaning them to make sure you get that nice full output?

 

They are easy to clean if you pop the hood. You can fit a body behind the grill.