The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

KC G4 driveway test. Amazing.

 

Installed the Rigid Fogs with amber covers after work today. I was deciding between KC and Rigid but ultimately chose the Rigid's because I can run the amber covers for bad weather and remove them to throw the most light downrange thanks to your excellent detailed analysis.

 

Looks great! The versatility is certainly a benefit. I really like those cement grey trucks.

 

Would you believe that cement was my 2nd choice? I was originally shopping for a quicksand one but my local dealer just happened to have the exact trim in manual with all the options I wanted in cement so I settled lol.

 

I like quicksand too but I think cement is sportier and classier at the same time. 3rd gens have some great color options.

 

The prototype.

 

Fancy looking. More efficient Amber filter? Excited to see more data. You do know you are empowering a small army of people to become lighting snobs.

 

What seems to be true about led lights is that they are bright to look at but not necessarily the best from the other side, where it counts.
Would you think that hid are still in the ballgame?

 

Off subject but there is a guy who painted his 80s yota pickup that cement color and man it looks sick. Much better on that truck than the 3rd gens IMO.

 

Hmmmm I want to see this! Did you just put a yellow film on the stock lens? I like that better than the covers but the covers make switching so easy. Pros and cons to both I guess.

 

My rigid DOT fogs are better than my Amazon special non dot pods I have for ditch lights. I am a converted lighting snob thanks to his threads. Good for knowing what to look for now bad for my wallet.

 

I am updating my fogs in my 2017 offroad going with the KC G4's in amber, I want to give my stock fogs to a friend who has an SR5, does any one on here know if there is a wiring harness down there in an SR5 that you can easily add fogs to? He has all ready got my factory offroad wheels and tires, and grill!

 

let me know what the data is and how it varys from the test you did with my pods and the cover! still haven’t even installed mine yet i’m waiting for my other headlight to show up. also my truck is at toyota for a month for frame replacement!

 

I met with Rigid reps 6 months ago and purposed building an amber version of the SAE pod, along with some other ideas. This is their pre-production unit they are sending my way for evaluation.

I completely agree on the color, way too blue for my liking, I was surprised just how high in color temp they are.

Yes on both accounts. I should really finish my residential lighting thread, so people can be snobs about their home lighting too.

The 80s and early 90s trucks are hard to beat and I could easily see that color looking sweet. Definitely some of my favorites.

The SAE pods have 2 lenses. I had long thought about sandwiching some laminex inbetween them, but these are pre-production prototypes from Rigid.

Buying quality the first time is cheaper in the long run!

I’m unsure if the 3rd gens are pre-wired. I think I’ve seen threads on guys looking how to wire them so I don’t think so, but it would only take a minute to look under the truck at the back side of the fog location.

Definitely what I was going to do!

 

Yeah, the short wavelength light produced by automotive LEDs is very hard on the eyes when you are looking at the light source because of the way the light scatters inside your eye, making you think they are much brighter than they actually are. Which is why they seem so much brighter looking at them than they do from behind the wheel. It’s interesting how residential and commercial applications have solved this light quality issue, but it isn’t a priority for automotive.

HIDs are still the leading producer in output by far. Even the putting the highest performing halogen into a 3rd gen is 2100 lumens, HIDs are 3200 lumens with much longer bulb life, though they do bring the added complexity of requiring ballasts.

 

Look what arrived today!

 

Testing the Rigid amber SAE pre-production prototypes

I was concerned with the level of output reduction caused by the amber lens on these pre-production lights after seeing the 50% loss caused by Rigid's amber snap on covers. I compared the measurements of the new Amber SAE pods (purple) vs the standard white Amber SAE pods running the Amber covers (green):



The new prototypes come in at over 60% brighter than using the amber covers on white lights, while also having a slightly higher color temperature which is helpful for general visibility. A significant improvement over the snap on cover solution. You can see Rigid did their homework to achieve the lower color temperature while minimizing the lux loss in their amber SAE fog.

As a major added benefit to those in cold environments, the yellow filtering lens appears to absorb a good amount of light energy and get quiet warm compared to the clear lens. You can see in the comparison to the unfiltered spectrum output below, that all that low wavelength blue light gets absorbed by the lens, translating into heat. The amber lens should therefore have much better resistance to icing than the clear lens.



They take a little while to get warm, but icing shouldn’t be an issue. Ambient temp 63 degrees, lens temp 143 degrees.



The reduction in output from using the snap on amber cover compared to no cover was measured at about 50% loss as shown below. The new prototype design is significantly more efficient with only a 20% loss.



I've ordered Rago mounts for street testing. The performance of these lights is quiet compelling for an amber fog compared to the amber cover option.

 

Has anyone used the CaliRaised LED amber fogs? Are there issues of blinding traffic with these lights?

https://caliraisedled.com/collectio...light-led-pod-replacement?variant=26173153424

 

yes as there not designed to be sae street legal for road use.
i think that was discussed here

 

As mentioned above, CaliRaised does not make fogs, they make spots. This is covered in the beginning of the original post. Spots do not light an area well like fogs, they light a very small area and are designed for distance, they have no cut offs to prevent blinding other drivers.

Options for amber fogs:
-Rigid SAE fog pods with amber covers
-KC G4 SAE amber fogs (will test here next month)
Not currently available but coming soon:
-Rigid SAE amber fog pods
-Morimoto SAE amber fogs