The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

I’m jealous. I ordered the sports but want pros

 

I will soon, but haven’t yet.

Diode Dynamics has said both beams are similar intensity, just the Pro is a larger area covered than the Sport.

 

This is an amazing accumulation of information. I've just been doing a little research since I got a free pair of Morimoto XB fogs from the XB black Friday deal. Now I guess I know why they were free lol

All the same. Do you have any test data showing how stock Toyota halogen fogs rank compared to all of these? I'm only curious since I'm getting the Morimotos which seem to be on the bottom of your list but was wondering how they compare to stock halogen.

 

I've intentionally not included the halogen fogs, because the beam patterns are quiet a bit different which makes the intensity measurements not as comparable. The stock TRD fogs use an H11 which is rated at 1200 lumens (actual), but that output rating is based on 12.8v, while actual voltage with the truck running will be a fair amount higher. Below you can see my charted stock voltage from my AGM + voltage booster thread. Stable voltage will be in the mid-high 13s, which will cause the halogen to easily run 20%+ brighter than that 1200 lumen rating.



The Morimotos are rated at 1200 raw lumens, meaning actual lumens is likely a little more than half that. So the light source is far lower output than stock. However, the stock TRD wide-angle fogs have an ultra wide angle of projection, far greater than LEDs, and they also do a poor job of upward glare control. So while having a brighter light source, the light is spread around a much larger area and focus is not great, the result is the intensity at distance will be lower than the numbers may lead one to believe. The Morimotos on the other hand illuminate a very narrow area, much smaller than the TRD fogs. But they focus all their light output into this region, with much better cut offs than stock. As a result, their intensity measurements will come in higher than stock, even though it is less light output in a smaller area.

To complicate things further, the 12-15 2nd Gen use the 3rd Gen TRD style wide-angle optics. But there are two other versions of the stock fogs as well, early 2nd Gen using H10s and non-TRD 3rd Gen using H16s, both of which have different patterns than the TRD fogs and are not wide-angle patterns, their H10 and H16 sources are also lower output to match their smaller pattern coverage. And if you are in Canada, even though you have a 3rd Gen TRD truck, they put in the non-TRD fogs. So there are several different stock baselines depending on year and trim level and even country the truck was purchased in. Because of the inherent pattern differences and all the different stock permutations, I've left the halogens out to try and keep the thread cleaner.

But all that said, very long answer short, I can pull a reading a reading from the wide-angle TRD fogs for your curiosity tomorrow. With the disclaimer that the lux reading alone doesn't tell the whole story, as the XB will be downsizing the pattern area over stock (stock TRD wide-angle).

 

Wow I had no clue there was that much variation.

I suppose if you don't mind I'd be very curious to see how they compare but obviously totally up to you.

 

Planned for early next year

No plans for a combo arrangement at this time, but we'll certainly take note and we might do it if we see more interest.

Shoot us an email, I'm sure we can get that changed for you. Thanks for the order!

 

Combo optic interested down the road for similar application that @mynameistory mentioned.

 

@Diode Dynamics any plans for an XL version with 15w or 20w chips in the future? I'd also be interested in a combo optic.

 

I'm really not sure yet. We're exploring a number of new form factors to employ this optical technology. The 2-LED pod is a go, but that's the only one I know we have confirmed so far.

The estimated shipping date at the time of your order is accurate. We are experiencing much higher demand than expected, so we are continuing to update the shipping date appropriately for new orders.

Please feel free to shoot general order questions to us by PM or email guys, happy to help but I hate to clog up this great technical thread with it.

2ND GEN (12-15) FITMENT: Unfortunately, we were supposed to have a truck in this morning but it didn't work out. If you are thinking about purchasing with our current Black Friday promotion, I'd suggest putting in your order, which we can easily cancel before shipment if we determine that there is any kind of compatibility issue. So far though, we know the bracket fits the Tundra, 4Runner, and 3rd gen without any problem, and as crashnburn80 said, our bracket is based on the standard OEM-type fog bracket. So we do not expect any fitment problems at this time. Just looking to confirm that for you guys before we are certain.

 

Placed an order for the sport fogs yesterday, really went back and forth between sport and fog. Some more beam shots of the two wouldn’t be bad. Ultimately came down to price.., and yet, hmmm

 

Just ordered the DD Pro SAE fog's in yellow with the Cyber monday deal. Can't wait for the install.

 

Shared in another thread, the OEM black out Toyota LED Valeo fogs are on a Cyber Monday deal for $91:
https://parts.toyotaofdeerfieldbeac...Black-LED-Fog-Lights/69550310/PT41342191.html

Review post on them covered below:

 

I started paying attention to this forum a little while ago, mainly for all the lighting info, and decided to finally join. I've been on kind of a vehicle lighting kick since I started learning more about it this last year, and, in my humble opinion, no place else has as good of reviews/comparisons. Thanks @crashnburn80 for all your work.

On another note:

I too would be interested in a combo arrangement as well as the half size pods. That blue light of most pods/bars wears my eyes out and I'd definitely purchase some in the 4000k-5000k range with clear lenses if you go down that route. Especially if you started offering some curved bars.

 

2015 Wide-angle fogs with the stock used H11 Osram standard bulbs run at 13.8v.
12-15 use the same wide angle optic as 16+ 3rd Gen (non-Canadian) TRD (non-Pro) trucks.



Output testing compared to Morimoto at 18'.



The Morimotos provide a more uniform even pattern with less uplight than the OEM units, but compared to the H11 based OEM fogs at 18' the Morimotos have less peak intensity. This is tested using a stock used standard Osram halogen bulb, a performance stock wattage halogen bulb will perform better. Trucks running the early 2nd Gen H10 fogs, or the 3rd Gen H16 fogs will have a very different comparison baseline.

 

Welcome! Thanks for the kind words! Plenty of other non-Tacoma owners have joined for the lighting info as well. I completely agree on the high color temp blue light output. Diode Dynamics will have something very unique to offer with 4000k LEDs, I will modify the selective yellow lights with the clear lenses in my review to cover the 4000k color DIY option in detail. For 5000k, both Baja and KC have several off the shelf offerings, including half sized pods by Baja in 5000k, but I'd so much prefer 4000k.

 

So still an improvement based on the design of the light but actual output is less.

I'm a little worried since I've got the Amber's on the way. Output is even less on the morimoto amber than the clears. Is it really beneficial at a to have the yellow/amber colors for fogs or is that personal preference? Seems the lost output is a pretty big hit.

 

I Have the Amber KC G4's. They are the only fog I've ever used other then stock.
Fog lights are designed for poor conditions. In those conditions my eyes are much happier with the amber light rather then the previous white I had. Way less reflection back at me from fog or snow.
Even when I turn the lights off and only use the headlights, instill preferences the overall package of the amber+ headlights.

 

The improvement would be a more uniform beam intensity and sharper cut offs with less glare to oncoming traffic, the output is lower compared to the H11 TRD fog, especially for the amber version. However for amber long wavelength lower color temperature light is beneficial in poor weather conditions like fog/rain/snow/dust as it doesn't reflect back off the precipitation/dust in the air like short wavelength high color temp light. This isn't as much an issue with the halogen spectrum since halogens produce little short wavelength light, it is much more of an issue for 'white' LED light, which has a high amplitude spike of short wavelength light. So yes, if you use your fogs as intended, the lower color temps are helpful. However, you get higher intensity output and better contrast out of selective yellow vs amber, while still having the same benefits in poor weather performance, making selective yellow a more preferable color. Many use fogs as aux driving lights on the road and trail, which is not their intent, in that case white may be more beneficial for the higher intensity output at the cost of lower poor weather performance. The amber Morimotos and KCs have similar peak intensity, the KCs just have a much larger pattern area and a fuller spectrum of light, the Morimotos are also a bit monochromatic due to their extremely narrow wavelength output which washes out color/contrast more than the KC G4s which due a better job at providing a wider spectrum of light while maintaining about the same amber color. You can see my review on them below.

Since you got them, I would encourage you to try them out. I can science this stuff all day, but what really matters is what you think of them. If you don't like them, you could sell them and I would suggest trying one of the selective yellow offerings, it is exciting to have so many recently coming to market.

 

You sir, are a fount of information. Thank you.

 

Subbed!

Here to find a possible replacement for my Squadron Sports