The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

They are working on it! Soon!

 

I ended up stripping the mounting screw on the driver side (thought screw would sorta snug up...oops), so I found a slightly larger screw and used it (considered cutting down a long bolt with lock nut, but figured I'd see how the regular screw works).

Thanks to a speedy gravel road improvement effort by a neighbor, he literally created a couple sets of intense washboard runs right after our driveway...I've hit them a various speeds, larger screw is still holding in place, no noticeable bounce or change in "fitment" of the drivers side. I'll update if anything negative comes about.

 

Installed mine yesterday (SS3 pros) so haven't had much time with them. Initial impressions are that the castings and assembly are very high quality. I don't know how to describe it, but just by looking at and picking them up- they feel very mass optimized. Like everything that needs to be there, is there; and anything unnecessary isn't. It's very much a clean-sheet design. The casting is only as large as it needs to be to hold the optic and incorporate the cooling fins. The use of drop-in locknuts for the bracket hardware is brilliant, because you won't be threading directly into the aluminum housing, which could strip after several bracket changes- instead there's replaceable stainless steel threads that you can get at any hardware store. I believe they're 10-32 size but I haven't confirmed.

I have a 4Runner, so it has the two positioning tabs plus 2 screws. The lights certainly are heftier than the stock assemblies but feel very secure. I can tell you that the housings get very warm, even hot to the touch when sitting still (no airflow from driving). I drove home last night with 48º on the dash, and they were lukewarm to the touch when I arrived. I'm interested to see how they do with clearing condensation and snow. I'd dig through my garage for my laser thermometer but I figure Crash will do his thing.

Aiming them feels a little less precise. Their angle is held only by the two bolts on either side, not like the adjustable screw/knob from factory. What I did was tighten the brackets until they were very snug, and changing the angle requires some force. Now I can adjust them from outside the bumper by hand. While they feel reasonably fixed, the hand adjustments are not as fine as using a click-knob. I think this is a nod to making the lights both universal and application-specific.

I don't have any output photos or any photos at night, but I think I need to adjust them further down before I continue anyway. However, the bezels are already poking out of the top of the bumper trim (and have a small gap at the bottom) so hopefully I don't have too much more downward aiming.

They are seriously bright. I previously had Philips 12793UNIX2 LED drop-in bulbs installed in stock housings, but it's not a contest at all. The width of the pattern is also impressive, but I don't have any real comparisons. The Philips bulbs faded out as they got wider, while these have a very defined punch throughout so the edge cutoff seems much more noticeable.

Here's a halfway install shot during the day. The Philips drop-in is on the passenger side, and the camera is in the beam of both lights. Not very scientific, just a quick comparison before I finished install.



Here you can see the bezel isn't quite perfect, as it pokes out the bumper trim at the top and I still have a bit more downward aiming to do. This probably changes a little bit depending on what truck they're installed on. It's also only noticeable when you're up very close. The lights obviously need some bezel gaps to be adjustable. It doesn't bug me at all.







Now I just need to make some custom brackets for the driving lights! I plan on installing them in the upper grill, either behind it or through it.

 

Got a email from BD, shipping my uogradd kit out earlier than I though. Should be here Saturday.

 

Woot! Be sure to post pics when you get them since nobody has seen what the new uplight light shield looks like yet (at least I haven't seen it, though I have a pretty good idea in my head how it will look).

I was able to get another SAE test result on the Baja's SAE lights to check the numbers since Baja's test results did not match my data values. After some comparison, for some reason my first results seem to have the decimal truncated from the measured values, meaning instead of 1.5x over the limit, I had 15x over the limit. 1.5x over the limit for glare was the actual value. Baja claims the new design reduces glare by 33%, so it should be just under the legal limit for up light.

 

I got my notification, too. I won't get my update parts until Monday, though.

 

I'll try to get some pi s of them. Looks like a cool rainy Saturday. Oh well. Still like the lights, the upward glare has yet to get me flashed or pulled over. One thing I like is the lights light up signs pretty good, I know that not how they are designed but nice. Still hoping for a revision or a 2.0 design of BD fogs. However the Diode Dynamics looks pretty intense and similar coverage. Just dont know if they will make brackets/mounts for my truck. All else fails I'll go with RI. Still cant wait for your reviews of the BD revision and DD fogs.

 

Baja designs has shipped the sae fog light fix, should arrive next week

 

Baja’s new SAE fog optic. I believe @Baja Designs was looking for feedback on the new design.

 

Please say you're joking.

 

yep

 

I had the same initial response.

 

Sorry, do i have an open order with you? I dont always get the screen name vs real name lol.
I know BD is shipping SAE lights starting today i believe. (at least according to my sales guy)

 

.....please tell me this is a joke....

 

Thanks for the laugh man. That's a complete joke.

 

Nope.

 

Noooo. That’s awful imo. Way to busy x 1000. I wouldn’t even consider them due to the appearance, regardless of how well they performed.

I’d much prefer the entire lens to be clear yellow/amber (aka normal). Two yellow/amber fogs really change the look of the front end of a vehicle. They’re small to begin with- no need to “busy” them up. I wanna see two yellow spots on the bumper. That’s it.

(But the crawlers might like them- maybe that’s the target market?)

 

Yikes! I wanted the BD fogs in my heart, but I'm glad I read all 101 pages in this thread, especially this one. I'll be going with the KCs I think

 

I don't think this was an effort to "upgrade" the appearance of the light at all. This is the only way they can limit the glare without completely starting over again on the design and production for the SAE Squadron.

It also looks like this is the inside of the lens, since the logo is backwards. It's possible that you may not be able to see the shield clearly (or at all) when it's installed and behind the fluted lens.

However, it also means that a lot of the available light energy from the diodes is completely wasted. I understand why they went this route, but it just seems like a huge compromise for people that have paid (and future buyers that will continue to pay) good money for them.