The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Mynameistory has it right then. If you're looking at angling them outward for side illumination, the combo optic would work well. Otherwise the driving beam if pointing them straight forward.

 

Shoutout to @memario1214 for the quick shipping on these ss3 pros! Thanks man! So excited to get these installed!

 

I would love to find something like this for the rear of my F150.

 

The Diode Dynamics SS3 Maxes were quite literally lifesavers tonight. And it was my fault for putting them in that position, but I've never been more thankful for a high quality lighting product.

My heated JW J3 LED headlights had a heater failure on one of the units, so I sent them in for warranty replacement and like many things with supply chain issues lately is on extended backorder. In the mean time I swapped my OEM LED headlights back into the Gladiator. TRS went above and beyond and lent me some heated JW J2 LED headlights, but I hadn't yet swapped the OEM LEDs out for the replacement heated J2s. Pressed on a tight time schedule and having to too much to do and not enough time, I passed on the headlight swap and having to try poor daytime aiming before heading over the mountains at night in the snow. Snow sticking is only an issue with wet snow and that often isn't the case for conditions encountered, so I decided to gamble. Heading up the remote winding unlit 2 lane mountain pass highway at night, once I hit snow I immediately realized I had made a major critical error in judgement. It was the most relentless heavy wet snow storm I've ever encountered. The impacts on the windshield sounded more like heavy hail due to the weight of the snow. The headlights almost immediately pancaked over under deep snow coverage, and just like that I had no headlights at all on one of the most dangerous highways in the state in a horrible snowstorm with no visibility. Thank god for the Diode Dynamics SS3 Max in selective yellow. My headlights were buried, the windshield was completely covered in all areas the wipers did not sweep, but the Maxes held their own and remained clear under the relentless barrage providing much needed lighting. Visibility dropped off a cliff with the loss of headlights, if I had lost the fogs too I would have been in very serious trouble. I had to stop on the highway several times, exit the truck on the roadway where I cannot be seen in a blinding snowstorm, and scoop the snow out of my headlights and try to scrape off the ice sheets that had formed over the headlight lens. The Maxes impressively had no accumulation. It has been a long time since I was so mad at myself for a miscalculation in judgement. Exiting a vehicle on a highway in no-visibility conditions is extremely unsafe. I don't care if I'm swapping headlights seasonally specifically for winter conditions, I will never again run non-heated LED headlights in the winter.

Thank you @Diode Dynamics for such an outstanding fog product. Your product performed exceptionally in the absolute worst conditions possible, when it really mattered, which is the entire purpose of a true foglight. Well done.

 

Glad you made it out unscathed. I'll be swapping my HID bulbs for the modded H9 for winter as well. I need the extra infrared heat for when the snowfall is at it's worst. I've already seen once that the DD sports in the worst of snow storms fail to melt off the snow build-up.

 

I have retrofitted 3 out of 4 of my vehicles over the last 4-5yrs. Halogens (especially high performance ones) tend to keep the lens clear of snow and ice better than HID's in my experience. On my 15 Tacoma the lens pretty much cakes over except for directly in front of the projector. While that sounds effective, it still blocks quite a bit of light. Even my 01 Outback that has considerably smaller housings that is retrofitted acts the same way.

It's misconception that HID's run "hotter". While an HID bulb surface temp is way hotter, they do not (or should not) produce more infrared heat as a halogen bulb. Since Halogen bulbs typically do not have an infrared(IR)/UV protective coating they will radiate IR heat throughout the housing. While a Halogen bulb does create IR/UV radiation, it is not intense enough to damage anything. A quality HID bulb has a high quality IR/UV protective coating to combat the significantly increased IR/UV radiation caused by the "arc" that is created by plasma gas in the capsule, essentially like welding. Some HID bulbs have a better coating than others and to my knowledge there aren't many HID bulbs with zero coating anymore. Essentially if an HID bulb has no coating it will cause lots of damage very quickly. It'll burn the bowl lining, damage the headlight lens and be a safety hazard to peoples eyes, just like staring at someone welding. This also where the misconception of HID's ruining projector bowls comes from. It isn't the bulbs physical temperature that destroys the reflective coating, it's the IR/UV in poor quality bulbs that does. In the early days of PNP HID bulbs, people would literally get a sunburn if they ignited the bulb outside of the housing, this is generally no longer the case though for the above reasons. So the actual IR/UV radiant heat will likely be higher with a high performance H11 or H9 than an HID, unless it's low quality.

I did take a temp gun to the H11 projectors I removed from our 12 Fusion that I retrofitted. If I recall the projector bowl got a little over 225F (standard H11, not high performance) and when I installed Morimoto 5500K H11's with 35w ballast it was around 180F, this was about 65F ambient and has been at least 5 years so I don't remember exact numbers. The projector was removed from the headlight on my basement work bench after probably about 5-10min of runtime each. If I think about it this weekend I might have to recreate the test since I still have all of those parts.

I guess what I am saying is that the Halogens will likely be better at keeping snow off the lenses than an HID bulb. But it's not to say that either is a fool proof solution, but at least it isn't an LED!

 

Glad you made it unscathed. As someone who drives 500 miles a night and knows 2 people who hit what they thought was a deer (unfortunately was a person) in inclement weather I cringe when I hear stories or see people getting out of their vehicle. This brings up the rear fog lights again. Did you install the EU ones you got for your Gladiator? Could we talk DD into making a run of red lenses?????? It also got me thinking about a project I did years ago and might try again with a clear fog light. Had a 2014 ZX14r in black sparkle metallic and burnt candy orange. Kawasaki had clear taillight and turn signal lenses that stuck out like a sore thumb to us overly anal picky SOBs so I tried doing something about it. Here's a link to the thread if interested.....http://zx14ninjaforum.com/messages.cfm?threadid=66D93DFA-EFF7-9B7F-344BAB6B56A6B653







So do I try this again, Tamiya transparent red over a clear fog or just use the selective yellow? On a similar note to rear visibility my 2016 f150's LED tail lights looked very good in clear weather but with only 2 small bars visible from the rear they disappeared almost instantly in rain, snow or fog. The 2018+ tail lights had 4 bars facing rearward so I updated to them.

Might have to search and see if I can find the OEM fog for F150s over the pond.

 

Holy… Not sure how I didn’t see this thread. Agree 100% with your assessment of the diodedynamics fogs. Replaced the TRD pro rigids with SS3 maxes, dremmeled the bezel and never looked back. Some comparison shots below.

This is the King Kong of fog light posts. Well done @crashnburn80

 

Yup, couldn't agree more. (I also have the Max's in my T4R.) Just bring the DD fogs down to the same level as the OEM fogs and be even further amazed.

 

Yup. These were aimed at the time for comparison purposes only.

 

Just joined here, after buying my first Taco, 2008. No pre-wiring, switch or anything for fog lights. Looks like the first order will be the ss3 max in yellow and then figure out relay, wiring kit, switch etc.....

Great site

~Gratitude~

 

First, thank you for this amazing thread. For newbies like me it's a wealth of great knowledge.

KC has discontinued the amber version of the G4.
Not sure if this was mentioned earlier, but hope this helps someone.
I'm bummed because I really wanted a set, but looks like I'll be using one of the other recommendations.
Cheers!

 

Interesting, I'd think that the amber color would be more popular for instagram points. Lack of demand, or maybe a compliance issue?

 

@crashnburn80 You want to test these before I install them?

 

Ooh, where are these going?

 

Those are the ones I want for my ditch light replacements.

 

I have not yet done the EU rear fogs on the Gladiator, definitely would have been the perfect circumstance for it though. I'll certainly be driving this pass again at night in the snow so it would be a worthwhile investment.

As for your fog idea, rear fogs must be red. You cannot have a yellow rear-facing foglight. If attempting your painting idea, I'd opt for the yellow lamp with 4000k emitters and a clear lens swap. Using a 6000k emitter based light for that project will likely result in pink output. Agreed on the general idea of needing adequate illuminated surface area for a brake light. The Tesla tails make me cringe. I did a quick search for rear fogs for F150s and didn't come up with any OEM offerings.

Yep, but I would not recommend the amber G4. At the time of the product launch they were the first non-white LED fog widely available for the platform. I am not a fan of 6000k white for inclement weather use, the color temp is too reflective for the purpose. So in that regard they had some appeal to many. I tried them in my 2nd Gen, and with upgraded headlights I couldn't even tell the fogs were on. First time it snowed they packed over and were worthless. Many higher performing fog products have come to market since then. And those with selective yellow offer significantly higher output intensity, better contrast/visibility (isn't monochromotatic like amber) while also offering some heat generation in those using yellow/amber lenses for color filtration vs amber emitters. Every aspect of performance is better. I'd highly recommend checking out the SS3s, and if snow performance is a concern opt for the Pro or the Max.

Thanks for the offer. I tested the combo optic in review post #3793. Since the yellow loss from 4000k to selective yellow will be the same for all optics you can subtract about the same 8% of the output values to get they yellow optic version intensity. No need to retest.

 

Swapping the Clear driving lens on the Selective Yellow SS3 Pro high beam setup to angled out like a ditch light for some night runs in the snow.

Plus, when it doesn’t rain in WA we tend to get some good fog as well

 

Post some pics when you can. I'm still brainstorming my ditch light setup.