The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

That looks rather trippy.

 

Interestingly, the new Bronco Raptor uses Rigid SR-M fogs, like the Tacoma TRD Pro. Toyota's Pro Rigid units have a unique optic gradient that is not found on the standard Rigid SR-M fogs.



Curious though, only 1 pair of fogs is legal to use on the street. The Bronco Raptor has 2 pairs.


However, Ford's website has one pair shown with covers, and the on-site test vehicle also had the inner set covered.

 

The f150 Raptor uses the rigid srm sae fog as well, but like the Toyota only uses a single.

 

I wanted to add some of my pictures from the recent snow storm we had. I changed out my stock fog lights on my 2022 OR and I went with the Diode Dynamics SS3s Max.

 

Great pics demonstrating the poor weather superiority of selective yellow. As someone that regularly puts their fogs to the test crossing mountain passes in snow in the winter at night, that is a good depiction of reality.

 

Another great lighting thread! Leaves me with one questions though.

Has anyone tried a higher wattage bulb? Or any mods to improve the stock housings?

 

Small lamps, especially those with plastic reflectors and housings dont take particularly kindly to excessive temperatures. And thats before you run into the (de)focus issues and (reduced) reach of a higher wattage bulbs.

More power can mean more light, but doesn't also necessarily translate into higher peak intensity/increased reach. Higher wattage bulbs typically suffer from both decreased focus (which will decrease the lamps peak intensity) because the filament is so much larger (in coil diameter, and filament wire gauge, potentially also increased length of the filament coil), and decreased reach due to decreased filament intensity (the coil is larger in diameter and the wire is thicker, so it does not burn as brightly because it does not get as hot).

Also depends on what type of lamp. Older model tacomas used an H11 bulb, newer halogen fogs used an ... H16 iirc? Theres really no point in trying to upgrade an h16, instead of replacing it with a much better lamp assemvly.

 

I tried multiple different bulbs before buying DD fogs. Higher wattage bulbs helped marginally but caused some decent glare.

 

Are the stock fog housing poorly designed compared to the stock headlights? I understand they are much smaller so heat would build much faster.

Yes my 15 uses the H11.

I understand a cheaply engineered bulb can scatter light and LED's are terrible when it comes to true lumen measurements. Most just add the LED chip lumens up and put it on the box.

After seeing the amount of info in the headlight thread regarding bulbs I was surprised there was nothing but replacements units here. But then again most replace their stock bumpers for high clearance ones and relocate the floods completely.

 

No, it's more a function of them being a much much smaller lamp.

The only optically compatible (filament is placed in the same precise location, bulb envelope is similar in size, base diamter etc) "upgrade" would be the H9, however the H9 does not feature a glare cap, as it was intended from the get-go as a high beam bulb. The glare cap is necessary to control forward directed light. Without it the fog lamp becomes a flood lamp. And is not suitable for use in traffic or in inclement weather.

 

If your wanting to try a bulb upgrade in the h11 fogs. Try the tungsram nighthawk platinum. The 3rd gen headlight thread has it as a recommendation for the fogs. Its a noticeable bump in output and the pair is under $30 on Amazon.

 

Found the thread I was looking for thanks everyone for the responses
The ultimate foglight upgrade H11 (not LED or HID)

 

Yes, but note that the thread was before there were viable low color temp LED options that were capable of defeating snow. The replacement LED assemblies options available today from Diode Dynamics and now Morimoto make the halogen fog upgrades obsolete and not recommended.

You don't list your Tacoma year/trim in your profile, if you have the TRD wide angle H11 fogs, the Tungsram Platinum H11 bulbs are the best plug and play halogen option available. If you have the H16 fogs, there are no viable upgrades and you should replace the assembly, and if replacing the assembly might as well go with one of the high performing LED options. If set on halogens, you might find post #392 interesting, swapping to OEM Subaru H11 fog units which utilize an integrated glare cap, so you can then swap to an H9 bulb and have higher output with less glare and light spill compared to the stock Tacoma H11 open reflector fogs, and not require any relayed harness/wiring. However, the Subaru beam pattern is very different than the Toyota TRD wide-angle units and not as wide as I would like.

I've run countless halogen bulb upgrades, my Subaru fog upgrade experimenting with different H9s, high power relayed halogens, several different LED fogs chosen based on my test results, and my favorite for my use (which includes snow) is by far is the DD selective yellow Max. The spread width is almost as good as the TRD fogs, the intensity is far higher than anything you can get out of the halogen assemblies (Subaru or TRD), there is less light spill than upgrading the halogen fogs, the yellow is richer than any halogen yellow bulbs, and they run very hot to combat even extreme snow. Bulb upgrades are certainly less expensive, but they are not on a comparable performance level.

 

This has been an incredibly informative thread! Thank you all so much for all the great info and discussion. A special salute to crashnburn, well done sir.

My question/concern;
I currently have the halogen fogs and am definitely going to upgrade to LED setup. Really leaning towards DD product. I live in rural VA, certainly not a snow belt but does happen here and there, so a LED product that keeps snow melted makes sense.

I haven’t been able to pull trigger on DD Max due to $$ (expensive for me).

DD Pro!! Decent price and on sale. Why are these so NOT recommended? Especially when you can adjust the aim of the fogs? Or are they not adjustable like the stock fogs?

 

The pros have more light spill above the cutoff, so even when aimed correctly it can still cause some issues in a lifted truck. Not horrible, but the max and sport have much better control. Have you tried the tungsram platinum bulb swap? Its actually pretty good (if you have the h11 trd fogs) and what i run now. I repurposed my ss3 pro to offroad lighting

 

Thanks,
I have not tried the platinum swap yet. I have tried H9’s and 11’s and they are better than stock for sure. But I think from what I’ve seen so far in the research, the LED swap seems to have the best results for proper fog use (foul weather).

My Tacoma is not lifted (yet), maybe I can make the Pro’s work. I like their price!

 

I had the Pros and now have the Max. That said, the new Elite series is one hell of a bang for the buck. The beam pattern is actually better defined than the Sport or Max and that's saying a lot. If you don't live where it snows, I'd give it some serious consideration.

 

I looked at the elites and the research results looked good. Although I don’t live in a serious snow belt area, I may travel to those places and occasionally “big” snows happen in my area. That being said, I’d be pretty disappointed with my choice if I went with a cooler light and have them freeze over when their need/use is critical.

 

I’m going to post a DD SS3 Pro specific thread and see how users feel about them.

Too Stoked, I’ve noted your response about them. Did you swap to the max due to the Pro’s glare potential?