The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Baja just introduced actual amber.

 

What are your thoughts on this? I prefer the look of amber, but my understanding is that selective yellow functionally superior?

 

This popped up in my inbox. Looks like the Elite Series has new competition. And it seems that there is finally a "proper" switchback white-yellow switchback fog light. Whether it's a compromise remains to be seen. Any insights?

https://youtu.be/M4hB-XP8tr4?si=OinTPQkFO5uzoBVN

 

I'd say, based on the selective yellow color used in shooter's glasses, that true selective yellow is going to be superior for contrast improvement / glare reduction over the standard automotive amber color. Shooters glasses are (that I've ever seen) always selective-yellow shaded, not automotive-amber.

I don't really see why anyone would choose automotive amber for high-power illumination sources, other than aesthetics. ("I just want the colors to match up to my markers / turn signals / etc.")

 

Beam pattern remain identical between White and yellow switch.

Check video at following link
https://i.imgur.com/25SRvrD.mp4


Optics is designed to use line focus, and both white and yellow is layout on same line axis

Beam is generally about 100°~106° horizontal stretch(pairwise), Vertical 7° at beam center upto 10° at beam outer zone.
Zone D intensity is about 8500Cd for white, 6800Cd for Yellow

Vertical intensity mapping is clean exponent curve to zone D peak ( 1D aim for F3 lamp)



Pairwise combined beam



White emitter is Oslon
Compact PL, KW CWLPM3.TK Color BIN 6M0~7L0 = 5500K~5700K white
Yellow emitter is Nichia
NCSY131 native selective yellow

Color impression is warmer, blue spectrum is blended out. Top is Elite 11,500Cd (Zone D) bottom XB Evo Fog 8,500Cd (Zone D)

** Elite fog F2 is as wide as 100° beam Below pictured is their 80° model I didn't have F2 sample with me.


No, No back light. This is just a fog, SAE J583 F3 and ECE R19 F3 and similar power to Elite fog, can't melt snow.

Highlight is distribution refinement. I particularly allocate lower angle stretch at outer angle zone, as this outer lower zone provide driver view width comfort. Ground coverage smoothness is good!

LMK any additional questions

 

I challenge the marketing message on any multi-color fog lamp. Selective yellow is vastly superior in illumination performance for conditions that call for a fog lamp. Why would you waste effort on a 6000k white lamp that is worthless in fog or any foul weather? That is just foolish. If you are using the lamp for its intended purpose, selective yellow is the proper choice to maximize performance.

 

Recently upgraded my fogs. Posted in another thread but adding the write up here as well. Love the styling of the OEM rigid fogs but wanted more performance without switching to the typical (baja style) fogs everyone runs.

Huge shout out to @crashnburn80 for the help, guidance, and product recommendations. Ended up going with the Morimoto 2Bangers in amber with the SAE wide pattern. Purchased a simple deutsch to h11 adapter and that made them plug and play with the existing factory fog light wiring & stalk switch.


https://www.morimotohid.com/2Banger-LED-Pods-HXB-Wide-Beam?quantity=1

Grabbed a knock off set of the Rigid fogs on ebay so I could get a badgeless bezel and bracket to mount new fogs to. These have an additional LED accent strip where the rigid badging typical is, but I didn't bother wiring them up and just zip tied those leads off to the side.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/363549173405

Thankfully the Morimoto pods had mounting holes that lined up perfectly with the replica brackets and made it very easy to mount & properly aim them.

Stoked with how they turned out! Soon enough, I'll be cleaning up the OEM Rigid fogs w/ amber clip on lenses & bezels to post for sale. Great lights, just wanted a bit more output.




Output shots below:
1st shot: low beams w/ fogs
2nd shot: 2banger HXB wide amber fogs only
3rd shot: low beams only

 

Mr crash. Have you done any testing on the VLED LPR specifically the new one with “The 5W CREE chips also allowed us to increase the output from 1800LM to 2500LM.” Looking at it as a nicely integrated rear aux light under independent switch controll. I already have the gy6 bulbs in the stock tails.

 

Not exactly Sae fog lights, however i recently got a set of Baja Designs Squadron Sports. Came with a set of clear spot, driving combo, and wide cornering lens. Along with black and Baja yellow covers. I have them on my lower bumper beside my winch mount, also have a set of Xl80s (clear spot lens on them) on my a pillar/hood mount, finally a set of Sae next get fogs in yellow. The lens on the Squadron Sports are clear, i put the Baja yellow covers on them, i use them as aux fog lights when there is no traffic around as well as a more polite aux light on more public back roads vs the Xl80s. My question on the Squadron Sports is the Baja yellow cover vs swapping the lens from a clear set to a Baja yellow set. Is there a difference in performance or is it negligible? I have the driving/combo lens on them if that helps, Thanks for the input.

 

There

There's always filtration loss when converting white light to amber. The covers that snap in front of the light produce a less yellow light vs the actual amber lens so you have less filtration loss. I have yellow lenses and have ran the yellow covers and it's noticeably less yellow. If you want nearly the same color temp as the SAE, then you'll want to swap lenses. If I had to guess color temp, yellow lens will be like 3300k vs the covers at 4000k

 

Looks like ill be ordering a set of lens for them then. If i want a white light ill turn the Xl80s on. I know Baja just announced/released Amber lens, wonder how they perform vs Baja Yellow lens.

 

Amber will filter more light than the yellow lens.

 

Are you talking about the reverse light bar that is plate mounted? No. I primarily focus on SAE complaint forward lighting, and that is not an SAE compliant product, it is just a mini light bar that is reverse facing.

The Baja yellow filter is the same. The difference is in the reduced emitter color temp in the 1st Gen units, where the 2nd Gen units use a higher color temp emitter. The 2nd gen units fail to account for the emitter color temp difference while using the same yellow color filter lens resulting in a failed compliance product that is not legal. It's Baja's 3rd failure on this product line. Regardless it is not a "more polite" fog. It is an egregious offense to oncoming motorist. Non-SAE compliant lights should never be run into oncoming traffic. And while one might try to convince themselves that a non-SAE compliant pattern might benefit them in poor weather the opposite is true. Light spill above the horizon in heavy fog will be detrimental to visibility, not supplemental. Proper SAE compliant fogs will outperform those "off road" patterns in actual fogs.

 

For two years in a row now I've had problems with snow packing into the recess around the fog lights, adhering to the lenses and rendering them useless.

The DD Max setup is the only LED option that gets hot enough to melt snow. Seems like a super product but, unfortunately, they're too expensive for something I have no need to use on a regular basis. That said, I went retro on the advice of crashnburn80 and found some H11 halogen fogs from the 2016-19 TRD trucks (part #s: 812200802000 812100802000). Vosla selective yellow H11's are the lamp. Total cost of this setup was about $120.

Winter is coming. I'll report back with results.

Below is post-aiming. Truck is 25' from the wall. Wall block width = 12'. Wall block height = 6.5'.

 

This is a shit ton of info. Thanks,!

 

Is there a bumper mount housing so a 1st gen could use this setup?

 

Something like this?

https://www.diodedynamics.com/ss3-sae-yellow-max-led-pod-pair.html

 

No idea. The other guys (esp. crashnburn80) would know.

 

I have a 1st Gen and have looked extensively. There are some interesting DIY fab solutions, but no off the shelf bolt on solutions other than bull bars with light mounts or full heavy aftermarket plate front bumpers. Neither appeal to me personally.