The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Diode Dynamics offers fog light bars. Might be worth waiting for the updated Stage bars shown at SEMA to land though before pulling the trigger. Their current non-white bars are amber, the new ones will be much higher in output and selective yellow.

Welcome to the forum! Snow melting performance is a regular topic since fogs are often used in snow during the winter. If the lamp can’t clear snow, it can become useless in conditions when needed most. Keep in mind it is the selective yellow units that incur the filtration losses in the lens resulting in heat that clear snow best. I haven’t personally tested the 1 bangers, so I cannot confirm they run hot enough for snow clearing duty.

The DD Max fogs are preferred over the Pros. The Max has much sharper cut offs with less light spill, higher output intensity, and the 6000k HXBs filtered through a darker optic results in more lens heat for superior snow clearing abilities over the Pros.

If you are reffering to OEM mounting brackets, few brands offer a variety in the 1x2 or 1x architecture. Most all stick to the standard pod for the widest variety of OEM mounting solutions.

 

1Banger can melt snow, but 1Banger does NOT satisfy J583 F function. Cutoff is too weak, failed on compliance test 3 samples out of 10 sample I sent, so we took off SAE F fog description. It is still the only 1 LED pod style lamp that output J583 F character, most of them will pass test, but strictly speaking, 30% failure rate is too high, so it's not SAE J583 fog lamp I can suggest. 2Banger HXB is safely J583 F fog, snow melt no problem 2Banger NCS, won't combat snow, but it is F3 class fog lamp I am wishing my team to work on more fog bracket development for 2Banger, its compact and very potent lamp

 

What are the best cheapest fog lights? Or do I have to read all the pages?

 

https://www.diodedynamics.com/elite-series-fog-lamps-for-2012-2023-toyota-tacoma-pair.html
https://www.diodedynamics.com/ss3-led-fog-light-kit-for-2016-2023-toyota-tacoma.html

 

Diode Sports are stellar, but price has creeped up quite a bit. OEM Toyota is the best bang for the buck if you’re okay with 6000k fogs. See post #724. Selective yellow in the DD Sports is more ideal for poor weather than 6000k, but the OEM units are excellent performers at less than 1/2 the price.

 

Thank you! I’m still rocking the H9s for my headlight based on your science and professional opinion and thanks for saving me $$$$

 

Based on running a 3300k headlight bulb, I’d strongly lean towards a selective yellow lamp for fogs, or a matching halogen one. Having 6000k LED white in your near field with halogen colored headlights in your far field is going to look distracting. Cheapest option would be to find some OEM TRD 16-19 wide-angle H11 halogen fogs, then throw in some performance H11s. They perform much better than the non-TRD or 20+ trucks H16 fogs. You can often find them for cheap in the market place section of the forum when people take them off to swap to LED units. The other option would be to go with the Diode Dynamics Elite fogs in selective yellow, the prices on those haven’t gone up yet like the SS3 Sports.

 

Does anyone know what headlight marker lights match the amber diode fogs? @memario1214 ?

 

None. Forward marker lights are true amber. Diode Dynamics fogs are selective yellow. Avoid amber fogs, they are far lower performing than selective yellow. Fogs should not match marker lights, they serve different purposes and selective yellow is the highest performing color for fog lights for use in poor weather.

 

I should've been more clear. I mean the backlit option of the ss3. So that when only the backlighting is on w/ the marker lights, there's a closer match. Right now they're so different.
Diode replied to me and said their side and turn signal LED's will be a decent match to the ss3 when on backlit mode but not when powered on as a fog light. Like you mentioned.

 

I’m looking to upgrade my 2018 stock fogs, I like the stock one because of the wide spread but the lens is becoming discolored. Is the oem led still a great upgrade for my year? I’ve read my year has the brighter holegen bulb compared to the newer tacomas. If not, what’s the next best budget light that performs well?

 

All the info is in my post you quoted above. The OEM LED fogs are excellent bang for the buck performance, however 6000k LED fogs are going to be visually distracting to you as the driver with 3300k headlights. I’d opt for selective yellow fogs for best poor weather performance in general, but especially for halogen headlights I’d opt for selective yellow fogs.

 

I’ve read that post but I remembered reading you saying the oem led is inferior to the H9 fog lights in my year Tacoma. I could’ve read wrong.

 

You can see the table from DD. The Toyota halogen fogs are easily upgradable via bulb upgrades (they take H11 not H9). DD's Elite in selective yellow has good intensity output increase over both the OEM LED and halogens, though slightly narrower pattern than the halogens. Toyota's OEM halogen wide angle fogs on the 12-15 Tacomas and the 16-18 TRD Tacomas have exceptional pattern width.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CbhXqtzHQE

 

Thank you to all the contributors to this book of a thread. There is a lot of good information in here.

I think the DD SS3 SAE Fog Yellow Max will do me good. I'm in snow country, so the Sports are not on my list of options. The Pro-to-Max price difference is a lot, but I think it will be worth it to have the sharper cut off; assuming a sharper cut off with selective yellow fogs will help the driver's vision in a heavy snow and/or heavy rain. Is my assumption correct?

I've been searching through this thread for this, but couldn't find a review noting the driver's experience comparing the Pro and Max in similar heavy snow or rain storm conditions.

Also, these are going on 3rd gen that will eventually be lifted 2" - 2.5" with 33" tires, and mounted on a BAMF hybrid bumper. Here is a photo from BAMF's site showing the location of fogs on the hybrid. I'm not sure where my fogs will sit above/below factor height; since there will be additions (lift and tires) and subtractions (location on bumper).

 

The SS3 Max provides higher output intensity, better cut offs and hotter lens temps than the Pros. I've driven in heavy snow with both and the Max will do better than the Pros. Definitely opt for selective yellow.

 

Thanks for the comparison. Looks like the selective yellow Max will be going on the bumper.

 

thank you for such an in depth look at all these lighting options.

i did notice baja designs went at their SAE design again and now they have a projector lens instead of that filler piece they gave you.


best part is, DD did a comparison video already so answered my question which is better

i did have a question regarding which SS3 to get for rain. i notice my OEM fogs on my 4runner (which are 6000k) seem to not really illuminate much and the road markers become nearly invisible in rain, add fog from PNW and im driving on a prayer.

i see you mentioned max would be the best for snow, but what about for rain? im hesitant only because im scared its going to be so bright that it creates greater reflection back to me. and definitely getting selective yellow!

edit: nevermind, i see you already did a review on the new baja designs! sorry!