3rd Gen LED and HID Lighting upgrades Discussion (POLL)

LOL, back atcha!! Anytime, anything for you Man!

 

Anyone have the Baja Designs Squadron Sport Fog lights? I’m considering getting a set but don’t wanna spend the money if they aren’t really worth the price..

 

Ive seen these in person first hand and they are quite awesome and the Direct Replacement ability does make these very attractive. Yes, the price is a little high for me also, but I have been debating getting them to replace the OffRoad Town SAE Projector Fog Cubes. Those Squadrons are a hot item in the Tacoma scene and are used as both fog lights and ditch lights as well.

 

I think they would look great! Just hard to pull the trigger at that price tag..

 

I have to say, I agree with you 100% on that one. Gotta pay to play I guess LOL quality products come at a premium.

Or you could enter into the Tacoma World secret Santa and hope for the best lol

 

Man, initially I was set on the KC Hilites 501 Amber Fogs but after seeing these Baja Designs fogs, I am having second thoughts. Are they significantly better than the KC 501s? Thanks.

 

Regarding the LED in the fogs, they state they don't glare, but has anyone taken pictures from an oncoming vehicle? Say 100' out, maybe further?

 

I just put LED bulb replacements in my Heads/brights/fogs the other day. So far so good. I live in a snow belt, so we'll see how that goes

 

What is often overlook in these comparisons is distance projection. The wider LEDs significantly change the lighting geometry and instead of increasing focus to project light further, they lose focus causing the beam pattern to shorten significantly and shift toward the vehicle. LEDs do not project correctly, for the way the housing is designed, which is why people always talk about LEDs lack of throw.

The HID you referenced above is 80% brighter in lumen output than the LED counterpart it was measured against (according to reputable specs), but because of the loss of focus by the LED the HID has 3.8x the output in the hotspot for drastically better projection. Unfortunately the shift of the light pattern toward the vehicle with LEDs produces great looking photos as people see a lot more light immediately in front of the vehicle and think it looks great. Reflective and projector based optical designs are designed to focus the light into a concentrated hot spot for maximum distance projection, which depends on the light source being exactly center in the housing (not offset like LED), and the smaller the better. While you can put more light into a headlight, if you are not maintaining your hotspot the distance projection is lost, which is the primary purpose of the headlight.

XD Philips HID vs XD LED
Hotspot vs no hotspot




The HID lights pictured are 4300k Philips from Xenon Depot. You can get higher color temperature lights to match LED DRLs, but the higher color temperatures do slightly reduce output. I like that XD offers German Philips bulbs as an option.

The Baja lights produce awesome output and are very high quality, but they do not have cut offs designed for street use, so they produce blinding glare and should be considered off road use only, or for use when no other traffic is on the street. Baja advertises the lights are not street legal. It would be really sweet if they would make an SAE pattern fog light like other vendors.

You can see a comparison of all the SAE fog lights here, including examples of other patterns including Bajas wide cornering.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

For amber might also consider Rigid’s new Amber SAE fog pod launching in a month or two.



You can see the pre-production prototype testing here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/page-14

 

The Baja Designs LED fog lights aren't for everyone especially if you are looking for a fog light you can use daily that will provide the same beam projection. If you want a yellow fog light then take a look at the new Xtreme LED Pro kits in yellow.



Danny

 

I installed this kit and @Scooby24 added a warmup video which is about 20 seconds long.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/hyluxtek-hid-kit-with-cnlight-ball-bulbs.457461/

The whole kit costs <$100

 

Thanks for your input about the Baja Designs fogs @crashnburn80 ! What about this kit from XenonDepot? How does this compare to the KC 501s amber? Thanks again/

 

Amber LEDs light is not as harsh to oncoming drivers for glare as white, but an LED in a halogen housing still isn’t going to have the pattern projection qualities and cut off like a complete replacement unit designed specifically for the LED light source. KC currently makes amber fog, and both Rigid and Morimoto are launching amber SAE fogs. CaliRaised is also launching a new SAE fog, but I don’t know if they will offer amber. I’ll have the KC ambers to compare to the rest next month.

 

Everyone wanting Fogs just needs to read this.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/

 

Just what I thought! Thank you!

 

Who makes an LED for the HB at 5000K? Just ordered the XD HID Phillips 4300K and KC G4 at 5000K. Looking to get an LED at something close to 5K or lower but all see from Hikari and Mornimoto at 6K.

 

The XenonDepot LEDs are spec’d at 5.5k. When I measured them they were closer to 5.8k.

 

SNGL makes a 5500k LED bulb. They have gotten good ratings so I've seen. I haven't tested these yet, but was thinking of maybe picking up there 55W 6000k

SNGL Super FocusBeam LED Headlight Bulbs H11 (H8, H9, H16 Type 2) - CanBus - 5500K Daylight White

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774N9RB6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_2vsYBbP2D27PF

 

The 30w looks to be a much better design. Also note how those use inset PCB boards (like the Hikaris) vs surface mount, which will provide better focus and distance projection than surface mount. The 55w version does not properly size or place the LED diodes.

 

Yeah, this is why I want to pick up a set and test them and see. It one thing to see a picture of a design and hypothesize what you expect or think they will perform like and another to physical test them out. I want to compare them to the Hikari's and another set I have that are pretty sick We'll see idk if I really want to yet. I've got several others to test right now.