The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

picked up the kc g34 fogs (i have a plate bumper) and not that impressed. i did throw yellow lamnx on them. previously i had bd squadron sports and they were bright but we all know they don't work as fogs.

crashnburn 80, i know you're trying to stick with out of the box quality of the lights but what effect do you think pieces of tape inside the squadrons lenses will have? kinda like a bubba'ed cut off. I'll admit leds confuse me a little since the reflector isn't as important as with incandescents.

 

If you look at the output comparison chart, you can see the G34s finish mid pack, a yellow filter is going to further reduce output. You get good area coverage and good color temp (5000k) but not high intensity output. The rectangular reflector does not do as good of a job as a round one, causing lots of striations in the pattern.

Note Rigid has updated their fog pod with new optics for even higher output than what is listed in this thread. If you want yellow/amber it would be far better to use the amber G4s or wait for the new Rigid amber launch coming soon.

You could try ghetto rigging the Bajas but it is unlikely to control glare. If you are looking for max output with clean cut offs and full pattern, Rigid is the best fit.

 

thanks. bumper was designed for bd squadrons so the g4s would look weird being a circle in a square hole. after your review the rigids do look like they're what I'm looking for.

 

I’d be curious to see your custom mount job. I completely agree the “white” Rigids are way to high in color temp, 7000k+ appears way too bluish. Its there in the color temp chart. I much prefer the color of the KC G4s at 5000k. You could try the snap on amber covers which will give a much more pleasant amber/yellow light, but you’ll lose about 50% of the output.

If you have the 85/80w bulbs, keep those. They are quite a bit better than the 100/90w bulbs. The 85/80w are high efficiency meaning they use smaller more precise coils to project the light further than stock. The 100/90w bulbs put out more light than stock but do not project it further. The 85/80w are also higher color temperature.

Which bulbs do you have for the fogs? The Flossers or the H9 capped Volsas? Going with a halogen fog is going to match the headlights best. You can run the capped H9 Volsas with no harness. I finally did the fog anytime mod so I can run my fogs without the headlights.

 

Those are the good ones. For comparison the Rigids are 1760 raw lumens, or about 1000 actual lumens. Those bulbs at 2100 actual lumens. Beam pattern is a bit different though so I don’t really view them as comparable.

Ah, I know which ones you are referring to. Here are the Rago mounts I was going to use to test out the new SAE amber pods. Could be somewhat non-reversible though.
https://youtu.be/T67hhWIsIw0

 

KCs charts seem to be a bit off. I know when we were playing with the g6 vs the BD xl80 the range on the xl80 was farther then the g6. but on paper the g6 shows almost 2x the range. I do agree that the rigid ones are way to blue, but at least they have a true fog same with KC. i wouldnt use the bd as a fog, it has no cut off.

 

I much prefer the ‘lux at distance’ measurement over the ‘range’ measurement as it is unclear to me how one is defining the range compared to another. Lux at distance is very straight forward.

Right, I was saying I knew of the mounts you were talking about, then seperately saying I was going to use the Rago mounts.

I agree, Baja makes great products with much better light color temperature. They haven’t seemed very interested in building any SAE compliant products though. The amber Rigids are a far better light color that the ‘white’ version IMO, but that presumes one is open to amber.

 

I want BDs for foga but want SAE to be able to use them on the road too.

Rigids it is for fogs!

 

The Rago mounts are a flush mount for the Rigid pods. The Rigid mount is intended for their much smaller fogs and not a flush mount. I’m not really a fan of the ‘pod look’ but think it looks much better IMO when it is flush mount. I’d be curious to see how yours came out!

It would be awesome if Baja made some SAE pods. One of the purposes of this thread was to educate people so they wouldn’t just buy what the vendor recommended but instead know what to ask for and understand the difference. CaliRaised has recently said that they are going to start making SAE fog pods after members asked for them.

No need to apologize!

 

@crashnburn80 In your testing was the width of throw pretty even between fogs or did any stand out having better coverage?

 

And how do they compare to stock fogs with the ultimate upgrade?

 

You know that is honestly something I did not specifically check for, I did not notice any that significantly stood out for that reason, unlike how KC and Rigid products immediately stood out for the taller beam patterns. Rigid specs the width beam angle at 45 degrees.

What I am concerned about though is I think the OEM H11 wide angle fogs may actually be wider than 45 degrees, giving me pause to swap in those Rigid prototypes. I was going to try to approximate the OEM fog width this evening.

The Rigids (brightest of the group) are 1750 raw lumens. I've seen the internal spec sheet and the actual output is about 1000 lumens. My 'ultimate fogs' are 2100 lumens each, so they are over double the output of the highest LED fog. However, the pattern is not the same, so it isn't quiet a direct comparison. I think the OEM pattern covers much more area.

 

I'm sure you are aware I am not exactly shy in giving shall we say "constructive" feedback. I've definitely conveyed my feelings on the obscene color temperature of Rigid's lights directly to the Vice President of Rigids engineering team. I hate the color. The Rigid's are the brightest SAE fog light out there though, hands down. However I much prefer the color temp of the KC G4s, even though they are slightly lower output. The "white" Rigids are repulsive IMO, the KC color temp is best in class and truly outstanding, even if slightly lower in output.

Swapping lenses would solve the "problem". I'm curious to see how Rigid responds to these inquiries. I know TW Rigid vendors have been hit with requests too.

 

No SAE LED fog comes even remotely close to my 2100 lumen halogen upgrade in terms of pure output. Of course since the upgrade contains the word "halogen" almost everyone overlooks it as "old tech" and looks for some better "LED upgrade" without really understand why. Very few pay attention to the details to realize these are over 2x the output of the worlds highest output LED fogs. With better color temperature for better distance visibility in poor weather. And superior IR to melt snow/ice for extreme weather. That 7000k+ LED color temp might look decent in dry conditions, but it will refract like crazy in fog/rain/snow completely countering the primary purpose of the lights.

 

So I measured the beam angle tonight, using a tape and measuring forward distance vs width distance of the pattern and doing the math to come up with the angle. The OEM H11 'wide angle' fogs project at 75 degrees to the side, which is much wider than the Rigid's 45 degree spec. Other LED fogs seem to replicate a similar width pattern to Rigid. Meaning the OEM fogs cover significantly more area, and provide far more peripheral vision than an LED replacement. Which makes sense then as to why a very weak powered fog like Morimotos that put out less light than stock don't seem that much worse than stock in light intensity, because while putting out less than half the light, they are also lighting only a fraction of the area compared to stock.

Trying to capture the angle of side lighting in relation to the truck. Fogs only, no headlights. Might have been better to attempt facing the same direction as the light source.

 

Thanks for taking the time to measure that. I'm always looking forward to the advancement of automotive lights but it looks like LED still have some areas for improvement.

 

Just differing patterns. Keep in mind the 3rd Gen offers 'standard fogs' and the TRD models come with 'TRD wide angle fogs'. I believe this is the same as the 2005-2011 that were the standard pattern, and 2012-2015 which were the wide angle pattern. I didn't think to look at beam width when I had access to an early 2nd gen. The larger area coverage requires a brighter light source to illuminate more area, which is why the OEM wide angle fogs use a 55w 1250 lumen H11 and the standard fogs use a 42w 840 lumen H10.

 

The Amber Rigids are set for a December product launch. Pricing is to be the same as the existing white SAE pods.

 

They have prototypes of lower color temps for white but I doubt anything they are willing to sell, other than filtering lenses for amber.

 

Crash, I'm looking to replace my LED fogs now that I got 4300k HIDs...I was thinking the rigid amber pods but then I saw your ultimate foglight upgrade. Can put those H9 Volsa bulbs in my stock trd offroad housing without blinding people? I understand I may have to modify the connector to fit the H9..right? Would that provide a lot more output than the rigid pods?

I imagine the Volsa bulbs are a lot cheaper than the pods+mounting kit...I just want to get the most usable light that wont be blinding other drivers.