The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Crash you are the man! Thanks for your contribution to the TW community. I'm just starting to research changing out my OEM fogs and you have given me all I need, but I'll keep reading because I'm learning so much.

 

The ARB Intensity lights are not a driving light. Again a case of a brands confusing use of the incorrect terminology. They loosely call them “driving lights”, but you’ll notice the patterns are Spot or Flood, not Driving. The lights use the basic open bucket exposed emitter design which will lack the beam control necessary for a proper driving light. The specs on them are very high power and impressive for sure, but they are definitely an off road light, not a SAE Driving light.

 

Similar to these HTX2 lights from Lightforce. These 9 inch HID monsters are impressive but not a "driving light". Then again, Lightforce and ARB are both Australian companies so their definition might be more tailored to the wide, lightless expanses of the outback.

 

Yeah, I had thought of mentioning the Australian angle, where driving and off road are far more synonymous in the outback.

 

I need a set of these and a pair hood mounts...

 

Long time listener, first time caller!!!

I'm back from the grave on the forums it seems. Without parsing every comment, is there a leader in the clubhouse for OEM for replacements, or top three? Shirking the reading due to a fervent demand to provide an xmas list, apologies.

 

Welcome back! Unsure how long you’ve been gone and what you missed.

Top 3:
1) Diode Dynamic SS3 Max
2) Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro
3) Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport

All covered in the reviews here: Diode Dynamics SS3 Max and DiodeDynamics SS3

 

Awesome. Been off the forums 18 months ish. Said it before an I'll re-up. Users like you are what make this website great

 

In 18 months a lot of products have been released. If you check out the very top of the thread on the first post all the additions to this thread are linked for easy reference. But the above 3 are the highest performing products in the thread so far.

 

Quick question to avoid sifting through almost 200 pages for the answer, but I’m wanting most effective light output possible, obviously like everyone here, but is the dd ss3 pro or max going to get me flashed at all the time for being too bright even at a proper fog angle? If so should I just save the cheddar and go sport?

On a side note, wanting to go for the warmer color of the amber lights with clear lenses instead of amber or high white. So if anyone is interested in trading for some clear lenses I’m looking for clear fog in ss2 and flood in ssc2. (Once ordered, I can order your lens for trade)

 

Starter Driving light thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-sae-j581-aux-high-beam-thread.696597/#post-24638992

 

This gon' be good!

Thank you

 

Just a starting point. It will be a work in progress to add more products.

 

@crashnburn80 When you did your testing of the SS3 Pros in selective yellow, did you also happen to measure candela and lux on those lights with any clear lenses swapped onto them? I didn't see anything in the posts when you did your initial testing of the Pros and Sports in their fog configurations but maybe I missed it.

This may be a question better suited for the new J581 thread but it seems like the Pros with the 4000K emitter with a SAE/Driving clear lens on them would make an excellent auxiliary driving light.

 

I did! It is in the original SS3 review. The selective yellow lights with the clear lens swap for 4000k output are nearly identical in lux by my measurements to the 6000k white counterpart.

 

I must have missed it. I'll look again.

 

Pretty sure what you're looking for is located here.

 

Yeah, that is what I figured. I read through it last night but must have missed those numbers. Going through it again now. Thanks.

 

So I think I found what you guys were referring to:

SS3 Pro 18' output tests:
Pro 6000k white: 497 lux at 6356k
Pro 4000k yellow w/ white lens: 502 lux at 4085k
Pro 3000k yellow: 458 lux at 2988k

What threw me off a bit was I had assumed these numbers were measured when a fog lenses were installed. Is this a correct assumption? It doesn't specify in the post but it is a post dedicated to SS3 fog lamps. What I was curious about was the impact an SAE/Driving lens would have.

On the DD website, their spec chart for the Selective Yellow lamps:

Driving Pro 60,900 cd 609 lux 2,700 lm 5,220 lm 3000K Yellow

For the white:

Driving Pro 66,500 cd 665 lux 3,000 lm 5,796 lm 6000K White

I am assuming the numbers would land somewhere in between these two sets of specs.

 

Ah, I see. Yes the numbers I referenced were for the fog optic. Apologies for the confusion. The take away though is that the 4000k emitters with a clear optic have effectively identical performance numbers to the 6000k emitters with the clear optic. So the 6000k Driving optic measurements in the SAE J581 thread would be about identical if using a 4000k SS3 with a clear optic. So in looking at Diode Dynamics specs, if using the 4000k SS3 with a clear driving optic, the specs will match the 6000k white Driving version.