The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Rigid Top, KC below


Morimoto


Beam intensity is not comparable between photos as the camera was different and there was no exposure control, so ignore the difference in how bright they are comparatively. But the KCs and Morimotos are mounted and aimed in the same spot in each phot. It appears the Morimoto is slightly wider horizontally but more much shorter vertically.

 

I would think that’s a good thing right, in inclement weather conditions?

 

Seems very narrow/short to me

 

Yes, for fogs wider is better. You want to illuminate the shoulder in low visibility conditions so you can stay on the road.

 

I was referring to wider is better. Shorter vertically is not better, you want greater pattern area not less.

 

Now you have me confused on these 2 statements…

 

I was trying to say the same thing.

 

More coverage is better. Wider width is better, taller height is better. The KCs and Morimotos are similar width. The KCs pattern is roughly 2x taller than the Morimotos, meaning the KC pattern has more area coverage and is better.

 

What do the numbers say?

 

Installed the amber Rigid DOT pods. Rago Fabrication mount. Color is nice driving with surprisingly. Can't really tell the color while driving alone on the road, next to a car or object you can clearly see the color. Bright as well. Gopro 4 takes bad night pictures however. Cutoff is nice and can be seen clearly enough. Headlights are useless, although not as bad as having the white DOT pods installed. UHLM incoming.

 

What numbers are you referring to?

 

I didn't realize you posted the comparison to the KC's back a few pages.

 

Killer review. Thanks for all this great information.

 

Are these for sale now? Can you give me a part number or seller?

 

Not quite yet. They were due out in December but had a minor setback, they should be available soon.

 

Im really looking forward to this. I have a pair of Amber spot pattern pods for off road use but I'm moving to Oregon and need something DOT approved. Rigid rep says first quarter 2019.

Is the setback something you can discuss publicly? I noticed the higher lens temp and am curious if it's related.

 

The lens chromaticity window of the initial run supposedly did not meet the designed SAE spec window of the prototype. Nearly any LED company would have likely shipped failed spec product anyway as the consumer wouldn't know any better, rather than take the revenue loss. Supposedly Rigid scrapped the entire run despite the caused production delays, as nothing less than perfect was acceptable. This is the difference in the attention to detail between real LED companies with actual engineers that test SAE compliance vs the complete garbage of 98% of the LED companies out there.

 

Thank you for posting. That solidifies my choice in going with them for my on road LEDs.

 

Just registered to this site because of this thread. Amazing job you did reviewing all these lights. Your review method is topnotch. Shopping for LEDs is such a pain due to all the garbage products out there and marketing without actual standardized specs.

I'm really hoping Baja Designs releases their SAE Fog soon. Anyone have any rough idea when they might be announcing something?

 

Here’s a recent Instagram post from BD.