LED Fog Light Bulbs

Check here? Several interesting options. TRS is a good vendor.


they also sell a mount for Ridgid led capsules to integrate into the taco bumper. Those are known and reputable as well, and I believe can be had with a decent upper cutoff.

id probably look at the morimoto offering as well, but that’s approaching KC hilites $ territory depending on which model. and I’m pretty sure the KCs are a better light. I own a pair of the KCs in one vehicle and have a morimoto knockoff in the other. The morimoto knockoff I have in the ford is a 3 led reflective prism sort of thing and it does put out a lot of light with minimal splatter.

in the end, however, I yanked the headlamp housings and installed D2S projectors, and those have such a good spread and even lighting, the fogs just mess things up.
 
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I want them manly for more light when on the back roads where there aren't any street lights, etc. And if these bulbs retain the fog light pattern due to the blade design, they won't be blinding on-coming motorists any more than the stock bulbs - and way less than some of these new cars with HID headlights from the factory.
If these bulbs retain the fog light patter due to the blade design (which is unlikely, but could be non-terrible in that regard), they will still blind other motorists more for two reasons. 1) Colder color temperature 2) More light, even the stock scatters some, so even in best case, more light means more scatter.

Besides, you aren't supposed to blind oncoming motorists with the stock bulbs either. Fog lights are for fog, where they don't shine far at all because the fog prevents that. They are not to be used just because it's some back road. If you are off-roading and aim them down because you need to see the ground, that's different, but on the road, you just want good projector high beams for times when not passing (or following closely behind) other vehicles.

I drive back roads without street lights all the time. I find it easier to see, because there aren't all the !@#$ LED lights around to blind my night vision. Cold color temp light is the worse possible, even if from your own lights and reflecting back at your eyes. People say it's really bright, but what they mean is their eyes are overwhelmed by the glare and can't see any better than a less bright, warmer tint light. It's biology, the human eye is not good at dealing with blue and the further you go towards it, the less visual data it can perceive instead of just "lots of white" glare.

It is a vicious circle, making it harder to see because more glaring lights on and near roads.. If you want driving lights, you need better high beams, and not 6K color LED.
 
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If these bulbs retain the fog light patter due to the blade design (which is unlikely, but could be non-terrible in that regard), they will still blind other motorists more for two reasons. 1) Colder color temperature 2) More light, even the stock scatters some, so even in best case, more light means more scatter.

Besides, you aren't supposed to blind oncoming motorists with the stock bulbs either. Fog lights are for fog, where they don't shine far at all because the fog prevents that. They are not to be used just because it's some back road. If you are off-roading and aim them down because you need to see the ground, that's different, but on the road, you just want good projector high beams for times when not passing (or following closely behind) other vehicles.

I drive back roads without street lights all the time. I find it easier to see, because there aren't all the !@#$ LED lights around to blind my night vision. Cold color temp light is the worse possible, even if from your own lights and reflecting back at your eyes. People say it's really bright, but what they mean is their eyes are overwhelmed by the glare and can't see any better than a less bright, warmer tint light. It's biology, the human eye is not good at dealing with blue and the further you go towards it, the less visual data it can perceive instead of just "lots of white" glare.

It is a vicious circle, making it harder to see because more glaring lights on and near roads.. If you want driving lights, you need better high beams, and not 6K color LED.
LEDs are not "colder color temperature". 5000K is basically the color temperature of sunlight - which the human eye is optimized for. Cold color temperature is yellow (3,000K), white is sunlight (5,000K) and around 6,000K it starts turning some blue, then purple way up around 8,000-10,000K.

If car manufacturers didn't want people using fog lights together with the low beams, then they wouldn't allow both to be on at the same time. I can say there are tons of vehicles running around on the roads that blind people way more than a couple of 42W halogen bulbs shining down low at the ground with a little bit of scatter above the cut-off line. In the 15 years I've drove this truck at night, I have had ZERO on-coming cars flash their high beams at me signaling to me that they thought my lights were too bright - even with the fog lights on. The fog lights help fill in a lot of the road between the headlight cut off the the front of the truck, and also light the side of the road better than the headlight alone. They aren't really just for fog IMO.

I'm sure you really enjoy some of the new HID headlights ... talk about some of those being over whelming.

I could go wild and put in some 20,000 lumen low beams and really blind people. 😄 I drive this truck, not you ... so I will make the lighting a little better if I can without spending a fortune because I want some better visibility on dark roads.

Edit - If the adjustable blade type LEDs I ordered from Amazon don't have a decent cut-off and scatter light all over, they will be sent back. I don't like being blinded on the road any more than anyone else, so I'm not going to do something to make people flash their high beams at me all the time. I'm pretty aware of how I could impact people.
 
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LEDs are not "colder color temperature". 5000K is basically the color temperature of sunlight - which the human eye is optimized for. Cold color temperature is yellow (3,000K), white is sunlight (5,000K) and around 6,000K it starts turning some blue, then purple way up around 8,000-10,000K.

If car manufacturers didn't want people using fog lights together with the low beams, then they wouldn't allow both to be on at the same time. I can say there are tons of vehicles running around on the roads that blind people way more than a couple of 42W halogen bulbs shining down low at the ground with a little bit of scatter above the cut-off line. In the 15 years I've drove this truck at night, I have had ZERO on-coming cars flash their high beams at me signaling to me that they thought my lights were too bright - even with the fog lights on. The fog lights help fill in a lot of the road between the headlight cut off the the front of the truck, and also light the side of the road better than the headlight alone. They aren't really just for fog IMO.

I'm sure you really enjoy some of the new HID headlights ... talk about some of those being over whelming.

I could go wild and put in some 20,000 lumen low beams and really blind people. 😄 I drive this truck, not you ... so I will make the lighting a little better if I can without spending a fortune because I want some better visibility on dark roads.

Edit - If the adjustable blade type LEDs I ordered from Amazon don't have a decent cut-off and scatter light all over, they will be sent back. I don't like being blinded on the road any more than anyone else, so I'm not going to do something to make people flash their high beams at me all the time. I'm pretty aware of how I could impact people.
You have that backwards, lower kelvin numbers are “warmer” while higher is “colder.” But CRI is arguably more important than what kelvin a bulb/chip is. 6,000k but a 70% CRI is going to make things seem dull and washed out and will increase eye fatigue. And a lot of aftermarket bulbs fall outside the SAE “white zone” because of a lack of red.
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I had LED 9006 bulbs on my Tiguan... even with the rotational adjustability, it turned my fog lights into driving lights. So I went back to Halogen 9006. Bought them from Lasfit also.

The aftermarket manufacturers seem to think 6000K are optimal for fog lights.
 
You have that backwards, lower kelvin numbers are “warmer” while higher is “colder.”
I was talking in the context of the actual equivelant temperature of the light source. As the color temperature increases from 3000K (yellow), the light visually looks pure white at ~5,000K, then starts becoming blue and into purple as the color temperature goes to 8,000K and above. The human eye is tuned best to see the pure white 5000K color temperature - ie, the "white zone" in your figure. I've got some 5K LED bulbs in my house, and they are pretty much pure white light and light up much better than the dull yellow 3500K bulbs.
 
I personally have found increased depth perception with the more halogen-ish color temps. Perhaps it’s a CRI thing. My 2 favorites have been this:

1. HIR (yes, R) bulbs in a stock reflector housing in a Jeep WK.

2. Shoehorned low beam projectors into a 2006 tundra‘s fogs with amber tint and 3500k capsules. Keeping the cutoff low, the low beam projectors stayed low and reached far. The amber tint was super low with glare. On long night interstate drives, they made the lines and reflectors “pop” from a long way off, which really helped perception. I was disappointed with projectors in the low beams, and ultimately polished the reflectors and used halogens. having a “dual low beam” setup with the fogs ambered out was easy on the eyes and presented a lot of depth.

I learned that i really dont find the distribution of fogs particularly helpful for anything over 30mph in bad weather. Auxiliary low beams in a lower color temp has been my preferred.

i use D2S retrofit projectors in my ford. They can be equipped with a 3500k capsule, and they have a warmer, seemingly ”more complete” light. Unfortunately, those capsules don’t hold up long, and I started buying Philips capsules, which have been super reliable. Unfortunately, those only come in 4600k. Yeah, I know, it’s the oem standard, but it’s colder, and the road textures don’t “read” as well to me under that light.

others might have other preference. I spent some time doing lighting design in the theater years back and learned a bit about colors, wavelength, and perception. as “old school” as it is, halogen light sources are hard to beat. Theater, stage, and studio are all set by the halogen standard.
 
So I received the blade style LEDs from Amazon (link in post #4). Installed one after getting the blade adjusted perfectly vertical (a little tricky to do), and tested it in the garage (too late for a drive, tomorrow night).

I was pleasently surprised to see a very distinct cut-off line like the OEM halogens. I was able to step back about 30 ft and crouch down low to see how "blinding" they seemed. The low beams blinded me before the fog lights did, so I highly doubt they will be an issue with on-coming vehicles. I just put the passenger side in, and will test drive on some pitch black backroads to see the difference in lighting between the stock bulb and this LED bulb. Here's a few photos in the garage.

Low beams with stock halogen bulb for reference.
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Flat blade LED. There is a little more forward light above the cut-off than the halogens, but when back away and looking into the front of the truck even when crouched down, it's not really noticeable over the stock halogens. The LEDs are brighter, so any light above the cut-off will be a bit brighter.
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LED Installed with blade adjusted vertical.
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Head on view, can see the LED pattern in the reflector.
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Back side. The aluminum heat sink does get pretty warm, so appatently doing its job. The front lens of the housing doesn't even get warm. The stock 42W halogens teally heated up the housing.
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At this initial evaluation I'm pretty happy, but the dark backroads drive will be the final test.

Before these flat blade LEDs, I tried the round style shown in post #1, and these are way better than those were.
 
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Did some outside and on the road testing. The beam cut-off is basically the same with the blade style LED (right side), but it actually fills in better between the ground and the low beams. That is also more noticable on the road.

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Here's a couple shots on a pretty dark backroad. Still with the LED on the passenger side and stock halogen in the driver side. The LED is definately brighter and It really lights up the right ditch of the road. When I get the other LED in the driver side the road will be pretty lit up between the front of the truck and the low beam cut-off.

Sidenote - I measured the LED aluminum back housing with an IR gun and it was ~150 deg F. Couldn't touch it for more than a second. :oops: These LEDs have a 1 year warranty, si I'd think they are designed to take the heat - time will tell. I don't run them that much, so maybe they will last a long time. Pretty happy with the results, and these LEDs were only $25 for the pair.

Low beans only.
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Low beams with both fog/driving lights on. Driver side (halogen) doesn't light up the left ditch area quite as well.
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Night test with both LEDs installed.

Low beams with fog/driving lights on. Had to adjust the elevation of the driver side slightly to get a constant cut-off across both LEDs. The headlights now look yellow compared to the white LEDs - time to upgrade them too? The fog/driving lights fill in everything below the low beam hot spots pretty well.

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On a pitch black backroad. Low beams only, then low beams with fog/driving lights. The LEDs definatey make a difference on dark roads like this. Like the way they light up the sides of the road - good for spotting critters that might cross the road.

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do you like them? The “no parking” sign shows some bleed on the right. It’s probably not unlike some of the glare we find in other vehicles too - it’s hard to gauge well through the internet, but you can see something is there.

I’ll take a critical eye here, from my own fiddling - that hot spot 30’ in front of the truck… does it pull your eye when you have them on for a while?
 
do you like them? The “no parking” sign shows some bleed on the right. It’s probably not unlike some of the glare we find in other vehicles too - it’s hard to gauge well through the internet, but you can see something is there.
The stock halogen bulbs do the same thing with over-spill above the cut-off, but only more yellow light and a bit less due less lumens on the stock halogens. The beam pattern of the blade style LEDs is exactly the same as the stock halogens as far as my testing shows. There is the same distinct cut-off with both bulbs, and there is the same over-spill pattern above the cut-off. It's all due to the stock lamp housing reflector design. I tested some round style LEDs like shown in post #1, and they had zero cut-off line. Those got sent back, as they were pretty useless.

Like I mentioned before, if I go stand about where that no parking sign is (and even a bit farther out) in front of the truck with the low beams and fog lights on, and croutch down even lower than someone's head would be in an on-coming car, the low beams will start blinding me way before the fog lights. Look at where the hot cut-off is on that no patking sign post, thats the low beams cut-off. The small amount of fog light spill-over will light the sign a bit more, but it really doesn't take much light to make those refective signs light up. The over-spill above the fog lights cut-off isn't really noticable when looking into the lights at that distance ... the over-spill is at a pretty low level, like a full moon light. I'd bet almost every set of stock fog lights will have some similar over-spill above their cut-off line. Also, looking at people in on-coming cars, there is no real sign of their faces being lit up. If I put my high beams on, their faces would be standing out significantly, that would obviously be blinding.

I’ll take a critical eye here, from my own fiddling - that hot spot 30’ in front of the truck… does it pull your eye when you have them on for a while?
I didn't sense that - in the truck that hot spot isn't really that noticable, and besides I typically look farther out than that when driving. They seem to really fill in the whole area up to the low beam cut-off, and extend more light off to the ditch area, which is nice IMO for spotting critters on the sides of the road.

All I can say is these LEDs in the stock fog light housings is probably as good as I'll get without replacing the whole fog light housing assy with an expensive aftermarket kit. These will work much better for super dark roads than the stock halogen bulbs. I think they may also work good for fog too since they have a strong cut-off and would probably light up any fog lines on the roads pretty good. First time it gets foggy here I'll test them out.
 
They don’t look bad at all!

I took the nuclear approach, 18” Diode Dynamics light bar (combo pattern, outer 2 6” sections are driving beam lenses, center 6” section is flood) mounted down on the air dam, I use it instead of my high beams 99% of the time.
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