Fog light recommendations

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First off, I'd like to tell you that despite having a few fog/driving lights for sale I am no expert on lighting.

Anyway, I have heard that for fogs (or foul weather) you would want to have lights mounted low (to certain extent).

I have seen some folks here, usually lifted pretty high, mounting their fogs below their bumper. But that usually means that they get it to the height equiv. to the OEM headlight height.:D

I have the JDM-spec, H3, yellow, built-in fogs next to the H4 high/low headlights. Despite them being side by side (same hight), because of the different lense cut and possibly aiming, the yellow fog beam shines closer to the front of the vehicle and maybe a tad wider than the low beam.

I have not had much experience to drive at night in bad weather since I acquired the 80 so I don't know if mounting a set of fogs on the bumper/bull bar would be effective or not, yellow or clear. But I know that you would not want too bright/powerful a light when driving in the less-than-ideal weather because the light bounces back at you making it more difficult for you to see.

Again, no personal experience, but I have heard that both multi-reflector and projector lights (usually) do a better job of being able to control the cut-off, etc... of the lights, compared to the conventional textured lense. But I think properly designed/manufactured textured lights do a pretty good job in any driving condition.

Anyway, what the heck am I trying to say? :D
I don't care if I have the OEM fogs on my rig or not. If it were me, I would probably try to mount something low-profile where the amber turn signal lenses are on the ARB, even if that means I have to fab. it a little, just so I would not have too many lights on/under the bumper for a cleaner look.

If I wanted to have just one set of lights on the bumper/ARB, I would probably go with something that would do both fog/driving patterns, whether using the H4-type bulbs or the lense swap/focus methods like the Lightforce's.

Good luck!!

Mot
 
For snow, yellow won't help. The idea of yellow is to reduce short-wavelength (blue) light, which is the easiest to refract (bend). That's why mist seems blue and blue-blockers reduce haze, the blue is being bounced around randomly. That's also why the sky is blue and sunlight looks yellow. Very fine particles only refract very short wavelength, so amber lights work better in very fine fog.

Having the lights near your line of sight increases reflection off particles, more light bounces straight back toward the source. Having the lights lower or somehow further from your line of sight will help. Having them spread apart will help reduce shadows. The most important feature is having a very good cutoff, minimizing the light thrown up in front of you. I'd go for a pair of quality, white fogs, with moderate power bulbs. Those would have good cutoff, and throw light to the sides to help keep your bearings in near white-out conditions.

If you understand how to hook up relays and switches, you should be able to hook up a pair of foglights.
 
I'm a fan of the Hella 500 as a serious value fog light. I think it's a find pattern and wonder if Cabron is speaking of another of the many patterns they're available in?

The 500's lower output vs a serious grade like a Lightforce or Hella 3000/4000 (my rigs have these) will place a premium on placement and lower is better. Agree with the 'don't bother with yellow' comments for the reasons stated and also that in snow it seems to reduce overall usable light and penetration greatly. Anecdotally, the 500s are only sold in a kit nowadays that includes the switch and wiring harness. Don't wire them to go on with the low beams as it's under precisely the conditions they'll help that you don't want the stray scatter and flashback of the uncontrolled low beams. In other words, you'll want to run them alone in serious conditions. These are $75 ish all day long.

For 'drive all night in snow/fog' capability the larger lamps are simply worlds away, however. They may not be useful to you in a typical east coast urban setting where you're always dealing with oncoming traffic that won't tolerate the far higher output levels. Having said that, I have mine wired individually and can often go "unflashed" if I only turn one on - and the output is much greater than a pair of 500s. Due to physics, a 55w large diameter lamp puts out far mor light than the smaller 500 reflectors.

So, the 500s may be your ideal choice and they're cost effective if you break them once in a while. They also make a nice full time daytime running light for added "don't hit me" strategy at that price.

DougM
 
IdahoDoug said:
For 'drive all night in snow/fog' capability the larger lamps are simply worlds away
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I'm usually stuck driving in this crap because I have little choice and it is almost always on the highway where on coming traffic isn't a problem. So what light would you suggest and could it still be mounted on the ARB?

Thanks
 
scottm said:
For snow, yellow won't help. The idea of yellow is to reduce short-wavelength (blue) light, which is the easiest to refract (bend). That's why mist seems blue and blue-blockers reduce haze, the blue is being bounced around randomly. That's also why the sky is blue and sunlight looks yellow. Very fine particles only refract very short wavelength, so amber lights work better in very fine fog.

Having the lights near your line of sight increases reflection off particles, more light bounces straight back toward the source. Having the lights lower or somehow further from your line of sight will help. Having them spread apart will help reduce shadows. The most important feature is having a very good cutoff, minimizing the light thrown up in front of you. I'd go for a pair of quality, white fogs, with moderate power bulbs. Those would have good cutoff, and throw light to the sides to help keep your bearings in near white-out conditions.

If you understand how to hook up relays and switches, you should be able to hook up a pair of foglights.
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Excellent review Scott. You may have been the fellow that related this info to me years ago when I asked about what I might be experiencing while driving in the blowing snow .. where for all intents and purposes I felt motionless! You said I was describing a type of vertigo.

I haven't installed fogs yet, but I did disable my headlamps after CDN inspection, so I can at least turn them off in a pinch. I also vowed never to drive the North shore of Lake Superior in winter again! :eek:


Peace,


TY
 
Tyler....I've experienced Vertigo in similar situations as you described....pretty crazy....I just tried to keep it in my lane....and kept asking my passengers to tell me how fast I was going cuz I could swear we weren't moving at all.

As far as driving lights....I recommend the Piaa 550's...I've really enjoyed them. They have a yellow fog light and super white high beam. The lens provide good, sharp cut-offs. I aim them low, off my ARB and have found them good for fog and rain. For a little bling...they have a 5watt LED that ties into the parking lights so they are lighted when your headlights are on. I'm using the HIR light bulbs, so my headlights are bright already...especially the high beams.
 
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Rick,

I don't know how they'll mount to an ARB, but I can provide you with any measurements you need to evaluate this. I have about 50,000 miles behind my Hella 4000s (now on the 97 after 43,000 miles on my full size Montero) and 152,000 miles behind the Hella 3000s on the 93 since new. The 4000s have newer technology and a sharper cutoff (they're CAD designed) but I prefer the 3000s because they are easier to live with for hours on end. I respect the technical perfection of the 4000s and their precise optics, but in real life find the sharp edges distracting and fatiguing after a long period in the saddle. They're both great lights. The 3000s have been out of production for awhile so they're still around in quantities and much cheaper.

With either of these lights in front of you, you'll be really impressed at the improvement in nighttime driving safety when there's no weather, and their capabilities will give you a meaningful edge when it's nasty out. I use them to help fill out the sides of the pattern when the high beams are on for a real total lumenfest when driving long distances at night out here on deserted Western highways and freeways. Especially when I'm towing 6000lbs of boat home and am really not interested in having a deer surprise me.

The only time they've let me down was in a heavy slushy snow in Western Montana where all my lights were getting covered over. We ended up taking a cue from the professional truck drivers who were ambling along at 20 or so with just parking lights on like they did and it worked quite well. After a few minutes of adjustment, you felt completely comfortable with the ambient light clearly deliniating the snowy road and you couldn't even percieve the flakes swirling. Don't try this at home. I had my super bright rear fog lamp on hoping nobody would rear end us (stopped once to be sure it wasn't getting covered) and we only did this until we found an exit to escape to a motel.

DougM
 
Doug, the idea of turning off your lights in a snowstorm sounds ludicrous, but I can back you up on the fact that it works, and at times works very well.

I used this trick in a "whiteout" one time coming back from a ski-trip in order to drive 15 miles to get over the divide where we new the storm was essentially stopped. Worked very well. I had my passengers on full alert in the even that I missed something, but it was surprisingly easy to see and at 2am on a Sunday, there was hardly anyone on the road.

Ary
 
yah...a +1 on the ambient light w/ a lot of snow out...there's definitely enough light being reflected when there's snow everywhere...
 
Used my PIAA 520 fogs this weekend. Mounted on the ARB, pointed down. Close illumination in yellow was good. No snow or fog to see if they're up to high as general consensus is for fogs on an ARB.
 
landtank said:
Which pattern is should I be looking for?
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Fogs would have a good cutoff, keeping light from shining upward, and good side spread to help keep you oriented when forward view is minimal.
 
Fogs tank - the euros, pencil and driving lights are all essentially illegal for highway use. The fogs supplement the factory lights enough to use all the time, not just in the snow or fog. Just remember - no yellow lenses - waste of money.
Get yourself some nice amber colored lense sunglasses for driving in the rain and at night.
 
Rick, the 4000's are indeed a nice light. I have a pair in the 'euro' version. I believe DougM is using one fog and one driving(pencil or euro, I'm not sure which). He has them switched seperately and says that one light is sufficient for each purpose. Given the surface area of the reflector and how much my lights put out, I believe him. I would however prefer to mount fog lights lower on the bumper than the light tabs on the middle bar. I will probably mount a set of Hella 500's upside down to the fairlead tabs unless my 'breakaway' design works out very well. I'm assuming that you don't have a winch in this case.

Keep in mind that the 4000s are a *snug* fit and do require redrilling the tabs in order for them to fit at all. There was a thread on fitting them recently.

Ary
 
I have a winch so that setup won't work. I just tried to buy a set of fogs from an E-Bay store. 185.00 for the pair, new. But I got some funky notice about needing bank account info to complete the transaction, I'm verified so I backed out of it. Too bad it looked like a great deal.
 
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