TN Legal SAE/DOT Light Bar Question (What's a Lamp?) (1 Viewer)

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Dissent

Questioning my life choices...
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Sep 27, 2012
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Sweetwater, TN (East of Knoxville)
I have a TN law question about lighting. I'm cross-posting in the Lighting and 80-Series Tech forums. Thanks in advance for any and all help!

The back roads are DARK here and all 3x of our cars could use some low beam/ditch enhancements. I'm considering a wide fog beam auxiliary light setup and came across some nice fog and/or driving light bar solutions that are SAE/DOT approved with nice cut-off's that prevent blinding/dazzling other drivers. One of my cars, the RX300, has a perfect slot in the valance section that would accommodate up to 28" light bar without screwing up the aesthetics of the car and/or drilling holes in the bumper and I can leverage the same light on my 97 LX450 which has a similar gap between my OEM valence and @kelly saad's LC grill. (LX and LC grills are different sizes. I knew this when I bought it but am planning a bumper to make the valance obsolete some day in the far future)

TN law states that you can only have 4x lamps on at once on-road. (Tennessee Code 55-9-402 – Lights required on motor vehicles — Exceptions — Regulations as to color, type and visibility distance » LawServer - https://www.lawserver.com/law/state/tennessee/tn-code/tennessee_code_55-9-402)
"(2) Auxiliary road lighting lamps may be used, but not more than two (2) of the lamps shall be lighted at any one (1) time in addition to the two (2) required headlights."

Since an LED light bar has multiple lamps, is it considered a single beam? JW Speaker offers an SAE/DOT approved Fog light bar that has 3-6 lenses. (Light Bars – Product Categories – J.W. Speaker - https://www.jwspeaker.com/products/categories/light-bars/) Is this considered a single lamp or 3-6 lamps?
 
That light bar was introduced back in 2014. It never really took off. I just assumed it must suck. Anything that resemble like a light bar would just attract too much attention on the road.

Diode Dynamics SS3 max SAE Fog would be max SAE legal fog light you could buy. They are extremely bright and small enough to fit in most car.
 
Good points.

I'm actually buying 2x DD SSC2 Fog/SAE Pros for my wife and son's cars with a single SSC2 Fog/SAE Pro for backup lights. My 80 may get the SS3 Max's, still not sure about if I'm going flush or bumper mount.
 

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