She is the only person on youtube that shows you before and after install with lights on. Most people just install and you do not see the results in the dark.
Greetings from the Philippines! First of all, I am an OLD guy. It's so nice to watch this channel because you remind me of myself when I was younger. Getting my first truck and being so happy about it. Doing DIY mods or just simply cleaning it makes me happy. Now at 49 years old, I kind of lost interest. I have two trucks now and they are just sitting in the garage just gathering dust and rotting. I forgot what it was like to be excited. This channel gave me back some of that youthful exuberance to tinker. Thank you Chloe! keep it up.
Good job girl. You really do a great job covering all the comparisons and editing the video to make it easy to watch. Thanks for taking the time to make these.
Two pieces of advice for others: First, in the instructions from Baja, it says to put the star washer between the light and bracket. I've seen several videos mix this up and Baja's instructions don't have a great description/diagram of this so I can see why people are confused on this. An assembly like this should be screw, flat washer, bracket, star washer, light. The star washer is not to prevent the machine screw from vibrating loose (use some non-permanent loctite for that). The star washers bite into the light body and bracket and keep the light from rotating up/down. The flat washer lets you to tighten the screw while not spinning the bracket out of vertical. Second piece of advice is that it is much faster and easier to install from the engine bay. I know it is not as easy to film, and the video shows what is truly going on, but don't fight with fender liners. Pre-build your lights and wires completely. Then get a magnetic Philips bit on a stubby screwdriver and you are good to go. The stock fogs and new lights slip in/out beside the top ends of the rad. The driver's side even has a sightline on the screw. You can easily line up the tabs looking from the front of your bumper, hold it with one hand, then screw in place with the other. All wires have enough slack to confirm Toyota green to Baja brown and make final connection after the light is installed. I did both sides in
This is a top quality how to and comparison!!! I’ve watched other, this shows the mechanics of the installation. You also told us about the polarity’s of the wires. Comparison light patterns were top notch. As a 62 year old key board warrior…. Great job!!
Chloe!! Your videos are so good! You actually go through a step by step walk through of the process of the disassembly, replacement and then installation. If I was living in the America and in San Diego, I would pay you to even do installations if I got a Toyota Truck. But the cost of vehicles in my country are very expensive!!!! Good job Chloe!!! You have really great professionalism in doing your truck mods and installations!
Great video. I'll have to look into those lights myself. I love the way you show interest in how the product works (ex. PCB) and not just how the exterior looks and how they perform. Keep up the great work.
Don’t get these. They’re among the worse on the market. Look into Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport/Pro. Those are hands down the best in market in terms of intensity and sae compliance.
Found your channel from the NY to CA drive, since I will be driving my 2020 TRD PRO from PA to WA. Just been watching the rest of the Tacoma videos since. Great job! Very thorough.
They were back ordered for a while. Got a better deal with diode dynamic SS3 pro’s and the output is amazing. Put them next to my buddy’s Tacoma with the baja design ones. And he was pissed that mine were brighter, also went further and cost less.
Just bought these for my christmas present. One thing to note is that these lights dont have a very wide beem but they have a deeper beem than most of the other fog lights I have looked at. These are very well built and cant wait for the rain to stop so I can install them.
Idk how I ended up here. I don’t care and I know absolutely nothing about trucks, cars, or really any vehicle-y things. Somehow I found myself interested enough to watch the entire video, ended up subscribing. But on another note... I do drive a Toyota
Great job presenting this product. You presented all the helpful details. Best part was comparison at the end. Love the ease of installation and option to change lens color as well. Thx for taking the time to share this. You’re on a roll. Your mods so far have been big pluses for your Taco.
Thanks for the video. I just installed the new squadron sae fogs and have no clue how to use a multimeter to figure out the ground and positive. Watched your video and just sent it. Worked out. Also the rest of the video is great guidance. I always check your channel if I’m planning on doing anything (we have the same truck). Thanks again!
My lord, great shots on changing out the fog lights with one hand. This was an absolutely brilliant review and step by step. Dope, sweet, and rad all at once!
Another great video. Here in the PNW amber is the way to go. I notice you don't use any electronic wire contact paste to help with corrosion and waterproofing contacts
for fog lights, I like amber. Here in Canada, I find they are great in the rain, fog and snow, not to mention they give a unique look and others see you better. I don't run my fog lights all the time, except when needed.
Your young so I understand clear for looks. I’m old, so I use amber covers on my cheap driving lights. Because I like how other drivers see me better. When I drive I see cars that use amber that stick out more to me. I also see reflective signs better. I like safety because people are distracted too much behind the wheel and anything helps.
I'm sold on ordering with the amber filters. Summertime I can use them normally, winter and spring I can install the amber filters. Good video, thanks for adding applicable technical information. I may as well order one or two for an ATV while I'm at it.
Good job and great job on actually putting the correct fog lights for street use unlike other people that use the off-road version and blind oncoming drivers
Part 2/2 Off Road lights The most common bulb wattage is 55 watts. A brighter option is a 100w bulb, which produces nearly twice as much light at the bulb filament, which wouild be a benefit in a larger lamp. In many of the smaller lamps, the reflector area is too small to efficiently gather the light and very little increase in light output occurs. Of course, the question of yellow, or amber, versus white needs to be addressed. I prefer white. Regardless of the fog lights’ various types of construction, generally speaking amber or yellow fog lights become amber or yellow from coloring the lens or the reflector. This may reduce the light 15% to, in extreme cases, 50%. I once equipped a car with amber headlights, driving lights, spot lights and fog lights. I could light up reflective signs two miles away. But from not having the full spectrum of light, a lot of darker objects simply were not as visible. So I use white lights for their benefits the majority of the time. Some people prefer amber lights for more severe weather, and, obviously, for much less glare off of snow. But to me the disadvantages outweigh that benefits. Bigger lights are, all other things being equal, better. More reflector area reflects more light. Bigger, better lights do, however, cost more. Round lights are better than square ones with an equal area because the corners in a square lamp are sacrificing area. It isn’t for the aerodynamics that rally cars have rows of big round lights across the front. There are various designs ranging from sealed beams (of which there are still some on the market) to the projector lights. Projector lights have the bulb sitting way in the back with an ellipsoid reflector behind it. A shield is used to perform the cutoff. The convex lens projects the light - hence the term projector - like a slide projector light. It’s a sophisticated design whose advantages are that you can get the same amount of light with half the size of lamp, the beam is very wide and even, and the stray light above the cutoff is practically nil. The oldest and still most common types of separate bulb lamps use parabolic reflectors, which are something like a cross between a bowl and a funnel in shape. Another kind of lamp is called bi-focus or free-form. Instead of a parabolic reflector, it has a multi-planed reflector. This means the reflector itself has many different planes which focus the light before it hits the fluting in the lens, sort of “pre-aiming” the light from the bulb. Obviously, this begins to get fairly complex and much is done by the lighting manufacturers to research and develop materials and construction to make a light do what it’s supposed to do. Mounting After you have the right kind of fog light with the right pattern, next is how to mount it to get maximum benefit and this depends on what your goals are for your fog lights. For really severe weather, mounting the lights lower is better. But the lower the lights are mounted, the more vulnerable they are to impacts from stones and other various objects. The lower mountings also decrease how far forward the light will go (thanks to hills and the like). And the lower they’re mounted, the more the shadowy effect from from rises and depressions in the road increases, which I find irritating. Mounting the lights low on the vehicle is useful only for pea-soup fog, snow squalls, etc. - 20 mph driving conditions - which I encounter very infrequently. So for the majority of the time, I feel I am better off with fog lights mounted on top of the bumper - for greater distance and more visibility overall in less severe conditions. I’m still retaining the option of aiming them lower for extreme conditions (I can get out a wrench and point them at the ground 10 feet in front of the bumper when the weather is really bad). I also drive with my fog lights on in clear weather as cornering lights and for seeing animals and other things off on the side of the road waiting to attack my vehicle. Another important consideration when mounting fog lights is that they be mounted rigidly, so the beam stays pointed the way it’s aimed, as opposed to dancing over tar strips on the road and the like. Dancing light beams will prove to be very irritating and, if they’re dancing up and hitting those droplets of water, you’re still going to have glare. Aiming Fog lights should be aimed straight ahead and level, or down a few degrees. For really severe weather, aim them down lower and give up the longer distance. In that situation, you don’t need them to go 600 feet down the road, since you can only see 60 feet. A wide pattern with the light aimed straight ahead will give you some light off to the sides for cornering. So some people, whose prime concern is cornering light, will aim their fog lights so they spread apart off to the sides, pointed away from each other, to increase the off-the-road light. This will increase the amount of side light from the outside part of each light. But it will decrease the light in front of the car, and thus the distance they go straight down the road in front of you. Here’s a better idea. On some of the rally cars I’ve prepared, we aimed the fog lights so the light patterns would cross each other (the left light would light up the right side, and the right light, the left side). This gives the same amount of light off to each side, but in front of the vehicle, it’s brighter where the beams overlap. Keep ’em clean No matter what the color or pattern of your fog lights, keep them clean. Just a few days’ worth of road dirt can cut the light be up to 50%. In winter, mud and snow can reduce light up to 90%! But now you know the basics - what fog is, the types of fog lamps available, how to mount and aim fog lights for your intended purpose. So, how do you chose a fog light? Buy them all and compare them, or consult an expert. You could read everything there is about a light, but that won’t tell you everything. For example, you can’t compare reflective ranges from different manufacturers, because they may not all use the same reflector. Ultimately, you can’t know how a light works until you put it in a vehicle and drive down the road with it - or talk to someone who has. -David Hueppchen
Very well made video and excellent review of their lights. I am planning on purchasing a taco in the next month or so and these will definitely be on the list of upgrades before winter comes along.
great mod! thank you. it looks so easy watching you do it, but seems to take so much more effort, lol. just some updates. installed on a 2021 Tacoma TRD Off Road extra cab SR5. with the new cords had to zip tie to the wires above, or the connectors would bounce around on top of the mud guard and that didn't seem like a good idea. also be sure to save the screw holding in the old light, so you can reuse with the new light. and finally, the wiring colors changed, are white/black from the light, brown/black on the BD wiring connector, and white/green from the truck. just did the driver's side so i could compare the old and new lights myself, lol. love what you do! am a big fan!
Excellent review You break everything down and give a well thought out review. Loved the light comparison so much that helped sell me on a set. Too bad your coupon doesn’t seem to work, because you deserve the credit for my purchase! Now off to watch your other videos to see where I can spend my remaining $6.25 😂🤣😂
Nice install and demo video. I just installed these on my 2019 SR5 yesterday. I now understand why mine are so bright. I accidentally bought the Sport version.
Awesome review. I installed the squadron sport r Amber wide cornering a week ago. Angled down a bit as they are plenty bright. If I want more light I hit my light arson the roof and hidden grill light bar :) Got them from sdhq with no tax and were 328 and free shipping.
Hello CK/AKA ( Stick And Move Keep Those Hands Up) CK you give so much detail you should be working in Toyota's designer dept GBU And Family Always CK Be Safe
It seems that the difference between the SAE and the Sport is that black plastick behind the lens. If you look carefully when the light is taken apart, you can see the circuit board shows Squadron Sport on it. So, if you want more light output, take out the black plastic.
Part 1 Offroad Lights and their usage. ________________________________________ Here is a great article I ran across regarding fog lights 4/12/08 Fog lights are yellow and driving lights are white … WRONG. There’s more to it than that. When someone is thinking about installing fog lights, I start with questions: First of all, do you know what fog lights are? Secondly, what do you drive, where do you drive, what kinds of roads do you drive on? What kind of weather do you drive in? What do you want the fog lights for - do you live in a real foggy area? Are they for pea soup fog or light fog, for snow, rain? Or just to look cool when you’re cruising? Fog lights aren’t necessarily amber lights, nor are amber lights always fog lights. There are amber driving lights, amber spotlights, and, in France, there are amber headlights. What makes a fog light is the light pattern, regardless of the type of lamp or color of the light. A real fog light - one that will do you good when you’re trying to see in the fog - has a wide beam pattern (70 degrees to 120 degrees) with a sharp, flat cutoff on top. So beyond that, not all “fog lights” are created equal. There are lots of lights being marketed as fog lamps - some very low priced, some hundreds of dollars a pair - that, if I were driving in extreme weather, I would not turn on. They would make it harder to see. Fog lights, of course, are just one kind of auxiliary light. There are also driving lights, midbeams (passing lights) and spotlights for other purposes. And fog lights have many other functions besides fog, such as other types of bad weather and increasing side light for cornering. While fog lights are beneficial in fog or any other glare-producing conditions, they can also help you see better when you drive on a clear night. Mainly when you think of fog lights, you think of fog. Seeing through the fog? You can’t see “through” fog. You see in foggy weather by lighting up the road under the fog, illuminating as little of the fog as possible to avoid producing glare. Fog is defined as a thick cloud of water droplets, 0.00039 to 0.00156 inches in diameter, suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth’s surface and reducing visibility to below half a mile. Your high beam headlights produce a wall of glare - a whiteout - from the light bouncing off these droplets of water. You’re being blinded by the glare of your own lights reflected off the water vapor in front of you. Similar experiences occur in rain, snow, dust, etc. One solution would be to buy heated blowers like giant hair driers to dry the air in front of your car - works great, costs a lot and uses a ton of energy. We may never deliver any of these, but you can start sending deposits in now (big ones). The amount of glare from the airborne moisture is affected by the relationship of angles between your line of sight and the angle of your car’s lights. That’s why you want a wide, flat beam from your fog lights. What you want your fog lamp to do is light up the road in front of you without lighting up the fog that’s higher up, right in front of your eyes. Lenses and reflectors It helps to know something about the construction of the light - specifically its lens and its reflector. The cuts in the lens, called fluting, shape the pattern by how they deflect the light. Ever knocked the lens out of your fog light? And noticed how it turned into a spot light? That’s what it would be if it had a totally clear lens, with no fluting. Since the light passes through the lens, obviously the material of the lens would have an effect on how much light passes through. Lead crystal, being the clearest, allows the most light to pass through. Both ordinary glass and hardened glass are full of dirt and impurities that affect the passage of light. Plastic lenses block even more of the light. Most of the better lights are made with lead crystal lenses. Hardened glass doesn’t break as easily, but is still as impure as ordinary glass. Plastic is basically useless for lenses because of impurities and because it gets scratched up. Breakage is, of course, an occasion for replacing lenses. And if fog lights are mounted in an air dam and you drive across the desert a lot, they get essentially sand blasted and all the little pits affect the flow of light and the light pattern. Even if you don’t drive across the desert, your lenses will still be scuffed up by grit and you likely will want to replace them sooner or later, especially if you’re using good quality lights. You also will care about the quality of the reflector, the shiny part that gathers the light from the bulb and reflects it out at precise angles through the lens. Good reflectors aren’t chrome - chrome appears to be shiny and reflective to the eye, but for reflecting light, it’s not efficient! Some reflectors are silver plated. This is from the olden days. Prior to the invention of sealed beam headlights, American cars had separate bulbs, reflectors and lenses, and the reflectors were silver. Silver is not optimally reflective even when first applied. And through tarnishing, it loses 40 - 50% of its reflectivity after about 48 hours. These reflectors were supposed to be polished monthly. The preferred and most reflective material is an aluminized vapor coating. This is the neat stuff they use in microscopes and in mirrors for aiming lasers. Most of the higher quality lamps use this. Some lights also use a bulb shield, like a cup in front of the bulb. It blocks direct light from the bulb to the lens so that only light from the designed shape of the reflector passes through the lens. This reduces stray light above the cut-off. A word about bulbs Halogen bulbs have been around for about 30 years now. Most of the replaceable bulb type lamps utilize a halogen bulb. Some use a tungsten bulb - this does not produce as much light per watt. Three common types of single-filament halogen type bulbs are H1, H2 and H3. The H1 puts out 29 lumens per watt (lm/w), the H2 is 33 lm/w and the H3 is 26 lm/w - versus the 13 lm/w of a tungsten bulb. Any of these three could be found in a fog light. The bulbs don’t interchange - a lamp is built to take a certain bulb.
Great video! Great job on the install! Those fog lights are nice! Are you planning to lift and level your Tacom? Maybe a 6 inch lift? Maybe install a new exhaust system?
Thank you! I like the way my truck rides and I'm a little short, so I'm not sure about a lift yet 😂 I'm thinking that my sooner mods will be bed stiffeners and a bed rack, although we'll see!
Hey chloe......so use the tundra pbm tape? Was it really tight to get in? Did you try both? Sorry just really wanna know before I install them. You know best! Thanks
The fog light amber look better on your tocama I love the way it looks better than the clear one I love watching you Chloe Are you from the Philippines
Props to you for showing us the beam pattern WITHOUT the headlights on!!
She is the only person on youtube that shows you before and after install with lights on. Most people just install and you do not see the results in the dark.
Greetings from the Philippines! First of all, I am an OLD guy. It's so nice to watch this channel because you remind me of myself when I was younger. Getting my first truck and being so happy about it. Doing DIY mods or just simply cleaning it makes me happy. Now at 49 years old, I kind of lost interest. I have two trucks now and they are just sitting in the garage just gathering dust and rotting.
I forgot what it was like to be excited. This channel gave me back some of that youthful exuberance to tinker. Thank you Chloe! keep it up.
Good job girl. You really do a great job covering all the comparisons and editing the video to make it easy to watch. Thanks for taking the time to make these.
She’s Software engineer. Vid editing is pretty much walk in the park..
Forreal you doing better than some of these guys they don’t go in depth
Two pieces of advice for others: First, in the instructions from Baja, it says to put the star washer between the light and bracket. I've seen several videos mix this up and Baja's instructions don't have a great description/diagram of this so I can see why people are confused on this. An assembly like this should be screw, flat washer, bracket, star washer, light. The star washer is not to prevent the machine screw from vibrating loose (use some non-permanent loctite for that). The star washers bite into the light body and bracket and keep the light from rotating up/down. The flat washer lets you to tighten the screw while not spinning the bracket out of vertical. Second piece of advice is that it is much faster and easier to install from the engine bay. I know it is not as easy to film, and the video shows what is truly going on, but don't fight with fender liners. Pre-build your lights and wires completely. Then get a magnetic Philips bit on a stubby screwdriver and you are good to go. The stock fogs and new lights slip in/out beside the top ends of the rad. The driver's side even has a sightline on the screw. You can easily line up the tabs looking from the front of your bumper, hold it with one hand, then screw in place with the other. All wires have enough slack to confirm Toyota green to Baja brown and make final connection after the light is installed. I did both sides in
Great notes-- this is sound advice for anyone who is following. Thank you for posting and watching! 😊
This is a top quality how to and comparison!!! I’ve watched other, this shows the mechanics of the installation. You also told us about the polarity’s of the wires. Comparison light patterns were top notch. As a 62 year old key board warrior…. Great job!!
Chloe!! Your videos are so good! You actually go through a step by step walk through of the process of the disassembly, replacement and then installation. If I was living in the America and in San Diego, I would pay you to even do installations if I got a Toyota Truck. But the cost of vehicles in my country are very expensive!!!!
Good job Chloe!!! You have really great professionalism in doing your truck mods and installations!
Oh my goodness those yellow fog lights look amazing.. And the DRLs make your truck look mean 👌👍🏽
Great video. I'll have to look into those lights myself. I love the way you show interest in how the product works (ex. PCB) and not just how the exterior looks and how they perform. Keep up the great work.
I've actually been thinking about picking up some of these for my 4runner. Your timing on putting this video out was perfect. Thanks!
Don’t get these. They’re among the worse on the market. Look into Diode Dynamics SS3 Sport/Pro. Those are hands down the best in market in terms of intensity and sae compliance.
They're awesome, check out SS3's too, good comparable
4Runner gang what year/gen do you drive
@@colesisler582
2019 Limited Nightshade
@@colesisler582 4th gen 04 v8 sport.
Best output comparison I've seen. Outside at night and no headlights. Awesome thanks.
Found your channel from the NY to CA drive, since I will be driving my 2020 TRD PRO from PA to WA. Just been watching the rest of the Tacoma videos since. Great job! Very thorough.
Damn that effort tho to change back again and again amber or clear👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 deserves more subscribers
They were back ordered for a while. Got a better deal with diode dynamic SS3 pro’s and the output is amazing. Put them next to my buddy’s Tacoma with the baja design ones. And he was pissed that mine were brighter, also went further and cost less.
Just bought these for my christmas present. One thing to note is that these lights dont have a very wide beem but they have a deeper beem than most of the other fog lights I have looked at. These are very well built and cant wait for the rain to stop so I can install them.
You killed the video! Nice stuff, think I’m going to pick some up now for my taco 😅.
Your channel is growing so fast! Congratulations!!
Idk how I ended up here. I don’t care and I know absolutely nothing about trucks, cars, or really any vehicle-y things. Somehow I found myself interested enough to watch the entire video, ended up subscribing.
But on another note... I do drive a Toyota
I got a pair and for 1 done today before it got dark. Your instructions are way better than theirs😃
Why would anyone thumbs down your informative video? Awesome job
Cool video, I just started building my Tacoma in the Lighting department,;
went with Baja Design!
Got to support that Local SD business!
Look forward to your vids, Great personality, tough chick, beautiful yet humble. May you stay blessed Chloe.
Incredibly produced video! Excellent install detail video and superb comparison shots of the results!
Great job presenting this product. You presented all the helpful details. Best part was comparison at the end. Love the ease of installation and option to change lens color as well. Thx for taking the time to share this. You’re on a roll. Your mods so far have been big pluses for your Taco.
Excellent job. The last video I watched the guy put one brand on the left and other brand on the right and left his headlights on....
Thanks for the video. I just installed the new squadron sae fogs and have no clue how to use a multimeter to figure out the ground and positive. Watched your video and just sent it. Worked out. Also the rest of the video is great guidance. I always check your channel if I’m planning on doing anything (we have the same truck). Thanks again!
Wow best fog light video review ever !!!! Props to you for being so detailed!!!! Subscribed
My lord, great shots on changing out the fog lights with one hand. This was an absolutely brilliant review and step by step. Dope, sweet, and rad all at once!
Finally pulled the trigger and ordered the amber version. Can’t wait. Buy once, cry once.
You won’t be disappointed! They are top notch in my opinion
This vid answered all of my questions. Thank you for your elaboration 🤙🏽
Just want to say you have the best install video!
Thanks for this video, it helped me install my baja design fog lights.
Even tho this is a couple years ago, still SUPER informative & helpful! Thank you for making this one! New Fog Lights for me soon!
I enjoy your videos and your truck very much. Really makes me second guess not getting a Tacoma but I am happy with mine as well! Keep them coming
Another great video. Here in the PNW amber is the way to go. I notice you don't use any electronic wire contact paste to help with corrosion and waterproofing contacts
Nice install and review. Will be picking my new Tacoma 2020 tomorrow...and just ordered the Baja designs fog light.
for fog lights, I like amber. Here in Canada, I find they are great in the rain, fog and snow, not to mention they give a unique look and others see you better. I don't run my fog lights all the time, except when needed.
Did you order this product from Canada?
Your young so I understand clear for looks. I’m old, so I use amber covers on my cheap driving lights. Because I like how other drivers see me better. When I drive I see cars that use amber that stick out more to me. I also see reflective signs better. I like safety because people are distracted too much behind the wheel and anything helps.
I'm sold on ordering with the amber filters.
Summertime I can use them normally, winter and spring I can install the amber filters.
Good video, thanks for adding applicable technical information.
I may as well order one or two for an ATV while I'm at it.
As many others have stated, thanks for the details on these...great video! Almost ready to buy a pair of fogs.
Those look incredibly clean. The amber lens is a nice contrast to the front of the truck. Great video! Keep up the exceptional content!
Thanks for the video, I love the tech specs on the lights, keep up the great work.
You and I have the same color and trim level of Tacoma and I already bought one accessory you highlighted. Now I think I want this one. Great videos.
I wasn’t going to purchase them but you changed my mind. Love the clear look! Thanks for video! 🤙
Good job and great job on actually putting the correct fog lights for street use unlike other people that use the off-road version and blind oncoming drivers
Part 2/2 Off Road lights
The most common bulb wattage is 55 watts. A brighter option is a 100w bulb, which produces nearly twice as much light at the bulb filament, which wouild be a benefit in a larger lamp. In many of the smaller lamps, the reflector area is too small to efficiently gather the light and very little increase in light output occurs.
Of course, the question of yellow, or amber, versus white needs to be addressed. I prefer white. Regardless of the fog lights’ various types of construction, generally speaking amber or yellow fog lights become amber or yellow from coloring the lens or the reflector. This may reduce the light 15% to, in extreme cases, 50%.
I once equipped a car with amber headlights, driving lights, spot lights and fog lights. I could light up reflective signs two miles away. But from not having the full spectrum of light, a lot of darker objects simply were not as visible.
So I use white lights for their benefits the majority of the time. Some people prefer amber lights for more severe weather, and, obviously, for much less glare off of snow. But to me the disadvantages outweigh that benefits.
Bigger lights are, all other things being equal, better. More reflector area reflects more light. Bigger, better lights do, however, cost more.
Round lights are better than square ones with an equal area because the corners in a square lamp are sacrificing area. It isn’t for the aerodynamics that rally cars have rows of big round lights across the front.
There are various designs ranging from sealed beams (of which there are still some on the market) to the projector lights. Projector lights have the bulb sitting way in the back with an ellipsoid reflector behind it. A shield is used to perform the cutoff. The convex lens projects the light - hence the term projector - like a slide projector light. It’s a sophisticated design whose advantages are that you can get the same amount of light with half the size of lamp, the beam is very wide and even, and the stray light above the cutoff is practically nil.
The oldest and still most common types of separate bulb lamps use parabolic reflectors, which are something like a cross between a bowl and a funnel in shape.
Another kind of lamp is called bi-focus or free-form. Instead of a parabolic reflector, it has a multi-planed reflector. This means the reflector itself has many different planes which focus the light before it hits the fluting in the lens, sort of “pre-aiming” the light from the bulb.
Obviously, this begins to get fairly complex and much is done by the lighting manufacturers to research and develop materials and construction to make a light do what it’s supposed to do.
Mounting
After you have the right kind of fog light with the right pattern, next is how to mount it to get maximum benefit and this depends on what your goals are for your fog lights. For really severe weather, mounting the lights lower is better.
But the lower the lights are mounted, the more vulnerable they are to impacts from stones and other various objects. The lower mountings also decrease how far forward the light will go (thanks to hills and the like). And the lower they’re mounted, the more the shadowy effect from from rises and depressions in the road increases, which I find irritating.
Mounting the lights low on the vehicle is useful only for pea-soup fog, snow squalls, etc. - 20 mph driving conditions - which I encounter very infrequently. So for the majority of the time, I feel I am better off with fog lights mounted on top of the bumper - for greater distance and more visibility overall in less severe conditions. I’m still retaining the option of aiming them lower for extreme conditions (I can get out a wrench and point them at the ground 10 feet in front of the bumper when the weather is really bad).
I also drive with my fog lights on in clear weather as cornering lights and for seeing animals and other things off on the side of the road waiting to attack my vehicle.
Another important consideration when mounting fog lights is that they be mounted rigidly, so the beam stays pointed the way it’s aimed, as opposed to dancing over tar strips on the road and the like. Dancing light beams will prove to be very irritating and, if they’re dancing up and hitting those droplets of water, you’re still going to have glare.
Aiming
Fog lights should be aimed straight ahead and level, or down a few degrees. For really severe weather, aim them down lower and give up the longer distance. In that situation, you don’t need them to go 600 feet down the road, since you can only see 60 feet.
A wide pattern with the light aimed straight ahead will give you some light off to the sides for cornering. So some people, whose prime concern is cornering light, will aim their fog lights so they spread apart off to the sides, pointed away from each other, to increase the off-the-road light. This will increase the amount of side light from the outside part of each light. But it will decrease the light in front of the car, and thus the distance they go straight down the road in front of you.
Here’s a better idea. On some of the rally cars I’ve prepared, we aimed the fog lights so the light patterns would cross each other (the left light would light up the right side, and the right light, the left side). This gives the same amount of light off to each side, but in front of the vehicle, it’s brighter where the beams overlap.
Keep ’em clean
No matter what the color or pattern of your fog lights, keep them clean. Just a few days’ worth of road dirt can cut the light be up to 50%. In winter, mud and snow can reduce light up to 90%!
But now you know the basics - what fog is, the types of fog lamps available, how to mount and aim fog lights for your intended purpose.
So, how do you chose a fog light?
Buy them all and compare them, or consult an expert. You could read everything there is about a light, but that won’t tell you everything. For example, you can’t compare reflective ranges from different manufacturers, because they may not all use the same reflector.
Ultimately, you can’t know how a light works until you put it in a vehicle and drive down the road with it - or talk to someone who has.
-David Hueppchen
I love the comparisons that you did...very informative.
Excellent video from start to finish. Great review of these lights and install. Thank you 🥰
Love your videos, so well made! You make me want to trade in my 2020 Corolla XSE for a Tacoma. 😄👍👍
Just found your channel and I subscribed. Really great review. Thank you for your quality video. I will be ordering Baja Design amber lights soon.
Thank you! The amber color is great, and I’m sure you’ll love it 😊
Great video and great technical information! Better than most videos
Awesome video Chloe. Thx for the hard work and time you put into this video.
Very well made video and excellent review of their lights. I am planning on purchasing a taco in the next month or so and these will definitely be on the list of upgrades before winter comes along.
great mod! thank you. it looks so easy watching you do it, but seems to take so much more effort, lol. just some updates. installed on a 2021 Tacoma TRD Off Road extra cab SR5. with the new cords had to zip tie to the wires above, or the connectors would bounce around on top of the mud guard and that didn't seem like a good idea. also be sure to save the screw holding in the old light, so you can reuse with the new light. and finally, the wiring colors changed, are white/black from the light, brown/black on the BD wiring connector, and white/green from the truck. just did the driver's side so i could compare the old and new lights myself, lol. love what you do! am a big fan!
Nice choice for upgrading the oem fog lights. Thanks Chloe 😊
Those appear brighter than my Rigid fogs on my 2020 Pro!
Can't wait to see when completely finished with the Tacoma!
Is that your blue in your profile pic?
@@SpencerHogg Yes sir!
I agreed, love the clear light better and it sure does make your truck look BOLD! Great DYI project, 👍🏻!
Good job, always entertaining and fun to watch.
Excellent review You break everything down and give a well thought out review. Loved the light comparison so much that helped sell me on a set. Too bad your coupon doesn’t seem to work, because you deserve the credit for my purchase! Now off to watch your other videos to see where I can spend my remaining $6.25 😂🤣😂
Nice install and demo video. I just installed these on my 2019 SR5 yesterday. I now understand why mine are so bright. I accidentally bought the Sport version.
lmao
Excellent video. I am ordering these for my gladiator. Thank you!!!
I’m getting some for my trd off road 4Runner. Thanks for the video. ✌🏻
Great video especially the output of the different lenses at the end compared to stock.
Great video Chloe!!! Thanks for the hard work!!!
Chloe, I just bought som of these Baja Design lights using your code. Awesome!!
Awesome! Hope you like them 😁
Chloe shines brighter than those bajas
Great job! Great editing and music.
Great video review on these bajas. Going for the amber ones for sure
3:08 powder coated aluminum -ting ting-
Awesome review. I installed the squadron sport r Amber wide cornering a week ago. Angled down a bit as they are plenty bright. If I want more light I hit my light arson the roof and hidden grill light bar :)
Got them from sdhq with no tax and were 328 and free shipping.
Loving the channel, Keep the great content coming!
Great job! Nice truck! Did I hear you say you are in San Diego? what part? I am from there as well...keep up the good work!
I love your channel, great video, explains everything, thank you
Great job, very thorough explanation and demo. Thanks
Squadron Sports are crazy bright! I love them
Hello CK/AKA ( Stick And Move Keep Those Hands Up) CK you give so much detail you should be working in Toyota's designer dept GBU And Family Always CK Be Safe
Can't wait to get my Baja Design fog lights!!
Nice choice, I plan on picking up a pair for my taco as well. Change out to the amber lens in the winter.
It seems that the difference between the SAE and the Sport is that black plastick behind the lens. If you look carefully when the light is taken apart, you can see the circuit board shows Squadron Sport on it.
So, if you want more light output, take out the black plastic.
Nice addition to the Taco Chloe 👍🏽
Excellent walkthrough, on the install 🇯🇲
Hey can you make a video install on switch pro or spod in the future? You make such great install video and easy to follow.
Awesome review! I think more companies should send you gear to keep these videos coming!
Thanks for those awesome videos Chloe!
My 17 has those!!! They are AWESOME
Great video and well thought out demonstration.
I may be buying the subject fog lights next. I just need to stop spending money on other things. Thanks, CK for the video (all the videos actually).
Love this video, just came up with a question. Can you go SAE to sport ? ???? Wondering. Tnks again!
Part 1 Offroad Lights and their usage.
________________________________________
Here is a great article I ran across regarding fog lights 4/12/08
Fog lights are yellow and driving lights are white … WRONG. There’s more to it than that.
When someone is thinking about installing fog lights, I start with questions: First of all, do you know what fog lights are? Secondly, what do you drive, where do you drive, what kinds of roads do you drive on? What kind of weather do you drive in? What do you want the fog lights for - do you live in a real foggy area? Are they for pea soup fog or light fog, for snow, rain? Or just to look cool when you’re cruising?
Fog lights aren’t necessarily amber lights, nor are amber lights always fog lights. There are amber driving lights, amber spotlights, and, in France, there are amber headlights. What makes a fog light is the light pattern, regardless of the type of lamp or color of the light. A real fog light - one that will do you good when you’re trying to see in the fog - has a wide beam pattern (70 degrees to 120 degrees) with a sharp, flat cutoff on top.
So beyond that, not all “fog lights” are created equal. There are lots of lights being marketed as fog lamps - some very low priced, some hundreds of dollars a pair - that, if I were driving in extreme weather, I would not turn on. They would make it harder to see.
Fog lights, of course, are just one kind of auxiliary light. There are also driving lights, midbeams (passing lights) and spotlights for other purposes. And fog lights have many other functions besides fog, such as other types of bad weather and increasing side light for cornering. While fog lights are beneficial in fog or any other glare-producing conditions, they can also help you see better when you drive on a clear night. Mainly when you think of fog lights, you think of fog.
Seeing through the fog?
You can’t see “through” fog. You see in foggy weather by lighting up the road under the fog, illuminating as little of the fog as possible to avoid producing glare.
Fog is defined as a thick cloud of water droplets, 0.00039 to 0.00156 inches in diameter, suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth’s surface and reducing visibility to below half a mile.
Your high beam headlights produce a wall of glare - a whiteout - from the light bouncing off these droplets of water. You’re being blinded by the glare of your own lights reflected off the water vapor in front of you. Similar experiences occur in rain, snow, dust, etc.
One solution would be to buy heated blowers like giant hair driers to dry the air in front of your car - works great, costs a lot and uses a ton of energy. We may never deliver any of these, but you can start sending deposits in now (big ones).
The amount of glare from the airborne moisture is affected by the relationship of angles between your line of sight and the angle of your car’s lights. That’s why you want a wide, flat beam from your fog lights. What you want your fog lamp to do is light up the road in front of you without lighting up the fog that’s higher up, right in front of your eyes.
Lenses and reflectors
It helps to know something about the construction of the light - specifically its lens and its reflector. The cuts in the lens, called fluting, shape the pattern by how they deflect the light. Ever knocked the lens out of your fog light? And noticed how it turned into a spot light? That’s what it would be if it had a totally clear lens, with no fluting.
Since the light passes through the lens, obviously the material of the lens would have an effect on how much light passes through. Lead crystal, being the clearest, allows the most light to pass through. Both ordinary glass and hardened glass are full of dirt and impurities that affect the passage of light. Plastic lenses block even more of the light.
Most of the better lights are made with lead crystal lenses. Hardened glass doesn’t break as easily, but is still as impure as ordinary glass. Plastic is basically useless for lenses because of impurities and because it gets scratched up.
Breakage is, of course, an occasion for replacing lenses. And if fog lights are mounted in an air dam and you drive across the desert a lot, they get essentially sand blasted and all the little pits affect the flow of light and the light pattern. Even if you don’t drive across the desert, your lenses will still be scuffed up by grit and you likely will want to replace them sooner or later, especially if you’re using good quality lights.
You also will care about the quality of the reflector, the shiny part that gathers the light from the bulb and reflects it out at precise angles through the lens. Good reflectors aren’t chrome - chrome appears to be shiny and reflective to the eye, but for reflecting light, it’s not efficient!
Some reflectors are silver plated. This is from the olden days. Prior to the invention of sealed beam headlights, American cars had separate bulbs, reflectors and lenses, and the reflectors were silver. Silver is not optimally reflective even when first applied. And through tarnishing, it loses 40 - 50% of its reflectivity after about 48 hours. These reflectors were supposed to be polished monthly.
The preferred and most reflective material is an aluminized vapor coating. This is the neat stuff they use in microscopes and in mirrors for aiming lasers. Most of the higher quality lamps use this.
Some lights also use a bulb shield, like a cup in front of the bulb. It blocks direct light from the bulb to the lens so that only light from the designed shape of the reflector passes through the lens. This reduces stray light above the cut-off.
A word about bulbs
Halogen bulbs have been around for about 30 years now. Most of the replaceable bulb type lamps utilize a halogen bulb. Some use a tungsten bulb - this does not produce as much light per watt.
Three common types of single-filament halogen type bulbs are H1, H2 and H3. The H1 puts out 29 lumens per watt (lm/w), the H2 is 33 lm/w and the H3 is 26 lm/w - versus the 13 lm/w of a tungsten bulb. Any of these three could be found in a fog light. The bulbs don’t interchange - a lamp is built to take a certain bulb.
really like all of your video. i bought the garmin mini dash cam. now fog light next.
This is a great video.
Suggestion for when you video yourself, maybe just mount the camera someplace so it's not so wobbly.
Thanks for the content!
Great video! Great job on the install! Those fog lights are nice! Are you planning to lift and level your Tacom? Maybe a 6 inch lift? Maybe install a new exhaust system?
Thank you! I like the way my truck rides and I'm a little short, so I'm not sure about a lift yet 😂 I'm thinking that my sooner mods will be bed stiffeners and a bed rack, although we'll see!
Hi Chloe,
Great info and thanks for saving me $43.00.
Just ordered my amber lights😉
From, julian,ca
These are some cool looking fog lights!
Have you ever considered Hand Modeling? Your hands are so smooth and soft-looking and long, elegant fingers.
You should get the Morimoto XB Headlights for your truck. They'd definitely match your fog lights
Those are some of my favorite aftermarkets! I'm hoping to put some on sometime soon
Hey chloe......so use the tundra pbm tape? Was it really tight to get in? Did you try both? Sorry just really wanna know before I install them. You know best! Thanks
This video is crazy well done
The fog light amber look better on your tocama I love the way it looks better than the clear one I love watching you Chloe Are you from the Philippines
I want these for my Tacoma and man she is so beautiful 😍
Dude maybe she'll marry you.
i run amber in the winter and clear in the summer sense amber helps with snow and i get alot of it