bd100
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- May 31, 2022
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- JT, WK2, ole' Ram
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- #1
Started with halogen headlights and halogen fogs. Added one layer of kapton tape to make the fog lights more yellow. Really nice color, made for a good "get out of the way" marker light, warmed up the foreground color a bit, but didn't do much else. Only a trace of light off to the side. Should be good as you can ask for snow build up.
Got some new Baja Designs Squadron SAE fog lights, the latest (as of this writing) generation with projector lenses. Not perfect. As mentioned elsewhere, too green to be called Selective Yellow. I added three layers of kapton tape, which is almost pure yellow in color, which brought it close to what you'd expect for color. Each layer moves the color hue about 4 degrees away from green and closer to yellow, for a 12 degree shift in total. Green and yellow are 60 degrees away from each other. I will probably order some amber Lamin-x to test as well.
The three layers of tape also dims the output a bit which helps with the bright glare up close. You don't really want the fog light glow to be brighter than your low beams since that would reduce your night vision.
The tape might make it more prone to snow build up, but these have a flat face and the brackets put them right at the front of the fog socket well so at least they aren't recessed a bunch.
Aiming is harder than you'd want. You have to try to aim then tighten the bracket side bolts without throwing off the aim. Took several tries. While aiming just hold the bracket flat against the bumper to check the aim, then tighten the bracket side bolts well, check aim once again, then finally screw it into the bumper.
The brackets screw into the plastic bumper in the same way as the originals, but these new fogs are much heavier than the originals. If those screws strip the plastic then I may have to get a size larger to have them grab more plastic to hold. But this would be true of any brand of aftermarket fog mounted in the same position.
Zero radio interference with AM, FM, satellite, VHF (NOAA weather radio), or UHF (GMRS/FRS). This was important to me as I use all the above often.
Much more usable light off to the sides than the stock halogen fogs, but not as wide as some competitors.
No flickering or on/off issues. The computer expects a current draw of 25W from the halogen fogs, and now it sees 29W from the LED pods. If you come from LED fogs you may have to tell the computer to go back to the halogen setting.
It would be awesome if Baja Designs offered a new wide angle bezel with a deeper amber color. Even better if they let us install it ourselves, although it seems that they don't want to allow that for the SAE lenses.
So why not some of the competitors? There are not many options if you want LED lights which might get warm enough to melt snow.
Brand R has some reports of water ingress.
Brand D has some reports of radio frequency interference. They recommend ferrite beads, but those may not be very effective at VHF and UHF frequencies. The Sport version doesn't get very hot, the Pro version doesn't have a good cutoff and would be bright up close if it's aimed down enough to not annoy drivers, and the Max version probably overpowers the low beams and also probably would be too bright up close.
I almost wish I could have found some good 55W halogens which mount into the standard fog position. Not sure if the factory wiring would be happy with them, though, as those wires sure do look pretty thin.
If you have factory LED fogs, it may not be worth the upgrade. If I had them I'd just try enough layers of yellow film to get a yellow-without-green and be done. May try that on our car, in fact.
As for the head lights, I'll try to keep them halogen for now. They melt snow better than most LEDs, I like the warm color tone, and the H13 bulbs are supposedly among the brightest of the standard halogen bulbs. I installed mid-level upgrade Philips bulbs. I know the headlights are much better than my old pickup with 9004s, as well as anything else I've had with aero reflector headlights from the past 20 years. We have a minivan with good halogen projectors, but I don't think the JK gives up much to it. The JT also compares favorably with our other car with HIDs. In fact I greatly prefer the color of halogen over HIDs or LEDs.
Got some new Baja Designs Squadron SAE fog lights, the latest (as of this writing) generation with projector lenses. Not perfect. As mentioned elsewhere, too green to be called Selective Yellow. I added three layers of kapton tape, which is almost pure yellow in color, which brought it close to what you'd expect for color. Each layer moves the color hue about 4 degrees away from green and closer to yellow, for a 12 degree shift in total. Green and yellow are 60 degrees away from each other. I will probably order some amber Lamin-x to test as well.
The three layers of tape also dims the output a bit which helps with the bright glare up close. You don't really want the fog light glow to be brighter than your low beams since that would reduce your night vision.
The tape might make it more prone to snow build up, but these have a flat face and the brackets put them right at the front of the fog socket well so at least they aren't recessed a bunch.
Aiming is harder than you'd want. You have to try to aim then tighten the bracket side bolts without throwing off the aim. Took several tries. While aiming just hold the bracket flat against the bumper to check the aim, then tighten the bracket side bolts well, check aim once again, then finally screw it into the bumper.
The brackets screw into the plastic bumper in the same way as the originals, but these new fogs are much heavier than the originals. If those screws strip the plastic then I may have to get a size larger to have them grab more plastic to hold. But this would be true of any brand of aftermarket fog mounted in the same position.
Zero radio interference with AM, FM, satellite, VHF (NOAA weather radio), or UHF (GMRS/FRS). This was important to me as I use all the above often.
Much more usable light off to the sides than the stock halogen fogs, but not as wide as some competitors.
No flickering or on/off issues. The computer expects a current draw of 25W from the halogen fogs, and now it sees 29W from the LED pods. If you come from LED fogs you may have to tell the computer to go back to the halogen setting.
It would be awesome if Baja Designs offered a new wide angle bezel with a deeper amber color. Even better if they let us install it ourselves, although it seems that they don't want to allow that for the SAE lenses.
So why not some of the competitors? There are not many options if you want LED lights which might get warm enough to melt snow.
Brand R has some reports of water ingress.
Brand D has some reports of radio frequency interference. They recommend ferrite beads, but those may not be very effective at VHF and UHF frequencies. The Sport version doesn't get very hot, the Pro version doesn't have a good cutoff and would be bright up close if it's aimed down enough to not annoy drivers, and the Max version probably overpowers the low beams and also probably would be too bright up close.
I almost wish I could have found some good 55W halogens which mount into the standard fog position. Not sure if the factory wiring would be happy with them, though, as those wires sure do look pretty thin.
If you have factory LED fogs, it may not be worth the upgrade. If I had them I'd just try enough layers of yellow film to get a yellow-without-green and be done. May try that on our car, in fact.
As for the head lights, I'll try to keep them halogen for now. They melt snow better than most LEDs, I like the warm color tone, and the H13 bulbs are supposedly among the brightest of the standard halogen bulbs. I installed mid-level upgrade Philips bulbs. I know the headlights are much better than my old pickup with 9004s, as well as anything else I've had with aero reflector headlights from the past 20 years. We have a minivan with good halogen projectors, but I don't think the JK gives up much to it. The JT also compares favorably with our other car with HIDs. In fact I greatly prefer the color of halogen over HIDs or LEDs.
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