An advantage of amber fog lights

[bd100]

I don't think I'm just imagining this. When I started using the new amber fogs I noticed a few times a week someone seemed about to pull out in front from a side street or parking lot, then think better of it and wait until I went by. And in the last few days I turned them off because it was dry weather and it seemed a little show-off to keep them on. And twice in the last two days I had someone pull out as I'm coming down the street, close enough that I had to slow down. And this truck has two headlights and two DRLs up front, so it's not like they can't see me coming. Something about the extra ambers seems to make the difference, although maybe white fogs would help as well. Anyhow, I guess I'll leave them on more often.

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[redriderjf87]

I'm thinking about going this route too, at least for fog if nothing else. I could see the color difference getting peoples attention to some extent in normal daylight as well.

 

[Mtpisgah]

I have thought about doing this also. What brand did you install?

 

[wchevron]

I bought some yellow headlight tint on amazon for mine. Needed to put about 3-4 layers on to get a deep amber color. Only cost about $10.

 

[Dust]

Lamin-x has a kit. $18 shipped. Works well for minimal investment!

 

[Jobofly]

Are there benefits of running amber lights as fogs?

 

[Richord]

I think the same thing occurs with my Oracle amber grill lights. They are BRIGHT but not as bright as my fog lights. It maybe that people see three amber lights and think it's an alien .

Humans are limited in their ability to judge the speed of an oncoming vehicle. A great book on human driving behavior and roadways is Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt.

 

[Rahkmalla]

Are there benefits of running amber lights as fogs?

Helps you use them as actual foglights. Less refraction off fog means it penetrates the fog better and reflects less back into your eyes. Worth noting selective yellow is better than amber, and is a difficult color to create with stickers or films from what was explained to me.

 

[Jobofly]

Thanks guys. I’m going to order a set for my Mojave

 

[bd100]

I have white halogen bulbs in the DRLs, and am considering putting amber bulbs in their place.

For the fogs I had yellow kapton tape on the halogen fogs and they worked great except didn't reach far. Good for people seeing me and also good for seeing the lane markings up close, which are what fogs are for, but not so much for reaching out. Now I have Baja Designs SAE fogs which put out more light, but still are not driving lights. I have them aimed a bit down more than I have to because when I hook up the trailer they will be aimed higher and it's hard to adjust them. For the headlights I can adjust them in a moment with a long 6mm hex wrench.

Anyhow, if you have halogen fogs then a yellow tape works great. If you have LED fogs then it may take several layers. On our other car we have LED fogs and it took three or so layers, but the results is great, and it sure stands out in traffic.

 

[KevinM60]

Having a few desert trips under my belt I’ve also seen the value of amber light to cut through the dust and to also make it easier for others to see you on the trail.
I plan on adding an amber light bar to my front bumper soon.

 

[Dickster]

I use amber as it works better in dust, fog and snow. Living in western oregon we also have dark rainy nights that seem to absorb white light more. As for attention I does make your vehicle stand out more for sure. I have baja designs SAE squadrons in my gladiator and truck. They work well and wouldn't want anything different. Being SAE I can legally run them any time per oregon law.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Are there benefits of running amber lights as fogs?

Yes, selective yellow.
Keep in mine, a film to change color does so by blocking a certain amount of light. It MUST block light to allow only certain wavelengths through, blocking others. so you lose light output, there's no other way around it. Film can't turn other wavelengths into yellow light, it can only filter out others so only yellow comes through. You lose power, it's that simple.
That's why I use correct, DOT selective yellow fogs.

From -
https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/light_color.html
we have ->

What, then, explains the persistent subjective preference amongst experienced poor-weather drivers for selective yellow fog lamps (whether or not they happen to know that's the name of the colour), despite decades of white fog lamp prevalence? Selective yellow light can improve a driver's ability to see in fog or rain or snow, but not because it 'penetrates fog better' or 'reflects less off droplets'. In fact it's because of the way the human eye processes different colours of light. Blue, indigo, and violet are difficult for the human optical system to process correctly. They are the shortest visible wavelengths and tend to focus in front of our retina rather than upon it. To demonstrate this to yourself, after dark find a deep blue storefront sign or blue lights on an airport runway or something else that's a deep blue light emitter against a dark background in the absence of white light—from any appreciable distance, it's almost impossible for your eyes to see the blue lighted object as a sharply defined form;the edges blur. The blur effect is not present with nearby signs or lights of colours other than blue.

Blue also is a very difficult colour of light to look at; it stimulates the reaction we call glare. Within the range of allowable white light, bluer headlamps have been shown to be 46% more glaring than yellower ones for a given intensity of light — see studies here and here. So, it seems culling the blue out of the spectrum lightens the optical workload and reduces glare. For a more detailed examination of this effect with respect to driving in foul weather, see Bullough & Rea's study on the topic.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Helps you use them as actual foglights. Less refraction off fog means it penetrates the fog better and reflects less back into your eyes. Worth noting selective yellow is better than amber, and is a difficult color to create with stickers or films from what was explained to me.

See my post just above - it's science, and not how most believe.
Daniel Stern is a lighting expert - and was actually hired by MOPAR as an advisor.
If your fog lights put out xyz lumens and they are clear, and you add film to make them appear more yellow (amber in reality) you have to filter out the other wavelengths, actually reducing the luminosity - the light output.
Selective yellow fog light output is measured as it comes out - yellow - so you are getting true lumens.
A white fog at xyz lumens with a film to change color will have to put out less light than a selective yellow fog light with xyz lumens.

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