LED fog lights or light bar - which would be better?

[Thorne]

My 2011 Freightliner Sportsmobile RB110S doesn't have fog lights, and has a handy front bar to mount a LED bar if we wanted to.

Any opinions on which is better? Fog lights can be run legally on public roads, but most systems won't work if your high beams are on. We mostly drive paved roads in our 2 wheel drive van, but both like to see where we're going on dirt roads or bad conditions. Thanks!

[Thorne]

I'm also only seeing stock fog lights, which would then require one of the many LED bulb upgrades. Anyone know of the full fog light unit with a LED build?

[Twoxentrix]

I use PIAA's since they have a low amp draw & are SAE compliant. Been real pleased with them, and never had a bulb go out.
PIAA | RF Series LED Light Bars

[REF]

First off, fog lamps and light bars are used for completely different purposes. True dedicated fog lamps are designed to be mounted low and throw a diffused short beam pattern, many come in an amber color that is better at cutting through fog, rain and snow vs. white light that is harsh and creates a lot of blinding reflection.
LED light bars are generally used to light up the runway, with a spot beam pattern for throwing light further, great for seeing distance on back roads and off road use, some hybrids have a section of wide beam on either side.
I’d say get both! I also agree about looking at some of the other options out there besides stock fog lamps if your bumper openings allow, PIAA makes a great light and I know they have a few different sizes available in both fogs and driving lights(spot beam for seeing distance)
I’ve got PIAA halogen fog lights and a pair of their driving lights both in ion crystal (amber) as well as an LED light bar mounted up high and I use them all in different combinations and scenarios.

[BroncoHauler]

Scott (Redoval) sells Diode Dynamics lights, which are available as "pods" or light bars. I have two 18" white lightbars on two different vehicles and I've been very hapy with them. Also, Diode Dynamics claims that their 6" light bars are DOT compliant. Oe thing I like about their lightbars is that you can get them in driving, spot or combo lenses, and you can swap them out.


https://www.diodedynamics.com/stage-...-bar-pair.html




Herb

[Kibo]

Another vote for Diode Dynamics if you're looking for fog lights. Their SS3 Pro is the brightest SAE/DOT LED fog light that I could find.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqAnYPS6obM

[Glenn P.]

Having upgraded the lighting on both my F-250 and E-350 over the last few years I can chime in here with what I have learned and done. A lot of your lighting is dictated by your bumper. Some have holes or slots, others have a baja bar to clamp to or a big flat top to mount on. All of these can limit the size light bar you may choose or placement of fog style lights.

I love light bars in addition to other lighting up front. I wire all mine to come on when I engage the high beams, on my van I could roast a chicken in front of all my lights!

So, first off, make sure when you engage the high beams that the low beams do not turn off. Sounds silly I know but this is more common than you think. You can typically tell this happens by when you engage the high beams momentarily you get both but when you just turn on the high beam switch you get just high beams. If so, get a BriteBox to solve this first.

Now, as I said, I have done a few lighting upgrades. I typically wind up with a mix of brands as one bumper only uses a certain brand or type and light bar can be something different. I really like my Rigid 20" light bar. I would have gone bigger but to mount it under the Baja Bar on the bumper I was limited to this size. Now you can get a variety of lighting options within said light bar. I chose the driving lights/spot combo. I would HIGHLY suggest you go to Rigid's special web site where you can select the different lighting options you are interested in and then see the light output online in a demo they have where they put all their different lights on a vehicle and let you see the output pattern. It will really help you figure out what you want to run.

https://viewpoint.rigidindustries.com/

I hope this helps a little. On my F-250 I changed out the factory fog lights for Rigid Driving Lights, added a flood/spot combo light bar and installed a BriteBox. On the E-350 I did a combo driving/spot light bar and have 4 spot lights mounted in the bumper and again added the BriteBox. The van has a massive amount of light out front, the pickup has plenty but the Van/chicken cooker is most impressive!

I will also say that the vast majority of my off-road/backroad night driving is in the deserts. Snow or constant heavy rain would quite likely require a different setup most likely. Also, if following others off-road, their dust is essentially like fog and once again a lot of light is actually worse as it all reflects back at you. But for long adventures in the CA/NV/AZ/UT deserts I find a lot of light to be perfect.

[Thorne]

I went with this product and a separate wiring harness, seems great so far. Wired with a switch that either leaves the bar off or turns it on when the high beams are turned on.

Photo in slight wide-angle view, but the 28" light bar fits the 32" space very nicely.


Will mount spotlights as recommended above, particularly those that can be swiveled slightly to the side to help spotting deer.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[IPT]

I run both Fogs, a 20" light bar and two racer style pods on the A Frame.

I tried many style and many types. For my use, highway speeds usually on dark roads (highways in Alaska at night) I LOVE the light bar and A Pod lights. I need to see down the road! In fact, last night due to deep snow there were no less than 8 moose on the road (not including the two that were dead and hit already). Having that distance of viewing down the road corridor was invaluable as it gave me plenty of time to slow down on icy roads where if I came up on them even at 50MPH there's no way I was stopping in time. I might add that the speed limit was 65 but I was still driving between 50-55 just because of the conditions (both the moose on the road and roads themselves).

What's nice about the A Pillar (and I might still get one some day if we get a roof rack) is the higher lights. They cast less shadow on the humps and bumps in the road. They also illuminate over the snow berms and rises on the sides of the road where the bumper mounted lights just can't get (and it's a 4x4 too so the bumper is fairly high).

For fogs, I have the Baja Designs squadrens and DD Pros. As mentioned the DD are DOT approved and much brighter. I like the BD though because they shine higher (Not DOT approved) and the make good ditch lights for low speed driving where I don't really need to see that far out but more importantly to the sides (where some moose could be lurking ready to step out),

I rarely use the Fogs, I use the A Pillar and light bar every night I'm on a dark road without oncoming traffic. When I look at what I see with the aftermarket lights on vs my high beams (Xenon) it's not even close. It's scary how little light regular headlights actually put out. This addition alone was my best upgrade. Made night driving much more relaxing and less stressful with the added visibility.

If I drove in fog a lot, or snow a lot, I could see the value of the fogs. They would help illuminate the edges of the road or lane without blinding you by lighting up the field out ahead of you.