Looking for better lighting for severe weather

D

dta1984

New member
I'm looking for better lighting for driving in heavy snow in mainly dark rural or semi rural areas. Last year, i found my headlights just seemed to reflect the snow. I changed my fog bulbs to the yellow hella optilux bulbs and that definitely helped. Here are a few options I came up with. Has anyone done any of these?

Maybe another set of independent yellow fogs would help? That way I could turn the low beams off and run fogs only.

Or an amber led lightbar ...

Or upgrade to hid 3000k fogs. Would this look OK with normal halogen lights?

Or is upgrading to an hid retrofit and hid fogs the ultimate combo?
 
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Interested in this as well.

I would say keep the light as bright, low, and yellow as and you can. Maybe retrofit some 3500k-4000k hid projectors in the fog light area? Some year 4runners came with projector fog lights.

Rigid industries makes a SAE compliant fog light. I would get a couple pairs of those and maybe put yellow filters on two of the four to warm up the light a little bit.
SAE Compliant Fog Light Set (D-Series) OE Cool White... | Rigid Industries
 
I've been looking for a similar solution as well. I'm a storm chaser on the side and would be doing lots of live streaming in extreme weather as well as search and rescue/damage survey.

My problem is I need all of the following:
1. Whitest light possible for video
2. 3000k to cut through the weather
3. Long spot beam for distant damage shots/search & rescue + deer spotting in remote areas
4. High power wide angle flood to light a damage scene for search & rescue + general survey and B-Roll later.


Current Solutions I'm looking at
Flood: 2 Row 5W OSRAM 40" Black Oak Flood mounted on a full length rack with mesh for hail protection (they claim 44k Raw Lumens + IP69k)

Fog: 3000k HID Fogs (currently have 4500k, will see how they heavy weather)

Spot: Auxbeam 300W Phillps LED Spot/Flood 70/30 combo Stealth mounted in grill

Side: 10W Black Oak Ditch lights

Rear: ??? Undecided, Need ditch lights or similar for recovery operations.

Hoping that setup would provide a nice well rounded array of lighting for most everything including weather.
 
I'm currently looking at similar things. I had LEDs in my high/lows/fogs (about 5000-5500K) and they were horrible in bad weather. Lots of upfront light reflected, but very poor output overall and bad reach.

I decided to go back to halogen and they have been pretty good in bad weather so far. I changed my high/low/fog to upgraded h9/HIR bulbs.

I currently run a 32" LED spot/flood combo behind my front grille, and it works pretty well when weather is good. Gives me better light on dark back roads and when offroading and camping it is useful when navigating trails. I don't really have anything great for bad weather though.

To combat this, I am working on my next fog light mod that might be of use to you. I have an 03 with the turn signals and fog lights down low on the bumper. I did the 06 headlight swap so my turn signals are now up top and the turn signals down low are unused. I am planning on removing the old turn signal housing and then mounting a pair of amber flood LED cubes in that location. These likely won't be used on the road very much unless the weather is absolutely terrible. But I go camping, snowboarding, and offroading enough that it should be worth it for any bad weather, fog, snow, or dust. I've heard amber lights are low as possible are good for bad weather. Just my thoughts.
 
I run the xenon depot 6000k low beam HIDs and 3000k fogs. The 3000k in the fogs do a phenomenal job in lighting up the road.

The 6000k are more for the blue and yellow combo, for optimal lighting, i would say either 4300k or 5k in the low beams as a max and then 3000k in the fogs would be good.
 
Do 3000k/yellow fogs make a difference in the rain? I've seen stuff saying they do, and stuff saying they don't. But I'm always open for lighting/visibility upgrades. I wish there was a way to make the wipers go faster because honestly sometimes I feel like they don't go fast enough in heavy heavy rain.
 
i tried a few HID kits but i would always have problems with one side going out. i think the ballasts are too fragile. so i switched to LED bulbs, and have never had a problem.

i had put in some LED bulbs in my factory fogs, but they didnt do a damn thing. couldnt even tell the difference when i switched them on or off. i suspect it might be the same if u put a HID kit in the fogs. unless they're yellow, then it could work.

So, i switched out my factory fogs for some Rigid Industries D2's, and also put in a light bar in my lower grill. i can tell when my fogs are on now, and they help..its not a night and day difference, but the yellow beam is definitely visible. i will take a pic when its dark outside so u can see.

and that light bar...man, lemme tell u. i went up in the mountains at night and that thing lights up the whole forest lol. no need for headlights when that thing is turned on. the position (lower grill) is perfect i feel. i didn't wanna go for a roof mount because i heard it creates wind noise, and im not really a fan of the look. and that lower grill is just perfect to put a light bar in there. a very sleek "stock" look.

obviously, i would not have that thing on if there was a possibility of oncoming traffic.
but on country roads, forest service roads, that thing will turn night into day.

** forgot to mention, the rigid fogs are actually white, but i bought the rigid "amber" (yellow) covers for them. bought the fogs and covers off amazon.

309u6wm.png
 
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gaara46 said:
i tried a few HID kits but i would always have problems with one side going out. i think the ballasts are too fragile. so i switched to LED bulbs, and have never had a problem.

i had put in some LED bulbs in my factory fogs, but they didnt do a damn thing. couldnt even tell the difference when i switched them on or off. i suspect it might be the same if u put a HID kit in the fogs. unless they're yellow, then it could work.

So, i switched out my factory fogs for some Rigid Industries D2's, and also put in a light bar in my lower grill. i can tell when my fogs are on now, and they help..its not a night and day difference, but the yellow beam is definitely visible. i will take a pic when its dark outside so u can see.

and that light bar...man, lemme tell u. i went up in the mountains at night and that thing lights up the whole forest lol. no need for headlights when that thing is turned on. the position (lower grill) is perfect i feel. i didn't wanna go for a roof mount because i heard it creates wind noise, and im not really a fan of the look. and that lower grill is just perfect to put a light bar in there. a very sleek "stock" look.

obviously, i would not have that thing on if there was a possibility of oncoming traffic.
but on country roads, forest service roads, that thing will turn night into day.

** forgot to mention, the rigid fogs are actually white, but i bought the rigid "amber" (yellow) covers for them. bought the fogs and covers off amazon.

309u6wm.png
Click to expand...

cheap ballast/ hid kits are waste, always do a quality kit.
 
jsmith21 said:
Do 3000k/yellow fogs make a difference in the rain? I've seen stuff saying they do, and stuff saying they don't. But I'm always open for lighting/visibility upgrades. I wish there was a way to make the wipers go faster because honestly sometimes I feel like they don't go fast enough in heavy heavy rain.
Click to expand...

For me I can say I like 3000k , yellow, or amber lights in rain and fog condition. That also includes think desert white-out conditions. To my eyes they help a lot.

In the rain the higher color temp LED and HID lights really seems to get lost on wet ground... I just get less of that effect with a warmer color in general.

I think placement and beam pattern also make a really big difference in the end result... as I have learned from recent lighting projects on my rig.

Having a lot of light is great, but controlling it is just as important... some of my best viewing experiences has come from lights mounted low, and that have a good bit of throw.
 
jsmith21 said:
Do 3000k/yellow fogs make a difference in the rain? I've seen stuff saying they do, and stuff saying they don't. But I'm always open for lighting/visibility upgrades. I wish there was a way to make the wipers go faster because honestly sometimes I feel like they don't go fast enough in heavy heavy rain.
Click to expand...

Have you tried rain x on the windshield? I use that and it makes the water just roll off. When I'm on the interstate while it's raining I can just turn my wipers off (not that I would, but I can) and the water just rolls up and off the windshield from the wind. I pretty much never turn my wipers on highest speed anymore
 
gaara46 said:
i tried a few HID kits but i would always have problems with one side going out. i think the ballasts are too fragile. so i switched to LED bulbs, and have never had a problem.

i had put in some LED bulbs in my factory fogs, but they didnt do a damn thing. couldnt even tell the difference when i switched them on or off. i suspect it might be the same if u put a HID kit in the fogs. unless they're yellow, then it could work.

So, i switched out my factory fogs for some Rigid Industries D2's, and also put in a light bar in my lower grill. i can tell when my fogs are on now, and they help..its not a night and day difference, but the yellow beam is definitely visible. i will take a pic when its dark outside so u can see.

and that light bar...man, lemme tell u. i went up in the mountains at night and that thing lights up the whole forest lol. no need for headlights when that thing is turned on. the position (lower grill) is perfect i feel. i didn't wanna go for a roof mount because i heard it creates wind noise, and im not really a fan of the look. and that lower grill is just perfect to put a light bar in there. a very sleek "stock" look.

obviously, i would not have that thing on if there was a possibility of oncoming traffic.
but on country roads, forest service roads, that thing will turn night into day.

** forgot to mention, the rigid fogs are actually white, but i bought the rigid "amber" (yellow) covers for them. bought the fogs and covers off amazon.

309u6wm.png
Click to expand...



Which light bar is that?
 
madeinhb said:
Which light bar is that?
Click to expand...

its a cali raised light bar. i cant remember the name of the website/fab place that i bought the kit from, but the light bar/wiring/brackets came as a package. i did find out about it through some thread on the forum though.
 
gaara46 said:
its a cali raised light bar. i cant remember the name of the website/fab place that i bought the kit from, but the light bar/wiring/brackets came as a package. i did find out about it through some thread on the forum though.
Click to expand...

OPT7? I have an OPT7 in my grille and love it.
 
riceandpho said:
do a full projector retrofit with some good oem projectors or use fxr with these bulbs
https://www.theretrofitsource.com/components/bulbs/d2s-osram-xenarc-66240-nightbreaker.html
boost them with 50w ballast to give a warmer color. for fogs just use 3000k.
Click to expand...

I am kind of leaning this way. I've been reading through several retrofit threads to get an idea. I was thinking the Morimoto D2S kit from TRS https://www.theretrofitsource.com/c...l-kits/bixenon-morimoto-mini-d2s-stage-3.html
 
Urbanrunner716 said:
Have you tried rain x on the windshield? I use that and it makes the water just roll off. When I'm on the interstate while it's raining I can just turn my wipers off (not that I would, but I can) and the water just rolls up and off the windshield from the wind. I pretty much never turn my wipers on highest speed anymore
Click to expand...



You know, I never thought of that. I'll have to try it. Definitely cheaper than a new lighting or wiper set up!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
dta1984 said:
I'm looking for better lighting for driving in heavy snow in mainly dark rural or semi rural areas. Last year, i found my headlights just seemed to reflect the snow. I changed my fog bulbs to the yellow hella optilux bulbs and that definitely helped. Here are a few options I came up with. Has anyone done any of these?

Maybe another set of independent yellow fogs would help? That way I could turn the low beams off and run fogs only.

Or an amber led lightbar ...

Or upgrade to hid 3000k fogs. Would this look OK with normal halogen lights?

Or is upgrading to an hid retrofit and hid fogs the ultimate combo?
Click to expand...

You want to get light on the road, but not on the snow falling in front of you. The best way to do that is lights with a sharp cutoff. If you haven't upgraded to the 05+ projector beam headlights yet, that will help a lot. Even then you will still have trouble seeing in the heaviest falling snow.

I think the 03-04 fog lights are projectors, so that should help get most of their light onto the road. The newer fog lights are reflectors, and they send a bit too much light up in the air.

It would help to do the anytime fog light mod so you can run fog lights and parking lights without the low beams. Make sure to use the parking lights not just the DRLs (if you have DRLs) so your tail lights are on so you don't get rear-ended.

A light bar or extra fog lights could work as long as they have a sharp cutoff and are mounted low.

If you're driving in conditions that form rime ice, make sure it's not building up on the lenses of your lights. That will blur the beam and send more light into the air to reflect off the snow. The projector low beams usually burn through ice, but a couple years ago I was driving in snow so bad that the entire front of my car including the lights was covered in 1/4 inch or more of ice by the time I found a safe place to pull over. I could barely keep the windshield clear despite blasting the heat to try to melt the accumulated ice and snow.

I found that Rain-X makes ice adhere to the windshield better, so it's harder to scrape off in the morning. I don't know if it would have an effect on ice accumulation while driving, but it should help prevent snow from sticking.
 
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