Opinions on SAE lighting

[snt505]

I would agree with you if most all of your driving is on the highway. I live in a very rural part of the mountains. Lots of hilly, wooded, twisty back roads that are a bitch to see very well on when driving at night. I have to say the BD SAE's make it easier, and more relaxing, to drive in the boonies when it's dark. Their wide spread makes it way easier to navigate in the dark, and also help give you a little more warning for when a white tail is going to jump out in front of you. It's nice with the SAE's that you can just leave them on, and run your brighter lights when you can. I am definitely happy with mine and would buy them again.

I agree. Just made a trip last night through some single lane highways and its nice having the SAEs to see what may jump in front. Relatively common for me to see elk, deer, wild horses, skin-walkers etc. along the roadway at night. These add a little more visibility and don't have to flip on and off for the occasional oncoming vehicle like I do with my bar.

 

[Oldfart]

I agree. Just made a trip last night through some single lane highways and its nice having the SAEs to see what may jump in front. Relatively common for me to see elk, deer, wild horses, skin-walkers etc. along the roadway at night. These add a little more visibility and don't have to flip on and off for the occasional oncoming vehicle like I do with my bar.

I had to Google skin walkers!
What is a skin walker?
In many Native American legends, a skin-walker is a person with the supernatural ability to turn into any creature he or she desires. To be able to transform, legend sometimes requires that the skin-walker wears a pelt of the animal.

We have black bear, turkeys, red and gray foxes, coyotes, among other stuff, but the deer are what we really have to watch for. They have a habit of jumping in front of you and freezing so you can plow into them, and we have A LOT of them here. There's 20 or so that come hang out at my place most nights. I found the lights definitely help give you a better chance to see something approaching out of the woods.

 

[Speeddeacon]

I've had my BD SAE's installed for 10 months now. Bought them last Black Friday but didn't get them until after Christmas due to their redesign. Here is my experience with them. Since they are based on the Squadron Sport, there is no issue of quality or performance. They have functioned flawlessly and I run them every time I drive at night, in traffic or away from it. No one ever flashes me and have thankfully never drawn the attention of any LEO. However, as an SAE product, they don't really accomplish much in terms of usable light. As Adam pointed out, they are intended to be fog lights, not driving lights. That means they throw a low, wide beam that is not intended to illuminate down the road, rather cut through fog and dust. Amber lenses may make more sense on these if that is what you really want to use them to accomplish. If you don't have any other lights, you will be disappointed in these, and I would suspect every other SAE model. They function like most OEM fog lights, which means they throw a little light down in front of your bumpers and off to the side a bit. That's it. That's what SAE allows because they cannot project a potentially blinding light toward oncoming traffic. The other Squadron in Wide Cornering are much more effective at illumination. No surprises there.

So, in my opinion, SAEs are for show, non-SAE are for function, when it is appropriate. I can't imagine that Rigid or DD are any different so decide on price, brand, etc. and don't think twice about it.

 

[rayofsi]

I've had my BD SAE's installed for 10 months now. Bought them last Black Friday but didn't get them until after Christmas due to their redesign. Here is my experience with them. Since they are based on the Squadron Sport, there is no issue of quality or performance. They have functioned flawlessly and I run them every time I drive at night, in traffic or away from it. No one ever flashes me and have thankfully never drawn the attention of any LEO. However, as an SAE product, they don't really accomplish much in terms of usable light. As Adam pointed out, they are intended to be fog lights, not driving lights. That means they throw a low, wide beam that is not intended to illuminate down the road, rather cut through fog and dust. Amber lenses may make more sense on these if that is what you really want to use them to accomplish. If you don't have any other lights, you will be disappointed in these, and I would suspect every other SAE model. They function like most OEM fog lights, which means they throw a little light down in front of your bumpers and off to the side a bit. That's it. That's what SAE allows because they cannot project a potentially blinding light toward oncoming traffic. The other Squadron in Wide Cornering are much more effective at illumination. No surprises there.

So, in my opinion, SAEs are for show, non-SAE are for function, when it is appropriate. I can't imagine that Rigid or DD are any different so decide on price, brand, etc. and don't think twice about it.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/
thats a very informative thread with measurements and all. Some SAE lights do indeed perform very subpar, while some are probably pushing the limits of being considred SAE

However, when measuring the output of the new revised optic, the main part of the pattern has also suffered significant losses. Based on my measurements, the new optic takes a 30-33% peak intensity loss, for white and yellow respectively. This places the revised Baja SAE optic output intensity as the lowest performing product in this thread. The next lowest was the dated PIAA LED fogs were 160 lux and for comparison OEM stock H11 halogen fogs were 203 lux. And compared to the best in class Diode Dynamic SS3 Pros, the SS3s are 4.5x higher intensity than the revised Baja.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

I would not buy into that Tacomaworld post much. The person who posted it has a reason to give certain brands such high regards. They actually tried contacting us in an attempt to get FREE PRODUCT in one of their "reviews". When we refused to send them product but offered to sell them product, they got a bit nasty with us. Places that get free product tend to favor the brands they got the products from.

 

[rayofsi]

I would not buy into that Tacomaworld post much. The person who posted it has a reason to give certain brands such high regards. They actually tried contacting us in an attempt to get FREE PRODUCT in one of their "reviews". When we refused to send them product but offered to sell them product, they got a bit nasty with us. Places that get free product tend to favor the brands they got the products from.

lol good to know. i have 0 sponsored items on my trucks.. I still prefer Diode Dynamics.

 

[raptor36]

I've had my BD SAE's installed for 10 months now. Bought them last Black Friday but didn't get them until after Christmas due to their redesign. Here is my experience with them. Since they are based on the Squadron Sport, there is no issue of quality or performance. They have functioned flawlessly and I run them every time I drive at night, in traffic or away from it. No one ever flashes me and have thankfully never drawn the attention of any LEO. However, as an SAE product, they don't really accomplish much in terms of usable light. As Adam pointed out, they are intended to be fog lights, not driving lights. That means they throw a low, wide beam that is not intended to illuminate down the road, rather cut through fog and dust. Amber lenses may make more sense on these if that is what you really want to use them to accomplish. If you don't have any other lights, you will be disappointed in these, and I would suspect every other SAE model. They function like most OEM fog lights, which means they throw a little light down in front of your bumpers and off to the side a bit. That's it. That's what SAE allows because they cannot project a potentially blinding light toward oncoming traffic. The other Squadron in Wide Cornering are much more effective at illumination. No surprises there.

So, in my opinion, SAEs are for show, non-SAE are for function, when it is appropriate. I can't imagine that Rigid or DD are any different so decide on price, brand, etc. and don't think twice about it.

Thank you for your feedback. Very much appreciated. My headlights are so damn terrible that I am sure anything will help.

Curious, at night with everything off except the BD SAE, is there any functional lighting performance at all? Based on your experience. Thank you.


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[raptor36]

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-led-sae-j583-fog-pod-fog-light-review.554813/
thats a very informative thread with measurements and all. Some SAE lights do indeed perform very subpar, while some are probably pushing the limits of being considred SAE

Thanks for sharing. I found that pretty interesting. I think I missed it. I saw BD WC squadron but not their SAE. Correct? Those Rigid pods look pretty good. I think it speaks volumes that Toyota has implemented the Rigid SAE in some of their production vehicles.


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[rayofsi]

Thanks for sharing. I found that pretty interesting. I think I missed it. I saw BD WC squadron but not their SAE. Correct? Those Rigid pods look pretty good. I think it speaks volumes that Toyota has implemented the Rigid SAE in some of their production vehicles.


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https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...fog-light-review.554813/page-49#post-21044065
thats the post about SAE, original test is with the crazy glare, then he tested the ones with the cutoff shields.. crap fix imo

 

[Christyle]

I think it speaks volumes that Toyota has implemented the Rigid SAE in some of their production vehicles.


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Or Rigid payed enough to be in there. I doubt it's performance related as much as it's marketing related.