Amber vs white fog lights

I haven't really found a definitive answer to this one. I'm planning on replacing my factory fogs with a set from baja. I'm unsure about whether to go with a regular white light or amber lens though.

I know that amber cuts through the fog better but how well does it perform as far as regular lighting goes? I generally use the fog lights for their intended purpose but I do occasionally like to use them to widen my beams a bit more to light up the ditches during deer mating season.

Will I lose any usable light spread if I change over to an amber lens? Thanks guys

 

You really don't have to choose between them. You can have both amber and white. You can have amber in the fog location and add white on ditch brackets or put a light bar in the bumper. Both would add a longer and wider spread of white.

 

The amber should have the same light pattern but just be slightly lower intensity because of the filtered light.

None of the BD fogs (wide angle beam) are street legal. They aren't DOT approved and they don't have sufficient cutoff to be used on road. In other words even if you point them way down they still throw too much light at oncoming traffic. So if you are going to swap out your factory fogs with BDs be aware you aren't allowed to use them on-road anymore.

 

The factory set up for a correct fog light pattern is going to be hard to beat. There is a thread on installing a slight brighter bulb and I think I saw somewhere you can buy film to cover a light to get the yellow. I just added ditch lights- much better placed lighting

 

The amber most likely isn't going to appear as bright visually to you as a whiter light would appear, but a good aftermarket amber will still perform as well as, if not better, than a stock fog. Some people think amber is much better, and some can't stand it! If you can find a local store that sells lights and has a display set up, then go in and see for yourself to see what you like best before purchasing....Or find some TWers to hang out with to compare haha.

That said, @DVexile is correct and you shouldn't run pods that aren't street legal while driving on the road. One because it's illegal, and two out of courtesy for other drivers (this increasing yours and their safety). If you don't ever run them on a road, then it'll be no problem!

 

I have amber duallie floods in my pelfreybilt front bumper. I bought them for fog. To be honest, If I did it again, I would probably go with white. the ambers look super dope, and I get a lot of comments on them, but in the end, I think white is just a more useable light. If I did go with amber again, I would get the spots rather than the floods. The amber duallies are very bright, but they just don't seem bright due to the light being amber if that makes sense.

as for fog, there are a few very detailed threads about this, but the gist is that amber light doesn't necessarily "cut through" fog better, it just doesn't glare off of the water droplets in the air back into your eyes as bad, because our eyes don't see glare in yellows, reds and oranges as bad as straight up white or blue (think red light for night vision. same concept). This is also why you always want your fogs to be as low as possible, to prevent as much light reflecting directly back at your face.

 

The nice thing about our lights is the ability to change beam patterns or colors as desired. This allows you to determine if Amber or White is best for your application.
https://www.bajadesigns.com/science-of-lighting/uservice.asp
https://www.bajadesigns.com/products/Replacement-Lenses.asp

The Amber will be better for poor weather conditions like fog, rain, dust, snow, etc. In other conditions you will have minimal difference in output in Amber vs. White.
The White will appear brighter to the human eye due to the color temperature (5000K)

Like mentioned above our lights are NOT street legal or DOT approved. We do have many customers using the Squadron-R Sport series with no issues but it is up to driver discretion.
Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank You,
Bailey, Baja Designs

 

I researched this when I bought mine. Yellow, or amber. Amber does a much much better job at cutting through fog, snow, rain...the "yellow" do a better job than the 6k white, but with that cover or yellow it doesn't do a good of a job as the true amber LED.

I had Duallys with the amber covers...then I bought Duallys with the true amber LEDs. Big difference.

 

So is there a direct amber replacement bulb for the factory fogs?

 

There are...but they're not too bright...I was speaking more of Duallys or the Squadron types. Those are way brighter than the pop in LED replacements for our fogs.

 

Here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-ultimate-foglight-upgrade-not-led-or-hid.435419/

 

Thanks! I was just about to buy a set of 4000 lumen LEDs yesterday. After reading his other thread about putting LED's into halogen housing units I changed my mind.

If ordering that wiring harness doesn't pan out I'm probably just going to go with baja lights anyway. I'm in a pretty rural area and lots of people around here run cheapo light bars without hassle. Would just treat them as high beams around traffic

 

Search "H11 bulb yellow" on Amazon.
There is a Nokia and a Hella H11 that are a direct replacements.
They're like ~$20 a set.
I'm still debating on which to get.

 

Also looking for an amber direct replacement bulb... Halogen or LED?

 

This.

If you actually drive in fog or smog, amber is your friend.

If you do @crashnburn80 ultimate headlight upgrade, and you overdrive your headlights on a clear night, well, you're well over any legal speeds anyway.

If you need more light than that gives for offroad or really rural use, then making the move to auxiliary independently switched lighting is the solution.

 

Or leave your lights white and just get

Blue Blocking Amber Glasses for Sleep - Nighttime Eye Wear - Special Orange Tinted Glasses Help You Sleep and Relax Your Eyes

these.

 

Hey buddy, search my postings, Amber is great for Fog. Just get the covers and you can switch out the @Baja Designs ones I believe. I have pics I posted of the Amber covers on my truck during fog and snow. They are game changers.

 

Maybe I'm wrong here but it doesn't seem like these would change anything since the point of the amber/yellow lights is to minimize reflection of light

 

Thinking the glasses were a joke OP.

You could put amber Lamin-X on your stock fogs to see how you like the color change as a test.

I did and like the amber light. As others have stated, it doesn't reflect back off of rain and fog like white light.