White vs Amber lights.

Hey guys! I know this has been asked a million times but I really couldn't come to a conclusive answer based on what I found. I have a new Tacoma. I suffer for an eye condition that causes slight eye fatigue as one of the many symptoms. Because of this, I was thinking about going straight amber for my light bar, fogs, and ditch lights. I also found that my town in Alaska gets alot of snow, we get 220 days of precipitation, and just has overall hazey and nasty weather for about 80% of the year. My only reluctance in going full amber is moose. Moose will obviously mess you up. What is the throw like on an amber spot light in say, a 30" configuration? Anybody have any insight on this before i drop a grand or 2 on lights? Thanks!

 

Let me take a crack at answering your questions. First of all, selective yellow (which is different and better than amber) does improve your vision in inclement weather for a number of technical reasons. That said, in good weather it does not perform quite as well as a traditional white light. But as you stated, your eye condition somewhat negates this advantage for most other folks.

So given your unique situation where you have so much inclement weather, could / should you go to all selective yellow lighting? In my humble opinion, you probably could. I might recommend a Diode Dynamics SS3 selective yellow fog - probably the Pro model to give you the most range and bang for the buck. You can run these with your LED headlights, but they will pretty well blow them away for short and medium range vision. Proper aim is critical here.

For longer range vision, you could try a DD Stage 30" LED bar in selective yellow with a combination pattern. Although it won't have quite as much reach as a clear lens model, it should do pretty well with your vision issue. This too will totally blow away your high beams. I'd suggest that you wire it (through a relay) to come on only with your high beams. This one too will take a little trial and error to aim properly since the longer the reach of a particular light, the more critical proper aim becomes.

Hope that helps.

 

If you'd like a good article on selective yellow light (which is Not Amber, although some companies conflate the two in their marketing terminology), take a look at Dan Sterns site

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/light_color.html

While I don't have any eye strain conditions that make me overly sensitive to white/blue-heavy spectrums of light, I *Do* have quite a stack of tickets, warnings and magistrate summons for using selective yellow headlamps on my various vehicles. I pretty much find it superior to similar performing white light, and distinctly better in poor weather and rain.

Cops are not a fan, and it does make you stand out. Legal for fog lamps, not for other lamps (excepting dtrl's).

You do take a performance hit with filtering light to selective yellow. That hit isnt as bad in DDs pods, of which the yellow pods use a 4000k color temp LED, versus the 6000k for the white/clear optic ones. DD does n9t use the 4000k LEDs behind their yellow bars, which means they have to use a darker, higher loss filter edging towards amber, to result in yellow light. It may be worth your time to compare the performance of yellow DD pods vs their yellow bars at different price points.

 

Appreciate it! I think yall pretty much answered my question. Thanks!

 

Great info, thanks to all, I was wondering about a lot of this info for general use.

 

I'll add a little to this. I have a Subaru Ascent and swapped the OEM LED fog lights for SS3 Pro Fog in selective yellow. The OEM ones measure out just shy of 6000 kelvin. I noticed in poor weather, especially in snow, that the OEM fog lights made things worse due to how much light was reflected back at the driver from the precipitation. Once I added the SS3's it was vastly improved with no more glare. They really do cut through the fog, rain and snow that good! The MAX is even more impressive, but they are considerably more expensive.

I use the fog lights any time the headlights are on in the Ascent since the headlights are the same kelvin rating LED. I notice less eye fatigue when I use the fog lights compared to using headlights only. I know it doesn't physically change how much the headlights will reflect light off the road surface or moisture, but for whatever reason it does help eye fatigue on long trips even in when its dry. I'm sure there is a scientific explanation, but for me it's what works.

 

That was a great article on selective yellow! BTW - I've heard of more tickets for multiple forward facing lights than for yellow (or any other color).