there is another option that hasnt been mentioned yet. you could just cut those tabs off, a little grinding/sanding and some touch up paint and nothing there to worry about.
Spot vs flood cube lights
- Thread starter blink9cd
- Start date
Ah very interesting. I saw in the ARB link I posted above they said one potential solution was doing one spot and one flood (they said spot over driver, flood over passenger). Is that what you did? Is there a particular reason you did that instead of a combo lights (e.g. the Diode Dynamics I posted above?).
And thanks for the data point on yellow vs white, I'm still mulling that one over. I'll keep the quick disconnect/covers in mind and see if any of the light kits include those already.
You know that did sorta cross my mind at one point, but would actually require both tools and space I don't have. Thus it would end up a bigger pain for me than it would be for me to run wire and plug up lights and with less to show for it
I have my spot on the drivers side, aimed to center on the road ahead and my flood on the passenger. This way I can prioritize illuminating the shoulder for animals. I used to run a 6000k colored beam (bright white) but had times on the BRPW where I couldn't see the hood of my own jeep with that color. Switched to a 3000k output and get ~20 feet of visibility in the same conditions. As for combo lights, I never looked into them- I tend to just pull things from my parts boxes and hope for the best 😅. I will say that I still prefer 100w halogen KC daylighters to any LED i've used in inclement weather- they just draw a lot of power. The plus side is that snow doesn't cake up on them like it does on LEDs because of the heat. Some light pods sell optional yellowed covers you can snap on to them, like Rigid and KC, and some offer heating elements in the lens to mitigate the snow/ice issue.
You can also buy quick connects off of amazon for a few bucks each. Just make sure you get the correct gauge wiring to match the power draw of the lights. I prefer to buy marine grade stuff when possible so that it holds up better in water crossings and whatnot.
I think what you have there looks pretty good! I personally like the look in that spot more than a light bar, and it does give you a nice flexibility. Four lights might be more than I need, but still wanted to say it turned out really well.
Thanks. The 2 middle ones are fog lights that are amber and the 2 outside ones are white. You could also do a combo of flood and spot on there, but as said above, spots are better higher.
Ah cool that makes sense that you'd have spot and flood since it seems like combos aren't as common. I saw the ones by Diode Dynamics posted above, and also ones by PIAA and ProComp around the same price range. That's only looking on Quadratec though, so probably more research to be done. I'm leaning combo over one of each right now but don't feel certain.
Also that's another good data point on the light color. To sum it up, it seems like more people have recommended yellow over white for the maximum utility of this placement, especially given I have white LED headlights /fog lights already. Ordinarily that means I would just go that route, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit torn on that...mainly because my Jeep is all blue/black/grey/white (I even have the clear side markers), so the yellow lens will stick out a bit (though maybe it won't with my green/yellow/blue Shenandoah license plate goes back on).
But a yellow cap I can put over it when white isn't working sounds like a good compromise, assuming that works well enough to change the character of the light. I think I'd want to do a quick search on that to make sure it does vs having already yellow lights.
Done some more research on this and I think I have a better idea of how this stuff works. To start, LEDs emit light of a certain temperature, as seen here: https://www.ledlightingwholesaleinc.com/v/vspfiles/images/Kalvin Color.jpg
The Diode Dynamics FAQ on Amber Lens replacements has some more details (https://www.diodedynamics.com/yellow-lens-for-ss3-pods-one.html): "If you purchased White pods originally, they have 6000K white emitters. Yellow SS3s come with 4000K emitters. If you purchase these replacement yellow lenses and install on a pod that was originally white, the result will be a light, "hyper" yellow color, as the cool white LEDs shine through the yellow lens. It will not match standard Yellow SS3 pods, which are a golden yellow color. If you would like to match the original yellow color, we would recommend our yellow covers, which produce more of a golden yellow color." And in fact, if you watch the video on the lights, they show you a nice comparison where they take two clear lens (on one 4000k emitter, one 6000k emitter) and two yellow lens (4000k/6000k) and you can see how all four look pretty different.
Finally, on the page for the covers, there's a nice video of how the cover changes the light, and they mention it's a popular thing to do in inclement weather (what I was looking to do): (https://www.diodedynamics.com/ss3-led-pod-cover-yellow-one.html). They note that covers reduce light output though (5% was mentioned for clear, probably more like 10% for yellow?), which seems more significant than the loss for lens (perhaps because the lens itself has duties to focus and spread the light, while going through a cover is just a medium to go through and incurs loss). The Diode dynamics video mentions loss from any cover, and this page has a simple visual on how LED lenses work for filtering purposes: https://www.treadmagazine.com/how-tos/how-color-changing-lenses-work/
My TLDR (at least for DD lights): the LED itself emits light of different temperatures in yellow/white versions, changing lenses further changes the color (and beam pattern) but not the underlying LED temperature you start with, and changing covers can change the color but also reduces light output. And I think the answer to my question of "Will a yellow cap provide similar output to a yellow light?" is definitely "not the same" but "good enough for what I want."
The Diode Dynamics FAQ on Amber Lens replacements has some more details (https://www.diodedynamics.com/yellow-lens-for-ss3-pods-one.html): "If you purchased White pods originally, they have 6000K white emitters. Yellow SS3s come with 4000K emitters. If you purchase these replacement yellow lenses and install on a pod that was originally white, the result will be a light, "hyper" yellow color, as the cool white LEDs shine through the yellow lens. It will not match standard Yellow SS3 pods, which are a golden yellow color. If you would like to match the original yellow color, we would recommend our yellow covers, which produce more of a golden yellow color." And in fact, if you watch the video on the lights, they show you a nice comparison where they take two clear lens (on one 4000k emitter, one 6000k emitter) and two yellow lens (4000k/6000k) and you can see how all four look pretty different.
Finally, on the page for the covers, there's a nice video of how the cover changes the light, and they mention it's a popular thing to do in inclement weather (what I was looking to do): (https://www.diodedynamics.com/ss3-led-pod-cover-yellow-one.html). They note that covers reduce light output though (5% was mentioned for clear, probably more like 10% for yellow?), which seems more significant than the loss for lens (perhaps because the lens itself has duties to focus and spread the light, while going through a cover is just a medium to go through and incurs loss). The Diode dynamics video mentions loss from any cover, and this page has a simple visual on how LED lenses work for filtering purposes: https://www.treadmagazine.com/how-tos/how-color-changing-lenses-work/
My TLDR (at least for DD lights): the LED itself emits light of different temperatures in yellow/white versions, changing lenses further changes the color (and beam pattern) but not the underlying LED temperature you start with, and changing covers can change the color but also reduces light output. And I think the answer to my question of "Will a yellow cap provide similar output to a yellow light?" is definitely "not the same" but "good enough for what I want."