Lighting Suggestions

[clearance]

Looking for some counsel regarding a good lighting solution.

1994 Lifted Grand Cherokee 4.0 road car.

My fog light got busted. (The Lights that sit atop the bumper.)

I am looking for a good lighting system that I can replace them but light low and wide to illuminate well off to the sides and front. (Without blinding oncoming traffic.)

Just starting my research and figured to come and ask the people who might know best. I prefer an LED that has a durable lens and smaller as far as a rock target.

Any suggestions; preferences ? (I will figure out the mount and details ... just looking for a place to start.)

You know - "This model has served me well" ... "These have the best light pattern for what your looking for" ... "These are the newest thing and have far more lumens than the rest and are adjustable." etc etc

TIA

 

[GSequoia]

I would avoid the cheap LED lamps commonly available as they don't focus light ver well so would blind other drivers. For a good fog pattern (low and wide) you can't beat the old halogen Hella 500 series. I've ran the traditional fluted lens models and the full float 500FF series lamps. While the FF series look good I prefer the beam pattern of the old style lamp, myself.

 

[clearance]

I would avoid the cheap LED lamps commonly available as they don't focus light ver well so would blind other drivers. For a good fog pattern (low and wide) you can't beat the old halogen Hella 500 series. I've ran the traditional fluted lens models and the full float 500FF series lamps. While the FF series look good I prefer the beam pattern of the old style lamp, myself.

Thanks a bunch. I was wondering if the newer LED had not matured well enough to get good beam focus.

 

[GSequoia]

Thanks a bunch. I was wondering if the newer LED had not matured well enough to get good beam focus.

Quality lamps are much better focused by the price point is well beyond halogen at this time.

 

[bigalpha]

I would avoid the cheap LED lamps commonly available as they don't focus light ver well so would blind other drivers.

I got a set of cheapie ones from Amazon for free. You ain't lying about the 'not focusing light very well' aspect of them.

 

[monkeyevil]

PIAA offers a great solution for focused LED lights, but you certainly pay for it.
http://www.piaa.com/RF3LED

 

[tbburg]

The best LED fixtures currently on the market have the emitter pointed back at a shaped mirrored surface, and they are expensive. The PIAAs in the above link are the first auxilary lights with that setup I've seen. Looks like they're on par price-wise with the headlight replacements.
Any LED housing with exposed emitters(all the 4 and 6 emitter pods, all the bars, etc) have a really bad light halo around the primary beam. They work great off-road when night wheeling, but none of them are suitable for fog lights.
I use a pair of 7deg. 4 emitter pods under the front bumper wired into my high-beam circuit for use on dark roads, but they have about 25deg spread around the primary beam.
For fogs I'm using 55w halogen 'Blazer' brand amber fog lights (H-3 bulbs)in the stock under-bumper location behind the air dam('00 xj) They're ok in fog, nice and low light spread in front of the wagon, but the beam pattern is pretty narrow for a fog light. No side illumination. This may be due to the mounting location slightly backset from the air dam surface, or could be the light housing. I can't really move them to find out.

Whatever you end up buying, mount them as low as possible. The closer to the ground they are the better they'll work in fog.