BAJA DESIGNS Squadron Sport ~ V.S.~ DIODE DYNAMICS SS3 Sport ?????

I recently purchased the Diode Dynamics SS3 sport lights in Amber color for my factory location. I am not completely satisficed with the "color" of the lens. It is a much darker tint of yellow than the Baja Designs Squadrons. The light output is ok. HOWEVER, the BD lights are almost $200 more than the DD ones. SS3 $170, BD $340.

I like to hear from other members on their experience with one or the other or both. Currently, I can't justify the extra cost for the BD at this time. Maybe help change my mind?


thanks,

 

I have the diode dynamics ss3 sport foglights on my other car - 15 Forester XT and I will say they light up the road noticably more than the oem Rigid foglights on my TRD Pro. Im planning on adding ss3 pod lights to my Tundra as ditch lights and getting the DD 30" light bar as I have been very impressed. I have 2 more pairs of SS3 sports I am going to install on the forester (ditch lights and bull bar lights).

 

There is no comparison, DD has sharper cutoffs, better output because of the TIR optics, and waaayyy better prices. I have had both sports and pros. save the extra money and buy yourself a beer for the great decision you are about to make!

 

I don’t have any experience with DD, but I love my BD squadrons. Paired with the mounts from @Bannock452 you can’t go wrong!

 

If you are comparing the SAE legal fog lights from both brands, it is technically not amber, it is selective yellow. The color rendering of the light has to fall within a specific color range to comply with SAE standards. There are also 2 different SAE standards, an old on from the 60s and a newer one from the the 2000's (if I recall).
The SS3 sports outperform the BD lights in all categories. There is a very detailed thread on tacoma world of independent testing of 30 or 40 SAE street legal fog lights. The BD light were one of the lowest performing fog lights and not worth the cost in my opinion. I have the SS3 pros on my truck and the SS3 sports on the wife's pathfinder.

 

I have the sports, and there super bright. If you want brighter, then go with the SS3 Pros. Diode Dynamics just came out with the SS3 Max with 18,000 candela 6000+ more than their pros, but they come @ a price.

 

Another fantastic write up can be seen here. Ryland (crashnburn80) on Tacomaworld always has stellar info:

www.tacomaworld.com/posts/22622437

 

Sounds like Majority has voted for the SS3.

So why does BD continue to charge such a high price for an inferior product? @Baja Designs

 

Not sure. I do know they make some quality stuff though. I had several sets of sport pods from them. They performed well, but when DD came around, there is no turning back. I know they are "The Lighting Scientists", but at this point, unless there is some confounding data or new technology they are cramming into the pod, I see no reason to spend the extra money. With DD warranties being only "8 years", instead of lifetime, maybe thats worth close to double. But I know me, and guaranteed, I will be swapping a setup at some point because the tech changes so frequently with larger and larger swings of improvement. So I guess you would have to draw your line in the sand.

 

Are you saying you don’t like the color of the lens when the lights are off? The DDs outperform the Baja’s in every way. Sounds like you’re after more form than function though.

Personally, I love the way the DD yellow lens looks when it’s off. It doesn’t stand out and look like a cheap yellow light from Amazon.

 

I started out with BD and they were great! Very bright but threw the light, tho where I wanted it, all over and made it prudent to turn off when encountering oncoming traffic. I then bought the DD and I actually think because the focus is much tighter and the amber color is darker then that of BD, they perform better as a fog light...with the added bonus of them being SAE compatible and I can leave them on when encountering traffic if I see fit. I was happy with BD...totally happy, but since now swapping to DD, I'm happier more then I thought I'd be.. they are NOT as bright as BD, but the properly focused beam and color make them more suitable for what they're being sold as...fog lights.

One thing I will say is BD's mounting system is superior to the bouncy, zip-tie-needing DD's setup...I might try to see if they can be swapped but their backs are surely different...no matter what you pick, you'll be happier then stock anything!

Guess which one is BD and which is DD:





I am throwing the BDs on my wife's 4runner now as they will be perfect for her when she needs them:

 

Not necessary. I personally do like the exterior appearance of the BD more because of the lighter yellow lens. HOWEVER, from the feedback of this tread, everyone seems to lean towards DD.

Priority goes:
1) Function/Quality
2) Appearance

In this case, from all the feedback from other members, I feel more content that I made the right choice on my DD. I can live with the darker lens but better quality

 

Is the Driver side BD?
Is the Passenger side DD?

 

Lol yes, you're correct.

 

Hey guys - apologies about being a bit late to the party due to the holidays. I just want to chime in with a few comments and notes. Sorry in advance for the essay - I'm playing catchup and addressing a lot of points that are somewhat all over the place.

I noticed you are looking at apples to oranges by comparing our Squadron Sport (off-road) to the SS3(street). Our Squadron SAE(street) would be the more appropriate BD light to compare. The Squadron Sport is a totally different light. It is designed for off-road use and will have a much wider/taller and smoother pattern, due to the nature of the design. The SAE is more limited in the pattern, which is referenced by some of the other posters. Many drivers prefer the taller and smoother pattern in our SAE as opposed to those with higher peak beam intensities. High peak beam values might test higher, but don't distribute as much usable light throughout the driver's field of view. Once your vehicle faces hills, whoops, or other variations in grade, a very tight pattern becomes a big hindrance in illuminating the entire field of view.

The comments in here comparing SS3 to the Squadron Sport. Most seem based on anecdotal input and some data from the SS3 and Squadron SAE comparisons that were conducted on another forum. I don't know that there is much data floating around between the Squadron Sport and SS3 Sport. Again, a very different comparison, so I don't know why anyone would be comparing those two. Here is some data that I happen to have from a third party testing facility.

Squadron Sport - Raw Lumens 3,150 - Effective Lumens 2,550 - Efficiency 81%

DD SS3 Sport - Raw Lumens 2,262 - Effective Lumens 1,100 - Efficiency 49%

You will see that the effective lumens for the SS3 Sport are half of the advertised raw lumens. In comparison, the Squadron Sport produces twice the amount of effective lumens. The DD SS3 Pro actually still comes in some lumens short of the Squadron Sport, at 2,149 effective lumens. Of course pattern comes into play here, and again you will see a much wider, taller and smoother pattern from the Squadron Sport. This light was designed for the best illumination across your field of view, without restriction from SAE standards.



Some other topics that came up:

Baja Designs Amber color: The human eye is most sensitive to green (555nm). The further the color is away from 555nm, the harder your eyes have to work to see. Our amber lenses are at about 575nm, versus the darker amber at 590nm.The reason you prefer the color is because the eye naturally prefers this color range.

The accusation of charging a premium for an inferior product: If you’ve ever held our used one of our products in comparison to almost anything else on the market, there is no place to call them inferior. While in some ways the performance of the SAE may fall short (which is being addressed and we will have some exciting new announcements soon) there is nothing cheap about the construction of our lights. The quality in design and components is second to none. We have a lifetime warranty and exceed 810G, IK10, IP69K compliance standards. We only select top bin LEDs with a 5000k color temp, as opposed to the much cheaper, higher kelvin temp LEDs used by nearly every single alternative manufacturer. The dual optic technology from the SAE, and the rest of the components used in our standard Squadron design are top of the line and the highest quality available. We used to use TIR lenses in many of our off-road products, but moved away from this back in 2007 as our newer optics perform better in in the field and behind the wheel - not just on paper. We have re-explored TIR technology many times and have chosen not to use it for multiple reasons.

When it comes to our off road products, their heritage and current presence in racing, military, and high end/high demand applications speaks for itself. The Squadron SAE was our first crack at offering a street legal unit. We have some opportunity to improve and you will only see it get better and better. That said, it does not in any way represent our very established off road series of lights - to which very few companies and products on the market can even come close. Nobody is out there racing endurance races or conducting military operations with the SS3, let alone winning championship after championship. Even if you look at some of our top competitors in the off-road space, you will notice that vehicles that win championships with Baja Designs lights typically have half of the quantity of lights installed than those running competing lights. That should speak volumes when looking at offroad performance.

Back to SAE compliance: I am hoping to have some great news to share with everyone very soon. For the last year we have been revising out SAE optic design to ensure it is the best on the market, while navigating some of the SAE compliance standards that we truly feel are outdated and restrict the manufacturer's ability to produce an effective yet safe light. These compliance standards take an approach in which peak beam intensity carries a lot of weight. The problem is that these sharp cutoffs that are essentially required for SAE compliance, can have a negative impact of the driver's ability to focus over time. A properly blended light with smooth cutoffs is essential to properly illuminating a space and preventing eye-strain.

Hopefully this is a helpful perspective. If anyone has any more questions or input, please feel free to share and I will do my best to address the concerns. Thanks all!

 

I have no experience with BD so can’t compare, but I just got a set of the Diode SS3 sports in amber for Christmas. They are awesome! So much brighter than the stock LED fogs that came on my 2020 sr5.

 

Hey there!

I know it's already been answered, but you had a good question on the lens color. As @Cfincke mentioned, it's very important to note that the color of light must be "selective yellow" for fog light use. Amber is not a legal fog light color. This "selective yellow" is defined by very specific color coordinates, it is not defined in dominant nm wavelengths. This is how we selected our color. The SS3 was designed from the start to be a compliant fog lamp. There are other lamps on the market sold as "SAE" which are not compliant in output color, based on our in-house lab testing.

Fog lamp cutoffs are important so you don't blind other drivers. If you are interested in keeping a road-legal fog lamp, you won't find anything brighter than the SS3 lineup - as clearly shown in the TacomaWorld review thread, our comparison video, and the reviews of thousands of Tundra and Tacoma owners who are running the SS3 fogs.

I'd be happy to help answer any more technical questions, or anything else you might be curious about. Thanks!

Paul

 

Dumb question, but how are y'all wiring your DD SS3 to your fogs? Did you purchase an aftermarket wire adapter to plug in the OEM adapters or are y'all just directly wiring the two? Also, are y'all able to use the stock Toyota (on the steering wheel) switch to turn it on? Hope that all makes sense.

 

The lights come with the necessary adapters to work with your stock harness and you retain the same switch/function of your OE fog light switch on lighting stalk...both products are the same as far as adapting to OE fog setup...

 

Do y'all have a rough timeline of the updated SAE design? Need to know how long I should hold off on purchasing some.

 

If you order the tundra specif kit you get a plug and play adapter. I have an aftermarket bumper, so I ordered just the lights, not a vehicle specific kit. I picked up an adapter from Amazon. This year I got a set of SS3 sports for my wife's pathfinder and @memario1214 was able to provide an adapter for a few dollars so I did not have to cut wires or source an adapter.

 

Hello Paul - just want to chime in to show that our selective yellow is definitely within the appropriate chromaticity ranges, as you can see from this diagram. The diagram came direct from Light Laboratories, who conducted some third party tests. We raised the nm wavelength specs in this thread not to validate that our range is compliant - which it is - but in reference to the OP's eye preferring our color at face value. Just to reiterate, the color used in all of our amber lights is closest to this natural range that the eye naturally prefers.

We are expecting to have some prototypes back next week. They use an entirely new reflector design, and will have a much sharper cut off. We will be conducting extensive field and lab testing to make sure this light addresses the concerns previously raised. If all looks good and we feel the product not only complies, but out performs other options on the market, you can expect to see it launch in the very near future - likely Spring 2021. If the new designs fall short, we will go back to the drawing board and make any necessary revisions.

Some bonus info - Anyone with a previous generation SAE light will have the option to exchange for the newest model, completely free of charge.

 

@Baja Designs

 

@Baja Designs

Can I ask why are your lights priced so much higher than the competition?

 

You kinda get what you pay for. BD is pretty legit but no doubt the price is higher than competitors.

 

This may be true, however, according to the previous reviews and testing. DD SS3 are very comparable and priced much better. The gap in pricing is too large between the two

 

Agreed, I am by no means a brand purest. I think that some of their lights are superior like the LP9's but can agree that DD provides a really good bang for your buck when it comes to ditch lights.

 

Which model BD are you comparing?

the DD SS3 vs the BD squadron sports?

the DD SS3 retails $180 and the BD squadron sports are $229. So a $50 difference for lifetime warranty and double the lumens. Buyers choice at that point

I just want to make sure we are comparing apples to apples.

 

I purchase these:

https://www.diodedynamics.com/ss3-l...uZaVnfwXv6xB0h8RD64IokZd6JeOgBVxoC7H8QAvD_BwE

What is BD comparable product to these? Must be toyota compatible. Please post link