I've been looking high and low and can't find any info on if LED fog lights (ones found on eBay, etc.) are road legal. Anybody know of any that are if they are at all? I considered the rigid industries led lights but I really don't want to spend $400+ just on fog lights.

 

Here's a link for low/high replacements for many F-250, H13 bulb set ups.
There are "driving lights" also, but no LED fog lamps.
I can't find where they discuss any "legal" info. Not sure if it will change state to state?

LED Headlight H11 Conversion Kit: 2,200 Lumen Bulbs - GTR Lighting

 

Are you looking for a fog light that you can keep on while passing oncoming traffic? I have rigids and they are way too bright for that.

 

I have some 1800 lumen fog leds. They are not road legal. They are actually brighter than my 1800 lumen headlight bulbs. I get highbeamed on occasion with these but not enough that I will remove them. These are in a 2012 duty.

 

To legally use a set of LEDs or any light for that matter it has to be DOT/SAE compliant. Rigid has their DOT/SAE compliant fog lights which can replace stock F-series Fog Lights ('99-'07 for example). However, their D2 and Dually series lights will also replace the same stock F-series Fog Lights, but they are not rated as DOT/SAE compliant.

 

+1 on that. Rigids (D2s) are great...for what they are labeled for: Off Road Use Only.

 

No, the eBay ones are probably not road legal. To be road legal they have to be DOT compliant, and any DOT compliant LED lights will proudly display that.

Rigid does have a set of DOT compliant Duallys

 

Legality beyond the DOT thing mentioned varies by state and is usually mostly about placement.


On a personal note please if you install fog lights, install and use them as fog lights not as axillary lights as most including most manufactures do. An actual fog light is mounted as low as possible to light under the fog, level like a low beam so it lights the ground not the fog, and IMO should have a yellow tint. Should also be wired so they can be on WITHOUT the headlights on and only on when it's foggy, not all the time. In light fog use low beams + fog lights, if the fog gets thick enough that all you see with the headlights is fog, turn off the low beams and leave the fog lights on.


If what you actually want is an auxiliary light then put them high in the grill so they can be aimed slightly down and still provide you with good usable light.


I'm a truck driver and at night I often drive with tinted lenses(yellow) to better allow me to see with all the jerks these days with overly bright poorly aimed lights.

 

Thanks for all the replies! After reading about it I decided to just not get new fog lights (original ones were trashed from when I bought my truck totaled) and put my money towards making myself some custom headlights instead. I have two LED bars already on my truck so If it really comes down to it I can always use my lower one for fog.

 

Nice.....blinding oncoming cars. Once should be more than enough times for you to remove them or adjust them. Put yourself in their place.

 

Just a couple points of interest. First technically the law hasn't caught up with technology and those LED light bars are illegal under most state laws, every one I've bothered to look at has similar wording.


(5) When a motor vehicle equipped with head lamps as required in this section is also equipped with auxiliary lamps or a spot lamp or any other lamp on the front of the motor vehicle projecting a beam of an intensity greater than 300 candlepower, not more than a total of 4 of those lamps on the front of a vehicle shall be lighted at a time when upon a highway.


As those LED lights are made up of multiple lights that each exceed 300 candlepower(a very small number) then they are easily more then 4 lamps. Clearly this like many other laws of this sort are being ignored as they apply to OEM but don't count on it for your aftermarket lights and a cop sick of being blinded looking for a way to write a ticket for it. I've yet to see a state that has a maximum amount emitted light in the law. Many have wording about being level or not blinding oncoming but that is subjective, hard to ticket.


While I'm rambling I wish they would change the headlight height laws. Every state I've looked at puts the maximum height of headlights at 54", no idea why. From a function standpoint headlights should be as high as practical for the vehicle. Is allows them to be aimed downward as to not blind traffic and eliminates shadows.


Lastly most states have min/max height laws for fog lamps, here it's 12-30" from the ground. This is of course dumb as *** lights functionally should be as low as practical and again many vehicles violate this stock.

 

Most states dont preclude LEDs as the light source, just non DOT/SAE. For example, in California, all off road lights are to be covered when on public roads. They have separate laws that allow for driving lights, auxiliary lights and fog lights, each with their own height restrictions, but none of the laws (in CA at least) care how that light is produced or how much. But obviously it would have to be DOT/SAE compliant to be road legal anyway.

 

Here in Kansas the light laws just state you cannot have more than 4 lights on at anytime and all most be DOT compliant. Meaning a set of headlights and fogs are it. We have height, color etc subsections but that's the basics. I treat my led fogs and spots like brights, I only run them when no other traffic is around. They are just too bright.

I can tell you when I was a deputy before moving on to a pd, I did issue a few tickets to a guy in a lifted Tundra who was running a 20" in the grill and a 50" above the windshield when he failed to turn them off when approaching me on a 2 lane road. I literally had to pull over and cover my eyes to maintain my vision before flipping around on him. He would have just received a warning and education about the law if he had turned them off when I flashed my high beams at him to alert him.

 

Nice job! Wish you were around here. Several with those lights who don't flip them off and are blinding.

 

I just put a set of Sylvania Ultra 9007's (headlights) and 9005's (fog lights) and they made big difference. The 9005 is a high beam light, but fits the fog light housing. No rewiring needed, just plug-n-play. But I do turn off the fog lights when meeting or following traffic, since they are much brigter than the stock fog lights now.

As far as LED fog lights and being legal, I'd say you are good as long as you are considerate of other drivers and aren't riding around blinding the hell out of everybody. Blind a cop one night and you'll probably get well a deserved ticket for improper equipment.