Fog vs. Spot vs. Flood vs. Driving Light: Which beam pattern is best for you? (With Real Case Sharing)

When you're driving or off-roading at night, the right lights will light up the darkness towards your path and make your adventure more enjoyable! But finding the perfect off-roading lighting is complex, many people will be confused by different beam patterns when buying 3" pod lights, and don't know which beam pattern is the most suitable for them, especially for off-road beginners.

In this article, we'll introduce you to the differences between the 4 beam patterns, and then we'll give you more guidance and advice through real-case sharing from an experienced off-road expert(a professional trail guide and instructor).

What are the differences between the 4 types beam patterns of the Lasfit 3" pod lights?

In this section, we'll take a look at the different types of fog lights, spot lights, flood lights, and driving lights available in the Lasfit 3" Off-Road Lights, and we'll compare them in different aspects.

1. Beam Shape

● Fog Beam: Fog lights are intended to be mounted below the headlights and project a beam pattern that is very wide horizontally and narrow vertically, this pattern lights up a pathway close to the ground so it wasn’t blinding to other drivers. Because fog hovers close to the ground, the fog lights are designed to shine down, illuminating the road beneath the fog. The top of the beam is cut off sharply so the light does not shine into the fog and reflect off it.

● Spot Beam: Spot Lights have a longer and more focused beam cast where the road is. Spot beam pattern throws light as far as possible to keep the glare down on the hood, more concentrated, and super powers into one direct place, largely helping reduce the chance of unfocused and dimmer vision due to high-speed driving. 

● Flood Beam: Flood Light perfectly ensures your peripheral vision when you are off-roading. It gives a wide-area amount of light, lightens the nearby area, and gives you much more confidence when approaching the road ahead. 

● Driving Beam: Driving lights are designed to supplement your high beams by illuminating an area further and wider than your headlights are capable of.  Lasfit Driving Lights produce a rectangular-shaped beam pattern that is very useful to create visibility near the sides of roadways and out in front of the vehicle.

2. Beam Angle

● Fog: The fog pattern is equipped with both wide (36°) and spot (6°) optics to provide you with a smooth blend of light for both near field applications and distance.
● Spot: The spot pattern is equipped with 10° narrow spot optics to provide you with a more focused light beam that can travel far ahead of the vehicle, also great for long-distance light throw used as a work light.
● Flood: The flood pattern is equipped with 65° wide optics to provide you with a wide-area amount of light, lightens the nearby area, and gives you much more confidence when approaching the road ahead.
● Driving: The driving pattern is equipped with both driving (24°) and spot (8°) optics to provide you with a smooth blend of light for both near field applications and distance.

3. Beam Application

● Fog: Cutting through the glare in fog, snow, rain, mist, etc. Fog is the perfect beam pattern for extreme weather conditions, most commonly used to replace factory fog lights. Our SAE certified fog lights in white can be used on-road and off-road. With 6196K crystal white light, and 1728 Lux (at 150 ft.), they're much brighter than the stock halogen fog lights.
● Spot: Spot beam pattern is designed and better suited for speed driving. The spot light produces a more focused light beam that can travel far ahead of the vehicle, also great for long-distance light throw used as a work light.
● Flood: Flood lights perfectly ensure your peripheral vision when you are off-roading. It gives a wide-area amount of light, lightens the nearby area, and gives you much more confidence when approaching the road ahead. Perfect for lighting up anything at low speeds, or for trailers and worksites.
● Driving: Driving lights are designed to supplement your high beams by illuminating an area further and wider than your headlights are capable of. Our driving pods effectively improve the vision range with 6000K color temperature and produces a rectangular-shaped. They are great for all-around trail riding as well.

What kind of specific situation would you need these 4 different beam pattern lights?-----Advice from an off-road expert.

The invited off-road expert here is JR @day_in_life_of_jr_and_jade, a professional trail guide and instructor, who is living on Washington's coast with his wife, always enjoying clean air, water, and rain forests, as well as off-roading. Due to his years of off-road experience, he has unique insights into the selection of different beam patterns.

Just this month, he built a custom light bar with 8 of 3" pod lights mixed the amber spots with the white driving or floods on his roof rack, and they are like a laser beam as far as you would like to point them! That was so impressive and amazingly creative!🤩(Here big shoutout to JR!!!)

*The following was originally created by JR. All the photos and content are authorized by JR. Many thanks to @day_in_life_of_jr_and_jade for sharing such great content with us!

Thanks for Lasfit's invitation! 😀I reside in a harsh, rainy environment up here in Washington which gives me opportunities to experience and explore many trails and obstacles. Therefore, I'll be happy to educate and answer any questions you may have on product necessities that obtain to trail and weather conditions we deal with on a regular basis.

The proper lighting strategy is quite important for trails. Here're some lighting set-up suggestions for trail lovers.👇

Fog lights are a must for foggy, misty, and dusty trails. They need to be low to cut through these conditions. I needed a fog light that was superior to other brands as I live on the beach which is a state highway out here in Ocean Shores, WA. The drive is often rainy and very foggy. We chose the fog light as starters to use on our beach driving and road driving due to the heavy rains and misting here. It helps break through the fog and mist better in amber allowing the driving experience to be safer and safe for oncoming traffic to not be blinded.

(I am very pleased with the reach of the Lasfit 3" Pod beam and how much it lights up. I feel safe enough to run these on the road when it is foggy and stormy.)

Spot lights are also highly recommended as they focus more light on an intended area. The spot light pods will be used for forward off-road lighting on the back country trails where we will most likely not have any on coming traffic to worry about blinding off the road and see further distant down the trails.

Flood lights a great additions to trail goers for tight maneuvers and places like the forest. The flood light pods are a must and will be used to replace my off brand pods on the back of our Jeep and the sides. Those will light the trails all the way around for safely maneuvering around obstacles and even for when camp is set up just supplying light for the evening hangouts.

Update:

I would recommend the driving lights as a great addition to almost any vehicle. These are road safe and add additional lower lighting to the road not blinding oncoming traffic if angled in the proper position. Sometimes the standard and aftermarket headlights don’t offer the distance and wide light coverage needed to feel confident on the road. On daily drivers to work, school or off-road with on coming traffic these will work well.

How many times have you ran something over like a blown truck tire parts, debris or worse because of lighting? They are a must.

We have 3 vehicles and are equipped with aftermarket driving lights that add a piece of mind that my night driving will be a bit safer.

I am always full of ideas and consider myself handy, inventive, practical, and a risk-taker. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

*Hopefully, this helps you out if you're in the market for some new off-road lights and/or are curious about the Lasfit 3″ Pods. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions or comments.

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