Amber vs White Lights

For poor weather use, long wavelength light will reflect less off the precipitation in the air allowing you to see the road beyond it rather than highlighting the precipitation in the air. Both amber and selective yellow are long wavelength light, however selective yellow offers better contrast and typically higher intensity output and provides better visibility compared to amber which can be a bit monochromatic. So for fogs, to be used in actual poor weather conditions, selective yellow is the appropriate color choice. The best performing selective yellow fogs by far are the

For light bars most often you are looking for extended visibility, which is typically in clearer weather, meaning white would be the appropriate color choice for most. Higher white color temps are more fatiguing and provide less contrast than lower temp white lights, 5000k is more ideal than 6000k. Note the pattern of your light bar is also important to match for how you intend to use it. A combo bar for example doesn't make much sense for street use as any flood type light isn't useful and can actually be harmful at higher speeds when distance light is most helpful, so for street use you'd want to prioritize your output in a driving light pattern (not to be confused with some that call a combo pattern driving). Diode Dynamics, KC, Rigid, Hella, Sylvania's new reflector bars (though not SAE/ECE) and others offer real driving light patterns. The KC Pro 6s have snap on covers to convert the 5000k output to amber for poor weather use conditions, not ideal as selective yellow but doesn't mean you are stuck with one color either. If you are 4wheeling in some trails at night, a combo bar, or something with more flood would be more appropriate for near range visibility and situational awareness at slower speeds, at the cost of reducing the distance light.

Roof bars have some potential to be more harmful than helpful due to high amounts of hood glare. Glare off the hood will restrict your eyes ability to see distance at night, and when you turn the roof bar off your night vision will be worse than before you turned it on. The way to best combat this, is to use a light product that has superior light control and focus so that light isn't spilled onto the hood. This means using a light where all the light output is reflected off a surface and not using an open bucket reflector design light commonly found in most light bars. For reflected optics light bars in full width roof size, there is the KC Pro 6 Gravity light bar and Diode Dynamics Stage series TIR optic light bars. The size and cost of the Gravity bars rule that one out for many.

There are effectively 3 colors. Amber, selective yellow and white. KC and Morimoto are the only ones to offer amber fog lights. Baja causes lots of confusion by incorrectly calling their yellow lights amber when they are yellow. And even in white there are varying color temps of white; 4000k, 5000k and 6000k.For poor weather use, long wavelength light will reflect less off the precipitation in the air allowing you to see the road beyond it rather than highlighting the precipitation in the air. Both amber and selective yellow are long wavelength light, however selective yellow offers better contrast and typically higher intensity output and provides better visibility compared to amber which can be a bit monochromatic. So for fogs, to be used in actual poor weather conditions, selective yellow is the appropriate color choice. The best performing selective yellow fogs by far are the Diode Dynamics SS3 For light bars most often you are looking for extended visibility, which is typically in clearer weather, meaning white would be the appropriate color choice for most. Higher white color temps are more fatiguing and provide less contrast than lower temp white lights, 5000k is more ideal than 6000k. Note the pattern of your light bar is also important to match for how you intend to use it. A combo bar for example doesn't make much sense for street use as any flood type light isn't useful and can actually be harmful at higher speeds when distance light is most helpful, so for street use you'd want to prioritize your output in a driving light pattern (not to be confused with some that call a combo pattern driving). Diode Dynamics, KC, Rigid, Hella, Sylvania's new reflector bars (though not SAE/ECE) and others offer real driving light patterns. The KC Pro 6s have snap on covers to convert the 5000k output to amber for poor weather use conditions, not ideal as selective yellow but doesn't mean you are stuck with one color either. If you are 4wheeling in some trails at night, a combo bar, or something with more flood would be more appropriate for near range visibility and situational awareness at slower speeds, at the cost of reducing the distance light.Roof bars have some potential to be more harmful than helpful due to high amounts of hood glare. Glare off the hood will restrict your eyes ability to see distance at night, and when you turn the roof bar off your night vision will be worse than before you turned it on. The way to best combat this, is to use a light product that has superior light control and focus so that light isn't spilled onto the hood. This means using a light where all the light output is reflected off a surface and not using an open bucket reflector design light commonly found in most light bars. For reflected optics light bars in full width roof size, there is the KC Pro 6 Gravity light bar and Diode Dynamics Stage series TIR optic light bars. The size and cost of the Gravity bars rule that one out for many.