Last Updated on September 20, 2022
Baja Designs XL Sport Fog Lights For The 3rd Gen Tacoma – Review & Highlights
Lights, lights, and more lights! Everyone loves to load their rigs with lights, especially if you are frequently driving off-road at night and you’re looking to do so safely.
Just like any new accessory you’re looking at, there are always going to be many different aftermarket options to serve various needs. In the case of aftermarket lighting, it will be important to consider budget, purpose, and of course, beam pattern. It’s in your best interest to do the proper research and understand which lighting solution is the best for your Tacoma. After all, these products, especially quality ones, are not cheap!
It is important to consider your lighting choices based on your style of driving and desired usage. Baja Designs has a huge variety of options for all of your needs. From snaking through canyon roads, to rock crawling, to pre-running through the desert – there’s a light for you.
In this article, I will be going over why I chose my current Baja Designs light setup and the experience I’ve had so far.
Would I change anything or keep it the same? Let’s find out.
Why Baja Designs?
After a bit of research, and bouncing back between companies, I quickly realized I wanted to go with Baja Designs. They claim to be one of the highest-performing LED companies in the off-road market today, and through my experience, it shows. Not only do they set themselves apart from others with their seamless looks and sleek design, but these lights also put out some serious lumens!
With over 25+ years of lighting experience, I believe Baja Designs is one of the leaders in off-road lighting. The engineers of Baja Designs affectionately refer to themselves as the “scientists of lighting” – this is due to all of their experience, knowledge, and pursuit of the best LED design and technology. Baja Designs is always looking to build better, stronger, and lighter lights to accommodate the ever-growing industry and keep pace with changing car designs.
Baja Designs stood out to me, especially in their product options and configurations. They offered user-friendly information in regards to explaining each light’s driving pattern and purpose and that made my life easier when choosing the right lights for my driving type. They offer a wide variety of lighting options in all driving pattern configurations from rock lights, LED pods, and even 50+ inch light bars. Baja has something for everyone.
Types Of Lighting Patterns
Lighting pattern? What do we mean by that?
A driving pattern is the projected arrangement of light beams coming from your off-road auxiliary lights. Types of light patterns include driving/combo, flood, spot, and wide cornering.
Driving/Combo
- The most universal form of lighting gives maximum trail coverage in a single light. It is called a combo due to both the spot and wide cornering patterns working together.
Flood
- The most widespread light of the bunch, this pattern serves a great purpose for “scene” lights or as a work light but is not suitable for driving due to how far the light bleeds out.
Spot
- This allows you to see the farthest down the trail because the light is very narrow but has a ton of reach.
- This light is made to be paired with a driving combo or wide cornering lights to achieve the most visible light output ahead.
Wide Cornering
- Best with amber-colored lights due to their ability to cut through dust and fog.
- BD was the very first to develop this light pattern. This light is intended solely for the use of dust and fog by creating a horizontal beam of light that cuts through all elements.
Light Patterns & Pattern Intensity
When considering lights for your vehicle, the light pattern is going to be a very important factor in ensuring you get the right light for your specific needs.
Before purchasing any light, you always want to make sure you thoroughly know the difference between all patterns to find the options that are right for you. It is important to know how each performs and affects what you can and cannot see to ensure a fun and safe night of driving.
My Setup
I chose the Baja designs XL Sports in Amber and White. I purchased all of my lights with driving/combo patterns because of their sleek style, high lumen output, and their more affordable price point.
The XL sport comes in as the most affordable option out of the XL series and comes in both white and amber color choices. The XL Sport supports all configurations of driving patterns, allowing you to mix and match to create the best combo for your situation.
Every pair comes complete with switches and harnesses for a quick and easy install. On the other hand, single lights will come without the harness or the switch. You can purchase the harness for a single light in the lighting accessories section of Baja’s website, or find a similar one on Amazon.
The XL Sport LED Pair Driving/Combo (Per Light) Specifications:
- 3150 lumens – 4 LEDs per light
- 26 watts – 2 amps
- Dimensions: 4.3″ x 3.65″ x 4.43″
- Weight: 2.45lbs
- Life expectancy – 50k hours
- Material – aluminum bezel and housing
- Waterproof – up to 9ft of depth
Find Them Online:
- White XL Sport LED Pair Driving/Combo Pattern: Check Price
- Amber XL Sport LED Pair Driving/Combo Pattern: Check Price
Lumens, Power Draw, Beam Pattern
High-performance, quality lights, with a lot of lumens are accompanied by a bigger price tag and higher current draw. Finding the ideal lumen output you need is essential in saving some cash. It’s also smart to think about how much power the lights will be drawing from your battery. If you start to put large draws on your stock system, you might be compromising your available power for say, charging the battery or operating other electronics. If you are pushing enough accessories, you’ll likely need to upgrade your battery and your alternator.
This is why I chose the XL Sport. The XL Sport put out 3150 lumens (each) and draw 2 amps per light. For my use, 4 of these were more than enough lights. After adding up all the lumens, the total comes out to 12,600 lumens! These little lights sure pack a punch. My battery comfortably runs 8 amps efficiently and I have never had any issues. The battery I am currently running is just an OEM replacement from AAA.
These lights put out a serious amount of light for being one of the lower output options. I’d highly suggest the driving/combo light pattern for those interested in a similar setup to me. I chose driving/combo patterns with all 4 of my lights because I found they comfortably offered a great forward vision to be able to see where I am going at all speeds and in all conditions.
Amber vs. White
From my research and personal experience, I have learned that placing the amber lights closest to the center allows for maximum visibility directly ahead of my truck.
Amber lighting is great at cutting through almost any scenario you can think of. They really excel in the dust and dirt though. This is mainly due to the reflective properties of amber light which creates the least amount of glare, therefore giving you maximum visibility. And what’s more important than seeing in front of your truck?!
I chose to run the white lights on the outside simply because these are great at producing a natural light that blends well with the amber light and provides more natural light to the outermost surroundings in my field of view. While the amber lights point straight ahead, I often angle the white ones to help my peripheral vision. And, of course, it just looks super rad to have a bunch of different color lights on your truck.
Final Thoughts
I believe the Baja Designs are worth every penny. When it comes to safety and lighting up the night, these are a must-have!
These lights will make your nighttime adventures stress free and keep you, your friends, and your family safe, with the goal of fun throughout your entire night run! These lights are easy to install and easy to wire with the included harness. In the end, everyone will be wishing they had a light setup that looked as great as yours!
We hope this review was able to help give you valuable insight and information on assisting you with the purchase of your Baja design lights for your Tacoma!
