Words by Perry Mack
Diode Dynamics
How many lighting companies are there? Too many. How many lighting manufacturers are there? Fewer. How many lighting companies engineer, manufacture, test and use its own products in North America? Honestly, we didn’t think there were any. As it turns out Diode Dynamics (DD) out of St. Louis, Missouri is one. Their latest Stage Series 2” LED pods have higher output intensity than any other 2” pod on the market using DD’s Total Internal Reflection (TIR) optics. This means all the light is directed exactly where it is intended – highly efficient with little glare.
DD is building on their successful SS3 3” LED pods. The SSC2 pod was developed to fit in places where the SS3 won’t like tight spaces on roof racks or for flush mounting in bumpers.
Choose from five different auxiliary lighting styles depending on what you need;
Spot – blasts out a six-degree beam of light into the distance.
Fog – SAE-approved wide, 80-degree spread to enhance road visibility down low in front of your truck when the weather isn’t cooperating.
Flood – DD says it’s perfect for use as a reverse light, for low-speed driving, or illuminating camp and worksites. It evenly lights a 60 x 60-degree area using pillow optics on the outer lens rather than just diffusing (obscuring) a spotlight.
Driving – SAE-legal 18 x 8-degree light pattern to supplement your high beams for seeing down the road and driving at higher speeds.
Combo – this has a flood optic on one side and a driving optic on the other to create a rectangular 40 x 20-degree spread to light the trail or road ahead.
Each option is available in either a bracket or flush mount in either white (6000K) or yellow (3000K) and Sport (871 lumens measured) or Pro (1988 lumens measured) output.
We like the fact that each SSC2 is constructed the same way, which means by changing the lens, you can change the beam pattern, or by adding an amber cover to a white pod, you can change the colour.
Another neat feature is the choice of backlight colours – amber, red, blue and white. The backlight colour is present when the lights are not on. Put a white flood on your rear bumper with a red backlight and you’ve got a great looking parking light and then when you turn it on, it becomes that bright white flood. Around the rest of your vehicle it gives you an accent colour to personalize your vehicle’s profile.
If you need (want) even more light and have a little extra room look at the SS3 3” LED pods, which are available in the same beam spread, colour and mounting options but produce almost double the light - Sport (1520 lumens measured) or Pro (3000 lumens measured). The brand-new Max is just being released and while we don’t have the measured lumen output yet, Diode Dynamics says the four Osram HX Boost 20-watt LEDs combine to produce 250,000 max candela. In other words, it has the equivalent of a quarter-million candles.