Fogs lights on while high beams are on.

I found this on YouTube and plan to do this to my 2018, I did this similar MOD on my 2008 that worked great but lost my fog light indicator in the dash. I got the results I wanted so I didn't worry about losing it.
https://youtu.be/JUIbnVGmtZI

 

Not sure but I think the fogs must be off when high beams are on. But like many laws and regulations they are mostly ignored by police. I did a mod to a 2007 Honda Fit that allowed the fogs to be on anytime the ignition was on, the fog light switch on and high beams off. Essentially turning the fogs in to DLRs

 

You are correct. They must be off when high beams are on.

 

Just wondering if someone would tell my wife that I was actually right about something?

 

The laws may vary by state, but the basis is that you can only have four forward facing lights on while driving on the highway. So it’s low + fog or low + high. Most states it’s an “add-on” sort of offense - if they pull you over for something else then that’s just something to tack on if you’re already up shit creek (or being a dick). I did it myself in my 2008 under the logic that I don’t leave my high beams on when there is approaching traffic so I’m not going to be blinding anyone. I never had any issues with the law, so it was never a problem. It is the same law that applies to forward facing off-road lights being covered.

Now, as for that particular mod:
It won’t work on a 2018+
When they added TSS, Toyota made a few significant changes to wiring elsewhere in the truck. One is that the actual power to the fog lights is now directly sent to the fog relay from the battery (previously it routed through the ECU as a secondary cut-off). This change allows the fog lights to be on with the DRLs from the factory now, but it also means that if you do this particular mod you will make it so that your fog lights are on whenever you turn on the fog light switch, even with the key out of the ignition.

 

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/fog_lamps/fog_lamps.html

 

I look at stuff like this in the same way I look at bypassing the e-brake restriction in a radio

 

Me too.
More importantly just pointing out that doing the bypass wire mod on a 2018+ will render your fog lights on all the time if the switch is on, even if the truck is off.
Given that I have auto headlights and never touch the switch at all, the last thing I want to do is remember to turn off that switch all the time

 

Ha....that's a must if you have kids lol. When I did it in my 2013 when my son was younger, that Pioneer wore out some Mickey Mouse dvds.

 

Very interesting read.

I have found that some strategically aimed aftermarket pods/cubes/whatever show quite a bit of roadway in front of me up until it gets really dark. I think the true pragmatic measure of what a fog light can do is up to each driver and their experience.

 

Exactly.

 

Thank you, this is the response and info I was looking for about the changed that have been made in recent years. I had a 2008 before it got totaled and now I'm starting over with a 2018.

 

I didn’t read through this whole thread, but can tell you how I did mine…

When I replaced my factory LED fogs on my 2018 Platinum with Baja Designs Squadrons, I wanted to have the option of using an auxiliary switch to override factory functionality. I wired the new lights right into the factory harness, and they work just like OEM. Then, I simply ran a single wire from my sPOD to the hot wire on just one of the new fog lights. Nothing special, just tapped it in to see if it would work….

Yup. Works perfect. To clarify, the lights work like factory (not with high beams) if the sPOD is off. When I hit that switch, the lights are on regardless of anything else. No warning lights, no other issues that I can find.

If that isn’t good enough, you could also use a 5-pin relay to isolate the factory harness when you heat up the aux power source. Run pin 30 to the lights, 87a to factory fog light power, 85 to ground, and 86 and 87 both to your aux power source. With the relay off, power will flow through from 87a to 30 as it is normally closed. When you turn on the aux switch, the relay will switch from 87a-30 to 87-30 and heat up the lights via the new source. Since 87a is now open, it shouldn’t know any difference.

BTW, this is exactly how I wired my reverse lights. 87a to the trailer plug reverse light wire, and 87 to my sPOD. Reverse lights in the bumper come on automatically when I shift into reverse, as well as any time I hit the switch.