What will beat the Fenix RC40?

A buddy of mine just bought the Fenix RC40. We have a little competition going on and he now has trumped my TK75! Do I now have to jump into the HID’s to best the RC40? I wonder if the FireFoxes FF4 will out throw the RC40. I know the Polarions will do the job….but trying to stay reasonable on cost. Any suggestions? :wink:

mike

Look at the links in the OP. (beamshot links)

It can give you an idea

If you want to stay LED and want to easily outthrow him, just grab one of the modded TN31’s or K40’s that are getting around. I think there are for sale threads for em on CPF.

Note: forground spill looks pretty bad with these massive throwers, the RC40 will kill it in that respect, but you’ll have close to double the throw.

Thanks, I will check those out. Saw some beamshots of the FF3 and FF4. looked like amazing throw with decent spill……Just not sold on the practicality of HID lights……but again, were not very practical collecting all these flashlights :wink:

TomE’s super btu shocker. About 5000lumens and more than 400kcd throw. Beat rc40 in all ways!

Ouch… !!

If only we could purchase them in that buffed up state!

yups! exactly what i had it mind. Tom E modded super shocker would be able to take out the rc40.

the ff4 would do it as well.
theres also the clone of the rc40 (supbeam x60), but i doubt it will beat the original.

The one thing that I’m curious to find out is if the Vinh modded TK75 will beat or at least equal a stock RC40. The RC40 will probably have the wider flood. But as far as comparing lumen output and throw, it should be interesting. I personally would enjoy having the modded TK75 over the RC40 because of the flexibility. You could go portable or add extensions for longer runtime. I also prefer using widely available 18650 batteries over a proprietary cell. The FF4 will spank the RC40 in throw and lumens (better tint too) but the flood isn’t as wide. If you wish to stick to LED’s, you could get a BTU Shocker as people suggested and send it to Tom E. to amp up and de-dome. He reported that one of his latest de-dome mod had 467k in throw (in the same ballpark as a FF4) and 4100 lumens. I'm shocked by this Shocker... (de-domed now, more info)
467k in throw is nuts for a multi-emitter light. I’m rooting for you in your contest. Give us a report on your next challenge.

Tom E’s Socker doesn’t beat RC40, but kill RC40.

I’m saving up now and will duplicate Tom’s mod by myself next month, hopefully. :smiley:

For those wanting to buy a Shocker to mod, a good source told me RIC could offer the Shocker at a nice discount without emitters and a driver, even at qty 1. Dunno if he'd do it for everyone but it's worth asking...

Buy some, mod them and sell them, I’m sold for one

I am sold on the Shocker mod. I think Tom may be a little swamped with all the response to his great work! I will continue to check in with him and will purchase one when he feels the time is right. Maybe I should pay more than the asking price!!!

Mike 8)

Is he de-doming the Shocker? I have heard some “modders” report that you dont need to de-dome this multi emitter monster.

You do if you want that kind of throw.

Correct you don’t NEED to dedome the BTU to get impressive power.
Generally these are your choices with appx numbers -
Fenix RC40 Stock - 3500 lumens - 126k
BTU XML U2 Stock - 3000 lumens - 130k
BTU XML2 U2 Stock - 3500 lumens - 160k
BTU XML2 U2 on copper - 3800 lumens - 185k
BTU XML2 U2 on copper, IOS driver, 20R’s - 4400 lumens - 230k
BTU XML2 U2 on copper, IOS driver, 20R’s, dedomed - 4000 lumens - 467k

Wow that’s all the Fenix RC40 is putting out? Well then my J-19 mod smokes it too. Although I’m running it with a DRY driver. I tried the IOS driver that Tom is using and it freezes up on high if left on for very long. The DRY doesn’t and with the same size wire I got almost the same reading. Both are direct drive on High. I’m running King Kongs in the J-19. This is the SP03, Stock J-19 and modded J-19

Wow….big difference. When you dedome….does it increase throw at the expense of spill/flood?

Well you loose some flood if everything else remains the same. However as you can see from the pics you still gain flood when you increase the power to the emitters. So with a mod like Tom’s or mine you gain both flood and throw over stock and by de-doming you get a much more neutral tint. It goes from cool white to neutral. So de-doming costs you a few lumens but you gain by doubling the throw and a nicer tint.

From what I’ve seen when you dedome a light, you still retain the flood coverage. However it is a weaker & less usable flood. The reflector is generally what controls the flood area. The die itself controls the intensity of distribution in each area - flood to spot.
So basically when dedomed, you just move more of the lux into the spot area by remove some lux from the flood area.