Hi. I’m about to pull the trigger on this LED light bar for one of my cars, not sure which yet. Can anyone think of a reason I shouldn’t, or does anyone have any experience with one? I contacted the seller and he said he can give me all spot reflectors. I’m afraid there will be too much flood and I’ll just be making my vision worse. It’s supposedly 40 3w LEDs. How many realistic lumens might this thing put out? Also, anyone have a guess on what I should offer since it’s buy it now or best offer?
I got this one a while back, just for fun in my apt. 192 LEDs and lots of programs pre programmed in it. I know it’s not what you’re talking about, but it was a ‘best offer’ as well. I offered $20 less than the asking price and it was accepted, I did not think it would be. Then I got mad at myself for not offering less. So, offer less, all they will do is say no or counter offer. I think you can offer 3 times, not sure. E-Bay will not disclose the lowest price the seller would take J)
s. I would look for a ‘Top Rated Seller’ personally, and one in the USA
If you dont mind putting pure junk on your vehicle, I say go for it. IMO, the emitters in those arent up to the task of being useful. If you check out any of the 4 x 4 forums, the only light bars that seriously exceed the stock high-beams on modern vehicles are Cree XML powered arrays with 12 or more emitters. Unfortunately in this arena, there are no cheap light bars worth the cardboard box they are packed in. Good light bars costs money.
If youre on a budget and want some serious candlepower for off road illumination, check out a pair of used (or new) Hella 4000 Ralley lights… not the smaller 4000 variants (like the 4000X or 4000i). The Ralley 4000 are available in spot, euro, fog or cornering beam versions. I went with the cornering beams for 170 degrees of absolutely blinding illumination. Although they have far greater range than the stock high beams, they provide a blanket of pure light all the way out to the corners of peripheral vision with nearly the same range and intensity as the center beam. I didnt need spot beams because my pickup doesnt go over dirt faster than 60mph, and I was more interested in seeing all of the terrain around me… not just a small useless spot beam directly in front of me. Combined with a 100 watt HID lighting kit, they draw only 16 amps once they warm up. They deliver a true 18,000 lumens out the front and have absolutely creamed every high end LED system I have come across on the trails (including a $3,200 LED setup (that came close) with 2 huge XML light bars and 2 cornering units)
The only mod required to the Hella 4000 Ralley lights was to slightly ground the reflector light hole to accept the larger HID bulb… less than a 5 minute job with a dremel tool.
There are many posts in converting the Ralley 4000’s to HID along with their spectacular budget results. Just dont visit CPF or you will be overwhelmed by a complete fuckard mod called “Scheinwerfermann”. (BTW I have never used this word online in the thousands of posts I have contributed in any forum… ever) This guys is a serious case for overzealous incompetence and knows absolutely NOTHING about off road lighting or the mod results obtained by others.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. :bigsmile:
I mainly drive junker’s so that would be fitting. I have a set of 700ffs with 55w HIDs and many KC knock offs with HIDs. Those provide all the light I need. I am just curious what these cheap LED bars have to offer. I know You can get 2 or more times the light for the money. I just like the look and idea of having 40 LED’s strapped to the front of a car/truck. But maybe I’ll give them a second thought.
I don’t bother with cpf anymore. So no worries there.
Hate to disagree.
I’ve found the guy a wealth of knowledge, he is from the industry and really knows his stuff
It would be easy to assume that, if you didnt know what had actually happened behind the scenes in many of the threads. True to CPF mod form, this guy is a staunch Nazi bastard. When I contributed my detailed mod results to CPF, he edited, re-edited, deleted SEVERAL posts (mine, his and those of several others) and then locked the thread… all to support his own false assertions while stroking his own pathetic ego. All the while, having absolutely no experience with this particular light housing or how it woked when combined with my mod. My results proved a superior upgrade over the stock configuration by removing most of the beam artifacts, reducing power requirements, provided more of a visual sheer cut-off from the drivers perspective while increasing lumens OTF by a huge order of magnitude. The actual beam angle and cut off were unchanged. I taped off a large section of an aircraft hanger wall to precisely test before & after results.
One of my flying buddies works as a senior engineer for Whelen Engineering Inc. He assessed my light housings before I attempted the mod and he believed that they would probably provide good results. To no big surprise, they exceeded all of my expectations. After reading the CPF article I sent him, along with cached links of Scheinwerfermann’s sneaky post changes, he also thought the guy was a serious “fuckard”, as he put it. The name stuck perfectly, and he sure went to extraordinary lengths in earning it.
Long story short, dont always believe what you read. There are many people with alternate motives, and IMO, Fuckard exemplifies this above anyone else Ive come across. I am only one of many that no longer contribute to the Nazi site, which is my choice… not theirs.
Sorry to derail this thread…
That's my experience with cpf.
Only in part. There are many more arrent behaviors that would apply.
I’ve never understood why CPF even has that automotive sub-forum. It only seems to exist so the mods can act like total douches whenever anyone puts LED and automotive in the same sentence. Why bother? Haven’t they read the part of US law which states that third parties are not liable for information posted by others?
wealth of knowledge that was relavant decades ago. but ego, and arrogance still at its peak.
on topic; i agree with pilot, emmiters are crap there, those are cheap 5 watters, i have used them before, they fail a lot more often than cree leds. also chip is too big, you’ll have tons of flood.
look for bars with xml leds.
actually xpe would be better throw wise, but i can’t remember ever seeing a lightbars with xpe’s.
I’ve decided not to buy one and just put the money towards a new rifle. I bet the prices will be halved in a year. I’ll reconsider then.
Ill just pop this here rather than start a new thread.
These claim to have XPG, and the double row claim to have XPG2’s. Any thoughts on these? Ive been waiting for a certain someone to put up beam shots of his ‘homemade’ one, but Im getting too old to wait (hint hint). I also read a similar build on CPF, where again no beam shots have been posted in months, after reading this thread Im beginning to assume it might be the same person. Probably not though, from what I can recall the billet housings were different, and the one here uses reflectors, while the one there used optics to hold sets of 3 I think XMLs.
Anyway, GreatWhites.
If the pics dont show enough,
18 LED XPG2 7.5A@12v 5w Cree Effective lumens 7502 Raw Lumens 9378 (double row 9)
12 LED XPG 4.46A@12v 5w Cree Effective Lumens 4250 Raw Lumens 5916 (single row 12)
Sorry but I think he is a complete cock. I sent him a link to an official document from VOSA explaining a point I’d made in the forum (which he deleted). He replied by telling me it was the wrong document and banned me for it.
A complete tosser who won’t listen to anything.
This was worth reading for me as I learned about a HID swap out mod that someone had mentioned to me once in passing…thanks for that.
My experience w the light bars has been similar but I have also found value and worth in what I bought. Two styles within a year from IS, smaller units. Not stressing them w offroad pounding, just wandering down dirt roads at under 30mph where I found the extra wide flood and spot lumens worthwhile - but also hoping for more at some point in the future. Same experiences w a low power enduro bike…its all the extra amps that the alternator and battery could handle at those low speeds.
And I think some of it (if you had decided to buy) would have been your expectations and severity of usage. They do look pretty sharp regardless.
But there is alot out there too, pricey and cheap too that you are just gambling on. Certainly the next gen products will offer the named emitters and be better priced, engineered and thought out.
aka thinly-disguised trolls :
Here from DX.com is a few LED light bars, from $40-260~
There are some 3w Cree XM-L modules listed as well as 5w Cree XT-E powered units.
http://www.cree.com/LED-Components-and-Modules/Products/XLamp/Discrete-Directional/XLamp-XTE-White
Check beam angle for your application prior to purchase.
My mistake, one site listed the XM-L’s output at 3w, wrong, up to 10w per Cree.com.
http://www.cree.com/LED-Components-and-Modules/Products/XLamp/Discrete-Directional/XLamp-XML
Save yourself a lot of headaches and heartaches. For $100 you can buy real off road driving lights with a proven track record instead of wondering/guessing if some no-name LED will fit your needs.
Here is a good place to start looking: http://www.offroadunlimited.com/orustore/PC/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=157
They have everything from inexpensive to wallet emptying lights. Even a few LED lights, which I would avoid for now. Really decent ones are to expensive (waayyyy to expensive) and the affordable ones are easily outperformed by a cheap pair of KC Highlights.
Check it out for yourself.