Emergency car use light

Hi all

The recent swings in local weather and overall a lot snowier winter than the past several years as me thinking about stocking my vehicle for emergency situations. Today while driving around for work, I encountered several instances of very poor visibility both of the road itself and where you are going and what is in front of you. Combined with either people not turning their car lights on and/or snow covering your tail and brake lights. It ends up being more dangerous to pull over due to the risk of being rear ended because they can’t see you. I saw several cars in a ditch today. Now I know the following theory will seem far fetched for those on this site because of why we are all here and keep coming back but bare with me. You are driving in poor weather and either break down, slide into the guard rail, flat tire etc and are left on the side of the road in poor weather where other cars can have a hard time seeing you from a distance. Now I don’t always carry a midsize flashlight on me. I have a keychain light but that won’t help with being seen. So picture you are either in need of help and trying to attract attention or signal to other cars to avoid you. But you don’t have a flashlight capable of this and your car can not do the job. I’m looking either purchase a new light for my car for general inspection around the car and also indicating to others in an emergency. The light must have a SOS, and strobe feature, hidden is okay. I’m looking for a light that runs on AA, I’ll be using eneloops and even though it won’t see much use I will regularly cycle the batteries from this light into the rotation I use for work and around the home. My current lights are in my signature, I’ve had good experiences with 47s my Quark X has served me daily for work for more than a year with no issues. I’m wanting to trying other brands of lights as well and not stick solely with one. I’m also open to the idea of moving my work Quark X to truck duty and replacing the light for work. The Fenix LD41 has caught my eye because of the high lumen output and red filter but I’m open to all ideas.

Now I’ve never broken down or been stuck on the side of the road knocks on wood. But I would rather spend money on a light I never really need then to need it one day and not have it.

My key requirements are
RELIABILITY!! because this light will be emergency go to light it has to work when the time calls
SOS, Strobe
AA eneloop
Budget undecided but lets say under $100cdn shipped to me

I don’t think the eneloops will give you a lot of brightness or battery life (you have to pick one or the other) unless you use a bunch of them.
If your only looking for winter then any 18650 light with strobe or SOS will do the job, but the same lithium light will likely lose a lot of battery capacity if left in your car in summer.

I’m looking for all year round use. A thick fog can be almost as bad as a white out.

Theres a thread open right now, with a GB for the Nitecore mt2a. I think it has everything you want.

So many though for a top price of $100 mark.

EA4 Nitecore
D40 Sunwayman Best multiple AA flashlight. Sunwayman D40A ??? see thread, I dont own nay of them, but theres some passion in there.

You will find reviews of both here if you search.

And you lie, you have no signature.

Haha sorry about that, I copied that from another forum where I do have my lights in my signature.

.Lights: Quark Pro X AA-2 reg UI, Quark Pro X AA-2 reg UI XM-L2, Fenix LD01 (gave to father), Tech Lite Lumen Master, Preon 1 red (with 2 body and clicky), Spark SD52, Spark SG5, Olight i3s (ordered and waiting for delivery) eyes out for another………

I’ve always been of the opinion that a light to leave in the car that you want to he sure works no matter how hot or cold it is outside, should use lithium primaries.

Mind you, eneloops are my battery of choice for anything that gets used a lot, and I’ve built up a good supply of them. But the lights I stash in the cars don’t get used at all normally, they just sit until I need them. So for them, it’s lithiums.

Get a Fenix HL21 headlamp that is excellent for walking and working on your car and uses a single AA, and is very high quality and dependable, you can add a cheaper flashlight, or whatever fits your budget.

Also get 1 or 2 of these red blinkers, which use 2 AA. http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/300893166582?lpid=82

Always remember your sleeping bag and a blanket to put inside of it.

Group buy starry light?
That’s what I’m going to use mine for, with primary lithiums
Oops, no strobe

In winter I carry a XP-G2 R5 P60

In Summer it gets very hot in the car (last summer it was 43C in the shade) so I carry a small light with a CR123 Primary cell

Here is an old thread on the effect of heat on Eneloops.

I haven’t decided on a flashlight yet but it seems lithium primaries will be a better option. Due to both freezing cold below –20C (–4F) and above 35C (95F) outside that the extremes will impact the cells. Still looking at different options in terms of a light but still looking for AA cells as I have many on hand it’s an easy cell to get replacements for.

I have a Fenix E40 as my emergency car light plastic body aluminum head. 48 Canadian Dollars delivered off ebay HK seller.
output:
34 lumens (31 hrs)
105 lumens (9 hrs)
220 lumens (3 hrs)
strobe 220 lumens accessed by holding down the mode switch on the tail for afew seconds
tested to ANSI /FSC standard using 2500 mah AA Ni-mh rechargeable batteries according to Fenix.

I run mine on regular white eneloops 4th gen with 1 set of 4 spare eneloops and 12 energizer lithuim primary cells to back that up. I keep them in my small gobag in the car glovebox, along with a 2600ma pny external power supply to charge my S3 phone, 2 space blankets and 4 x 4 hour tea lights for bit of heat, this gives me access to afew basics without leaving the car. High visibility tape i went for orange.
I keep a larger BOB in the trunk of the car which has 4 x 500ml water bottles and dehydrated food packets, propane cooker, warm clothes, gortex suit, gaiters [invaluable for slogging through snow/wet], arctic sleeping bag, bivi bag, tarp 12’ x 12’, 200m paracord, 2 quart canteen etc. everything i need to make it home.

read U.S. Army Field Manual, No. 21-76, Survival i have uploaded it here for those interested

http://ul.to/kffvzbxn

cold weather survival starts page 146

This. All of my frequently use lights are either eneloop AA or 17650/18650, I have converted away from CR123 primaries howeven in all my vehicles I have CR123 lights with a 4x store-a-cell of spares. The batteries arnt effected by heat/cold and last for 10+ years. It’s very unlikely I’ll ever need one of these “backup” lights as I always have my EDC’s on me but they’re there for piece of mind.

If your set on AA format I would highly recommend L91’s over NiMH’s for long term stored lights that absolutely have to work when you need them 2 years from now.

My vehicle lights are:
My truck - my custom built E21 head/ machined 1 cell 123 body / P60 tail and an old 47’s quark 123x2 XP-G turbo.

Wife’s SUV- pair of modded Streamlight polytac’s w/ 5-mode drivers, one white XP-G2 one red XP-E, I also have a traffic wand, these lights fit perfectly into the top of the road cones also in there, the white one is to use, the red one is to set to flashing mode and stick in a cone as an electronic flare.

Horse trailer- surefire G2 (DIY 5-mode drop in), zebralight H31.

Usually I hate flashing modes but on my emergency lights I like it to use for signaling. I also have “traffic wands” / diffusers with each of the lights (with the one in my truck I have a wand I made out of some cut up pill bottles.

For fog or smoke, red, orange or the warmest white is sometimes better. I say sometimes because it depends on the size of the fog particles. A red led should be much purer red and more efficient than a red filter on a white led.

+1 for the D40A or EA4 as they run on multiple AA for good runtime, have all your blinky requirements, reasonable price and you can get optional red cones to fit the 40mm head for others to see you. They have the additional benefit of being quite bright on turbo if you ever need it. Both are almost as bright as a single high power 18650 light these days but compact enough to fit in the glove box. My preference is the D40A. I have both the CW and NW versions.

Another option that I will throw in here is the Nitecore SRT7 as it has the multiple colour flashies on a ring which is a great warning to other vehicles. With only 1 18650 cell and all the flashy modes on the ring and multiple coloured lights, I think it would make a great emergency light. I also think the quality is there to make it a light that will last well.

The D40A is definitely an attractive light. I’m still researching the best light/lights for this particular use but I’ll be keeping the D40A in mind when the inevitable time comes when I’m looking for a new light. J)

All this talk of the D40 has made me pull the trigger and order a neutral white version £37.00 form an HK seller lets hope it’s a good one. Will be interesting to compare to my EA4W.

trouble is i buy a new light and the missus likes i get “oh darling thanks for the new light” and i have to get another, ah well good to have a missus that shares your obsessions even if it can be expensive at times

Let us now how the two compare to each other, even if you can’t keep it :smiley:

I have this : http://store.snapon.com/Rechargeable-Flashlights-Shop-Light-Compact-Rechargeable-20-LED-Green-Blue-Point-P754638.aspx
It’s awesome. Had it for 2 years now, always used it when working on the car… fell down a lot of times, lots of engine grease,oil everything is fine.

Update

I have now received a D40a and will be ordering 2 more and retiring my Fenix spares draw unless i find a way to mod them with XML’s.