(prototype) the GT Mini

Accidentally drove into an open pit mine, in the middle of the night, in Wyoming. Suddenly found ourselves surrounded by these things.

I think it was the North Antelope Rochelle mine just south of Gillette Wyoming.

I bet that was a mind-blowing experience Robert!

(Keeping in mind that the tires are 12’ tall, a pickup truck comes about to the axle and is completely dwarfed! The pickup is about 6’ wide, this monster is 25’ wide! The pickup weighs what, 4,000 lbs? Loaded with rock the big hauler weighs an impressive 715,000 pounds! [215,000 lbs of truck, 500,000 lbs of rock] The tires are 6,640 pounds of rubber, not mounted to their 57” steel wheel!)

PS: A 4 year old used one, which has probably been running and hauling rock 24/7/365, cost’s around $3,000,000 dollars. And it will take $2,000,000 a year at pump prices just to fuel it with diesel! The 1,000 gallon tank lasts 12 hours, two tanks of fuel a day!

Illumn’s site states that the Keeppower 3120mAh protected cell is utilizing a Sony VTC6 inside, with a maximum continuous discharge rate of 15A. This cell should run the GT mini’s XP-L HI just fine. MOST protected cells can’t.

When you can get a Samsung 30Q for around $5, paying $12 for a protected cell in a light that has internal protection built in seems kind of wasteful.

Haha, it was. Oil field work before GPS and cell phones. Most of the gravel roads weren’t on any maps. All we had were someone’s directions to a well that we had to work on. We got lost, “hey there are some vehicles over there, lets go ask them”… The headlights on those trucks are mounted quite low, so you don’t realize how big they are until you drive up next to one. Of course they were moving so we were trying not to end up like this.

Lord have mercy! (but that IS what I was thinking when I suggested the CAT scan. lol )

The driver sits about 15’ in the air, on the far side of a 25’ wide vehicle. He can’t see much of anything on the right hand side, like that pickup that put himself in a bad place. Nowadays they have 360º camera’s with monitors in the truck, but still….

BTW, guys, with the 35$US sale price(45$CA), I finally plunged on the purchase of the BLF GT Mini.

When it comes, what kind of mods should I do? I’m personally going to replace the tail cap springs with my own BeCu springs.

How easy is flashing the driver? Is it glued?

Blue, change to your springs and be done with it. The light is really already a hot rod right out of the box. They glue the bezel so it can be a damaging experience getting in to change the emitter…

Really? Wow that is impressive. Do you think Anduril would be better on this light or should I keep NarsilM on it?

Is there a dead guy still in the [crushed] white truck?!

Looks like it. Really sad for the guy inside.

There was so little glue on my bezel that is was easy off with just a towel

My bezel was so tight I had to mount it in my 5” chuck on the lathe and use 16” adjustable pliers. Had aluminum between the jaws and the bezel but it took so much force the aluminum marked the bezel.

I really like Anduril, use it as much as possible. I find Narsil confusing, just me but of course I build lights for me so… Narsil is a pretty complete package out of the box, if you can deal with it’s complexity and like it, by all means keep it in play.

I’m hoping the driver of the pickup got out to tell the truck operator something and left his truck in the wrong place. The passenger was just unlucky enough to not realize the big truck was moving and didn’t have time to evacuate!

Guess who still hasn’t received their pre-order light…. this guy!!!

Wait, this isn’t a competition for whose shipping takes the longest? Well, crap.

On the plus side, after taking three weeks to go from China to New York, a week to get through customs, and almost a week to go from New York to Queens (seriously…), the package is finally in my county. So hopefully it gets here this time. The worst part was USPS repeatedly giving an estimated ship date, and only once that date had passed, updating it to say lol, nevermind.

Now hopefully the light isn’t in a thousand pieces from being stuck in shipping for so long. To top it off, I’m also waiting on an Armytek order from weeks ago despite paying $15 just for shipping. Yeah, not having great luck here.

:person_facepalming: …… Wow Delta_V, you have had a rough go of this for sure. :frowning:

Hopefully tomorrow!! By the way, what state do you live in??

I’m in Wisconsin. Southern half, so not too far from civilization. Have made multiple orders from China, and never had this many issues.

Although it’s not like a thrower would have seen much use this last month with this constant rain. Just got done with the wettest August I’ve ever seen, and September has just continued the trend.

I hope you will get it tomorrow… I measured 1286 lumen @ 5 seconds for the CW… I like this light. Small and compact thrower…

Ok, thanks Delta_V. I hope you do get it tomorrow.
This has also been my strangest order from China ever. No rhyme, reason, or continuity to it. I hope to never have a repeat…. :wink:

Strange summer & August in Alabama too. Both have been somewhat mild compared to other years & not as dry as a chip either.

Delta_V that sucks… really long time even for shipping to usa from china seems long, but dont worry the light was packed very good so it shouldnt have any damage unless a truck ran over the package.

please send Neal a mail asking him to investigate what happened to your parcel

neal@m4dm4x.com

Got my GT mini today… GT miniscule measured 1318lm with a 30Q and 1463lm with a VTC5D.

Very Nice…INDEED! :+1: