Problems with my Trustfire tr-j18

So I bought the Trustfire tr-j18 to myself as a christmasgifty kind of. First real flashlight I’ve ever bought. And the first thing I noticed is that it says 8500 lumens on it instead of 8000 lumens? And then the batteries don’t really fit when using the extension for the third battery, the batteries is too long so I have to open up the extension and put on the back on the extension first to make it fit (can’t screw it in all the way) I bought it from a trustworthy store here in Sweden where I live. But the biggest problem is that when I turn on the flashlight it just goes on and off real fast, no matter if I have it on brightest or lowest and then another thing is that when I loosen or tighten the extension it sometimes starts to light again but only when I hold it in certain grades or how to say it. Like if I’m pointing the flashlight up in the air it might light but if I want to light up the forest that’s ahead of my so I put the flashlight down by 45 degrees it goes bam dead. So I was wondering if anyone knows a solution to this or if it’s broke or anything. It might aswell be fake.

Fake J-18’s can have a flat surface where the stamped writing is on the tube. If the tube is rounded-off where the writing is, it is ‘genuine’. Also you may need new ‘flat-top’ batteries, which are a little shorter than batteries with protruding positive terminals.
Try shorter 18650’s - and if that doesn’t work, the tailcap and / or wiring may be faulty.
Also check if all of your batteries are fully charged before using - one bad or faulty or undercharged battery can bugger up the ‘in-series’ function of your torch - and also be very dangerous.
I strongly suggest you check your batteries with a Multi-Meter, to ascertain the condition of each one after a full charge.

Shorter cells will help. Try removing the brass cap on top of the tail spring.

Oh okey, I’ll def check the batteries tomorrow, thanks! I know they arent fully charged so I’m charging them atm to check that aswell (If I’m not wrong they’re like this fully charged as well) And it’s the batteries that came with the flashlight the Trustfires 26650 own batteries so it felt like they would fit without any problems, and my J-18 is’nt completely rounded-off but it’s not flat either.

How would I be able to remove the brass cap? And the batteries is trustfires own batteries so I thought they would fit especially since they had a special offer so they came with the flashlight… This might be why they had that special offer, lol!

hmm… I have few TR-J18s… the original one the + spring has brass ring on it… the clone has aluminum ring on it
either way they both is bright and can fit any batteries fine except flat top batteries

Yeah I don’t really get why the batteries shouldn’t fit and why the flashlight is doing this to me, haha. And I ordered it early in December, but haven’t really tried it since now around christmas. Might be able to call the store and change mine if it’s a manufactory failure, which it kinda feels like when the stuff dosen’t fit.

just add another R220 resistor on it and you’ll WOW people around you :wink:

Well as long as it dosen’t even light, the people around me will go, Haha! And I don’t even know where to get a new resistor or how to add one, I’m all new to that kind of stuff and have decided to wait with that for a while. :slight_smile:

Those TF 26650’s could be fake …… did you get them wrapped in 2’s with a hologram on the clear wrap?

The batteries came in a transparent 2 pack and since I orderd three of them one came single in a double pack… lol Don’t remember if it was anything on the wrapping but I think it was nothing on it at all. ! they looks like that at least.

Edit: Added pictures.

I would have to advise again to check state-of-charge after they are all ‘fully’ charged - Do you have a multi-meter ?

Also, how does it run on 2 batteries ? have you tried it using 2, then swapping one of the batteries for the 3rd one, and tying it again ? that may tell you if one of the batteries is bad.

my first TR-J18 doesn’t light up when I used 2 batteries… the LEDs ” blew up” it looked very dim
TR-J18 is not really meant for 2 batteries

It’s just the same when running on 2 batteries as on three, even when changing batteries. And I’ll definetely do that tomorrow it’s almost 6’o clock here and got the multi-meter at my garage

Mine’s working fine just like it does with three batteries, good bright light for a few seconds then it goes dead again.

From your pictures, the +ve terminals on your ones look higher than the ones in this link below - and those ones were deemed ‘genuine’.

Click on here, scroll down a bit….

Yeah, it would explain a lot! The top of mine is 3 mm high, on each battery so that means 9 mm (About 0.36 inches?) higher when using all three together and with those flat they would fit like a charm definetly!

Yes - that is tall. Taller ( I do believe ) than the button-top version of your batteries…. May be fake - sorry man.
I would try 18650’s - I have 4 of these :

They are brilliant. I have also read that some J-18’s MAY not like 26650’s ………

Well that feel like well spent money :slight_smile: I’ll make a call the the store I bought them from and ask them what they say since they show the flat ones on the picture and says they’re supposed to be 68 millimeters while they ones I got is 71 mm ofc they won’t fit then… thanks for the tip about the battires! Didn’t even think it could had been the batteries! :smiley: And it will glow much less darker with the 18650 than with the 26650 ones? And the battery time will be worse too, right?

You will not notice your torch any less bright using 18650’s - at least you shouldn’t notice a difference. As for runtime - a negligible difference.
Mind you - anything over 3 seconds will be an improvement over your current “runtime” !! :bigsmile: