Review: TrustFire TR-J20 - 12 x XM-L (3 x 32650) Chunky Monkey!

I got in on the pre-order for the Enova ALL-80 8x Li-Ion + NiMH Charger, Richard is presently offering at Mountain Electronics. I can always use an 8-bay charger for all these 18650 and 26650 cells I have. Since it also handles the 32650’s, I’m now commited to getting my hands on some high end 32650 cells since the Trustfire J20 can use them.

Needless to say, anyone comes up with a good supplier, please post back here or start a new thread.

Mountain Electronics

Hi folks,

Since the Trustfire 32650 cell seem to be the best cell of this size, I’ve opted to go through Trustfire directly to purchase some, but without the protection circuit. The price I was given by my Rep was $7.55 each. But this does not include shipping. Depending on shipping costs, I’m going to purchase 3 or 6 of them. When I get the total cost, I’ll be sure to post.

I’ll be on the lookout as well. Im might need more cells if I join in on 18sixfifty’s TR-J20 GB.

I just unscrewed the head pieces to check out a mod Ive been considering. There appears to be plenty of room for active cooling inside. A moderate sized cpu heat sink and fan could be modded and attached to the underside of the floor plate and a 2 chamber plenum fabbed out of thin aluminum sheet to efficiently channel the air. With a good drill press to bore the vent holes, it would be possible to make it look pretty close to stock. Things that make you go, “hmmm…”. :bigsmile:

Hi FlashPilot,

Purchasing the Trustfire 32650 Unprotected cells directly from Trustfire doesn’t save any money. But you do get top service from them and don’t have to worry about buying fake items. They also only ship Li-ions with proper labeling on the box and use approved shippers, so you likely won’t have to worry about customs finding them and sending them back to where they came from due to improper shipping labels.

Also, unlike normal online retailers that offer free shipping for a flashlight or batteries because shipping costs are built into the price shown, Trustfire doesn’t do this, so shipping is always added to the order.

So the 32650 cells actually cost $7.55 each and shipping is $44.63 for up to 1kg of weight. So it isn’t cost effective to purchase, say only 3 cells, so I opted for 6 of them and the shipping is the same. But it puts the total cost per cells at nearly $15.00 each, which isn’t to far off the price of other retailers, at least for the protected version. From my research, at this time, it seems the only place to get the unprotected Trustfire cells is directly from Trustfire.

They have an order in right now to replenish their stock of the unprotected version, so the ones I get will be as fresh as can be. So there will be a slight delay for me to get them which is about 2 weeks, but I’m fine with it.

Richie;

Who is your TrustFire contact and their email address please, and with current post office battery shipping limitations is the shipping price you listed via DHL or UPS or some other non-postal air shipping company? PM the email address if you prefer. From what you say of shipping costs the price for FastTech to ship my TR-S700 must have been a bit steep. Maybe why the price with shipping was just under $120 with the BLF discount. At the same time the J20 is under $100 from the same source. Not sure of the logic as both are massive lights and with the added LEDs I would think the J20 would have higher material costs.

BTW your link does not work for Firefox. I think that you need to remove the ending close bracket.

Hi Rich, the shipping price quote was for UPS. I’ll PM you the information.

Thanks for the update and your thoughts. Your delivered price seems reasonable from TF, considering that the cells should be of recent production, properly packaged for transit and authentic (although I doubt this cell would be counterfeited when considering its limited market). I wonder how many could be shipped @1kg weight. Any idea? The more the merrier. :bigsmile:

It will be interesting to see how well the TF32650’s hold up after 2-3 years. So far, mine have easily beaten every Chinese made cell Ive come across (in terms of their resistance to deterioration). I was seriously considering having a 9 or 12 x 18650 tube machined for the J20, but Ive been amazingly happy with the TF cells so far and will probably stick with them.

I’ll follow up again with Fasttech and see if they reply to my request for the unprotected TF32650. You guys might want to put in your requests as well. If they do finally stock them, they will also likely be of recent production and low price

Please let us know how your TF transaction goes. Ive heard nothing but positive remarks from others who dealt with TF direct.

Its still hard to believe this light carries the TF name…

Thanks for the close up pics. The ano actually looks pretty decent to me in the pics.

I have a habit of gauging ano by looking at its sheen. The more dull it is the high quality! lol At least thats what my hypothalamus transmits to me.

Can anyone verify the relationship between the types of ano and their respective sheen?

The fit and finish on my TR-J20 and TR-S700 are top quality. Although the price may be considered at the upper side of budget for either of them, the overall quality and value of these lights is much beyond what we’ve been paying for them.

I just tested my stock TR-J20 with the new unprotected Trustfire 32650 cells I just received. Tail current was 2.97a on HIGH mode and a bit less than FlashPilot’s reading of 3.16a.

This same test using my KeepPower IMR 26650 cells yields 3.20a at the tail. I can only assume these new cells have so much capacity being 32650, voltage sag is bare minimum.

Thanks for testing. Is there a way to test the amps after 5 mins on high? I want to see how much amps both those cells dropped and see if the 32650s are really more superior over the kp 26650s from voltage sag

Hi blueb8llz,

There wasn’t much difference after 5 minutes as seen below. But I simply look at it, the 32650 is just a much larger fuel tank and should yield longer run times.

Trustfire unprotected 32650
Start amps - 2.98a
5 minute HIGH - 3.04a

KeepPower IMR26650
Start amps - 3.10a
5 minute HIGH - 3.18a

what if your j20 was highly modded, and pumping out 14000 lumens….would the lights benefit from the 32650s now? ie…keep the lumens going longer and not dropping as fast due to voltage vs using the 26650 kp’s? or will it just be runtime still?

Remember that with the stock boost driver the amps will actually be lower initially with a better cell with less voltage sag. The amps actually climb as the input voltage decreases to maintain the same output.

Aside from sag due to heat, I’d have to say that for sure. Member, RMM, would be able to easily boost the output to 14,000 lumens for you.

Hey guys been a while since anyone posted. This looks like an awesome floody light. Considering going for it. I already have a BTU shocker and a Ebay HID light and I love both of them. But both of them are more throwers and I thought it would be nice to have a strong flooder to round out the collection.

Any updates on the modding going on and maybe new beamshots of the modded TR J20 ?

Mine is still in the works. I’ll report back once it’s finished. But there are lots of other flooders out there that aren’t so chunky. Many are coke style lights. Lots of new ones are being released that’s gotten even more tiny.

Richard at RMM built me a FET driver but I havent had the time to mod my TR-J20 yet. :frowning: Just to much going on at the moment…

Overlooking their mediocre build quality, the problem with most other large multi-emitter flooders is that they have fairly horrible heat sinking, which makes the TR-J20 an order of magnitude better.

@blueb8llz - what mods are you doing to your J20? :slight_smile:

To me one of the big advantages of the TR-J20 should be run time at high output levels if you use 26650 or 32650 batteries in it. Also big enough and with good enough heat dissipation so it can be run at high levels longer after hop up. Any one have a USA source for good 32650 batteries? So far as I know all 32650 batteries are Chinese origin. So far very few lights seem to use this size.