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Total Flood.
I have a J18: impressive amount of light, but severely underdriven, and replacement drivers are problematic.
A well-driven SRK is more impressive. Now the real wow factor is in the hard-driven EDC-sized XP triples. A good driver and a really good cell to make a crazy fire-starting light. Or some of the XH-P based lights for some floody high-lumen numbers.
Depends on what you want it for. Both are awesome modded, and I thought pretty nice and my most used hiking lights before modding. Yes they are under driven as are all stock big multi emitters, but if you want a bright wall of light for a reasonable price and long running light with just the right amount of heft and gripping circumference, the old J18 is really hard to beat. Replacement drivers are really the problem I’d say, without help modding it, my J18 had about a year of relatively heavy use but it would have been gone because of the absolute trash replacement drivers for it that are out there…I did get my value out of it though in the time I used it probably.
I think both lights are still relevant. I really like them both. You can do all kinds of stuff with them. Check out some of RaceR86's mods.
If you can build your own driver, this should work in the J18 with the LED's in a 3S configuration. If you can't build them, RMM may be able to set you up.
Depends on what you want it for. Both are awesome modded, and I thought pretty nice and my most used hiking lights before modding. Yes they are under driven as are all stock big multi emitters, but if you want a bright wall of light for a reasonable price and long running light with just the right amount of heft and gripping circumference, the old J18 is really hard to beat. Replacement drivers are really the problem I’d say, without help modding it, my J18 had about a year of relatively heavy use but it would have been gone because of the absolute trash replacement drivers for it that are out there…I did get my value out of it though in the time I used it probably.
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Since u had one, is this a FLOODER? They say 8000 lumens. is that fairly accurate? How does it handle heat. Sounds great at a great price!
appreciate the nod, thanks.
Mine is driven @ about 20W. Not going to be anywhere near 8k lumens. Maybe 2-2.5k? If somebody has some better numbers thoigh...
Well, it held up to MY usage for about a year, which at the time was very heavy, so if you do 2-3hr hikes in the forest at night several times per week then it might last you a year. If you use it like 99.9% of people use it, it may last you until you feel like throwing it away… but then again it might not, you cannot tell on any light anymore since they cheapen components to sell more, so all are pretty much a gamble.
Yes it is a flooder, but mine both had pretty good throw for a flooder compared to an SRK or any triple for certain, and it had a comparatively nice almost neutral tint. Again, maybe luck of the draw, but I had more than one with this tint.
It was certainly brighter than any SRK I’ve had non modded. I’d estimate mine was about 3,000 lumens.
Remember though, my lumen numbers are guesstimates, and its popularity went up and has now died: you should both be able to find it around $45 somewhere and realize it may be now made with crappier copied parts which produce worse everything. I bought a cheap 12x light not long ago which was about as bright as the old J18 frustratingly.
They seem just as durable as any other light. Maybe more so because they are fairly thickly built. Just like most budget lights, the tail threads and switch are subject to the most wear and will likely be the first things to fail.
One think I like about these 2 lights is that the individual reflectors are larger than the same lights with more emitters. So they have a nice throwy flood beam.
Gearbest had the TR-9xT6 for $43.59 with code TFGB. Maybe the code still works. Haven't tried.
Thanks to this thread, I was inspired to get my UniqueFire S7 version of the J18 out and rebuilt. A few months ago, I had it stored in a cooler in the bed of my truck when a rainstorm hit. Not sure how, but the cooler filled up with water about four inches deep, drowning my light. I immediately disassembled the light and set the components out to dry. Fortunately, there wasn't any corrosion on the driver, and even though the head had been full, the reflector dried cleanly with only a couple of small water spots.
Nice having this light back functional again.
Running from 3x 26650 cells at ~4.1 volts each, the light pulls about 1.6A, so about 20A before losses. Less than 3W per emitter...
Wow, I wouldn’t think the J18 would work after that! If you want a long running light with both great flood and adequate throw that feels good in the hand, I still think J18 cant be beat. Yeah its completely an exaggeration about the 8k lumens, but so is every other light.
For a while I was using only my little souped up triples and then used an old J18 again, the throw difference is very significant, and it out throws my SRKs too. And the modded J18 with de-domed is awesome in both flood and throw (for hiking).
I think umodded J18 still one of my favorite lights, and for a thrower L4.
I’d get the J18 of those 3 if you want to keep it that way, J12 if you want to mod and change out LEDs: J12 will also be under driven so less light, but 5 LEDs is easier to mod. There are so many 9x and 12x models, I think your likelihood of getting something bad is higher, but there are some reports of some great performers, I have one out 3 12xs that passed through my hands which is “good”, and its still less throwy than J18
Also if you want to mod talk to Tom E I think he had a good 9x mod? I dont know those as well and dont have one.
aL1 wrote:
Which one would you get if you could only get one, the J12, J18, or the 9xT6?
Is Gearbest the best place to get an 'Authentic' Trustfire?
Thanks!!
I would go with the TR-9xT6 because you can use a direct drive driver (with 3S cells) and it has a 15mm larger head diameter. More head diameter means bigger individual reflectors (more throw), and more heat sinking potential. Most multi-emitters already have enough flood.
I don't know who sells the authentic version.
B42 may have a point about lesser quality versions, but I haven't experienced that yet. I have several different versions bought at different times from different vendors. They all seem the same to me. The 15xT6 has a large hole under the emitter MCPCB. I just intend to plug it with aluminum or copper or maybe just put a copper disk over the whole pill surface.
I guess you are right for modding 9x T6 would be much better for the driver possibility, I didn’t think of that, if you are modding and not changing emitters that’s probably the best by far.
I just love the size, feel of the J18/12 much more than the 9x, 12x and 15xs I’ve seen/had, and I’ve got crappy blue emitters in a 12x, purplish in another, greenish slightly in my 15x, J18s have all been the same quality and on the neutral edge of the “white” T6s (what tint exactly, who really knows). Only one 12x is actually bright enough to tell to be significantly superior to the standard J18 output as I remember it even. Except for the driver, can’t say J18’s is great.
Still love the modded ones I have so much I’ve essentially forgotten my 12xs, 9x and 15x existed…I should do something with them…
Yw aL1, listen to 4wheeler if you are modding yourself or use it a lot.
^ You alluded to it earlier, but I just realized now your point about comfort to carry. I have to agree that the J12 and J18 are much nicer to carry. I would have a hard time carrying a TR-9xT6 on 2-3 hour hikes like you mentioned.
So like B42 did, I have to advice aL1 listen to B42 if he intends to have long carrying times with the light. If you want the lighter (and narrower battery tube) light and want to be able to use a DD driver, you could go MT-G2/XHP-70 in the center emitter and then 2S all the other emitters into the center emitter.
EDIT: I just noticed that some of my earlier posts did not even mention TR-9xT6 when I was talking about it. Sorry for the confusion.
Since u had one, is this a FLOODER? They say 8000 lumens. is that fairly accurate? How does it handle heat. Sounds great at a great price!
appreciate the nod, thanks.
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4Wheeler made me look and read through it again, I see I missed your last question saypat, so I’ll answer them all to be clear: Yes, I had 3, major flooders, and for a FLOODER, very good throw in comparison to other flooders, including 12x and 15x (I didnt directly compare 9x but probably better than that too). No, maybe 3,000 lumens, 8k is very inaccurate. It handles the heat very well, and my modded J18 does a real approximation of 8k lumens for 90 seconds at a time before turbo timer kicks in…I’m not sure how much longer I’d want to keep it producing 8,000 lumens (modded), but for what it does, its fine if you are outside (inside on high will of course get hot even stock).
And yeah I just love the feel of the J18/J12 compared to the others: just the right amount of heft, non slip grip and head size to be great in my hand while holding my dog leashes in the dark and twirl into backwards grip in an instant to see what goes bump in the night. 15x gets to be a real chore to carry for hours with the bigger head and longer body (4x26650)