Is there any manufacturers that make good (and affordable) off-road lights?

Other Types of Lights LED Spotlights
1

Having had way to much experience with cheap light bar/light pods, it looks like there are only three types of off-road lighting products:

1: Terrible quality, terribly executed, dim 8000k+ lights from the Garbage Manufacturers which claim to be an order of magnitude brighter than in reality. (my flashlight is brighter than the typical 12 inch light bar)

2: auto parts store re-branded junk (see 1)

3: Incredibly overpriced ($500-$1000) name brand stuff. (I assume the name brand stuff is good quality, I’m not spending 500 dollars on a light bar)

There a huge opportunity for the likes of Sofirn or Convoy to make good quality off road lights for a reasonable price.

2

Nope, not really. With what you pointed out above, that’s why there’s nothing good and not obscenely overpriced.

Mountain Electronics had one, I think. And someone here did up his own but don’t think they ever came to fruition other’n his prototypes.

Vague recollection only, maybe someone else will jump in.

3

Yeah, what really bugs me though, is that some of the cheap ones are somewhat well designed, (fully integrated TIR optics and aluminum unibody with buck driver) but then they use some horrid extremely blue LEDs with awful tint shift. An emitter swap would probably work on a lot of them, but there’s no way to know what the format or voltage is without buying them, and it will still be pathetically dim for the form factor, because it will run at the same current as before.

4

Wellp, ya gotta figure that most of the “urban off-roaders” use them just to be annoying, and choose those hideous blue-tinted halogens. They wouldn’t know high CRI if they ran right over it.

5

Just imagine: a row of SST-20s or XP-Gs with 20mm TIR lenses would be over 10k lumens per foot. Or 4000 lumen XHP-70 light pods. Ultra thrower with Khatod 35mm lens and osram flat white. Adjustable brightness. The possibilities are endless. Maybe an off-road light could be a future BLF project :sunglasses:

6

Rough country

7

Not exactly what I’m looking for, but I will admit they are priced a lot more reasonably than KC and Rigid lights

8

Give these folks a go! NightRiderleds. They have lights for everything. Check out their DOT approved sealed beam led headlights. Plus they have light bars of course and at different levels! I believe most of them are using Osram leds. The P series I reckon. I have a few of their Economy Spot lights and it’s really bright. Oh and some of their bars have 5700K.

9

What style of light are u searching for?

10

You can buy light bars that use Cree XML2s and reflow a NW SST-40 or even a 3v XHP50.2 or a NW XML3 onto the board.

11

I’ve tried it, and since the driver runs at the same current, they’re just as dim.

12

Also, most of them use 3030 non-dtp LEDs. If there was a cheap light bar that used 3535 or 5050 high power LEDs, it wouldn’t be too hard to reflow some good ones in.

13

What seem like “expensive” quality LED light bars are not overpriced, once you’ve done the analysis and tried to create your own. In fact, they are a bargain that I have yet to see anyone DYI and beat.

Over time, a few friends and I evaluated around 40 cheap Chinese off road LED light bars and housings, with the idea of converting and reselling them in large quantity. After testing and discovering horrendous stock results, we disassembled the housings to consider using them as mod hosts. We found them ALL to be of extremely poor quality and design, with a complete lack of craftsmanship, quality and QC. Many of the LED MCPCB’s didn’t even make contact with the fake flimsy heat sinks, or made limited contact. They all had trashy baked-in drivers delivering >60% rated power, while struggling to illuminate dingy blue Chinese emitters someone probably recovered during a dumpster dive. Even after extensive modification, they still lacked sufficient mass, surface area and contact area to provide sufficient heat sinking. Just as bad were the ultra low quality reflector grids that were practically useless in directing any sort of discernible beam pattern. They all scattered light with odd mixed beam patterns, heavy artifacts & useless hot spots going in every direction. There was utterly nothing that could be used or salvaged in a “proposed production mid-quality high-powered build”. A few tear down’s that seemed like great mod host candidates required a large precision band saw to carefully dissect them. More abysmal design failures… and into the recycle bin they went! SUCH A WASTE OF TIME AND ALL HUGE DISAPPOINTMENTS! It later dawned on me that most of the extremely shabby assembly work must have been completed by child forced slave labor, which is when I gave up.

I had started my own LED light bar build as a test platform but took a different direction, instead converting three large Hella Rallye 4000 competition housings to 100 watt HID’s. It was a quick and clean mod to an existing high quality installation. They provide a very wide even beam with great range, free from beam artifacts, with excellent cut-off and more illumination than I can reasonably use (24K lumens). Total cost: around $600. I had already gained years of trouble-free service in their stock 100 watt halogen form, which was before the advent of high lumen LED and HID. And they provide the right vintage look for my old Toyota 4 x 4. They are still in production and selling well.

I’ll get back to the LED light bar build some day and I have made some recent progress (swapped to elliptical beam TIR’s with beam cut-off and started machining the enormous heat sink). Here’s my old build thread if you’d like to take a look:
DIY Light Bar - 40 x XM-L2 on copper

In researching what it will cost to complete my light bar (all-in) verses buying one of similar performance and beam characteristics, I will be in the hole at least $150, if not more. That still doesn’t consider my time, nor will it be as water resistant, fog free or attractive as a quality factory light bar. You really do get what you pay for, and the investment is justified IF you play off road OFTEN FOR LONG HOURS after dark. If not, you are wasting your money.

If you’re patient, you can find deals on Rigid, Baja Designs, Rough Country, etc. And believe me, most of those are thoroughly engineered to last and perform at a great price… compared to the alternate. Of course, do your own research and read plenty of reviews for each particular model before purchasing. Many good deals are old stock with old generation emitters (ie: XM-L vs XM-L2, etc.) and low power drivers, compared to the same upgraded models with modern emitters and high powered drivers, so be very careful what you buy.

Sorry for the long post…

14

I am willing to pay $400 or $500 for a good lightbar that would last for years. but some of this stuff is $1000+ I get the idea that a lot of it is geared towards people who view it as a status accessory. Judging from a lot of the reviews even the spendy ones seem to fail. If I spend $500 on a light the thing better work longer than a year or two. If you look at the number of hours put on these lights it probably ends up being $10 an hour of use. most likely $30 for the average user.

15

I just came back from Tractor Supply Co. with a 30” Traveller X ‘Blackout’ light bar, and have to say its the best offroad light/ cube/ bar I’ve tried so far (theres been a few lol). It was on sale for about $156.

I’ve been eyeing it for a while because of its design that uses downward firing LEDs and reflectors that bounce nearly all of the light forward. Meaning no spill. It was on sale today so i finally pulled the trigger.

It isnt perfect though.

The tint isn’t very good mind you- has a cool white center spot with a yellowy corona- but the beam profile is just about right for those of us that travel on long empty stretches with lots and lots of wildlife. This light comes with amber LEDs that are supposed to point a little lower than the white beam (for a fog light i suppose) , but it points so far down as to be unusable. But thats not why I bought it. I bought it because all other light bars light up road signs, the ground right in front of you, and trees, fences etc so bright it kills your night vision, while not throwing far enough ahead to make it worth having it on.

This thing has a nice smallish spot and not a whole lot of spill. But what I noticed, is if you run it upside down, what spill ther is gets cutoff very nicely right at the center of the hotspot which makes it perfect for lighting up way down road, but not lighting up signs/ trees and blinding you.

Takes 110 wats of power. Claimed output just over 5k lumens. Their clamed distance is 1320 yards- that’s highly doubtful. I compared it to a flashlight that I know is 250kcd and it outthrows my flashlight by a small margin. Maybe 300kcd at the most. I’ll measure it in a few days.

The lumen rating seems close though. My flashlight is about 4800 lumens right after turn on and the light bar visibly beats it…hot spot is just a smidge bigger amd a smidge brighter. Im impressed, as its way better than anything else I’ve tried. (I have not sprung for the ultra expensive stuff because they dont give you ANSI specs like candela and I expect that for what they charge). Im sure baja designs is good but I’m too cheap to try it. I have tried Rigid lighting, and am not impressed at all for the price.

As a disclaimer, I am not one of those a**holes that drive on the roads with a lightbar on with oncoming traffic. I live in a VERY rural area that sees little to no traffic.
It’s rare that I ever see anyone else on my nightly rounds, and if I do, its instantly off.

16

Wish I saw this thread last year.

I purchased “this 12” spot/flood light bar”:12 inch Classic-SM Series Dual Row LED Light Bar 6000K White Combo from auxbeam in 2020 and it was insanely bright and well made. I used it on a quad for over a year without any issues, I still have it in a box in storage since Dad sold the bike

17

That sounds pretty good, I put on a 20” bar (auxbeam I think it’s been a while and I tried a few) and it works pretty well and has not leaked. I suppose I have probably spent almost as much as one of the spendy lightbars. I do like the idea of a thrower the “combo” ones work so-so but there are times when I want something just to show as far ahead as possible. Might decide I “need” this light, and move the existing one to a area light for the truck camper

18

I’m with you. Unless you’re riding a quad on a twisty trail or on a tractor where you really need a wide beam, the combo lights tend to light up the immediate foreground so bright that it dilates your eyes and kills your ability to resolve at longer distances. Couple that with the fact that they usially dont throw that well anyway with their small reclectors, and it’s not that much better than not having one. Just more eye strain. (This coming from a 50 year old welder with cataracts and probably worse night vision than average).

Sometimes the wildlife on the road are so bad that uve resorted to using one of my better thowers stuck out the window of the jeep, and often wished for an auxillary light that would match the performance of that, as it is perfect for seeing the wildlife long before you hit it. 500kcd is very, very nice in deer/ elk country.

Tomorrow, im going to mount up the new light bar properly and try to get some beamshots.

The sale ends tomorrow, wish I could spare the cash for another for my RV.

19

Can’t say I had the same experience with my Auxbeam 12” although I tilted mine up a bit and got well over 240m of good usable lighting. Dad was very impressed and wanted one on his quad and two tractors.

20

If you got any pipeage (mirror-mounts, etc.), a bike-mount and your fave flashlight might be an option.