Review: Trustfire TR-J20 12xCree XM-L T6 (Resistor mod) + TR-J18 Comparison

Trustfire TR-J20 12xCree XM-L T6

My first powerful multi-LED flashlight was Trustfire TR-J18. After about a year i was ready to take a step to another level… After reading relic38’s review Here i was pretty convinced to buy one, but then i suddenly discovered FlashPilot’s review of TR-J20 and immediately fell in love with it. It had same LED count, it was shorter and it looked even better “heatsinked”. So… finally… This is the ultimate flooder i was looking for :heart_eyes:
I ordered it for 99,20 (excl. batteries) from fasttech.com. Flashlight was modded with 1 ohm resistor. Ceiling bounce test shown 20-25% increase. For unmodded review + teardown and much more (much better review :slight_smile: ) see FlashPilot’s topic Here

Link:
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10005076/1398602-trustfire-tr-j20-12cree-xm-l-t6-5-mode-8000-lumen-

Dimensions:

DEPTH 92 mm
HEIGHT 340 mm
WIDTH 92 mm
WEIGHT 1359 g

Pros:

  • Excellent built quality
  • Great heatsinking
  • Packaging
  • Robust body
  • Clean and smooth reflector
  • Reflector glass without any scratches
  • Sufficient inside wiring
  • Design
  • Water resistant
  • Robust and solid tailcap switch
  • Mode memory
  • And more… :slight_smile:

Cons:

  • Dirty reflector glass (already cleaned)
  • Useless emittor spacer rings
  • Unnecessary SOS/Strobe modes (in such huge flashlight)
  • Not many charger options for 32650 batteries
  • I has slightly cooler color temp than my TR-J18

I think it’s useless to describe how bright this flashlight is… It’s obvious… Just look at the size of that think! It can compete (maybe it’s even brighter) with my Skoda Superb II Bi-xenon headlights (low+high beams) and that’s 180W (2x D1S + 2x H3) of light in total. We compared it even with friend’s Golf mk4 halogen lights. Well… The car was totally humiliated by LED power. And if you still don’t believe, look at the comparison shots lower :wink:

In comparison pics the TR-J20 looks more robust (well that’s surprise!). If i look closely on both, TR-J20 feels better machined. Also glass and reflector on TR-J18 came a little scratched compared to TR-J20. Well in short… Both flashlight’s powered OFF are very similar (another surprise, since they came from same factory) both have SOS/Strobe (sadly). And that’s it. Let’s see comparison shots :slight_smile:

32650 batteries look badass! However there aren’t many chargers on market capable of charging three batteries at once. I personally use TR-008. While it has many drawbacks (overheating and noise) it’s great charger for the price.

Measurement (measured with extremely cheap and crappy multimeter). Crappy multimeter shows (very likely wrongly) 12,45V x 5,82A = 72,5W. Sorry i don’t have anything better :frowning:
Voltage:

Current:

Enough talking. Here comes beamshots! Everything is taken with iPhone 5S (locked exposure on TR-J18’s beam).

Beam comparison against white wall (0,5m). From left to right: Trustfire Z5 (just for fun), Trustfire TR-J18 (unmodded), Trustfire TR-J20 (1 ohm resistor mod). Notice huge light splash around TR-J20’s beam.

Night shots

TR-J18

TR-J20

TR-J18

TR-J20

TR-J18

TR-J20

TR-J18

TR-J20

And that’s all… Fell free to ask anything. I’m from Czech Rep. so please, apologize my english in review and future posts :~

Nice review and photos. The comparison to the J18 and in-hand shots really give a sense of the size of that beast. Thank you.

Just crushes that j18 haha

This thread list some of my test, your new light is very well made. Trustfire TR-J20 Update 8-11-14

Thank´s. This is my first review, hope it will be useful for someone :slight_smile:

Yeah… You should see it for yourself :wink:

You are much more experienced than me. Please what do you think about current so high? Is it even possible with 1 ohm resistor?

added a 1.8 ohm 1/4 watt SMD in addition to the already added 1 ohm 1/2 watt resistor. Light was cooled between each measurement for the readings.

12.63 volts 4.38 amps 55.32 watts
12.27 volts 4.52 amps 55.46 watts
12.09 volts 4.62 amps 55.85 watts
11.67 volts 4.84 amps 56.48 watts
11.46 volts 4.96 amps 56.84 watts
11.22 volts 5.10 amps 57.22 watts
10.95 volts 5.29 amps 57.92 watts
10.80 volts 5.47 amps 59.07 watts
10.68 volts 5.75 amps 61.41 watts
10.47 volts 5.98 amps 62.61 watts
10.20 volts 6.33 amps 64.56 watts

These two resistors added gave me a quick and easy mod. Further added resistor got the MOSFETs roasting hot. So the light currently stands at this level, bright with some run time. No component failure yet. I’m considering replacing the XM-L T6’s with XP-L V6’s. If I’m getting 4 watts per led this would bump each from 485 to 650 lumens per the Cree charts.

This thing still alive after resistor mod?