Led light bars, what brand and why

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hey guys, yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about LED light bars. He was more on the side of the "cheap" bars, instead of the well known but expensive rigids.

Personnally, I would love to get a 50" E2 series with driving/hyper spot combo, can't imagine how bright this thing could be and how far I could see. BUT, it is 1800$ :eek: I know they're solid as hell, but is it worth the extra thousand bucks?

http://www.rigidindustries.com/led-lighting/15231

So this made myself reconsider my choice. If I pay around 7-900$ instead of 1800, its a big grand I save for something else. I've been searching around and found a couple interresting companies.

there is also "john tdl" on facebook who sells what seems to be cheap ass LED lights. Who is located in china btw.

So, what are your opinions, experiences, comments and thoughts?

I think this thread could help many jeepers on this forum and also could answer many questions. If you have any suggestion post the company web site and I could add it in the original post

company listing :

www.rigidindustries.com
www.inspired-engineering.com
www.blackboxlogistics.com
www.auroraledusa.com
www.sewardoffroad.com
www.hanma-auto.com
www.wurton.com
www.bajadesigns.com
www.combatled.com
www.superbrightleds.com
 
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Check out a company called seward offroad. Got mine delivered today and it looks like a quality product. I didn't install it yet but at around $500 with a lifetime warranty and made in the USA in happy. I bought it from jay at stomperoffroad.
 
You want Aurora lightbars. They are the only ones that are as good as rigid and use brand name components (cree LEDs, GE lexan, etc.) Rigid is manufactured overseas as well, they are just assembled in the US. There are no lightbars on the market that are manufactured in the US.
 
NFRs2000NYC said:
You want Aurora lightbars. They are the only ones that are as good as rigid and use brand name components (cree LEDs, GE lexan, etc.) Rigid is manufactured overseas as well, they are just assembled in the US. There are no lightbars on the market that are manufactured in the US.
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Correction, YOU want aurora not everyone else.
 
OverlanderJK said:
Correction, YOU want aurora not everyone else.
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I was simply answering the OP, but ok. Aurora and rigid are the best two bars on the market and considering I own both, and know them both inside and out, I made a conclusive statement which is based on countless hours of research, taking lights, apart, etc etc. If you do not agree with my conclusion, that's perfectly fine.
 
I am very happy with my 21" combo led bar from inspiredengineering. Quality seems very high and they were very nice to deal with. They assemble all their lights in house in florida.
 
I concur with Hinrich.......I bought a 50" from Inspired Engineering along with the mounts.....I live about 40 minutes north of them here in South Florida......they did the install and said if I had ANY problems with the light, mounts or install to bring it back and they will fix it......Sami guaranteed the light for 60, 000 hours which equates to nearly 7 years(6.85 yrs) of CONSTANT 24/7 use.......with those numbers the light will out last the Jeep.......I'm happy with them and their service and would use them again.

Woodrow:beer:
 
Has anybody tried Baja designs light bars? I know they have some of the brightest round lamps available so I would imagine their bars are of similar caliber. Expensive though I believe.

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I can speak from personal experience as I had a 50" from eBay for 250$ same exact specs as rigid and worked just as good in my opinion I see no reason to spend 1500$ on rigids light bar when I can buy 6 50" eBay light bars and even if I have to buy a new one every couple of years I'm still saving money. Bottom line is these big companies need to stop ripping us off I have no problem spending a little extra for a good companies product but c'mon a 500% mark up is insane and before anyone jumps on me the light I got on eBay is 100% made in America and shipped from PA


I don't always wheel , but when I do I keep it tight......... Stay dirty my friends.
 
mrmet1983 said:
I can speak from personal experience as I had a 50" from eBay for 250$ same exact specs as rigid and worked just as good in my opinion I see no reason to spend 1500$ on rigids light bar when I can buy 6 50" eBay light bars and even if I have to buy a new one every couple of years I'm still saving money. Bottom line is these big companies need to stop ripping us off I have no problem spending a little extra for a good companies product but c'mon a 500% mark up is insane and before anyone jumps on me the light I got on eBay is 100% made in America and shipped from PA


I don't always wheel , but when I do I keep it tight......... Stay dirty my friends.
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LOL! You think everyone is ripping you off. Rigids are hands down the best. If you need to depend on your lightbar then you buy quality. The guys racing the baja 1000 or any of the other big offroad races need light to see and cannot just buy another bar and wait for it to ship. Someone like you who will never use it, sure the cheap ones are "great" but to say companies are ripping you off is an ridiculous statement.
 
OverlanderJK said:
LOL! You think everyone is ripping you off. Rigids are hands down the best. If you need to depend on your lightbar then you buy quality. The guys racing the baja 1000 or any of the other big offroad races need light to see and cannot just buy another bar and wait for it to ship. Someone like you who will never use it, sure the cheap ones are "great" but to say companies are ripping you off is an ridiculous statement.
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So true!

I have a lot of experience with LED's as the company I work for makes all of our money based on the LED's performance. All leds are NOT the same.

If you want to look at the myriad of LEDs avaliable to consumers I suggest you pick up a Mouser electronics catalog and look at all the different ones avaliable. They range in price from a dollar or 2 each into 40 or 50 per 'bulb'. The ones we use are custom made for us in the US, but I don't think anyone is going to make a lightbar out of LEDs that are a $100 each.

The real difference between leds is how tight the spectrum they make is and how much heat they dissapate to make that light... or rather how efficent they are. That coupled with the reflector design and the filler material used in the lense. Is it going to yellow over time and cause a shift in spectrum or is it goint to turn opaque and drop the light output over time?

Do you even need a 50" light bar that performs flawlessly, or at all? Probably not, but as overlander said... some do. Or do you just like the looks? That's a personal choice for you to make. No one is ripping you off, unless you buy a light bar and they take your money and it never actually ships :eek:
 
Here's another name for this list. Bulldog LED is apparently made in the USA and more affordable than Rigid

http://bulldogledlighting.com


Quoted from their website:

"Bulldog-Lighting© is proud to have our products MADE in the USA! We don’t buy Chinese parts and assemble. We employ hundreds through factories across the United States to supply the US Made parts necessary for our LED Light Bars. From the aluminum, PCB’s, screws, and lenses, we have full control of our quality, research, development, and custom orders. Our primary focus is to continually develop Affordable, Innovative, and Tuff products that are Made in the USA. Combined with our superior customer service, and advancing R&D, Bulldog-Lighting© is here to help you… our customer!"
 
SDG said:
So true!

I have a lot of experience with LED's as the company I work for makes all of our money based on the LED's performance. All leds are NOT the same.

If you want to look at the myriad of LEDs avaliable to consumers I suggest you pick up a Mouser electronics catalog and look at all the different ones avaliable. They range in price from a dollar or 2 each into 40 or 50 per 'bulb'. The ones we use are custom made for us in the US, but I don't think anyone is going to make a lightbar out of LEDs that are a $100 each.

The real difference between leds is how tight the spectrum they make is and how much heat they dissapate to make that light... or rather how efficent they are. That coupled with the reflector design and the filler material used in the lense. Is it going to yellow over time and cause a shift in spectrum or is it goint to turn opaque and drop the light output over time?

Do you even need a 50" light bar that performs flawlessly, or at all? Probably not, but as overlander said... some do. Or do you just like the looks? That's a personal choice for you to make. No one is ripping you off, unless you buy a light bar and they take your money and it never actually ships :eek:
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You are correct, not all LEDs are the same, but the same LEDs ARE the same. Cree, Epistar or Osram LEDs are the same (assuming it's the same model) no matter who is using it. Most LEDs are made in Taiwan and China. The optics I agree, some are a lot better than others, and that's a call the end user has to make. Rigid LEDs, Lexan, housing and circuitboard are all made in china. The gaskets are chinese, as well as the screws. So long as a competitor is using the same name brand quality parts, there would be no difference (assuming they are assembled properly.)

Rigid was the first company to bring LED lighting to the US market. They were NOT the first company to come out with offroad LED lighting. When rigids first came out, they were the only kid on the block, so they charged a lot of money for their lightbars. Now, there are 100 companies making LED bars, so the price naturally comes down (think plasma TVs...pioneers first plasma was 10K+ and now, plasmas are less than $1000). Rigid's prices however did not move with the market, and customers noticed. Rigid also spends a fortune sponsoring teams, which is fine, but customers are not going to pay for that.

Like I said, I own both Rigid lights and aurora lights....rigid does not make their own circuit boards, aurora does. Im fairly certain Aurora makes Rigid's circuitboards.

Here are some comparison pics...

Rigid harness vs aurora harness...same made in china harness.
20130508_165313_zps6b9c0f88.jpg

Rigid Housing vs Aurora housing...same solid aluminum housing (aurora has the military breather on it.)
20130508_170616_zpsc4b71c68.jpg

Rigid Dually (not D2) circuitboard)
20130508_170032_zps24a8523f.jpg

Aurora circuitboard
20130508_170036_zpsdcc699b2.jpg

(Don't compare the LEDs, the Aurora has the more powerful Cree units, since it's a 6 LED version)

The aurora units are brighter, which you can verify with countless youtube reviews. The rigids used to have slightly better spread, but Aurora has now released their new optics which are excellent and provide a perfect spread as well.

ARB light (built by rigid) on the left, Aurora on the right
AURORA7inchspotVSAXX7inchspot1_Page_3_zps680d486a.jpg

Beam pattern
AURORA7inchspotVSAXX7inchspot1_Page_4_zps78c531b1.jpg

AURORA7inchspotVSAXX7inchspot1_Page_5_zps1d9d362d.jpg

I have been running both for over 2 years, and both have been great. The Aurora's cost 1/2 the price of the rigids, and are built with the same components and the same quality. Both are waterproof, both are shockproof, and both are built to take abuse. Customer service has been equal on both fronts. With rigid, you are paying a lot for the name, and that's the truth.
 
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NFRs2000NYC said:
You are correct, not all LEDs are the same, but the same LEDs ARE the same. Cree, Epistar or Osram LEDs are the same (assuming it's the same model) no matter who is using it. Most LEDs are made in Taiwan and China. The optics I agree, some are a lot better than others, and that's a call the end user has to make. Rigid LEDs, Lexan, housing and circuitboard are all made in china. The gaskets are chinese, as well as the screws. So long as a competitor is using the same name brand quality parts, there would be no difference (assuming they are assembled properly.)

Rigid was the first company to bring LED lighting to the US market. They were NOT the first company to come out with offroad LED lighting. When rigids first came out, they were the only kid on the block, so they charged a lot of money for their lightbars. Now, there are 100 companies making LED bars, so the price naturally comes down (think plasma TVs...pioneers first plasma was 10K+ and now, plasmas are less than $1000). Rigid's prices however did not move with the market, and customers noticed. Rigid also spends a fortune sponsoring teams, which is fine, but customers are not going to pay for that.

Like I said, I own both Rigid lights and aurora lights....rigid does not make their own circuit boards, aurora does. Im fairly certain Aurora makes Rigid's circuitboards.

Here are some comparison pics...

Rigid harness vs aurora harness...same made in china harness.
View attachment 60977

Rigid Housing vs Aurora housing...same solid aluminum housing (aurora has the military breather on it.)
View attachment 60978

Rigid Dually (not D2) circuitboard)
View attachment 60979

Aurora circuitboard
View attachment 60980

(Don't compare the LEDs, the Aurora has the more powerful Cree units, since it's a 6 LED version)

The aurora units are brighter, which you can verify with countless youtube reviews. The rigids used to have slightly better spread, but Aurora has now released their new optics which are excellent and provide a perfect spread as well.

ARB light (built by rigid) on the left, Aurora on the right
View attachment 60981

Beam pattern
View attachment 60982

View attachment 60983

I have been running both for over 2 years, and both have been great. The Aurora's cost 1/2 the price of the rigids, and are built with the same components and the same quality. Both are waterproof, both are shockproof, and both are built to take abuse. Customer service has been equal on both fronts. With rigid, you are paying a lot for the name, and that's the truth.
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Served.... I also run a china ebay one, its held up fine, I compared it to a few rigids and seemed damn near identical. Im no baja racer, but even if i was id get china ones, unless i was sponsored by rigid or something.
 
Maertz said:
Served.... I also run a china ebay one, its held up fine, I compared it to a few rigids and seemed damn near identical. Im no baja racer, but even if i was id get china ones, unless i was sponsored by rigid or something.
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Not all the Chinese bars are created equal though. There is a lot of sh!t out there, hell, I'll say most of the stuff isn't good. Most bars use glass, not lexan, they use very cheap optics, low quality LEDs, poor assembly, bad or no gaskets, etc. I personally wouldn't buy the totally cheap stuff, but you can get a quality light if you do your research.
 
JC! Dave.... you weren't kidding when you said you take your lights seriously

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