Led light bars, what brand and why

NFRs2000NYC said:
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.
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I didnt say they were, but how many people have had a chinese one fail compared the rigid?
 
Army_Vet said:
JC! Dave.... you weren't kidding when you said you take your lights seriously

Sent from my XT907 using WAYALIFE mobile app
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I do, and generally like to know what Im buying. I posted the above as general info so that people can make their own decisions. I like my rigid lights, they work very well, but I honestly can't see why there is a 100% percent price difference for a product that is no different, other than the name.
 
Maertz said:
I didnt say they were, but how many people have had a chinese one fail compared the rigid?
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Honestly it isn't about failure. Unless its total garbage, chances are, they won't fail, LEDs seldom do. However, I have seen 40" lightbars that put out less light than ONE of my Rigid D2s or Aurora lights, so there is a quality difference. Having said that, it only goes up to a point. A $600 lightbar will have a very noticeable difference than a $150 lightbar. However, a $1500 may not have a noticeable difference against the $600 bar. It's up to the consumer to decide at what point the law of diminishing returns kicks in for them.
 
NFRs2000NYC said:
Honestly it isn't about failure. Unless its total garbage, chances are, they won't fail, LEDs seldom do. However, I have seen 40" lightbars that put out less light than ONE of my Rigid D2s or Aurora lights, so there is a quality difference. Having said that, it only goes up to a point. A $600 lightbar will have a very noticeable difference than a $150 lightbar. However, a $1500 may not have a noticeable difference against the $600 bar. It's up to the consumer to decide at what point the law of diminishing returns kicks in for them.
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Thats my point i doubt theyd fail. If more light is the concern why not get 2 bars at the $150 area. Id bet thats more light than the $600 one or the $1600 one.
 
Maertz said:
Thats my point i doubt theyd fail. If more light is the concern why not get 2 bars at the $150 area. Id bet thats more light than the $600 one or the $1600 one.
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Honestly, it all depends on components used. Couple that with the fact that unless you want to run 6 50" lightbars on the roof, it behooves a person to get one that gets the job done. We are speaking in generalities here, since we are not talking about any specific lightbars, but from what I saw first hand, the ultra cheap units are poorly made, don't seal well and fog up, interfere with CB and AM/FM, etc. I guess if you are going for the look, then it doesn't matter that much, but if you actually want them to work, it's worth it to buy a better product. Almost all the LED companies on the market are rebadged Hanma units (the largest LED light manufacturer.) If you order enough lights, you can have the hanma name removed and your own line put on. If Eddie ordered 2500 lightbars, they will machine WAYALIFE on the bar instead of Hanma. If you look at the new KC LED lights, they are rebadged Hanmas, but at a MUCH more expensive pricepoint. One of the biggest sales tactics of these LED lights is the housing. Companies are trying to stick them into sexy futuristic looking housings to make them *look* expensive, but on the inside, the LEDs, board, etc are all the same.
 
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.
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One would hope so, but unfortunately this isn't true either. I can only speak to my experience with the leds we buy, but would venture to say that it is generally true for all leds.

We use leds which emit in the near infrared and actually have to perform 100% incoming inspection on them because of output. We use an integrating sphere to gauge light output and have found a gaussian distribution (bell shaped curve) of output with most falling within +/- 5% but about 20% are at 10% or more while fed the same current.

If the mfg is not binning the leds you will have some good and some bad leds in your bar. I don't know if any mfgs actually do this. Its possible to drive all the leds to the same output but its time consuming.

Theoretically a mfg could buy the most efficent leds and make bars that produce more light at the same draw, who knows if anyone does this. We have to bin all our leds to make matched sets and then adjust the set to get the desired output. Garuntee cheap mfgs don't do this and who knows if "good" mfgs do this either.
 
CaliCrusher said:
Yeah that's the price. But Alibaba? That's kinda risky dealing with China direct, no?
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It's not "china" it's directly from the manufacturer. I didn't order through alibaba. I just used it to contact the rep and did everything directly. Everything was shipped fedex with tracking so I had zero issues. Emails were answered during business hours (keep the time difference in mind) so I had zero issues.
 
NFRs2000NYC said:
It's not "china" it's directly from the manufacturer. I didn't order through alibaba. I just used it to contact the rep and did everything directly. Everything was shipped fedex with tracking so I had zero issues. Emails were answered during business hours (keep the time difference in mind) so I had zero issues.
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Ok, I would be more worried about financial recourse with money going outside the US should the product fail. But I guess that's not the case here. :thumbup:
 
CaliCrusher said:
Ok, I would be more worried about financial recourse with money going outside the US should the product fail. But I guess that's not the case here. :thumbup:
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I still used paypal for payment so you have recourse. I also needed a few extra screws (lost some when I was taking the lights apart) and they shipped me 100 extra (you read that right) at no charge and very quickly. Like I said, te customer support I received from them has been the same as rigid.
 
The way aurora ordering works is pretty easy...I email my rep vivi at vivi@szaurora.com. Their prices are dependant on how much you order. In order to get the wholesale pricing, you need to order 10 lights (doesn't matter which ones.) When I did it, I ordered a 50", a 10" and 8 Dually style lights. If you do NOT order 10 units, then each light will have a $30 increase...so if you get a 50" and a 10", you will pay $30 more on each of them. Then you pay with paypal, so tack on 3%, then shipping, then customs. When I ordered my 10 lights above, it was just under $1400 for all 10, plus $72 in customs. Obviously if you order 1 light, your fees will be much less. If you have a few jeep buddies, it makes a lot of sense to go in on it together. It can be ANY 10, flushmounts, 50" bars, etc. If you order, makes sure you specify you want the 5W LED bulbs.

If they ask you about the "bat beam" option, that is the non-american way to say "strobe" so you do NOT want that. They have spot, flood and combo, but some lights are available in one pattern only, depending on the light. Those of you with dozers can rock their new mining series
http://offroad.en.alibaba.com/produ...0_inch_rechargeable_mining_helmet_lights.html

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Oh, and I don't have any stock, friends, royalties, or anything else from them. Just trying to pass along a good deal.
 
Sharkey said:
So what's the difference between that site and the aurora led USA site? Seems like they have different products.:idontknow:

Edit: looks like my question was already addressed.
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Just checked it out, it is definitely a third party
http://whois.net/whois/auroraledusa.com

Registrant Organization: OE Mobile Audio LLC
Registrant Street: PO Box 56
Registrant City: Fishers
Registrant State/Province: IN
Registrant Postal Code: 46038
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.8009289554
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I'll take assembled in the USA over made entirely in China. I wish we could get more products made here but our over regulation makes it stupid to make things here. Not to mention Americans want fifty dollars an hour to assemble thing they want cheap.
 
BBrown626 said:
I'll take assembled in the USA over made entirely in China. I wish we could get more products made here but our over regulation makes it stupid to make things here. Not to mention Americans want fifty dollars an hour to assemble thing they want cheap.
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As a consumer, that is 100% your right. Only you can decide if assembled in the USA is worth 100% more of your money vs a product built with the same components built entirely in China. As for the prefer the USA assembled/made vs China, your comment is a little bit simplistic. The US generally doesn't have cheap labor. We are generally an educated country, so our labor is "higher caliber." As a result, we use our resources on better labor and farm out cheap labor. As you noted in your post, American cheap labor results is FAR poorer products than foreign cheap labor. Cheap labor in the US is generally done by people that aren't happy doing said job, whereas foreign cheap labor is generally happy for having a job at all. To illustrate my first point, here is a prime example...rigid doesn't manufacture anything...they simply buy Chinese components, and assemble them on a bench. The guys doing the assembly probably aren't getting paid a ton. On the flipside, aurora builds their own circuitboards (along with the rest of the light)...the circuit boards are made on 100% US produced circuit board printers that cost $75,000+, and have to be built by skilled well paid engineers. As a result, Aurora actually contributes MORE to the US economy than rigid, since they make it possible for well paid positions to exist in the USA. Global economics isn't as simple as made in the USA vs Made in XYZ.
 
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