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Yes It's Expensive, and it's better than HID : LED Light Bar

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:13 pm
by Fofiddy
OK now there has been alot of talk about alternative lighting on this board (posted in the wrong locations) HID kits, HID retrofits, HIR, the works. No two ways about it the OEM Halogens on the R51 are underpowered and the cost of a Euro retrofit for their HIDs is a rip off. The Idea has been thrown out there that it would be cheaper to get a Shrockworks bumper and mount after market HID driving lights that were properly designed and engineered for the task. I agree. But what about LED? In terms of light absorption, glare, color temp, power consumption, and durability LED is superior or the other technologies in every way shape and form so when I stumbled apon these guys I got really excited:

http://www.visionxoffroad.com/products/led/XmitterBar/
According to them this is for on/off road application. I'd throw a 32" on the bumper or say the monster 42" on the rack.
A set of 8" or 12" would be reasonable and illuminate the darkest pit of back country hell you could throw at them. Bulb life is the equivalent of being run continuously for 30 years. the 42" model has 80 3w LEDs that draw a whopping 20amps.

Now if only we could get some pics of this product in action...

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:45 pm
by Fofiddy
Good Reviw on the product... scratch the thought of using the 42" for a driving light:

http://www.jmdougan.com/VisionXReviews/XMitter.htm

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:52 am
by blink32
Nice write up. I need to pull the caps off the stock roof rails and see how one can run a wire to a power source.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:48 am
by boogyman
They look pretty sweet. Not that I need anything to light up 10 acres of darkness. The hid's the guy had looked to be enough for me. The thin setup is nice so it's not as obvious. I imagine that the Baja trucks have these, since they get as much light as possible for the race. I remember seeing a story about Ivan's truck and he had to put his lights on in a progression or the truck would stall from the amp draw. Ok now I'm just rambling. Sorry about that.

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:20 pm
by Gray
Sorry that two LED offroad light threads got started, here's some further info as to the XMitter solution including a recent instalation;

http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showt ... hp?t=13018

.

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:48 pm
by Fofiddy
Nice link Brick, they really seem way ahead of us on this one.
Although I recognize the 7000k temp range theoretically makes color differentiation a little more difficult, I don't need to know the exact hue of the obstical in the distance. I just need to know to avoid it.
It would be interesting to see a yellow LED model for snow/fog. (email already sent)

That aside I'm really impressed with what I see in the pictures and am feeling a serious itch to mount one of these on my roof rack or above the front plate. I'm looking forward to hearing more about what temp these would run after being on a while (I'm sure there is a monster sink on them for a a reason).

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 1:17 am
by Fofiddy
Man I hate to double post but this link is pretty good and it's always nice to have a choice.
http://www.holderoffroad.com/
Their larger bars are set up to be both a flood and driving light. Also there is a little movie link that shows the durability of the light source. Robby Gordon uses them, nuff said.