Surefire L1 still relevant?

[Kestrel]

[...] Just this week though a 6th gen appeared at a local(PHL) buy and sell site for around 88USD. Thinking of getting it as a backup for my modded one.

I think $88 is a very fair price and I would be tempted as well. I have two that are modded with a 4500K XM-L (which is the perfect upgrade format IMO), plus one mint one as a backup to them.

I eschew IMR's for mine as I don't want to stress the drivers - so they are secondary compared to my (guilt-free-lumen) LiIon lights, but they always reside in day packs & BOB's for what is IMO the ultimate small backup light.

 

[RobertB]

Spot on. They know of the demand and they are taking advantage.

Just this week though a 6th gen appeared at a local(PHL) buy and sell site for around 88USD. Thinking of getting it as a backup for my modded one.

If it were mint condition, I'd buy that in a heartbeat

 

[teak]

Now I guess I am mistaken, because I haven't seen my L1 for a longtime, But I was under the impression that the gen6 body was "just a body" meaning no driver like the previous gens had. I also "thought" i seen some pics of an EB1T head on a L1 body. Am I loosing my mind? I also thought I seen Malkoff Scout heads on gen6 bodies as well? Someone please set my mind straight if I am all off.. lol!

 

[sgt253]

The gen 6 has the driver in the body, the head is"dumb".

 

[Bogie]

All L1's have the driver in the body with dumb heads

 

[teak]

Thanks for clarifying that. I could have sworn my gen 6 cree was just a tube, but obviously not..

 

[m4a1usr]

Now I guess I am mistaken, because I haven't seen my L1 for a longtime, But I was under the impression that the gen6 body was "just a body" meaning no driver like the previous gens had. I also "thought" i seen some pics of an EB1T head on a L1 body. Am I loosing my mind? I also thought I seen Malkoff Scout heads on gen6 bodies as well? Someone please set my mind straight if I am all off.. lol!

Your not losing your mind. Well not over the EB1T head being mounted. I think I remember that one too. As far as using an L1 body sans the driver that's not to hard to do. I took one of my A2's and made it a franken A2 by removing the in body driver and using a short spacer to extend the 16670 battery inside. Now its got E2C and a P60 bezel with a custom single mode LED. And with the 2 stage TC its got that just right feel. If you know what I mean!

 

[teak]

Yes, I had a 5th gen L1 that I removed the driver used a 16670 and used a VME head with a M60. After I did it I wished I hadn't..lol. I personally thought the old "22 lumen" high was pretty useful and ran forever on a battery..So I sold it off and told myself I will never cut on any generation of L1's..Now I have 2 Gen 6's. One I carry often and the other just sits. The 6th gens were a tad brighter then my 110 lumen E1B's, And since the 2 stage tailcap is my favorite I prefer it over anything else. I am on the hunt for a red L1. I let a friend borrow mine when we were hunting and he lost the damn thing, never to be found again.

Your not losing your mind. Well not over the EB1T head being mounted. I think I remember that one too. As far as using an L1 body sans the driver that's not to hard to do. I took one of my A2's and made it a franken A2 by removing the in body driver and using a short spacer to extend the 16670 battery inside. Now its got E2C and a P60 bezel with a custom single mode LED. And with the 2 stage TC its got that just right feel. If you know what I mean!

 

[Dingle1911]

Could someone please elaborate on removing the drive. Are you able to re-install or is this a permanent change?

 

[Kestrel]

Could someone please elaborate on removing the drive. Are you able to re-install or is this a permanent change?

It's difficult but can be a reversible change. Check my older threads for my "Surefire L2 / MCE" build; I show details of extracting the driver module from the L2 body which is the same operation. However, if the light is bored/etc, the driver module loses a reference shelf which it sets up against; my pictures show this pretty well. Hope this helps,