Re: 2015 led light bars ?
Hey guys,
looking to throw a low profile led light bar under the roof rack on my forester to help cut down on shadows in the road, already have good lights on the front, this is just a little something extra.
Looking for 31"/800mm single row led in the midrange price point.
Ive found ledbars with identical manufacturer specs for prices from $50 to over $1000. And no really consistent review sites.
I dont really feel the need to spend 1k on a secondary light which can only ever be used offroad but I also dont want to waste 200 on something when I might be able to get 10 times the actual output for only twice as much.
Suggestions?
All of the specs of importance come down to what will be happening while you are driving with these on.
For example:
1) Crawling along a fire road at slow speed on the way to a fishing spot?
2) Driving down a long straight road lined by trees (Or other vertical obstructions to sight/hiding deer, etc)
3) Driving along a very curvy road lined by trees
4) Driving along a road bordered by nothing but fields/open space/open lines of sight
5) How fast are you going?
6) How far can you see in these locations if it were daylight?
Think of all the scenarios that might apply as to when you might need the extra light....add the qualifications on speed and distance. Obviously, there will be a mix of conditions, so, think of the ones that would be most limiting/hardest to overcome in your projected drives, etc.
The lumen output is a good spec as far as TOTAL output, but, the less expensive makers tend to LIE about the specs. Other specs that are important and almost never supplied are the cd (Tells you how FAR the beam is projecting with how much light at what distances), the IPX ratings (How dust/water resistant it is), and, things you can't see but make enormous differences in performance and longevity, such as the quality of the seals, the depth of thread overlaps, the heat sinking, the thickness of wires and the quality of the soldering, etc.
So LED Light Bar A might advertise 20,000 lumens and a price of $300, and give you almost nothing else about it but a pic, which may or may not include a disclaimer that the pic may not be of what they send you. It may have derived that lumen out put from either just making it more than whatever they noticed their competition had advertised, or, just multiplying what the LED maker said the max output would be for each LED, by the number of LED's.
That means that the real lumen output was never measured, and that, due to a lack of heatsinking, thin wires, poor ground paths, poor solder, the losses at lenses/optics, lower than max spec current, and so forth, the actual output might be 5,000 lumens instead of the 20k advertised.
5 k is still a lot of light though, but, on the cheaper lights, they KNOW that newbs who buy their stuff will think the light is "Hella Bright! if most of that light is cast in a bright pool right in front of you, so that the glare stops your pupils down, changes your eye chemistry from night adapted to day adapted, and, makes you go "WOW!!! That's BRIGHT!....but also makes it harder to see anything past that bright pool of light.
The best lights will put very LITTLE light right in front of you, as your headlights are typically in need of very little ADDED light close up, but REALLY need help out where the low beams end/the hi's are running out of juice...to EXTEND your line of sight.
So if the better light makes 15,000 honest lumens, and puts most of them down range where your headlights were leaving things a bit dim...your night vision is still working, and, you CAN now see things out there you couldn't with just headlights.
The too much proximal light scenario, while WORKING to make newbs THINK that they have great lights (They LOOK BRIGHT!), don't actually work in real life to do what the newb THOUGHT they were going to do for them (Help them see better, avoid more deer, etc)
In racing for example, they discuss it in terms of the newbs seeing what they are crashing into really well, vs the more experienced guys seeing what they WOULD HAVE crashed into because they saw it in time.
A roof light shines down more than a headlight, so the added dimension fills the shadows cast by lower mounted lighting, and provides a more 3D view.
And so forth....so, in that regard, those lights will help, and, after that, its about "how much".
