Good drop in for 3 D cell Maglite?

[TD-Horne]

I'm sure that there are better flashlights available but I still want to rehabilitate what I have on hand.

I have a 3 D cell Maglite that I want to change to a brighter light for the same service. The LED replacement that I now have in it is not very bright at all. Can someone advise which conversion would accomplish an improvement in brightness without making the duration of use go into the single digit hours category. In other words I want a traffic director equipped with it together with it's OEM traffic cone to be able to use it for a whole night in the middle of winter and not having become much less bright by morning. A safety worker should not have to change batteries in the middle of the night when working during a disaster. This light will go in a disaster response team's equipment cache.

Tom Horne

 

[ampdude]

Is 100-200 lumens enough? Would certainly be brighter than the stock lamp and more efficient. There's quite a few long running options out there in that case, especially if you're going to use full capacity (11,000mAh or so) alkaline D cells. I would recommend a 4 cell light instead, but that's just me. You have what you have I guess.

 

[xxo]

Lumencraft has a good 325 lumen drop in:

Maglite LED Conversion Kit for 2,3,4,5,6 D cell and C cell Maglights Flashlights

325 lumen instant upgrade with Luminus SST40 LED for super bright light and long range.

lumencraft.com

...don't know if it will run 10+ hours on 3 alkaline D's, especially in cold temps.

 

[DaveTheDude]

Tom...

Here's another suggestion.

Malkoff Universal 2-6 D & C Size Maglite Adapter – Malkoff Devices

This is a Drop-In LED Upgrade Conversion for the old school incandescent Maglite® C and D Sized Flashlights. The MDMLA will allow you to use our brass bodied dropins in your incandescent Maglite® flashlight. The Adapter is constructed of CNC machined structural aircraft aluminum. Outputs and...

malkoffdevices.com

Gene Malkoff makes several flavors of drop-in replacements for older model Maglites. Multiple output levels are available.

Gene also makes an adapter that allows you to use two 21700 cells in a 3D Maglite. Longer runtimes at higher power...what's not to like?

 

[Dave D]

Check out Matt's video of Maglite LED upgrades.

LED Upgrades for Maglite (Top 5 Best)

 

[bykfixer]

Using an alkaline battery as the fuel source will likely lead to dimming issues when temps fall below 40. No way around that unless the light itself isn't allowed to become cold.

 

[alpg88]

leds do not really work that good with filters, if you using a cone you need an incandescent bulb. if you insist on led, you want a red one, not a white one, there isn't any red spectrum in white led to be filtered.

 

[M@elstrom]

I'm sure that there are better flashlights available but I still want to rehabilitate what I have on hand.

I have a 3 D cell Maglite that I want to change to a brighter light for the same service. The LED replacement that I now have in it is not very bright at all.

What are you using currently?

I used to run a TerralLUX TLE-6EXB (now discontinued) and found it adequate, not great but better than the incandescent it came with and runtime was sufficient, that suggested Lumencraft Firefly 325lm drop in looks alike a real contender in the Output Vs. Runtime battle but your cell chemistry choice will also be a factor.

 

[TD-Horne]

Is 100-200 lumens enough? Would certainly be brighter than the stock lamp and more efficient. There's quite a few long running options out there in that case, especially if you're going to use full capacity (11,000mAh or so) alkaline D cells. I would recommend a 4 cell light instead, but that's just me. You have what you have I guess.

I won't know what will be enough. I'm getting opinions from 200 up to 1200 and some much higher. That's why I'm going to ask current and recent counselors and camp staff to make that judgement.

Now that you have made me aware that there is a range of performance in Alkaline cells I'll buy a large supply of the best ones available for use by camp staff and counselors.

Tom Horne

 

[Kayaker530]

Tom...

Here's another suggestion.

Malkoff Universal 2-6 D & C Size Maglite Adapter – Malkoff Devices

This is a Drop-In LED Upgrade Conversion for the old school incandescent Maglite® C and D Sized Flashlights. The MDMLA will allow you to use our brass bodied dropins in your incandescent Maglite® flashlight. The Adapter is constructed of CNC machined structural aircraft aluminum. Outputs and...

malkoffdevices.com

View attachment 41798
Gene Malkoff makes several flavors of drop-in replacements for older model Maglites. Multiple output levels are available.

Gene also makes an adapter that allows you to use two 21700 cells in a 3D Maglite. Longer runtimes at higher power...what's not to like?
View attachment 41799

I have those exact upgrades in one of my Maglites. I went with the M61N drop-in. The 21700 adapter is great. It was a pricey upgrade with new form factor batteries and a charger that would accept protected 21700's. But very good outcome. I don't think I would put it into a cache or use it for directing traffic though.

 

[Kayaker530]

I'm sure that there are better flashlights available but I still want to rehabilitate what I have on hand.

I have a 3 D cell Maglite that I want to change to a brighter light for the same service. The LED replacement that I now have in it is not very bright at all. Can someone advise which conversion would accomplish an improvement in brightness without making the duration of use go into the single digit hours category. In other words I want a traffic director equipped with it together with it's OEM traffic cone to be able to use it for a whole night in the middle of winter and not having become much less bright by morning. A safety worker should not have to change batteries in the middle of the night when working during a disaster. This light will go in a disaster response team's equipment cache.

Tom Horne

I have rehabbed an old Maglite into a much better flashlight using the Malkoff Upgrades mentioned in this thread. It resulted in a great light. However...

I want to challenge you on the thought that a safety worker should not have to change batteries mid shift. Why not? We take mandatory breaks, hydrate, take on calories, take care of body functions. I have often had to change radio batteries depending upon my assignment. And I have had to change flashlight batteries mid shift. Not a big deal. This mindset allows for other solutions.

For traffic directing I have mostly seen small plastic 2C or 2D cell flashlights with matching wands used for that purpose. Effectively. I don't think I have ever seen anyone in the last 15 years using a Maglite to do that. Small bright light plastic flashlight is probably much better suited and cheaper than some of the upgrades to the Maglite.

Be very careful about asking others for their input on how many lumens is adequate. Most people don't look at runtime graphs. They bought a light because it says it puts out 600 lumens on high. They never looked at the makers graph showing that after a few minutes the output dropped down to about 325. A family member was recently showing off their new 2,000 lumen light. I pulled out my Lupine and programmed it for 2000 Lumens. Huge Difference. Not even close.

I would say to rehab your old light. Just realize that there are better tools for the traffic directing. Be careful about asking others for lumen output recommendations.

 

[TD-Horne]

I want to challenge you on the thought that a safety worker should not have to change batteries mid shift. Why not? We take mandatory breaks, hydrate, take on calories, take care of body functions. I have often had to change radio batteries depending upon my assignment. And I have had to change flashlight batteries mid shift. Not a big deal. This mindset allows for other solutions.

If they gotta then they gotta. Something that happens during disaster relief efforts is that we get asked to do "Other duties as assigned." We're radio operators but if what they need is evacuation route guides we're that to. Yes we do work long hours without any real breaks. A couple of protein bars, the water from your hydration pack and a quick visit to the bushes is what you get. It doesn't have to be fun. It only has to be what's needed. So if we can source lights that will run for 8 hours straight we will. And just like with anything else if we can't we will cope. [I would emphasize that this is an entirely different inquiry than my questions about lights for ground search.] These would be our personal hand lights with things like traffic directing wands on them. I cannot see a need for 2200 lumens of output in a personal hand light. Something which could do 100 lumens on low, ~300 on medium sustainable for as long as possible using the alkaline batteries which are available in the FEMA supply chain, a high setting that could go a couple of hours when absolutely necessary would be great. Not possible? Oh Well.

Supply will not have CR123s or at least I've never seen them available. We feel blessed when they can provide C cells for the telephones. They always have D cells. They usually have AA cells. Seldom have AAA cells. Anything else is quite rare. You can bring anything you are willing to carry with you but walking in or up to a work position is normal. Under those conditions we have enough to do carrying a 40 A/Hr Li FePH4 battery and a 1000 watt Honda generator a couple of miles. That is pack board and chest, butt, and belly pouch work. Enough specialized batteries to last 10 days? Not happening. Some one hikes out every 2nd or 3rd day and pack boards what we need back in.

{I had to fire one of our volunteers when he said he didn't come to be a pack mule and refused to take his turn. I took him and the pack board down to marshaling and turned him over to transport to get him to a buss station for the trip back home. Then I hiked back in with the supplies and got back to work.} It wasn't worth the hike in to get Red Cross baloney sandwiches. Mind you they were doing a hell of a job feeding hundreds of people at a time but supply was able to provide Meals Ready to Eat to relief workers and when our deployment sustainment ran out on day 5 that was a better choice.

Just so folks now here is the order of desirability for food service on disaster mitigation work. If you like baloney sandwiches find the Red Cross. The Salvation Army will provide hot food and enough of it and no one would call it bad. They do a good job there just aren't as many of them. If the Southern Baptist Relief makes it to your area of operations things just got a lot better because those folks can COOK!

Tom Horne

 

[Dave D]

If you are having to carry gear any distance then weight of kit is important.

A 3 C cell Maglite weighs 30oz, a Streamlight 3AA ProPolymer Dualie weighs 6.8oz, a replacement set of AA batteries will also have a considerable saving in weight over 3 replacement C cells.

Streamlight 3AA ProPolymer Dualie

If you are storing any flashlight for occasional use then don't leave Alkalines in it, they will leak! Either store without any batteries or fit the lithium version which have a 10 years shelf life. You can use the lithiums initially when deployed and then swap with the supplied alkalines when they are done.

 

[hsa]

^ +1 Plus it is yellow and it has that great clip.

 

[alpg88]

It takes exactly 30 seconds to swap batteries in a maglite, seems like some make a mountain of cosmic proportions out of a molehill about it. This is not a heart surgeon doing a surgery we are talking about traffic control, on a camp property.

 

[alpg88]

I won't know what will be enough. I'm getting opinions from 200 up to 1200 and some much higher. That's why I'm going to ask current and recent counselors and camp staff to make that judgement.

Now that you have made me aware that there is a range of performance in Alkaline cells I'll buy a large supply of the best ones available for use by camp staff and counselors.

Tom Horne

MAy i ask, what is wrong with incandescent set up of a stock maglite as far as using it with a cone? i have several lights with built in red, green, blue ,(old square military lights) when i swapped inc bulbs for a leds, i noticed the red became very dim, even thou original bulb was making less light, it looked brighter than led when red filter was used. so stock 3d mag makes about 45lm, it will be as bright as 200lm led to the eye with red cone/filter. Also there is a factor of eye strain, when someone if waving a bright light in front of their face for hours in a dark., not so great if you ask me. Despite of general belief that red has little to no effect on our eyes ability to see in a dark, it is true only to a certain extent, I have been blinded by bright red light and had red dot in my eyes from bright red leds. from my own builds and even some cars tail lights while standing behind them waiting for a green light to come on, some cars have it so intense i could still see their lights burned into my retina even when i closed my eyes.

 

[bykfixer]

It takes exactly 30 seconds to swap batteries in a maglite, seems like some make a mountain of cosmic proportions out of a molehill about it. This is not a heart surgeon doing a surgery we are talking about traffic control, on a camp property.

Exactly how much traffic would a remote mountainous road have at midnight?
Seems to me if the person is wearing light colored clothing and/or reflectors there should be time to swap batteries before the next rush of traffic occurs. And if a motorist does happen upon the traffic guide they should be seen by oncoming headlights....that is unless it's a boot legger running from the G-Man all lights out like.

There was a story at one point that Steve McQueen had the brake lights turned off on one of his race cars in case he ever had to run from "the man".

 

[hsa]

Ahhhh.. I can do it in 29.

 

[bykfixer]

The spring being so stiff may cause some to take a little longer. It pushes back pretty good so practice may be a good idea to ensure no cross thread drama occurs.

 

[rwolfenstein]

I didnt see it mentioned, but Niteize makes drop ins for the maglite line and I have always liked them.