LeefGear Body & KL3 head (Pics)

[Daylo]

I already had a Surefire C3 and a KL3 head when I came across these components that seemed to good to pass up. I ordered the items on a Thursday night/Friday morning and received them on the following Monday so I have to give LightHound a big two thumbs up for speedy delivery.



Parts list from LightHound:

One: LeefBody C Tail C Head 1x18500 Battery HA III Natural Finish

One: Ultrafire Multi-Battery Charger 14500 / 17500 / 18500 / 18650 / RCR123 3.7 volt Lithium Battery Charger

Two: 18500 Protected Rechargeable Lithium Batteries





Leef Body: The body was machined on a CNC lathe from 6061 heat treated aluminum alloy with HAIII finish. The quality, machining, and finish are pretty good, not quite on par with Surefire parts in my opinion but few lights/components are. Fit with the KL3 Head and C3 tailcap is nice and snug, it is obvious that Leef knew what they were doing when they designed the body. Color of the HAIII finish on the body does not perfectly match the color of the Surefire components but it is close enough to not have negative effect on the appearance of the light.

Ultrafire Multi-Battery Charger: Nice charger, I threw in 2 18500 batteries right out of the box and in about an hour they were both ready to go. The charger is extremely easy to use, accepts many Lithium battery sizes, and can charge a single battery at a time as well.


18500 Protected Rechargeable Lithium Batteries: I have not yet done any runtimes but these guys seem to do the trick pretty well. They are 3.7 Volt 1500mAh batteries that are 1.5 times the length of 123a batteries. I like the size of the 18500s because I can run one of them in the new body or put both in my C3 body and the KL3 head will handle it with no problems.

Light Output: Light output appears to be identical on the KL3 head whether I'm running it off of 3 123As or 1 18500.



Final Thoughts: All in all this is a pretty cool combination that I'm pretty happy with. It was a little on the pricy side but has added some uniqueness to my collection. The size of the light with the Leef Body is still a bit large for an EDC in my opinion but much more pocketable that the C3 form factor. This is the first rechargeable setup in my collection so it should see a decent amount of use.



One last note, I do not currently own a CREE drop-in for the original C3 Surefire head but I'd be willing to bet it would be a pretty decent combination with this setup….yet another item on the list.

 

[Cypher]

Very cool. I wish I had a Leef body....well one in every flavor actually but that's besides the point.

Just a little warning - you may be disappointed when you try to put your 18500s in the C3 body. Unless you bored it of course.

 

[jumpstat]

How's the throw of the KL3? SF rated it at 19lumens, so whats the runtime compared to the KL1 if everything else the same. Is the beam squarish like KL1? Any ugly artifacts such as rings etc? Thanks in advance.

 

[T4R06]

The throw is not as impressive as KL1. The new optic of KL3 is much floodier than KL1. I modded mine to SSC not impressive. Im experimenting more. I put M1 reflector and gives more flood.

 

[Daylo]

The KL3 Head seems to be more about a decent amount of light for a decent amount of time and huge on throw. The beam really has no uigly artifacts/rings, it has a squarish hotspot and a decent amout of flood.

Cypher, you are correct, the 18500 sure don't fit in the C3 body...bummer.

 

[T4R06]

here is my configuration:
CC leef 18650 body
leefgrip
hex leef tailcap
G&P tactical bezel

still deciding of what drop-in will i put

"bad boy"

 

[nc987]

the new KL3's dont have the throw of the previous versions. They implemented rings into the lense on the new ones that helped flood but dimished throw. The old ones were pure throw, good light and great runtime.