Anyone making some affordable-ish face-melting Mag drop-ins

With the pace that LED technology is advancing and prices are dropping, I'm wondering if anyone is making affordable-ish (light + drop-in under $100) drop-ins that use either an array of high power led's or a single monster to put out 1000+ lumens. I just want something to throw in my car that will put out significantly more light than my EDC for when i really need to light up the area. I just want a single stage (on-off) light. If i want less light, i'll use my EDC.

I don't have a workshop, so any modifications to the light should be the bolt on type.

there's the terralux tle-300 ..around 600 OTF from what i've read..runs 65$ I think..

The only commonly available drop in that is pretty bright, as Pounder stated, is the Terralux TLE-300M-EX that uses three Cree XR-E LEDs. I have two of them, one in a 4 D Maglite and another one in a 2 D Maglite powered by a 6 AA battery holder. My 4 D one was tested in Bigchelis' sphere at about 608 lumens at initial turn on. (Terralux rates it at 700 lumens.) It is brighter than my Fenix TK40 initially, but after three minutes its output dropped down to about 473 lumens. I don't know if the output dropping was due to the lousy alkaline batteries or heat build up. I'm curious what my new one will do as it is powered by Duraloop/Eneloop AA batteries.

I'm not aware of a drop in that is currently available and puts out at least 1000 lumens. Maglite drop ins are all pretty much a trade off between brightness, run time, and heat build up. I've seen some super bright modified Maglites, but they usually don't have any run time because the LED(s) are so over driven. Then they usually don't have very good heat dissipation so their brightness drops rapidly.

The TLE-300M-EX is a pretty good compromise between the three trade offs. To help with the heat dissipation, I used Arctic Silver 5 on both of mine to help the heat transfer from their heat sinks to the aluminum Maglite body tubes and heads. The TLE-300M-EX does have three output modes though, but the previous TLE-300M model only has one like you wanted. The older model is factory rated by Terralux to put out 600 lumens but I don't know what it really puts out the front. It's easy to tell the difference between the two as the TLE-300M has a black front face and the TLE-300M-EX has a gray front face.

The cheapest place that I could find the TLE-300M-EX at was Light Hound:

http://www.lighthound.com/TerraLUX-TLE-300-700-Lumen-Upgrade-for-4-6-D-Cell-MagLites_p_2150.html

Enter in the coupon code "cpf" to save an extra 2%.

Before someone mentions it, there also is the Malkoff Devices drop in upgrade for Maglites that is very highly regarded by other CPF members and costs $69. It is almost always out of stock though (thus I have never used one) plus at 164 lumens at initial turn on with 4 D alkaline batteries, it doesn't come anywhere near your requirement of 1000 lumens. That output drops down to 139 lumens after 30 seconds. Malkoff Devices rates it at 260 lumens. It's shown here:

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop/...ite-p-1.html?zenid=u61dsl14v91mdgkv7gr4dh6f42

The test results of these drop in upgrades are in this thread:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/260659

Didn't Malkoff used to make a P7 drop in for the mag? I actually went to his site to look for it earlier and didn't see it.

pounder said:

there's the terralux tle-300 ..around 600 OTF from what i've read..runs 65$ I think..

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Definitely not OTF lumens. TerraLux doesn't have a sphere.

Not sure what the new version is rated at. But I have the older version. It was only 300 lumens OTF. Still, no way is the new version pumping 600 lumens out the front.

You could try this drop-in.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/277748

Great value for money if you need a floody beam ... $23 delivered.
.

victory said:

Didn't Malkoff used to make a P7 drop in for the mag? I actually went to his site to look for it earlier and didn't see it.

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I have a modded Malkoff 2D and 3D with the P7. Currently, that is if you can find them in stock, they are listed as coming with a [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif][FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Cree XP-G LED[/FONT][/FONT].

I have the Malkoff triple Q5 drop in, 700 out the front on 3Ds . He did make a quad Q5 as well but they are rare.

march.brown said:

You could try this drop-in.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/277748

Great value for money if you need a floody beam ... $23 delivered.
.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is nice. I have 1.

march.brown said:

You could try this drop-in.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/277748

Great value for money if you need a floody beam ... $23 delivered.
.

Click to expand...

This is the kind of stuff I find amazing. For $23, you can get this, but for any appreciable upgrade, it seems like you're looking at well over $100. Maybe i should just wait and see what pops up.

Monocrom said:

Not sure what the new version is rated at. But I have the older version. It was only 300 lumens OTF. Still, no way is the new version pumping 600 lumens out the front.

Click to expand...

The latest version, the TLE-300M-EX, is rated at 700 lumens by Terralux.

My first one in a 4 D cell Maglite powered by Duracell Alkaline D cells initially put out 608 lumens. I was there when Bigchelis measured it. After three minutes it dropped down to 473 lumens. This was detailed in my post number three above.

My TLE-300M-EX is brighter than my Fenix TK40, which was measured at about 550 lumens right before my Maglite was measured using the same testing equipment. The results are in Bigchelis' big thread stuck at the top of this forum.

How To Mod a Maglite P7 - 38 PICS
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/238641

Locoboy5150 said:

Before someone mentions it, there also is the Malkoff Devices drop in upgrade for Maglites that is very highly regarded by other CPF members and costs $69. It is almost always out of stock though (thus I have never used one) plus at 164 lumens at initial turn on with 4 D alkaline batteries, it doesn't come anywhere near your requirement of 1000 lumens. That output drops down to 139 lumens after 30 seconds. Malkoff Devices rates it at 260 lumens. It's shown here:

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop/...ite-p-1.html?zenid=u61dsl14v91mdgkv7gr4dh6f42

The test results of these drop in upgrades are in this thread:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/260659

Click to expand...

That seems peculiar. Was the Malkoff XP-G mod tested only the one modded from SSC P4 to XP-G? I have trouble imagining Malkoff's OTF figures are that far off, especially when I compare my SSC P4 Malkoff Mod in a 4D mag to other lights I have and their various output levels.

Colorblinded said:

That seems peculiar. Was the Malkoff XP-G mod tested only the one modded from SSC P4 to XP-G? I have trouble imagining Malkoff's OTF figures are that far off, especially when I compare my SSC P4 Malkoff Mod in a 4D mag to other lights I have and their various output levels.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the details of the drop in that was tested. Bigchelis will have to chime in on that one.