Turning D Cell Maglites into LED'S?

inthedark1981

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So I've had my police issue 4D Cell Maglite forever, and working for Lowe's I see the conversion kits all the time to turn it into an LED light. Are the kits worth it? Do they make the flashlight that much better? Does it make the flashlight better or worse on battery life? Any suggestions or information anyone can would be greatly appreciated! :thinking:
 

Juan334

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the ones in the store i would assume are over priced and not that great but if you buy i kit from someone on here or customize it with like an LED you like and a reflector you like and an optic you like it will be your favorite flashlight
 

Ways

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I have had my 6D and 2C Maglites for a significant percentage of forever ;) i feel they where outclassed long ago by smaller more efficient and brighter LED lights and where sadly left to gather dust however i eventually decided on a whim to buy a Terralux LED upgrade bulb for my 6D and it was very effective as an upgrade to the incandescent bulb giving much greater light output with increased runtime but for me it was too little too late.

Then i bought a Fusion 36 LED upgrade off ebay (36 Nichia 5mm LED's in a kind of showerhead style drop in) Putting a Fusion 36 LED drop-in in my 6D and 2C has given both a new lease of life, although the Fusion 36 drop in is pure flood and to my mind at least does not so much upgrade the Maglites as it alters there function as they are now extremely efficient and long running wide area illuminators with almost no throw but a very impressive wall of light (the 6D i find particularly reassuring while searching for whatever it was that went bump in the night) While the Terralux LED drop in family was my first foray into bringing the Maglite up to date and i was not particularly impressed with it due to already having dedicated LED lights that where smaller / brighter and more efficient.

Bottom line, for me it is LED all the way, the Terralux LED i first tried was an upgrade to the incandescent bulbs i had been using and gave considerably more runtime with additional brightness and a more useful beam although the tint was rather blue but it was a very simple upgrade and relatively cheap as was the Fusion 36. If my go to light of choice was an incandescent Maglite i would have no hesitation in upgrading it to LED.
 

StarHalo

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The only Mag accessory at Lowe's worth mention is the Nite-Ize 10mm LED conversion; the tint is completely blue and the output sucks, but you'll get 100+ hours without dimming, which makes for an excellent emergency light, not so much a police duty light.

If you want something befitting a serious duty light, Google "Malkoff Devices"; these are the drop-ins favored by military and police folk.
 

purelite

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Its a tough choice in a way. You could just scrap the light and get a current Maglite 2-3D Led model for $15.00 !!!! That would be the cheapest route. Or the Malkoff dropins look great asmentioned if you can find one.

Is it worth investing so much into that old Mag? I guess if it has sentimental value to you . Otherwise dont spend the money on it . Sounds like you like flood lite though. Maybe the Terralux 3 led dropin would work for you. Thats in the 50-70 dollar range online.
 

dougie

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I have 2 of the of the old style 'D' size Mags and two 'C' size Mags all converted to run on LED's. Three have Terralux conversions and one 'D' size uses a Malkoff Drop in. One of the 'C' size lights uses a Terralux drop in powered by 3 x lithium C123's. This makes a great lightweight flashlight which is reliable and pretty darn near indestructible. The performance and beam qualities whilst pretty poor are a major step up from the incandescent originals. The Malkoff conversion sits in the car as a back up/emergency light and compliments the engineering of the original Mag with a simple but effective dropin which being a Malkoff I can completely rely on. However, having said all that it is my humble opinion these lights are not effective or useful in your line of work. Many people on hear will swear by this and that light but as you might have to trust your life to it one day remember that quality costs and even then nothing is 100% fail proof! For a primary light there isn't much out there that is rechargeable at the moment that I'd be happy to recommend. Unless you are happy with only one light (and that is a risky strategy) then you need two at all times. 1) Your primary, which can be anything you want and 2) a secondary back up which obviously shouldn't take up too much real estate on a belt. Read plenty of threads on here about various manufacturers and lights, ask questions and compare beam profiles and reviews both on here and on Youtube. Remember, that you need to equate into all of the above quality, reliability, serviceability and warranty before you commit your hard earned cash. Good luck and let us know what you decide?
 

Lightwriter

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The Terralux TLE-6EX is only about $15 at Amazon right now. Probably the best drop in that requires no other modification (ie cutting the cam off the reflector for a Malkoff, removing the focusing ability with a Terralux TLE-300M).
 

Groundhog

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I went with a Malkoff in my 3D light and I couldn't be happier. I can focus it so tight now it's darn near a light saber. It's crazy how far and small I can throw a spot of light. At around $70 plus $8 for a pre-cut reflector it isn't the cheapest option by any means.

http://www.malkoffdevices.com/shop/...1.html?zenid=4f89eaadf80ac3b6625acac9666cc4f4

I can understand not wanting to spend that kind of money. TerraLux makes decent upgrades that are a little more cost effective. I use the TerraLux AA upgrade for my mini Mag's and put a forward click on them. Found an old 2-AAA Mag that was a promotional gift so that's next on the list. I'm just not going to use the lights much if they aren't upgraded.
 

lightfooted

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Hmmm....I would hope that dept. issue light is no longer standard issue today, that'd be a lot like issuing S&W M&Ps with wadcutter loads today...weak and out dated. Personally I would recommend that you replace it completely...but upgrading using one of the drop-in kits is definitely the better way if you insist on keeping it around. No I don't mean one of the kits from Lowe's.
 

inthedark1981

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Its not really different from a regular 4D Cell Maglite, its just what the police actually carry. My dad had gotten this from a cop friend of his a long time ago so it is actually "police issue".
 

inthedark1981

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Thanks everyone for the advice! I will definitely take all that into consideration. From what everyone was saying I do think that I am just going to go out and get on of the new LED Maglites, and just hang on to this one as a back-up just in case. I'm really not willing to spend a ton of money to convert a 18+ year old Maglite to make it a really good LED, when as someone said I can get a brand new 2 or 3D cell one for $15! I love the one I have, and it does have a ton of sentimental value and still works like brand new, even after surviving a house fire back in June of 2011, so I guess I'm going to be off to Lowe's to be picking out my new Maglite after the Holiday's!! Thanks again everyone! :twothumbs
 

Hondo

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FYI, the regular price for the LED Mags is $30+, to get that price you'll want to be off to *Home Depot*, BEFORE the holiday. Look near the front of the store, for the ones packaged with Duracell batteries, not in the regular flashlight section. :)
 

alpg88

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home depot sells 3d and 2aa leds in one package, for 29.99 iirc
 

tjh434

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So I've had my police issue 4D Cell Maglite forever, and working for Lowe's I see the conversion kits all the time to turn it into an LED light. Are the kits worth it? Do they make the flashlight that much better? Does it make the flashlight better or worse on battery life? Any suggestions or information anyone can would be greatly appreciated! :thinking:

Quite a few options for doing this which can be found on here, or already mentioned. My advice would be don't bother. Just buy a new light, it will be far better in the end.

what's a police issue maglite? is it different from any other maglite?

Probably one issued by Police. :whistle:
 

inthedark1981

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I would imagine that they aren't...My Dad got this light like 18+ years ago, before anyone probably thought there would be LED flashlights. I would hope for the police officers' sake that they are getting better lights than a regular plain old flashlight. But I do know one thing for sure, one reason they did get these Maglites over any other flashlights is because they could be used as a non deadly weapon to protect themselves to either take the body shot or a head shot to knock out the bad guy to hopefully prevent them from having to pull their gun.
 
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