Recommend Me A Light For The Car And The Backyard

​I have a Sunwayman D40 which I am happy with except for the plastic button cover which came off.

I use it in the back of the house to watch when the dogs go out. I want something for the car for breakdowns and looking for stuff inside.

I can use the Sunwayman for the car and get a better light for outside. The throw is good but definitely would like the beam to spread out a bit more. Can be more money than a D40 and I also have a battery charger. Thanks in advance!

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

Get the metal 2AA Energizer. It's a nice floody beam, reasonable output and runtime, and it's only $11 or so. Perfect for a vehicle light if you put NiMh or Lithium primaries in it that won't leak.

Oh, the most important feature for a car light: it isn't black, so you can easily find it in the glove box or if it rolls under the car.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

BrightestBulb said:

​I have a Sunwayman D40 which I am happy with except for the plastic button cover which came off.

I use it in the back of the house to watch when the dogs go out. I want something for the car for breakdowns and looking for stuff inside.

I can use the Sunwayman for the car and get a better light for outside. The throw is good but definitely would like the beam to spread out a bit more. Can be more money than a D40 and I also have a battery charger. Thanks in advance!

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Olight i5T for the car. It is inexpensive, and runs on standard AAs. Two levels and more than enough light to change a tire with. The clip would work with a baseball cap to go hands free.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

SP2201G MagLite, Mini Safety Pack, Aa Twist Head with 97 Lumens


IMO a car light should be kept immediately available, and have a red traffic wand attachment.
The wand is so important, and helpful.

If you break down around a blind curve, or just over the other side of a hill, or berm, you'll want to get out and warn oncoming traffic so they don't crash into your disabled car. Perhaps you want to assist at the scene of an accident. You'll want to make the scene safe for other responders. Perhaps you'll want to assist an ambulance get through a clogged intersection so that they can save someone's life.

I used to recommend a Rayovac 2AA indestructible, with a fenix wand, when it was a 100 lumen light, with a 7 hour run-time. Now it is a 300 lumen light and lasts less than 2 hours. That's why I changed my recommendation to the 97 lumen Maglite.

I keep my rayovac stoked with Duracel NiMH rechargeables, and top it off once or twice a year when I think of it, and I keep a 4 pack of Energizer lithiums in the glove box for back-ups.

I also keep a couple of cheap penlights, and now a Convoy S2+ in a vinyl bag attached to my ashtray.
In the glove box, and the trunk I also have headlamps. A headlamp is the best tool for hands free changing of a tire.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

Traffic wands are a good idea, I have one for the 2nd​ gen LED 3D Mag I keep in my vehicle. As useless as strobe is for virtually anything else, it's great for use with a traffic wand. For this reason, I am considering replacing my old LED Mag for a ML300 that has strobe, though the ML300 has some parasitic drain.


I also have a couple of life gear AR tech flashlight/lanterns that can be set to flash in lantern mode, I figure that these can be used in place of road flairs to warn on coming traffic of a road hazard.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

xxo said:

Traffic wands are a good idea, I have one for the 2nd​ gen LED 3D Mag I keep in my vehicle. As useless as strobe is for virtually anything else, it's great for use with a traffic wand. For this reason, I am considering replacing my old LED Mag for a ML300 that has strobe, though the ML300 has some parasitic drain.


I also have a couple of life gear AR tech flashlight/lanterns that can be set to flash in lantern mode, I figure that these can be used in place of road flairs to warn on coming traffic of a road hazard.

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For you and the OP I recommend the ML50L 2 c cell, brightness lvls are comparable to the ML300 and the run times are better I currently run AA(Eneloops) In C cell adapters In It and I haven't noticed the parasitic drain In my ML50 that I have with my ML300...food for thought.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

Sambob said:

For you and the OP I recommend the ML50L 2 c cell, brightness lvls are comparable to the ML300 and the run times are better I currently run AA(Eneloops) In C cell adapters In It and I haven't noticed the parasitic drain In my ML50 that I have with my ML300...food for thought.

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I have one, great light, but it also has an electronic switch so there's going to be some drain, although it may be less than the ML300? - don't know.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

Thank you all for the responses! In my original post I mentioned that I wouldn't mind using the Sunwayman D40 in the car and buy a nice light that lights up the back yard when I let the dogs out at night. I guess I am looking for any excuse to buy a light thats bigger and better than the Sunwayman.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

BrightestBulb said:

Thank you all for the responses! In my original post I mentioned that I wouldn't mind using the Sunwayman D40 in the car and buy a nice light that lights up the back yard when I let the dogs out at night. I guess I am looking for any excuse to buy a light thats bigger and better than the Sunwayman.

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IMO the D40 is a terrible light especially running AA's for watching the dogs run at night!

You should throw that POS into your car and get a decent light for watching the dogs. :devil:

See if you can find a red diffuser cone that will fit it though.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

You have been here a lot longer than me and should know a lot more so I respect your opinion. It is my first light but I have been infected by the disease and want many more lights. I did not get any recommendations for my backyard/dog light so watched some YouTube and bought a Manker MC13 ultra throw. Hopefully I did good for my backyard purposes!

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

Maglite ML3004D, 1000 lumens, 600m beam distance, focusable for spot and flood, longest running flashlight I know of, (even when batteries are low the 183 lumens it puts out is very sufficient.) You can also purchase the wand attachment and have a way to turn it into a lantern style light or to signal to people behind you're broken down if you get the red one.

If budget is a bigger concern then perhaps a 4D Xenon Maglite, good throw can flood outward (with donut hole) and can fit the wand as well.

If size and budget is the concern perhaps a Streamlight Microstream USB, always have it plugged in ready to go and when you need it pull it off charge and you have a small light that doesn't take up space but should be bright enough for what you need.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

xxo said:

I have one, great light, but it also has an electronic switch so there's going to be some drain, although it may be less than the ML300? - don't know.

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I think unscrewing the tailcap slightly will alleviate that drain.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

BrightestBulb said:

You have been here a lot longer than me and should know a lot more so I respect your opinion. It is my first light but I have been infected by the disease and want many more lights. I did not get any recommendations for my backyard/dog light so watched some YouTube and bought a Manker MC13 ultra throw. Hopefully I did good for my backyard purposes!

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LOL...
I think you are responding to my comment.
I was just giving you validation for getting a light bigger and better than the sunwayman.

There are many who really like the D40.

I have three manker lights. All of good quality. I doubt that the MC13 would have been my choice, and you didn't ask for a dog light, you asked for a "light for the car."

take your time... there's lots to learn.
Welcome to CPF

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

Yes it was you and in my OP it stated I could also use the D40 in my car and replace it with a new dog light hence my purchase of the MC13. To further alleviate confusion as peeps keep talking about wands and diffusers I wasn't planning on a car safety light. Just wanted a light to look around in the car, under the hood in the trunk etc. My flashers are fine for emergencies/safety.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

BrightestBulb said:

Yes it was you and in my OP it stated I could also use the D40 in my car and replace it with a new dog light hence my purchase of the MC13. To further alleviate confusion as peeps keep talking about wands and diffusers I wasn't planning on a car safety light. Just wanted a light to look around in the car, under the hood in the trunk etc. My flashers are fine for emergencies/safety.

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This doesn't even deserve a response, but I'll reach out to you one more time.

The title of your thread is: recommend me a light for the car. It is NOT: recommend me a dog chasing light.

About ten years ago, about a mile from my house, a mailman stopped his mail truck with lights flashing. He was stopped around a blind curve in the road. Someone ran into him and killed him.

A few years later my wife and I passed a gal sitting in her broken down vehicle, in about the same spot where the mailman got killed. My wife had me stop.
I made a U turn, parked behind her with my flashers on, and ran to the top of the hill, around the curve, with a 28 inch wand, and directed traffic out of the shoulder lane. Maybe five minutes later the police arrived, with lights flashing, and he parked right behind my car.

From where I was standing, around the blind curve, I couldn't see the police car, with all of his lights flashing!

I decided to stay there pushing cars out of that lane, until the tow truck flat-bedded the car and took it away.

I also have a 3 piece set of those reflective traffic triangles. It is my understanding, that in Europe, they or something similar is required to be in each vehicle.

Re: Recommend Me A Light For The Car

A maglite, with a traffic wand. Just in case.

I like the 2C ML25 for its bullet proof design running on a pair of eneloops. The new version has a low setting that's still bright enough to use looking for stuff nearby with huge runtime. Plus being kinda bulky it aint easy to lose.

The silver Energizer mentiined in post 2 is also a good suggestion in my view. I keep one on my coffee table for 'round the house uses even though I literally have a flashlight about every 10 feet or so throughout my home. The Energizer gets used a lot.

Everybody gets hung up on strobes being for self defense but fail to note they are also great attention getting. So if the traffic wand is not available a light with a strobe setting would be good in the case of say, an alternator failure that caused the battery to drain, thereby causing the car to quit and not have the juice for flashers.

Dale Earnhardt once said "you can control 90% of your luck good or bad by being prepared or not".

I think I knew what I need after reading your posts.
Thanks!