Product Review: gtlightingusa 7" HID Offroad lights

Ok i will start this off as a review from the previous groupbuy, this is not a bash thread so keep the negative comments about the "vendor" away

I recently opted to go through with a groupbuy for HID offroad lights

My overall experience with the seller falls into a 7 out of 10

The seller was very quick to reply to pm's and posts, he did promise a delivery date but took a few extra days to ship, which life is life, it only worked out to an extra couple days until I received the product

The cons were the seller un aware of the lights not actually being Kragen as they were advertised, and the very very small break down in communication. And being overcharged on shipping, when I am charged 1XX.XX and the shipping sticker only says 4X.XX, it does raise some flags

The Product Quality of this specific product falls into a 5 out of 10

here are some actual in hand pictures of the product












As you can see i tore apart my brand set lights and im sure infact voiding any warranty

But there have been some questions of the device itself and how it was built etc....


Being sold a 55w set-up I forgot to ask about changing to a lower color tone until I received the product, it is an ungawdy amount of blue(for my liking) for a 6k bulb, this I tore it apart, and found right away it is a 55W ballast on a 35w bulb, so it does not explain the reasoning for being Blue, should at that point be white so closer to 5k

the bulb life will suffer a bit, BUT be warned this is not a true 55w set-up

Now to swap to a new lower color rating you need to order an H3 bulb, which is what I am going to be doing in the very near future

as for quality of light, im not sure, Yes it is extremely bright, and yes it lights up a room.



My cellphone shows a 5k ish color, but until i mount it in the truck i wont know for sure, but to me its a little blue still in person, which wont fly with snow


as for overall build its not horrible, but its not great, you can tell the HID kit is a no name, but the actual inside is cleanly done

My plans for these lights might to mount an FXR kit instead on the inside or a blazer projector, not a 100% sure yet

for an Overall rating im still going to 7 out of 10, I will purchase more from GT Lighting USA,


I just performed some Amperage testing on these lights, take note this is only for the 7" 55W device, but i presume the 4" will be the same with a 55W kit

while starting up these devices run at 5.8amps draw so 69.6watts of power consumption

while running these devices run at 4.4amps draw so 52.8watts of power consumption

Now the average vehicle will run around 14 to 14.4 volts, this where sizing of relays and fuses becomes tricky and should physically test your lights under a running status, well im not taking my Fluke 365 out in the rain to put the lights on test

so I suggest running a 20 amp Relay to run 2 ot 3 of these lights, and an inline fuse of atleast 15A's

the other thing is the amperage could drop when its running at 14v's I will check once I install the lights and perform all my electrical system checks, i dont need my truck burning down because something was drawing too much power and I oversized a fuse/relay set-up and ran too small of wire


My review of the LED bar is to come

 

oops wrong forum kinda of


Mods can this be moved to the "product review" forum

 

the reflector looks crooked. its suppose to stand perfectly vertical with the lights. These and the Kragen lights are exactly the same. Kragen buys them from a company who puts a fancy print on the box and marks them up 20-30 more than most companies. my 55w hella @6000k still has a slight hint of blue. From what I was told 35 watt bulbs are also commonly used for 55w kits. they can handle up to 65 watts. My headlights are 35w bulbs with 55w ballast. been pretty solid so far.

 

i took it apart lol, I still have more work to do before I install them , this also by the weird angle of my lighting shot

 

oh, my bad. Lol. I've seen a few of those lights around my area and some have crooked reflectors. So I thought it was made like that.

 

than they were like me or who ever took it apart and did not look at their refelector bowl when they installed them

 

Yes, as previously stated - its common to have a 35W bulb with a 55W ballast.

Anxious to see how these cope with heat from the 55W output. It's dark about 16 hours a day up here around October. I know that 55W was too much heat for my Morimoto Mini's to handle.

Definitely going to swap bulbs when I get the chance. There's a drastic reduction in output compared to my 4300k FX-Rs.

Overall, happy with them. Think I may put some AMP pigtails on the lights, though.

 

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=4125

 

if im buying TSR again ill be buying myself some projectors to retro in

 

From the first pic you posted - the reflector is definitely crooked inside the housing, thus leaving a wierd beam pattern. Kinda of crappy that you would have to tear apart the whole housing just to re-aim the reflector to get the correct light output directly outta the box.
Also, plastic mounting brackets are no-bueno. Those are going to turn into ball-joints over time.

 

I took it apart !!! i guess because no one reads anything but the first post ill open my second box and take a picture of how they are from factory

so with me taking it apart, i did not check my alignment as I knew id be changing to bulb very quickly, and now thats changed too as i guess im just using them as housings for my blazer retrofit

 

Seen a lot of these lights in the dirt. Seen some of them break, seen some of the hold up. Bottom line is, these lights will give you great distance that LEDs will simply not do, no matter how big an LED bar you have, or how many lumens, an HID light will always light up that dark patch way the fuck down the trail.

 

You got raped on shipping. I'd be pissed, I hate when sellers do that.

 

I thought the pics you first took were out of the box, my bad.

Aaron (blackhawke88) is also right. LED bars are nice if you are just trying to see up close. HIDs will always be better than LED bars for distance

 

yes and its why i've went with a combination of the two,

i can tell you however, that the overall build of these + plastic will not take lightly to the bumpy roads, once my review for the LED bar is up, im sure the "vendor" will be happier with me, currently this product if I were him, I would not see as an "offroad" product, it will not pass the durability of the roads with washboard for very long

the good news is, i do belive the outer case will hold up, so I will attempt to change the mounting hardware from plastic to metal in the future

 

oh and some bench testing which is crucial while sizing fuses and relays!

a single light pull 5.8 amps @ 12VDC while starting up, 69.6watts at startup!
the running amperage is 4.4 amps @ 12VDC while running, so the average consumption is around 52.8watts

so i can safely say a 20 amp relay will run 3 of these, size the fuses according though,

so in this case with 2 of them I will only run a 15A fuse, but i was running 3 i would run a 20A fuse

you could go to to a 7.5 for one or a 12.5 for 2, there just slightly more uncommon

 

Curious to see how fast my mounting hardware wear out lol. I was just in Edmonton this weekend and was thinking, damn Alberta's highways are a lot better then ours. If its not the trans Canada it's shit. Also you definately got graped on shipping. I ordered 2. 4" and 2 7" lights. When I saw how much it was I pm'd him whh cause I wouldn't have payed that at all. He replied with an amount much lesser closer to the actually amount. Can't remember how much now in the 60's or 70's I think. All in all I would say your review is at least very fair to the seller. Interested to see a possible write up on changing the hardware.

 

I will be writing one up on changing the hardware, its actually quite simple, i just want to ensure I have a spare 4.3k bulb first, which is on the way

 

Do you have your avid bar anymore? Also your reflector is crooked.

The 7" LEDs are all metal housing and mounting FYI. Just a heads up as it's the same vendor. You dirty dirty Edmontonian.

 

u know what grinds my gears!