LED Light Bar question

Wow thats a pretty ignorant statement there. Do you even know what the difference between 3w and 10w are? And yes Rigid has had problems with leaking led light bars. Look it up if you're so concerned about it.

10w LEDs are superior to 3w LEDs in terms of brightness. Now rigid probably uses 3w (or 4w 5w for that matter) because #1 reason.... they are cheaper. Greater profit margins. It is all about being a business after all. I just prefer a proper all cree 10w setup. What I mean by proper setup is all cree drivers and leds. Most "cree" led bars are just cree leds up front and cheap drivers in back. So one row of LEDs, skinnier bar, more light output.

I wasnt bashing Rigid products, I just feel for the price you can do better.

To the OP, you do realize that most of these lights are going to be too bright for on road use? I know here in Texas you can only have 4 forward facing lights at any one time. IE 2 headlights 2 foglights. I cant imagine any of these bars not blinding on coming traffic unless its down low in a fog position.

 

no I wouldn't use them for on road use unless it were really dark and nobody else was on the road.

 

Its always nice to turn em on for those douche bag drivers though.

 

LOL

 

agreed. but what u were saying before about the watts of the different companies and u said rigid uses 3w or 5w when cree uses 10w? I think thts what u said anyway then how come rigid has more lumens and reaches a further distance?

 

I will be getting bigger ones. And possibly one of the curved bars

 

If you run LED lights on the road with other drivers, punch yourself in the face.

I have a 10" Rigid LED combo bar on my Rhino. I am not impressed with LED, its good for filler light, but thats it. For distance, traditional halogen still puts out better light, and even better is HID.

 

Cree is just a brand of LED. Rigid could very well be using 3w or 5w Cree LEDs. Let me compare two products for you.

Cree 10w 28.5" 13,600 lumen
http://www.buy4car.com/products/led...-jeep-suv-4wd-ute-offroad-lamp-1762-2742.html
I cant vouch for that product, just posting for spec purposes only.

30" Rigid 4w LEDs 11250 lumens
http://www.rigidindustries.com/led-lighting/93031

So, smaller bar, more lumens, greater reach than the smaller wattage leds. Rigid products arent bad products, but if you want the light to reach out like a high beam, then you want 10w LEDs. the 5w and less are great for fill light, but wont reach out as well.

If you really want far light go with some 100w halogens or some high powered Xenons.

 

The curved bars are sexy. I wish I had a reason to buy one lol.

 

Dont buy a Rigid, their QC is crap, the rigid of old, while there was little to no competition were good lights. I have gone thru 4 of their lights all leaked and flickered. You are paying for a name and nothing more.

The LED market is flooded with high quality well priced options. Look around, shop, but don't get caught up in the heavy logo intensive marketing.

I am currently using OKLED as well as a few Ebay cheapOs, while they are cheap they are using Cree elements, using a bit of clear RTV they wont leak.

 

Im glad someone agrees with me.

 

This. I feel like for the price compared to other bars, Rigid lights should turn whatever they light in to gold. Or at least make ladies clothes see through

 

A bit of a misconception on 'brightness' here. While a ten watt LED is brighter, you have to have the optics to harness the extra output, and that means you have to have the space. I just toured Rigid Industries manufacturing plant in AZ and asked this very question. They've tried a ten watt LED, and when they just slap them in to their normal extrusions and optics, the light is actually too bright to be efficient and you can't get a proper beam out of it. When held side by side a 3W will actually look brighter because the optics are working efficiently and at capacity. The 10W 'scatters' for lack of a better term and doesn't focus whereas you get nice crisp lines on the 3W. This is because of space. For every watt you need an inch of area with lensing (trying to remember how this was explained to me). So on a Rigid bar with a 3W LED you have 1" height and 2" of depth for that LED to operate. For a 10W you'd need 7 more inches to properly harness the output as efficiently as Rigid is. Not saying it can't be done, but that's a massive extrusion in comparison to whats on the market and appealing to most consumers.

 

Yes but I wasnt talking about lense setups. Just that fact that 10w>3w in terms of brightness. I do totally agree on the lense setup though. Same thing goes for using projector lenses for HID vs Reflector bowls. I guess Rigid doesnt want to have to redesign a whole new bar to work around the 10w? I would think with their SR series it might almost drop into it with some adjustments.

I can bet you a proper 20" 10w light bar vs a 3w 20" double row will always be brighter and throw light farther with less LEDs.

Makes me wonder what a projector lense would do with LEDs in it.... hmmm. I have some Mini's at home to play with now.

 

A "proper" bar built around a 10w would be huge. You'd need it to be at least 5" deep and 5" tall in order to use the full capacity of the led. Thats too bulky to be a good solution imo. Anything less than that you'd fail to harness all the light.