Caliraised light bars...

Curious for those with the hidden light bar thing from caliraised and any caliraised stuff for that matter how are they?

I'm trying to piece together my lighting and electrical plans for next spring, figure buy all the stuff over the winter thats coming. Trying to decide what to do though. I dont feel like spending 1000s on rigids. besides where I wheel its not desert racing. I don't really need distance but flood as its just mostly rock crawling.
I already have a set of rigid pods I'll be putting in but thinking the caliraised LED bar as well, and then maybe some cheap lights for the bed rack.

Just don't feel like wasting money if they aren't any good. They are significantly cheaper than Baja Designs and Rigids

 

They’re worth what they charge.

Baja? No comparison to them.

If you want a great quality Rigid alternative, check out @Iggy. He’s doing a group buy right now, so pricing is great.

Superior to CaliRaised in output, construction.

 

does that mean they're garbage lol.

I know one of the guys I wheel with had a pair of lights from them I bought off him that he didn't want anymore cause they already got water in them after a few months. they still work though. and for $10 I didn't really care lol

 

You get what you pay for. They're a middle-of-the-road brand. Not knocking them, I've had my fair share of CR lights on my truck and never really had any problems. But when you compare directly to the big dollar lights, you can see why they're in a different price bracket.

 

Not garbage. They’re at their price point, which is lower middle, I guess.

 

in what terms? brightness? durabilty? or both?

 

It’s hard to gauge quality of mid grade LED bars. You got low grade shit that is sold for mid range price, you got mid grade sold for mid grade, and mid grade sold as higher tier. I had a Relentless “in house” brand bar that by my standards was great quality. I hear Black Oak sells good mid grade stuff.

Even going off peoples word is hard. Cause some shmoe who has never owned an LED bar and gets one that’s just decent may say it’s top tier when maybe it isn’t, and all the sudden a brand is getting good reviews when they are just selling low end crap.

LED bars are a racquet end of story lol.

Edit: whenever I’m ready to get some lighting again I’m probably going with some tried and true traditional beams and calling it a day.

 

Brightness. By a long shot. Durability is on par for what you'd expect at that price. Think about it this way: you can get chinese pods off eBay for 1/3 the price of CR, but good luck getting someone to honor the implied warranty. In my own experience, CR has been good about taking care of their customers.

The truth is not everyone needs lights that can project a beam 600 yards away. I certainly don't. I do some night wheeling, but I drive according to the conditions I'm in. If my lights can't keep up with how fast I'm going then I need to slow down and that doesn't bother me. I'd rather drive slow than roll my truck in a ditch and blame my "stupid lights" that weren't bright enough.

 

I guess it depends what you're looking for too no?

I mean if you want great spread and distance ya hard to compare.

Since for me I really only need to light the area near me so I can see what I'm going over I don't so much need distance just a nice spread of decent light so I can see. figure we're never getting out of 1st gear 4lo on the trails we do. I really don't need much. just thinking from our last trip we got off the trail at night and it was a lot harder. just couldn't see anything. try looking out the window to watch your wheels and just barely see them.

I'm under the impression rock lights would be really useful for my needs.

I haven't seen anyone with Rigid bars or Baja so really can't tell for quality. Desert racing I can understand you'd need the best stuff cause you need the distance for the speeds

 

thats exactly it for me.

I don't care to have 200 ft ahead look like daylight as I'm not going fast. As long as it gives lots of lighting within a 30ft area I should be ok.
Besides for distance I do have the rigid driving pods which I know are nice.

Trying to decide basically should I save a lot and go full out, or would caliraised meet my needs for close field lighting.

 

I've used the stealth mount CR bar for over a year now. No major issues, although there is some corrosion on the housing; could be from a rock chip. I only use my bar off highway which for me is trails in the woods and the CR bar throws more than enough light in my opinion for the woods.

If you need lighting for high speed/long distance night applications I would look elsewhere.

 

Sounds like they'll fit the bill. It sounds like this is your first venture into LED lights so CR will serve you just fine. Brighter than your headlights and auxiliary lighting is never a bad thing.

To play devil's advocate: you can probably buy 2 sets of pods and a small bar from caliraised for the same price as good pods from Baja Designs and get the same light output either way. Just depends on how "bro" you want to look.

 

Caliraised stuff is good. You won't be disappointed.

 

Stock low beam:


Low beam+CR bar:


I'm happy with the output for $200

 

dude I'm hating the idea of doing a lightbar cause to me its just too bro.

but after doing that trail in the dark FUCK THAT. it was scary. not like going to die scary but holy fuck what am I breaking on my truck haha. couldn't see anything and every time I moved hear a thud into my skids.

 

my issue with cali is I don't see much options for floods which would be more idea for my needs

 

That’s the issue too. Not that I’ve searched but I haven’t really seen anyone do outright comparisons among brands, mostly cause majority of the stuff is pumped out of the same Chinese factories, or at least same components. And it’s 4d this and now 5, 6, 7d this blah blah, next big thing so it’s constantly changing. Best bet is just go with a mid price bar with good user reviews and the best warranty. And especially good if you find customer commentary attesting to an actual warranty claim. Some of the el cheapo outfits vanish or even some well known vendors vanish as their reviews/service/quality suddenly goes downhill and now your warranty is worthless.

People even have QC complaints or equipment failures on rigid and other “high end” equipment vendors. Difference is how they stand behind their product.

Sounds like for your needs like I said above. Mid tier, best reviews, best warranty, best specs, and bonus is a testimony to a warranty claim if you run across one.

 

I hear ya, I think they only come in combos. I'm looking to add the Baja Designs LED fogs myself for fill

 

Awesome products. Great customer service. Little bit of a challenge installing, but well worth the effort.

 

ya that was pretty much what I was thinking too.

Read a bunch of reviews on baja and rigid and was mostly about desert runs etc. not anywhere close to what i do. aint no deserts around here haha. all just tight trails that are all rock. no going fast for me.

the trail we did recently was 36km and I don't think I ever got out of 1st gear. i mean it took us 10 hours to do the whole trail lol.