New HF Road shock edge lights

its also about durability. Good lights have their place. as a avid off-road racer I have tried cheap lights and have them fail in a bad time. moved up to DD and BD lights. never a failure again, even after a roll lol. If you need to depend on it, get a good light.

its also about having good optics. on my Daily I have Diode fog lights as i want a good light with great cutoff. on the roof I have cheap china bar, its "eh" lol. good enough for that.

if you just need light to fill an area off road and you need a budget light all these china/Amazon/harbor freight are a great choice.

also yea, hate it when companies dont just say it, i get why lol, but still sucks.

 

We pride ourselves on sourcing the highest-quality components globally. Our internal purchasing and engineering teams maintain regular communication with our vendors, ensuring effective relationship management and quality control at the vendor level.

“That’s just China, with extra steps.” — Contrary to misconceptions, our manufacturing facility in Toluca is far from that. Owned and operated by our parent company, Bestop, it's a comprehensive facility where every unit undergoes rigorous quality checks before leaving the plant. Not only do we produce our products there, but Best Top also manufactures products for OEM manufacturers and several other brands under the Best Top umbrella.

Best,
Bill

Bill Sonevongxay | Forum Sales & Support 
Email: Bill@bajadesigns.com Phone (760)560-2252

 

That's a lot of words to convey the simple message of "I don't know where/who the components come from".

I gotta say Bill, after this exchange, I don't think I would ever buy a BD product. Seems like you are more focused on obscuring the origin of your products and spewing marketing hype and BS rather than answering a simple question of Where do the lights come from. I am going to go out on a limb and guess the "Comprehensive" mexico facility does final assembly, packaging, and some high level QA testing. If I am going to spend "Made in USA" money on something, then I want it to actually be "Made in the USA" with no fine print/technicalities.

Or maybe this has absolutely convinced me to buy an LP4 and torture test it alongside a harbor freight "LP4" and really see if the value is there or not, I could probably make a sweet youtube video out of it.

TL;DR: You are owned by a company that is owned by a private equity firm, your lights definitely come from overseas.

 

Cliff notes version of what BD said was "we source our parts from overseas(china or somewhere over there) but assemble them in mexico. They quality control check them to make sure they are highest quality and not just throwing units out there. So to answer the question yes they are not USA made components. They are over priced but also quality lights. both things can be true at the same time. Iphones are made in China and overpriced so does everyone boycott apple? Im not saying i wouldn't like to see the prices come down but what i am saying is if they were made here then prices would likly be higher and they wouldn't have a business cause no one would buy them. Its sad that this is the type of economy we live in now a days where nothing can be made here because the one who made it too expensive to make anything on our own soil.

Now i also get that you were referring to the fact he couldn't give you a straight answer. I honestly dont think its black and white like our light components are made in china there for the lights are made in china.

 

Absolutely no way this happens, but I'm here for it.
Side note, Bill seems like a really nice guy; no way I'd take the time to refute every person who had no intention to buy my products in the first place on random forums. I don't think he's trying to make a sale off of you as much as he's standing behind a company/product he must thoroughly be proud of. Who knows though, maybe with your charming and delicate approach, you could ask him if he'd sponsor a light to you for the video.

 

I was being polite in my reply, although it probably doesn't seem like it. The fact that he can't give a direct answer to the simple question proves that these are OEM'd by the same company as everyone else is using for this style of light, obviously BD probably has more well defined design specs, narrower tolerances, and nicer options than what harbor freight uses.

Bill even stated that have been a lot of LP6-esque lights hitting the market as of late, realistically that means whatever contract they had with the actual OEM for these lights has matured to the point where they can use the base design to make lights for other companies, differences in colors, accents, housing shapes, extra features, etc...

JW speaker, KC hilite, and a lot of no name brands have very similar offerings to the LP6. The JW speakers do not say made in the USA either, whereas most of their products are made in the USA. I would rather spend my money at Harbor freight and save, or JW speaker and support business that is still family owned/operated.

 

So what is the point here? You don't like paying for BD, great, it's a free market. Go buy elsewhere. They're a premium product used for top level applications. Like a lot of premium product used in many fields, they have componenents made in China / overseas. I'd like to see someone press Apple on these things. Anyway the used market for BD and Black Friday deals are a great way to not pay the initial premium price and how I source my lights. I've got used S2 Pros for $220 and some Squardron SAE updated versions for $260 new in box with a harness.

 

Hard no to any sponsored content. Video quality is likely going to be absolute shit (due to having no real equipment or experience with making videos) but why not.

Lets come up with an appropriate list of stuff to test:

• before torture testing would commence, I would send the lights to @crashnburn80 if he would be willing to do the light comparison he is known for
• Once he got his data, I would begin the testing to see what it takes to break the lights:
• starting with a heat test, (turn the lights on and see what temp they reach after an hour or 2 with nothing but passive cooling at room temp (72 degrees Fahrenheit, 50% humidity)
• next would be a moisture ingress test, submerge the lights?
• pressure washing test, I have a cordless PW to start (800PSI 1.2gpm), wall mount (950PSI 2.0GPM), and a gas driven 4400PSI 4.4GPM)
• drop test off of the side of my deck, (about 10')
• roll them down a hill?
• impact testing with airsoft BBs to simulate stone chips?

Please feel free to add what criteria you would like to see.

 

You also live in a great area to test how the coatings hold up in the winter. Mount them in a stupid spot for the winter side by side and see how they hold up.

 

You lost? read the thread title. BD came in here trying to compete with the harbor freight knock off light.

 

Honestly I don't see coatings being an issue for anything decent, I had a set of Rigid Industries dually spot lights on the front of a daily for about 7 years and they are still in great shape. I would expect the harbor freight offering to fall short in the coating/longevity category.

 

A sponsored light to you was an obvious joke. As for a video review that won't happen, that was also a joke. It would make no sense for them to send out a light for review to someone with no real social impact, especially when video quality isn't there. I'd have no interest in watching your video, no matter how great the findings if you can't produce it at a pleasant viewing/listening quality.

He's got a point; you've made it clear you don't intend to buy BD - cool.
BD didn't come in here trying to compete with HF. The OP said this HF option seems like a cheaper LP6; BD came in to contribute as to why it looks like a cheaper LP6, and how its different. They contributed to the thread about their product - why is that surprising to you?

 

I agree, it'd just be a place for BD to ideally show some value over the HF light.

 

The only thing that surprised me was that the light BD sells is AFAIK made in china, taiwan, or at best "Assembled" in mexico, and the forum sales rep had no real information on what comes from where. For the price point, one would expect either a domestically manufactured product (except for diodes, drivers, electronic components), or at least for the company to have a solid understanding of how and where their lights are made.

My initial question to BD was "Where are the LP4 lights manufactured/assembled?" to which they responded with no real information and bunch of marketing.

My reason for asking was to inform my decision regarding what I would buy. the light, housing, or anything, was made in the USA then I would see the price as more than justified and would have happily supported BD over Harbor freight, but when both products are made overseas, it's a tough sell. A lot of people seem to have their identity tied to a brand and refuse to acknowledge the possibility that the quality/performance of the product doesn't justify the cost. Everyone comparing this to Apple and the iPhone is only proving the point. iPhone has inferior hardware, firmware, forward/backward compatibility, end user support, etc.. when compared to android phones but much higher pricing and a constant cycle of obsolescence and new product launch, all while being manufactured in china.

 

Your entire argument is based on the premise "that the quality/performance of the product doesn't justify the cost," yet you have no evidence to support that either of the lights in question are superior to the other in any discernable way. The entire point of BD interjecting into the thread was to tell about the quality/performance differences. It makes no sense to stand on the hill of "it has to be made in the USA if its going to be expensive." No, it just has to be better at what it claims to be better at than the competition. If it is, its easily justified to be more expensive. Its literally as simple as that.

 

The only reason I started going back and forth on the matter is BD was unable to answer a simple question and resorted to the "UsEd By SpEcIaL fOrCes and weekend warriors" marketing hype. My argument is based on cost/benefit, if company A sells a made in china product for $100 and Company B sells a similar made in china product for $427 but claims to have a better product with a lifetime warranty. Then the cost of Company B's product is only justified if the product is either 4.27x better performing, 4.27x more durable, the warranty will cover multiple replacements and covers failures due to hard use and not just manufacturing defects, or some combination of those factors. when I stated that I could buy a pair of lights, harness, and a spare light from HF for the cost of a single LP4 light, BD acted like redundancy is a stupid idea.

I even stated that for most people's use case where the lights would not see any harsh conditions besides weekend warrior stuff or daily drivers, the harbor freight light would make sense. I never implied that the HF light would outperform the BD light, just that it is a better value.

BD came in to defend their product but rather than offering real info about their product, they went the marketing route and defended their price point. Which to me needs to be justified by quality, performance, or being manufactured in the USA. If you can't see the irony of a company complaining about chinese knock-offs of a product that seems to be made in china, IDK what to tell you. I can only explain it, I can't understand this for you.

 

"INCLUDES PAID PROMOTION"

I'm out.

 

Some people have a problem to every solution.

 

Nothing against you at all, but by posting affiliate links and doing paid promotions, you have a vested interest in people buying the stuff you are comparing. Not saying you are a shill or anything negative. Just that if I am going to trust a stranger on the internet regarding product quality, performance, etc... then I would prefer to pay that person directly so that there is no conflict of interest or even anything that could be considered to have a look of impropriety.

 

BD literally answered your question (Where are the LP4 lights manufactured/assembled), stating Toluca, Mexico was the assembly point for their products, followed by a testing facility in San Marcos.

Again, your entire argument assumes both products are exactly the same, with only a $300+ price difference. You're comparing apples to oranges. If your argument was about cost/benefit, using your math's logic, Company B's 11,225 lumen light would be 15x the value of Company A's 750 lumen light at only 4.27x the price. Your cost/benefit analysis should yield Company B's product a statistically smarter investment from nearly every angle. But we get it; your angle is "I just want something cheap to give off some light/I don't actually even need lights," so its not a smart investment for the return you'll get out of it. Thats fine.

I think you mean "quality, performance, AND being manufactured in the USA," because the quality and performance criteria are met, which is exactly why the price difference is justified. I haven't seen BD complain once about chinese knock-offs - only offer insight into what differentiates their products from them.

Just say they're out of your budget and be done with it. You don't have to justify why they're over-marketed hype for others; others see the value, and is exactly why their business is as successful as it is.