Making my own off road lights

Alright so I'm an engineer, I do a lot of electrical stuff and have been looking at off road lights to put on a light bar. They seem to be pretty crazy expensive for what you get, upwards of $100 for a cheap light that has pretty shitty output is silly.

Bottom line is I'm going to make my own lights to mount on my bar, I'm going to make them with some 1000 lm diodes (about 14.28w). That should be sufficiently brighter than your average "off road" light. Shit some of the $800 lights only put out about 750 lumens according to what I've researched.

So anyway my question is this, where would I go to find a housing for my LEDS? Affixing them and such can be figured out, but I'm having a hell of a time finding empty off road light housings.

 

Do you have access to a c&c machine ? You could make the backing for the lights and have a glass company make the lens or just make the lens on c&c

 

Building just one for yourself would cost you just as much if not more.
Are you going to design and build your own reflector too?
How many would you have do design, before you get it just right?
Which driver are you going to use?
Can you design a heat sink and have it build?

You would have to sell a few hundred to make it worth your while and to bring the cost down.

I'm a lighting designer for the last 25 years and have access to anything one would need to make an off-road LED light and I don't think I can build just one (good quality) for under $100 in my garage.

Now, if we are talking about 1000-5000 lights and buying everything in bulk....

 

gr, I can't help on finding materials but would love to see a picture and might be interested in purchasing when you get them done

 

I haven't done this yet, but it's on my list of things to try:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/gene...hight-powered-led-light-bar.html#post14486984

 

Be sure you include a method of cooling the diodes.

 

Where are you getting your information from?!?! 750 lumens for an $800 light?? I've got a pair of lights that cost me $100 and they put out 4300 lumens a piece. If you're limiting yourself to LEDs, they're still expensive and will be for a while. Expand your search to halogen or even retrofitted HID lamps and you can get a good set of off road lights relatively cheap.

 

ummmmm, have u seen light forces in action?

they can also keep u warm from 4 feet away as an added bonus


I know they measure in Lux tho..............

 

I just bought a 22" LED bar that's 7000 lumens for 220 during the group buy...not sure where your getting your numbers.