LED Cube Light Comparison

[Taxman]

I've made it no secret that I am a KC fan, but this shows that there are other comparable options available. I've been looking at getting some wide LED cornering lights for the bumper pockets to complement my KC driving and spot HIDs on my bumper bar. The options are numerous when shopping for LEDs and I've put together a little comparison for myself. I thought I would share.

The information on here is obviously subject to change and I can make changes as needed, but I thought this would be a good start for a lot of people.

Comments welcome.



On a raw lumens per dollar, it's clear that every major manufacturer of these types of off-road LED lights has a strong contender. Many of the models offer very similar total lumens for a reasonable cost. Obviously light pattern, build quality, warranty, brand loyalty, vendor support and other factors all come in to play here, but I hope this helps some.

 

[Jordan@Apollo-Optics]

This is great info @Taxman ! As an update, we now do offer diffused lenses (at no extra cost) for all of our cube lights other than the Apollo6. We've been pretty busy with the build up to TRR so we haven't updated our website yet.

 

[CP RAPTOR]

I think for the bumper the baja designs squadron would be a better fit as the XL is too big for the hole. The bright side (see what I did there) is that they're significantly cheaper and the same lumens!

 

[Taxman]

I'll rework the spreadsheet with the Squadrons instead of the XLs. I see now that the Squadrons are about 3" and the XLs are over 4". Thanks.

 

[COBRA90GT]

A mod should sticky this...

 

[CP RAPTOR]

I agree. This is an awesome spreadsheet to show performance vs price vs brand Etc. I know the whole raw lumen thing still has to get down range but it's good to use as a starting point. It seems a lot of new raptor owners start with a light pod for a first mod or two as its a good upgrade for the money.

If it were a sticky it would be nice to see each of the vendors to put up one output shot of maybe one pod per lighting option for comparison. (Diffused, spot, flood etc).

 

[Taxman]

I updated the original post with a new spreadsheet showing the proposed changes as well as some additional information. Glad you guys found it useful.

 

[Taxman]

Amber vs yellow

Amber vs yellow:

One thing I've noticed when researching these cube lights is that most manufacturers use amber (almost orange) lenses to market their lights as being more effective in foggy or snowy conditions. I've actually found from first-hand experience, that yellow light helps me see better than amber light in dense fog. I used to have some halogen Cibie fog lights years ago on an old Jeep that were absolutely amazing at cutting through the glare of thick fog. I was recently with a friend of mine in his Jeep and he has the Rigids (not sure if they were Duallys or D2) with the amber lenses and they didn't seem nearly as effective at cutting through fog as my old Cibies were. Again, this was not a scientifically-conducted experiment; it was just a casual observation compared with my sketchy memory of an old Jeep from 15 years ago.

From looking through website pictures only, Baja Designs is the only manufacturer that uses yellow lenses on their LED lights, instead of amber. The others all seem to be a darker amber, almost resembling the orange of a turn signal light.

I'm not sure what the scientific community has to say about this and have not researched what the optimal color spectrum is to cut through dense fog, but I thought I'd put it out there for anyone who is looking at these LED lights for use as fog lights.

Edit:

I found this from the Daniel Stern website (Daniel Stern is a well-respected name in the lighting industry, and very well known in the Jeep community):

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/light_color.html

 

[Labraptor]

One comment regarding color, specifically amber. Some companies make lights with amber bulbs instead of using a colored filter. Doesn't reduce output at all that way. Not that colored filters are bad at all. I have blue tint on most of mine.

 

[MikeHem510]

So if i am reading this comparison right the Rigid's are the best bang for the buck???

I would just like your opinion on why to go with KC. Thats what i plan on purchasing i just want to make sure making the right move thats all