Lightbar thoughts

[byz250f]

As @Hamm3r said, for usable light, you'll need to go with one of the bigger/$$$ brands - Baja Designs, KC, Rigid, etc.

So these LEDs are made in the US?

 

[t_j]

So these LEDs are made in the US?

No the bars are assembled in the USA

 

[byz250f]

No the bars are assembled in the USA

ok, so the LED lights are still from China then?

 

[Jimbo]

@Baja Designs could answer better than I could on the LED. But for usable light what matters is the optic technology.

 

[hkguns]

Regardless of what you install, everything I've read is to keep the stuff as low as possible, otherwise you're just illuminating dust.

 

[Mkarban]

From what I've read most of the light quality is based on the LED used. Most bars I've looked at have CREE LEDs, some Osram, but the question is what version (wattage, basic, XTe....). Looks like there is a big difference between actual LEDs. I wish each brand would publish usable lumen ratings. With the huge price variation amongst bars it would be nice to know what you're actually getting. Why are the US made bars 3x the cost if both contain CREE LEDS, both have same IP67/68 waterproof rating, both have aluminum housing? I truly prefer American made, but where is an extra $800-1000 accounted for?

 

[Bombsquad68]

From what I've read most of the light quality is based on the LED used. Most bars I've looked at have CREE LEDs, some Osram, but the question is what version (wattage, basic, XTe....). Looks like there is a big difference between actual LEDs. I wish each brand would publish usable lumen ratings. With the huge price variation amongst bars it would be nice to know what you're actually getting. Why are the US made bars 3x the cost if both contain CREE LEDS, both have same IP67/68 waterproof rating, both have aluminum housing? I truly prefer American made, but where is an extra $800-1000 accounted for?

Usually comes down to light output, quality and warranty for me. But even buying an expensive bar isn't a guarantee that it'll be bulletproof, I've had two $1500 Baja Designs bars fail on my ADD bumper on my Ram due to moisture intrusion. One original Onx 38" and one newer Onx 40", they literally filled up with water in certain cells and it killed the circuit boards, got about 4 years and 150k miles out of each one... I'll get around to sending them back for repairs but it's such a PITA shipping from Canada to them.

No hate on Baja Designs, that's just been my own personal experience and they were by far the brightest bars available with the best throw though. I have a 8 year old Rigid E-series that rode right next to both of them and is still going strong, however its light output and throw is ass in comparison.

Long story short, any bar can fail and I'm still going to use Baja Designs on my G2 in some capacity.

 

[Baja Designs]

No the bars are assembled in the USA

ok, so the LED lights are still from China then?

So these LEDs are made in the US?

All of our LED/HID lights are Manufactured in San Marcos, CA. With that being said our lights average 65-75% U.S. content. We try to keep as much in the US as possible.
Some items are outsourced to keep pricing a little bit lower. We would claim "Made in the USA" but California is very strict about that and would require ~95% U.S. content.
Other states are a lot more relaxed which allows many companies to say "Made in the USA" when they really aren't.

 

[t_j]

All of our LED/HID lights are Manufactured in San Marcos, CA. With that being said our lights average 65-75% U.S. content. We try to keep as much in the US as possible.
Some items are outsourced to keep pricing a little bit lower. We would claim "Made in the USA" but California is very strict about that and would require ~95% U.S. content.
Other states are a lot more relaxed which allows many companies to say "Made in the USA" when they really aren't.

Holy honesty batman!!!

Another reason to by BD over other US made bars!

 

[Baja Designs]

@Baja Designs could answer better than I could on the LED. But for usable light what matters is the optic technology.

@Jimbo is correct! The lights optics will make a HUGE difference in how the light performance. You can have 10,000 Lumens with a poor reflector and the light won't do much more than scatter light everywhere.

ClearView™ is our proprietary optics found in all of our LED Lights. ClearView provides you with a light for every zone and a scientific method to the madness.
Each optic is designed to illuminate one or more of seven specific Lighting Zones (below). BD’s racing engineers were the first to define these lighting zones. Click the link below for more info
https://www.bajadesigns.com/science-of-lighting/clearview.asp