Tinting a light bar?

[ogdobber]

There is no such thing as too much light. Unless the op is using the lights on the street then it would kinda make sense I guess. Baja designs makes a dimmer module for leds. That along with tint might be needed with some lights as to not blind oncoming traffic

 

[SuperSafety]

Don't do it. I picked up 2 sets of RDS for the bumper pockets and added tint (super light). The heat made the film bubble and look like shit. I didn't get the RDS midnight as it only comes in 1 pattern. Unless you're never going to use the lights.
I ended up getting the Diode Dynamic SS3 Pros, and they're legit.

 

[Specialtyperformanceparts]

Before blasting me, hear me out because I promise this question actually makes sense despite what you think you're getting into.

So I'm going to be starting the facelift process on my Raptor centered around an ADD Stealth Fighter Winch bumper which houses a 40" curved light bar.

While I love my Radiance pods in the fog pockets, I keep having thoughts that maybe the Radiance 40" bar would be too much. So I'm looking at RDS. What's interesting is that the very sexy midnight RDS only outputs 35k lumens compared to it's regular lens RDS counterpart which puts out 63k. So my thought is, what about getting the regular lens and tinting it for the same look, and potentially more light? Has anyone seen this done? I'm assuming there's no way you're going to lose half the light, plus the tint will actually serve as a protective coating that could be replaced if needed. Thoughts?

I don't know if you realized the 40" RDS Double Row does come in Midnight and over 60,000 lumens...

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...pro-midnight-light-bar?variant=36114827509926

And we also procured a limited number of ONE OFF RDS SR (Single Row) Light Bars that produce over 30,000 lumens in a slim package..

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...-rds-sr-series-pro-midnight-edition-light-bar


Let me know if we can be any help-

John

SPVparts.com

info @ spvparts.com
317-93 GO SPV

 

[snt505]

There is no such thing as too much light. Unless the op is using the lights on the street then it would kinda make sense I guess. Baja designs makes a dimmer module for leds. That along with tint might be needed with some lights as to not blind oncoming traffic

Sure there is depending on use case. I was driving though a snow storm yesterday and the bar is definitely too much light.

But I tend to agree if all else is equal go with the brighter light. But in this case the aesthetic is not equal. I would prefer the midnight RDS too. Almost pulled the trigger on the SPV Parts deal but second hand bars aren't the easiest to offload, so not worth it right now. But sleeker for sure.

 

[smurfslayer]

Sure there is depending on use case. I was driving though a snow storm yesterday and the bar is definitely too much light.

I was kind of thinking XL80s on the a pillar would be pretty ineffective in snow too for just that reason.

But still, I get where he’s coming from.

 

[MAMiller44]

I don't know if you realized the 40" RDS Double Row does come in Midnight and over 60,000 lumens...

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...pro-midnight-light-bar?variant=36114827509926

And we also procured a limited number of ONE OFF RDS SR (Single Row) Light Bars that produce over 30,000 lumens in a slim package..

https://specialtyperformanceparts.c...-rds-sr-series-pro-midnight-edition-light-bar


Let me know if we can be any help-

John

SPVparts.com

info @ spvparts.com
317-93 GO SPV

So what you’re telling me is Rigid’s website has all wrong stats for the RDS double row midnight?

https://www.rigidindustries.com/midnight-edition-rds-series-pro-m-e-rds-series.html

This is where I got the info on lumens and why I was so confused on the massive difference between the regular RDS and the midnight.

 

[snt505]

So what you’re telling me is Rigid’s website has all wrong stats for the RDS double row midnight?

https://www.rigidindustries.com/midnight-edition-rds-series-pro-m-e-rds-series.html

This is where I got the info on lumens and why I was so confused on the massive difference between the regular RDS and the midnight.

It is interesting. If you click on the 30" option on that link you get 46.5K lumens, but the 40" is 35K and 54 is only 48K.

 

[Specialtyperformanceparts]

So what you’re telling me is Rigid’s website has all wrong stats for the RDS double row midnight?

https://www.rigidindustries.com/midnight-edition-rds-series-pro-m-e-rds-series.html

This is where I got the info on lumens and why I was so confused on the massive difference between the regular RDS and the midnight.

I believe so... They have had someone reworking their website lately. (It's been very slow, and there are many pictures missing) I don't know if it crashed? and they are trying to rebuild it? or what. But many part numbers are missing or not grouped together. A lot of info is also missing it seems.

I have had both the midnight and non midnight versions side by side and looked at the lumen rating on both boxes and they were identical. I remember doing this specifically to see the difference. That was probably 6-8 months ago? The only difference between the two is the tinted glass.
The RDS standard and Midnight should have the Same lumen rating in hardware. The only difference is the lens. I just sold our last one of the double row Midnights, but I have more coming so I will take a pic of the box like the one below when we get them.

The problem with many of the other vendors like Amazon, etc is they run a data feed that pulls the info from the one source so they all match.

Now, is it possible that they re-evaluated it and changed the rating because the tinted glass does reduce the amount of light that flows through the lens (Like sunglasses)? Of course. Think about what sunglasses do. However, the hardware is the same. It's all about mass production. The more you use the same components, the cheaper it is. That being said, if you take a standard lens one and tint the glass, your reducing the light that passes through it the same way... so it wouldn't make sense to do that vs getting one that the actual glass is tinted.


Here is a photo RIGHT OFF THE BOX of a 40" RDS Double Row Light bar...

 

[Winchester30]

I feel like I’m missing something here...
if it’s too bright turn it off, unless you’re one of those guys that drives around with fog lights/ light bars on because you think it looks cool.
If and when you might actually need light, you would want the most you can.
Can’t see the point.

 

[MAMiller44]

I feel like I’m missing something here...
if it’s too bright turn it off, unless you’re one of those guys that drives around with fog lights/ light bars on because you think it looks cool.
If and when you might actually need light, you would want the most you can.
Can’t see the point.

You as well as most others have completely missed the point. The point has nothing to do dimming a light bar, my goal is to maximize brightness. My thought of “too much” on the Radiance+ is ONLY about the aesthetic of too much amber backlighting...the Radiance bar itself is actually not that bright compared to RDS.

The point here is that the midnight RDS light is reported to be HALF the brightness of the regular RDS on Rigid’s site. So the point is, could I get the same look of the RDS midnight by tinting an RDS, but get more lumens? Now we’ve learned from @Specialtyperformanceparts that Rigid’s specs on the midnight may simply be wrong. Trying to figure out direct from Rigid what the truth is.