LED Ligth Bar Review
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March 4, 2010 Posted by admin |
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Location: AZ
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DragonFire 42″ led Light bar
My thoughts so far the on the new DragonFire 42″ led Light bar; more testing and follow up to come.
Mounting and Quality
Well my first thought was how well built the light was. The aluminum housing made it feel sturdy as ever and could hold up to any abuse that I could ever put it through. The mounting system on it I thought was really nice as well. It has four mounts on the underneath that allows an aluminum mount with a rubber bushing (that helps with any vibrations) to slide in to the bar to secure it down. These four mounts are very sturdy and look a lot stronger then other systems that I have seen that mount on the sides of the LED bar. I don’t see this light bar ever going any where once mounted. I had the guys at Unleashed fab up a bar with some tabs on it and we had it mounted up in minutes. So simple!
There are also quite a few other options if you do not have a flat surface to mount to. You can mount it with many different size bar clamps allowing the LED bar to mount on most roll cages, bumpers or just about anything that is a standard tube size. These clamps can be bought separately.
Wiring
Well wiring it up couldn’t have been any easier. A wiring harness was provided; complete with a switch, fuse, and relay. One wire to your battery, one to ground, then mount the switch on the dash and you’re done! It also has a nice plug close to the light incase you ever have to remove the bar.
First Test
After I finished up at the shop I brought it home and drove it around the block and was impressed but not yet sold 100% on the light yet. One thing I did notice thou that it didn’t shine to the sides as much as I like. But this was because I had my last lights turned to point to the sides. The light out put was awesome and lite up the neighborhood like Christmas. The range from 1 foot to 100 foot in front of my car was crazy bright! After a few trips around the neighborhood and blinding my neighbors I took it home and parked it for the Glamis trip the next day.
Glamis Testing
The real test was this last weekend at the Glamis night ride. Rolling it off the trailer I flicked it on and was surprised how far it shined into the dark dunes. Also got quite a few comments on how blinding it is when standing in front of it. lol
Well after setting up camp it was time to ride. Friday night we had a lot of wind and cloud coverage which made it dusty and really dark. First thoughts while taking off was the issues with the side output but this was only an issue for the first 10 foot out and then the light pattern really started to spread out nice. While driving I was still kind of skeptic of the light output; compared to the hids that I previously was running. But I soon noticed that the DFR led bar lived up to my expectations and put out more then enough light for anyone. As far as distance of the output compare to what I had before; I still need to do some comparison testing so can not really comment on that.
LED Comparison
One comparison that I did do was while at the hill, we compared the DFR led bar verse a competitor led bar. I notice as well as quite a few others; that the DFR light had a lot better of a pattern and was spread out nice to see everything that was in front of the car 10-100 foot. While the other led bar was bright and shined further in the distance up the hill, but it did not even come close on comparing on the light out put directly in front of the car in the 10-100 foot range like the DFR led did. This helped tremendously while duning. Having good bright wide beam was really nice where it is needed and is a huge advantage in safe riding. I think I really would have has a bigger issue with being able to see to my sides if running the other bar. So the side output was kind of put to rest.
Top Three things I noticed
The three huge advantages that I noticed while driving and that can not be noticed while parking
lot testing are :
The light out put that the led bar put up and down. What I mean about this is – my previous lights put out a wide pattern but nothing up or down which is fine for flat terrains but in hilling conditions like the dunes it tremendously helped with being able to see up coming hill and down drops that I was able to see before. This was HUGE and liked this the most about the DFR led light. Not being able to see around bowls or hills suck but is now not an issue!
The second thing I noticed was also something that can’t be tested unless in real life driving conditions but was the lack of glare off of the dust. My pervious lights were bright but would some times shine back a very bright white light off of the dust that would make it hard to see. Now this wasn’t something that I was looking for but I noticed it after I got done with my rides. I thought back and noticed that I never ever had an issue with the reflection being bad like I had in the past with my hids. It wasn’t like I didn’t have any issues with dust or sand in the air because anyone that was there can comment on how crazy the sand was blowing Friday night.
Third thing I notice was the power consumption was very low. Previously I ran a second full size battery with a separator and would see a voltage drop with all four lights on as the night went on. With the DFR led bar I ran it straight to the stock battery and really never saw it drop below 13v even at idle- all night long! Hours of riding!
Likes
The ease of mounting. Simple wiring. Well constructed. Light output in front of car-in all directions. Perfect driving range. Low amperage draw. Low profile -less wind drag. Better light output the competitor-it’s always nice to be better. lol
Dislikes
Again it would be nice to have a little more light output directly to the side but I don’t see that even being capable with any light unless it is turned like I did with my other lights.
Overall
The biggest thing is that I duned all night both nights and never had one issue with the light, visibility, or a dead battery!
So big thanks to DragonFire Racing for putting out an awesome light!
Also guys stay tuned because DragonFire is coming out with a “RED” Led light! Maybe Todd can comment more on this new light he is designing that will be out soon. It’s supposed to cut through the thick dust 50% better then the standard white light.
If anyone wants to try out the DragonFire led light please contact myself and we can set something up (PHX area)
SO IN CLOSING- The DragonFire LED bar might not be the “brightest” that other companies claim- but I will assure you it has a way better driving light output.
So instead of claiming the “brightest” led I will say that the DragonFire led bar is The “BEST” Led light bar on the market!!!!
