I want to mount 6" round lights on the front of my truck

[D Fresh]

Instead of sitting behind the computer how about you purchase both lights and do an in-depth comparison of each light and consider the two without a biased opinion?

Because he doesn't buy parts for his truck. He waits for people to give them to him in echange for a good review in the commercial posing as a magazine he "writes" for.

He'll he didn't even buy his first Ranger. Given to him.

Light distance should be based on minimum amount of light a driver needs to see a rock, hole, stopped vehicle, or vegetation in or on the trail. Measuring light distance to 10 lux or the amount of light your eye sees at twilight, means that there is sufficient light for you to safely drive off at the maximum measured distance of a light. In off-road lighting measuring light distance to 1 lux, or the amount of light your eye sees on a full moon, is as arbitrary as any other illuminance over a given area because it is dimmer than the minimum amount of light most people can use for driving at any speed. Why continue measuring distance to a lux that has no practical application to the light’s user?



All Baja Designs lights and competitors lights tested for ELS are measured to 10 lux and any of these values can be converted to 1 lux, if so desired, using the formulas provided in the ELS white paper. These specifications are intended to provide better, more usable information to off-road lighting users. For more detail see ELS site and white paper links below.



Baja Designs ELS

ELS White Paper

Best,
Brahian Herrera

Thank you for responding. This is part of the reason I support you guys.

Question about the bold part, does this mean you guys are planning to publish ELS scores for your competitors' lights?

That would be awesome.


The other side of the debate doesn't even think we're important enough to have a presence here.

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[Bdog]

Yeah man, I get to drive a lot of different vehicles, in a lot of different parts of the world. Experiencing their limited performance after getting used to better options in Australia is what made me realize BD wasn't making competitive products.

I think you're confused about lux distance. It's an objective number created specifically to give lights a metric by which to be compared. I'd agree that 10 lux is a little arbitrary, and the 1 lux standard used by literally every quality light brand is a better representation. It really doesn't matter what number you use since you're just choosing an arbitrary point along the beam of light. BD's lights are as badly outclassed at 1 lux as they are at 10, or 6.75, or 82, or whatever you want to use.

I get to hang out with designers and whatnot from loads of brands. That's a big part of learning about all these worlds, and why I'm able to help readers learn to understand them too. The job is relationships.

So is BD the only brand you are trying to talk down about? Based on my off-roading knowledge and actually using many different lights on the market these seem to be the best. Lux aside there are far more lighting brands on the market that offer lights at the same price or relatively similar. Why do you have an issue with Baja Designs specifically? If I read their els page right they mention in the first segment that they prioritize blend angle and blend-ability over distance. If I'm putting my life on the line going 100+ mph in the desert why would I put a Taiwan outsourced light with a limited 3-year warranty in front of me that is just going to light up the sky? I guess at the end of the day everyone has their opinion and I'm just going to go with the lights that have hours of testing behind them.

 

[Baja Designs]

Because he doesn't buy parts for his truck. He waits for people to give them to him in echange for a good review in the commercial posing as a magazine he "writes" for.

He'll he didn't even buy his first Ranger. Given to him.


Thank you for responding. This is part of the reason I support you guys.

Question about the bold part, does this mean you guys are planning to publish ELS scores for your competitors' lights?

That would be awesome.


The other side of the debate doesn't even think we're important enough to have a presence here.

Yes we already started posting some scores for some of the lights. We are planning on doing more. Stay tuned
Best,
Brahian Herrera

 

[Wes Siler]

So is BD the only brand you are trying to talk down about? Based on my off-roading knowledge and actually using many different lights on the market these seem to be the best. Lux aside there are far more lighting brands on the market that offer lights at the same price or relatively similar. Why do you have an issue with Baja Designs specifically? If I read their els page right they mention in the first segment that they prioritize blend angle and blend-ability over distance. If I'm putting my life on the line going 100+ mph in the desert why would I put a Taiwan outsourced light with a limited 3-year warranty in front of me that is just going to light up the sky? I guess at the end of the day everyone has their opinion and I'm just going to go with the lights that have hours of testing behind them.

All the American brands are uncompetitive. KC, Rigid, DD, you name it.

Australia is where it's currently at if you want testing, quality, performance, and all that stuff.

"Blendability and blend angle" are fluff words invented to obfuscate performance deficits. So far as I can tell, they refer to a clean pattern, and beam angle respectively. Any quality driving light will feature a clean pattern and tell you at what angle it projects light.

As BD explains above, they've finally published their performance numbers, and as we can now see for certain, those numbers are uncompetitive.

As a huge proponent of American manufacturing, that's sad. We can and should be competitive.

 

[D Fresh]

All the American brands are uncompetitive. KC, Rigid, DD, you name it.

Australia is where it's currently at if you want testing, quality, performance, and all that stuff.

"Blendability and blend angle" are fluff words invented to obfuscate performance deficits. So far as I can tell, they refer to a clean pattern, and beam angle respectively. Any quality driving light will feature a clean pattern and tell you at what angle it projects light.

As BD explains above, they've finally published their performance numbers, and as we can now see for certain, those numbers are uncompetitive.

As a huge proponent of American manufacturing, that's sad. We can and should be competitive.

Everything online says that the ARB Solis lights were designed by Rigid.

Also, you didn't mention Diode Dynamics in the list if shitty.

Are we to assume they gave you some stuff to put on your truck?

 

[D Fresh]

Yes we already started posting some scores for some of the lights. We are planning on doing more. Stay tuned
Best,
Brahian Herrera

Awesome!


Can't say I can think of any other brand that would have the confidence to do so.

 

[Wes Siler]

Everything online says that the ARB Solis lights were designed by Rigid.

Also, you didn't mention Diode Dynamics in the list if shitty.

Are we to assume they gave you some stuff to put on your truck?

The original Intensity and Intensity V2 are designed by ARB and manufactured in the US by Rigid. They're pricier and lower performing than the Chinese made Solis range, which is why I recommend those.

Contracted diode dynamics to DD. All these brands suck. Which again, is sad.

Again, I run Lightforce not ARB. Price is not my first consideration on my own vehicles since I use them so heavily in such extreme environments. If I was looking for a 6 inch, it'd be the Solis though. Nothing out there is close at that size or price.

 

[OFC Ranger]

Look, even as someone in emergency services (we love ourselves some flashy lights), unless you are a baja racer I reject all notions that any of the top shelf brands are even needed. No offense to BD in this thread, but I'm going to call it how I see it.

Chicom amazon/ebay lights will work for 99% of the off-road community, including the more serious overlanders, rock crawlers, or whatever else does not require high speeds. Even if your chicom light only lasts 2 years, at their price point, it should just be viewed as an expendable resource (like tires) and you still come out with a wallet much better for it.

Would I buy Chinesium suspension components from amazon? Of course not. Some bumper, flank, or rear lights? All day long.

I of course would not turn down an offer for free top tier shelf shit either just to keep it real. But when its my wallet taking the hit I'm no fool. (well most of the time)

 

[D Fresh]

Look, even as someone in emergency services (we love ourselves some flashy lights), unless you are a baja racer I reject all notions that any of the top shelf brands are even needed. No offense to BD in this thread, but I'm going to call it how I see it.

Chicom amazon/ebay lights will work for 99% of the off-road community, including the more serious overlanders, rock crawlers, or whatever else does not require high speeds. Even if your chicom light only lasts 2 years, at their price point, it should just be viewed as an expendable resource (like tires) and you still come out with a wallet much better for it.

Would I buy Chinesium suspension components from amazon? Of course not. Some bumper, flank, or rear lights? All day long.

I of course would not turn down an offer for free top tier shelf shit either just to keep it real. But when its my wallet taking the hit I'm no fool. (well most of the time)

As a person who spends way too much on things I don't really need I can appreciate that approach.

I tend to try to make up for my reckless purchases by being more frugal in other areas.

Yes, for my purposes some Chineseum lights would do the trick. But I like cool things and will spend the money for them when I can.

To quote Kanye "Cause my life is dope, and I do dope shit."

 

[OFC Ranger]

As a person who spends way too much on things I don't really need I can appreciate that approach.

I tend to try to make up for my reckless purchases by being more frugal in other areas.

Yes, for my purposes some Chineseum lights would do the trick. But I like cool things and will spend the money for them when I can.

To quote Kanye "Cause my life is dope, and I do dope shit."

Dont get me wrong, frugal is all relative to the buyers bank account size. If I made 6 figures a year buying top shelf lights would probably be less of a thought. But I don't, so I don't. I focus the more expensive wants in more critical areas.

 

[D Fresh]

Dont get me wrong, frugal is all relative to the buyers bank account size. If I made 6 figures a year buying top shelf lights would probably be less of a thought. But I don't, so I don't. I focus the more expensive wants in more critical areas.

Something I could definitely do better at.

 

[Espo78]

Well this thread is old and got quite sidetracked but over a year later I finally got 6” round lights mounted on the front of my truck. Bit the bullet and got the SVC light bar and a pair of KC Slimlites. They definitely work well enough for me. Oh and while I was at it I got some Diode Dynamics SS3 fog lights.

high beams only:

KC Slimlites:

SS3 only:

SS3 + low beams

 

[Wes Siler]

Looks great. And with 1 lux at 1640 ft, you're getting up to 16 secs of reaction time at 65mph. Not bad for $350!

 

[Espo78]

Looks great. And with 1 lux at 1640 ft, you're getting up to 16 secs of reaction time at 65mph. Not bad for $350!

Thanks. The specs vs price point seemed really good when I was looking at lights. Glad to see you agree even thought you said KC lights were garbage way back when lol

 

[Wes Siler]

Thanks. The specs vs price point seemed really good when I was looking at lights. Glad to see you agree even thought you said KC lights were garbage way back when lol

KC makes really good looking lights that are usually pretty affordable. I think you got good value here, even if you're not running a top tier setup.

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