So I bought a curved 50 inch cree light bar and mine is really good quality. When I first tried it out it made that terrible whining noise you mentioned. I switched to some 14gage wire and made sure I had a solid connection and it didn't whine any more. Just thought I would share my expierence
Ultrakill The reason I am using 14 gauge is because i already had it, and it was better than the 18g the light bar came with. When I put the light bar permanently where i want it, I will most likely use 10g
i have ran a cree led light bar for over three years now. have gone offloading with it through deep mud. heavy rain storms and just about anything else that the vehicle will encounter. haven't had any problems with it so far.
+TheFordraptor16 It's more less the lighting quality, i had one that i payed like 100$ for that was decent, did the job, but i spent 300 on a new one, and it's WAY brighter, almost like having two or three of the 100$ ones.
The high pitched noise comes from using cheap capacitors that are not properly rated. ceramic capacitors expand and contract piezo electrically and if that frequency of pulsing is in the the same frequency as you hear in it acts like a piezo speaker. Better rated capacitors expand and contract less and therefore are quieter or silent.
I run a china light bar on my crawler xj as well as my buddy, he rolled his jeep in a water crossing at night the only thing broke the mounts light bar has a couple scratches but still works
idc what anyone says about these bars, they're great, I got a 52 inch for 100 bucks and a 42inch on the way that was 60. the 52 is awesome very bright and quiet
i Stick with the China One, For the Money, it has worked Good for me.. BTW, the headlights on your truck like you said as as yellow as they can be and they are made in the USA?. lol.
I think theres an internal fan to circulate the hot air, I had one, has a buzzing sound, when I opened it up, it has an internal fan. not really to suck air in, its just circulating inside so that the heat can be dispersed properly to the fins
doodskie999 Yours must be different than mine, I had both of these apart and neither of them had a fan inside. That's cool though, I didn't realize any of them had fans inside
I bought a 24" (Basic) 120W LED Bar for my truck, but ended up selling it cause i didn't care for the overall quality of it... It didn't have the Allen Screws around the reflectors like those (2) do & the actual LED's were round shaped instead of square. I will stick w/ Diode Dynamics & Morimoto XB's from now on! I have their XB HID's & i love them! I really want (2) of their XB 4-Banger Cubes!!!
Thank you for posting such a detailed video mate. It comes down to your budgeting needs and what you use it for. I understand its loyal to buy and support the local but only if it was a tad higher price, not by 3000% If I was a farmer or had a hobby going off-road, then definitely would buy US made but just for show that I don't use, then I will go with the cheaper alternative. Thumbs up for showing them using your vehicle and the amps it drains from the battery as well. Top job mate! You have done well with this video!
I hate to buy from China when there's american options but it's out of my hands when Rigid and other companies are charging $300 for a set of 6" light bars and I can buy my 40" curved bar for $118. I have 2 8" light bars on the front of my 78 f-250 and 2 4" on the back with yellow covers and they've been great so far. I had a high pitched sound from my 40" bar on my jeep and I realized it was due to the placement of my main power cable from the bar. When I moved it farther from the main ground the noise went away. Could have been a fluke I guess.
Mike Dudas Exactly. My car is worth $300 if the gas tank is full. I'm certainly not spending as much or more than that on a lightbar. Besides, who actually knows which would last longer. I've bought lots of chinese knockoffs over the years to replace a similar Canadian/US built item or whatever. I've often had the Chinese ones outlast the North American equivalent, despite the knock off being a fraction of the cost in most cases. Besides, if you Americans don't buy Chinese stuff and their economy crashes, guess who they're going to invade to get their dues? Say what you want about the quality of their gadgets and whatnot, but their army is badass, they more or less have all the high-tech "fuckinshitup" weapons, gadgets, and vehicles our troops have, and would definitely kick the United States AND Canada's asses without even slowing down. Hell, it would likely take half the world (if not more) to ally with the US before we even had a chance. Then factor in their mentally unstable, trigger happy, nuke loving partner in crime who we know as North Korea, possibly also Russia (not too worried about Russia alone, their armed forces are kind of a joke at this point) and you have a recipe for destruction, possibly even the extinction of all living things on earth, along with our atmosphere which allows life as we know it to flourish. So yeah, my conclusion to this long-winded rant is this - In some cases, I'd rather buy Chinese. If their equivalent product is similar in specs to ours but much less expensive, I don't see why anyone would be so stubborn as to buy the North American product. The money will end up in their pocket either way, especially since a great deal of parts, raw materials, and natural resources - which we use to build or create all sorts of things - are purchased from China and shipped to NA in order to manufacture our "100% US MADE" stuff. If it makes you feel better to not contribute directly to China's economy then that's fine, just don't give me shit when I choose whatever is more cost effective, regardless of who made it.
07CVPI Also, I forgot to remind everyone about all the cases in which items were purchased from China by US companies and then re-marketed as American-made. An example of such would be American cars these days, they advertise "built in America"... What they REALLY mean is that they used parts made all over the world to assemble the vehicle in the US. Lots of Ford parts are made in Mexico now. But, because they're shipped to North America where the multi-national parts are used to assemble the vehicle, they market the vehicle as "built in Canada" or something similar. Trust me, I work for Ford and have repaired many GM's... I've seen with my own eyes how much of those parts are made in Mexico, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, you name it. If you really want to only use American made shit then you should probably look into being a hermit, leave everything behind that you own including your clothes, and live in the woods. Making everything you need from wood or dirt. Otherwise shut the fuck up and let me buy what I want without hearing all the BS about where it's from.
***** Did you Even watch the video? Not the same specs by a long shot. When you choose an inferior product just to save money, that's called being cheap. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, and many people do the same.
That high pitched sound is a DC-DC converter circuit. It has a ferrite coil inductor inside which is resonating. No big deal. The converter boosts the voltage up to probably around 32 volts. Also most LED lights from China are not actually genuine Cree leds. Most likely, the led is made by "LatticeBright". They are a night and day comparison.
the high pitched ring was probably a crappy ground on one of the drivers. I'd be almost willing to bet that if you crack it open and make sure all of the connections are good inside the light that it will probably go away if it hasn't burned up in the year that you've had it.
Could you please review some "Knight Rider" Scanner light led bars? There is ton of them, they all got same price, same everything, but cant find the exact one from the movie series, they are 1/10th cheaper than original movie prop (if not the cheapest prop). Any help that i can have to find working "swipe" scanning led bar get counted. Appreciate that and wish you luck.
i spoke to someone that went off roading. simple enough the straight bar is a big ass flashlight, the flood does give a wider lighting but unless it's setup for u, u may not even notice it. for most, the just think the straight is easier. i personally found out for my truck i need the curved, but i havent been able to figure outthe law "rules" as i know people drive on the rd with them and arent meant to. i need the lights for the rd not off roading lol.
If you dont want your headlights to be yellow 1. Do a 300 grit with water on the headlight in a circular motion. 2. 500 grit in a circular motion also with with water on the headlight 3. Do a 800 grit with water on headlights in a circular motion 4. Buff your headlights with a soft pad/buffer with some sort of wax and it will help out alot.
No they aren't really going to explode, I was just joking about that because of the high pitched noise that light makes. It is just really annoying.... at least it is for me because I mounted that light bar on the roof of my RZR so it is right next to my head and you can hear it "hissing" even with the RZR running.
+eacardoc1 I wouldn't waste my time trying to be neutral, let's face it, most of the stuff is junk. The US is going broke, taking it in the shorts because of these cheaply made products that fill our stores. Half the country can't or refuses to see what's happening, or is not interested in what made the country great to begin with. And with the low wages of the so called "service jobs" we are forced to buy the cheap junk.
+mark thorley Yes, each light bar has both spot and flood reflectors, the ones on the ends with the rippled look are the flood beams and the center LEDs with the smooth reflectors are the spot beams.
+eacardoc1 our company is specialized in making led light bar for 13 years ,too,use real Cree chip imported from America,but our light bar all with very good quality,just like rigid industry in America.differently ,we sell more cheaper than rigid industry,and sell many products to America every year,and won good feedback.
Get old enough and you guys won't hear that high pitch whine at all..:-) Don't get overly concerned about measured watts vs advertised watts. Watts is simply a measure of power draw E x I = P. It is in no way a measure of light brightness. The whole point of LEDs is to draw LESS power. Much more meaningful is the actual LOOKING at the beam it projects, as you did in your video.
***** If anything, the only meaningful measurement for lights is Lumens, but most people have no way to detect or gauge Lumens (other than eye-sight). You are correct, Watts is kind of a useless measurement in this case.
Well I agree wattage is useless to measure for these bars but my real question is what's the usage on each LED diode volt/amp wise. If it's a 10a light bar and it's only getting 6a there will be loss of lumens because it's underpowered. There are more than one class of Cree LED but I think as a buyer you should beware of this fact. The loss might be minimal or it might be great but there will be a loss if your system isn't running at 100% power.
There was a high pitch whine? Didn't hear it. Well, unless you are talking about the person making the video... But then again, he sounded Canadian, so it's easy to mistake that for a whine... :)
Welder Nate Well, considering English clearly isn't his first language, you should probably cut him some slack on using improper grammar. Especially when his English is much, MUCH more intelligible than most adults who read, write and converse using English as their first and only language since birth. If you can't understand someone's comment just because they've made a couple minor and very insignificant grammatical errors, then perhaps you're the one who should learn English. I can understand his comments perfectly. Also, no need to point it out in the first place. You're just being a petty asshole, trying to invalidate him by attacking his imperfect use of the language.
if creed would sell there lights bar at a Chinese price i would buy them but for now i like the chinese light bar and there price they are as good as creed lights bar.
Sean McAleavy as mentioned in previous comments, it was an accident that I didn't realize until after I made the video..... but thanks for making me feel bad! Lol
Has anyone had luck cutting back the fins to make these things slimmer? I don't care much where it's from, just looking for something funny to mount behind my grille......
I bought elcheapo Chinese 20 inch. They only cost 27 Aus each ..drew bugger all amps..had fixing issues..tweakers love to steal them..I gave them away. I reckoned if I was putting something on my car it had better be good but just turn on
decent video, thanks for the info. btw, maybe take the fisheye out of the video when trying to compare a straight thing with a curved thing. they both look curved with the fisheye from a gopro i'd imagine
+Jeff Sanders Yeah you are correct sir. I didn't realize the gopro was set to wide angle mode until after I was completely done making and uploading the video. I made an annotation pointing that out but I guess the annotations are only visible if you are watching from a computer....
+derRoteKampfflieger Unfortunately I don't have a link for either light bar because they are not showing up in my ebay purchase history for some reason. I am actually really happy with both of them, I have them mounted on my RZR and Ive had them covered in mud, pressure washed them, and done some pretty rough bumpy trail riding with no problems. The only complaint I have is the noise from the curved light bar but you don't really hear it when you're riding.
A great thing about ebay is if you can prove the item is not as described, you can get your money back regardless of if the seller wants to give you your money back or not. That curved light bar I would get a refund for. That noise would drive me crazy, but you would probably only be able to get a refund based on "not as described". The straight one, I would want a few dollars back to cover replacing the missing screws and time it takes to fix that end of the bar. Could use the "not as described" as leverage. It seems the Chinese system of measurement is way off from the systems of measurement around the world. If the Chinese seller claims 200 watts, it's probably actually 100 watts, or less. This has been about the same for years. They have no motivation to be honest.
You get what you pay for. There is a lot to take in account when looking at light bars.. not just how bright they are. But for some people the pricetag is all they need.
+mobilemowers Sorry, my goal wasn't to sell LED light bars, I just wanted to test out a couple "cheap ebay light bars" which are all very similar. I tried to add the link to the lights on ebay but it wouldn't work. I did list the ebay seller names in the comments. All of my recent videos have links to where I bought the lights...
all are made in China some are more good than others I know an American riging INDUSTRIES but the price in dollars is three or four times but gives much light .. a question = which Chinese brand is the best in light output and quality? eacardoc1
I think it's a pretty good bar yes it's made in China like most of everything we buy in the US. I got a 12 inch light bar that comes with a brand and their website as well for other bars they sell as well. Got to say I paid $45th super bright love it. If it doesn't last as long as the American brands that cost at least almost three times more well then I'll buy the American brands from them on. But for now I'll save a BUCK and enjoy the light show.
gio carranza Right on! I don't ever see myself paying over a thousand bucks for a Rigid when I can buy one of these for a little over a hundred bucks! Of course they aren't as bright but for a fraction of the cost they are plenty bright enough!
I WISH PEOPLE WOULD UNDERSTAND MADE IN USA AND MANUFACTURED IN USA MEAN 2 DIFFERENT THINGS . U CAN PUT AMERICAN FLAGS ALL OVER MADE IN USA PRODUCTS AND ITS MADE IN CHINA THILAND . SORY FOR THE CAPPING BUT I HAD TO LET OUT THE STRESS AND SO MUCH MORE ................ I JUST WANT CONSUMERS TO BE CAREFUL AND AGAIN GREAT VID YOU POSTED AAAAAAA+++++++++++++
+eacardoc1 thanks, I've seen a lot of led light brands but can't decide which one is the best without spending a lot of money. I have a fj cruiser and my plan is to install a light bar or two sets inside the grill. Could be a single 24'' or two 10''. What brand do you recommend? thanks
+elyyfz450 I have Auxbeam lights on most of my vehicles and I have been really happy with them. If you check out my channel most of my more recent videos are auxbeam lights.
In most cases, or at least at one time the old saying you get what you pay for,..was true. Today, who knows. But in most cases today, my experience, many foreign made products are made as thin and as cheaply as possible. You have to handle the product with care before it's installed or it might collapse, bend or break. You would think we as US citizens would have by now demanded manufacturing to come back here. At least when products were built in the US, they were generally built better. A sad time and a bleak future for this country.
For being cheap China brands, which 99% of your household and vehicle parts and items are they look pretty damn good. Why by China over U.S.? We charge way to much for everything. Lets see spend $400.00 here or her almost the same thing for a 1/4 of the price. China already owns the U.S. Due to our debt so buying China light bars or American ones made in China doesn't really matter at this point.
+Jsomedaysoon Thompson I should thank you. Take 30 min or of your day and look at all the electronics in your house or double wide. Look at the electric appliances in your kitchen, look at your American made car (parts). Look at the device your reading this on. Need I say more. I love my country but we have next to zero exports and an ungodly amount of imports. I work for Boeing guess where 80% of the parts that make our American planes come from..... Wait for it... CHINA. Think before you speak or atleast take the time to learn something. If our imports were to stop so would this country.
I have both light bars on my RZR and the only problems were the missing screws on one (which the seller did send me replacements screws) and the other light bar makes the noise (which you can't hear when you're riding) They are really bright and pretty cheap compared to the high end lights like rigid so I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one. In fact I have bought a couple more for other vehicles since I made this video. Just keep in mind you're not paying over a thousand bucks for a high end light bar so you can't expect the top notch quality you get from the big dollar light bars
Ultrakill I have it wired up with 12 gauge wire. But this light bar makes the noise even when I connect it directly to the battery so it is not caused by the wrong gauge wire or bad ground or any of the usual problems......
Welder Nate For some reason I cant find either one in my ebay purchase history.... The straight one was from the seller "slash_plus" and the curved light bar was from the seller "autopartm" I paid $140 for the straight and $150 for the curved. Although it looks like their prices vary from week to week....
