I've used the same cheap 50$ no name Amazon light bar for 6-7 years and it still out shines 1000$ lightbar, and I can replace the cheap one several times for under 1000$ so I'll still be money ahead. Of course if someone gave me expensive lights I'd give them a good review too. And as always remember winches before seat covers!
I agree on this comment. He’s giving his opinion, after these lights were given to him for review. There’s a biased to build these lights up and tear down any competition, particularly “big box store, lights“. I bought some from HFT, and have been running them for about three years with no issue. for the price, I’ve definitely gotten my moneys worth out of them, even if I have to replace them every three or four years, it would be cheaper than these lights!
it would put some companies out of business lol. The only difference between cheap and expensive lights are how well sealed it is. Just take silicone sealant to a cheap light and boom its a baja designs
I agree with the others here in the comments section... normally I have the "buy once cry once" mentality however I buy cheaper led auxiliary lights. The prices that baja designs, KC etc charge way too much for something I can't legally use on the street on my daily driver JKU. Only use them every so often on backroads and road trips. Decent light and spread? Great. Cheap is fine with me for something I don't depend on.
I'm lucky the small town I live in (northwest corner of Oregon) only has twisty backroads so I use mine all the time, I have quite a collection of cheap lights & HF spot pods😀 it's a 20 mile drive to get my spring water so of course I go at night.... any excuse to night drive 🚗
Please comment with “more detail”. I’m researching street legal bright yellow fog lights for use at night in rain/fog work trips. Cheap or expensive can be stolen when they are mounted on the exterior of the car or truck.
You forgot one more metric. Bang for buck. I will run $30 Chinese lights all day, if they fail and need to replace them 3 times (which I haven't had any fail in years), it's still cheaper than one set of KC lights. 70% the output for 10% the cost, I'll just buy twice as many 😂
I guess if you are a full time overlander or off roader theses make sense. I’m running the HarborFreight lights and they work fine. I’m sure the price justifies the r&d in high end lights but are just not used enough by most weekenders. Spend quality $ on tires and suspension.
I buy cheap for a reason cause I can afford it . Baja designs and all other top shelf brands are a rip off on price . For the most part hobbies are suppose to be affordable. Ever since the the wu flu lot of posers wanting to be off roaders around here
Agreed, but I take that with a time and place prerequisite. Replacing the fogs or any on road used lights? I'll go a few dollars more for properly made lights. Off-road and I'm just trying to fill light everywhere? Cheap LEDs that don't hurt to replace when they break or are broken on the trail, worth it.
For 100$ I basically filled bullbar and roof with leds and when I turn them on its day around me, few broke because of rain damage - replaced them for 15$ lmao
I thought I would share my experience with top shelf lighting and racing off-road. I spent over 10 years racing down in Baja and have run lights from KC as well as Baja Designs. These two brands lead the way in the desert currently but they are not for everyone. Yes, they are very expensive but when you are racing over 130mph + at night in the middle of nowhere, they are most important. Another factor if indeed you are racing is you won't out drive the lights. At high speeds some cheaper brands become more difficult to see as your speeds increase. Also keep in mind crossing water etc. The top brands rarely fail unless you are pushing guys out of the way Baja style! Anyway, my point is buy lights that work with your needs. The lower cost brands work just fine if you plan to just wheel with your buddies. What I have seen with my experience, is that the cheaper brands tend to be "made in china" and use lower grade components and either fail prematurely or just don't put out enough light overall. Do your homework and buy what works best with your budget and needs.
Morimoto? Mid quality at best, if I'm gonna pay a lot, it better be KC, Rigid, Baja Designs. I'm a sucker for expensive lights and run KC and Vision X on my Gladiator. But I can't help but to think these companies are gonna price themselves out of business in this economy. Can't blame people for going with Amazon lights..
Honestly I’m not one to bash, but seriously I spent $120 on a rough country light bar that is bright as hell. Light throws a hundred plus yards away. Why would I pay $1000 for the same thing from a top brand. I’ve use and abuse mine for the last four years, for this to even make sense it would take me 50 years plus to wear out the cheap ones to justify the price of a “quality” one. I’m just gonna take that this video was a paid sponsorship. - which is fine, but you should definitely disclose something like that to your viewers.
Exactly! I paid $180 on a 20” lightbar from GGLighting and that baby throws light like two football fields away, why spend so much money when I can get the same thing? Plus the combo of flood/spot is likely better than you can get in the high end products, as high end always seems super focused whenever I’ve looked at reviews, I like spread light but also somewhat focused light!
I am running what some would call a cheap light bar $285 I got for free basically. It’s bright as anything higher end and works great. My reverse pods are Amazon $40 lights and have been amazing so far. My rock lights are harbor freight and epoxy sealed for $30 for 2 (I have 4 total) I don’t worry if they get taken out I can buy a new set easily. With thieves as well I won’t be that upset if they get stolen. Most ppl won’t be able to tell the difference in output anyways. Maybe if you are doing offroad racing sure otherwise just can’t justify $200+ for some 4” pod lights.
Tend to agree with most of these comments, to purchase the light that meets your need and budget. I’ve been running HFT lights for 3 to 4 years. And for the price, I could replace them several times over, and still be way far ahead with my bank acct! Again, it depends on what your needs are, but it’s not a life and death situation for me and I’ve run a lot of hours on my HFT lights, and they’re still working great for me.
Like others have said, if you aren't using light bars on a regular basis or dependent on them functioning, then cheap ones are fine. Frankly, only a handful of offroaders really need to spend the money on these. I'd rather put those extra bills on higher quality mechanical parts that I depend on getting me too and from my destinations
Back in the day I had some halogen pencil beams that performed quite well, these days I have a shit load of cheap pods & bars on truck, Sammy, 400ex they all do very good for the price. If I had the funds it would be Diode Dynamics all the way
I bought all my Baja lights used. So I got anywhere between 80-200 off. They were customer returns and so far run great. Probably just didn’t fit their needs or buyer’s remorse. I’m happy I got them cheaper.
I have ran cheap pods for years and when I waste one on the rocks no great lose. So far none have failed unless I crushed them. When people have stolen them I wasn't too pissed because they didn't cost a lot.
Racing at night or driving across South America...ya spend the $$$. Average hillbilly farting around in the woods/mountains at 5 mph , spend $50. Your headlights do most of the work and the other just help. I'm also not spending $800 to change my headlights to something "cooler". I'll spend $30 on betterish bulbs, but not hundreds on pretty mall crawl Morimoto.
If you go on an off-road Xplorer trip, branded things are really helpful. But if you go just for off road fun trip, the cheaper option is ok. Better buy as you need,not what you want.
Maybe if the name brand guys would bring the prices down people wouldn't decide to use a product thats 90% the same as the name brand but 10% the price. At that difference you could just buy one or 2 more lights and be just as good. Also I've had several name brand lights and they go bad just as fast as my amazon cheapies. The cheap aftermarket exists because the price is so so so high. If a cheap product was closer to half or less then half the price of the brand name I'd probably still pay the extra money and go name brand. When the prices are multiple times higher it's not worth it anymore. Lastly the price difference isn't just that they use "fancy" software to design them, or that the materials are better. It's a lot to do with labor prices to assemble the units. If they are American made(assembled) then we have to pay a worker $25 an hour plus medical and vacations and such to put them together, overseas those workers have some of those same benefits that fit their economy yet they are doing the same thing for like a $1 an hour. Same material and attention to detail but because its a different economy it ends up saving money. If you want to change this you have to use robots or make the assembly much easier and faster to assemble for American workers so that you can pump out way more in a smaller amount of time. With that said just because its made overseas does not mean it's sub par. I mean iPhones are made in china yet are top quality. and use top quality materials. So to say a light is worse just because its made overseas is a lie or ignorance. If you want to argue on a specific brand then go for it but to make a blanket statement is just dumb. The fact that you have to make a video explaining this shows that the brand name lights just aren't up to the task otherwise you wouldn't need this video, the lights would speak for themselves.
Not everyone can afford $$$ lights that don't get used enough to justify...tires spin everyday..suspension gets used every mile...lights maybe a few hours a few times a month maybe ..
I buy cheap lights because KC, Baja, PIAA etc are ludicrously overpriced. It seems these manufacturers know more people are holidaying domestically so have ramped up the profits to take advantage. I get a great quality light for the price and if I damage it or worse, it’s not such a bitter pill to swallow. If manufacturers want you to buy domestic, don’t rip people off as much!
I know you made videos before ppl getting into the scene, but can u make a playlist for rookies to start to learning more about offroading. I just subscribed too😁
Spending $1k+ for lights is preposterous. $200 lights will be outstanding 90% of the time for the vast majority of people. If you have money to burn, get a fancy Baja, Ridgid, or KC. Otherwise, prioritize your build budget somewhere else.
Love there videos, but this came across more as an advertisement than actually sound advice. I still don't get why cheaper lights wouldn't work for the majority of people getting them.
I like most of your videos but on this topic I have to whole heartedly disagree. The big brand name companies just rip people off. Sure the name has a Gucci factor but their performance/reliability doesn't even remotely match up to their price
That is exactly the issue! Those $40 lights may only last a few years and I can just buy a brand new set if it goes out. For the cost I can buy 6 sets of the cheap ones and there is no guarantee the expensive ones will even last as long!
The more expensive lights are better. However, when you throw overland onto anything the price skyrockets for no reason. Rv camp light, $15 each, roof rack light $80 each. Baja and kc are insane prices though. If you get a sponsor and they pay for some or all, hell yeah. Most of us cant drop 3k on a kc rack bar. Ill take cheaper units until they no longer service my mission and then ill buy the expensive ones.
After watching your video, i went on the morimoto website and they dont make it easy, so i figure i will call there and talk to someone. If there is a contact section on that sight trust me i couldn't find it. Within a few minutes inwas turned off at how hard it was. Plus, i think their yellow light is more yellow than amber. Im gonna drop my money on a pair of heritic, amber lights. Their website was much better . Thanks for a great video
I agree entirely, although I got really luchy one time after annother... I have been installing lights everywhere in my vehicles recently and honestly, I couldn't afford the high end stuff like KC and baja or other brands. So I did what every guy would do in my place... I went to my local Autozone and started buying cheap pods and lightbars from them. And I also got some cheap fogs from the internet as well as some floodish pattern chinese mini pods from a local shop. Now I have any light you could possibly think of. Fogs Grille high beams Dual ditch lights setup Roofrack led lightbar Aux reverse lights Rock lights Camping side lights And Im really thinking about some more stuff, but functionally there is no other light to have in the rig that is not covered yet. I have great vis in bad weather with my fog lights, amazing front driving lights with my grille mounted pods (wired to the high beams), no dead spot in the side with a dual ditch light setup (spots slightly out and floodish mini pods 45 degrees out), I can see miles ahead with my roofrack lightbar, my reverse lights make the camera think it is daytime, I will never miss something below my rig using the rock lights and finally, working in the side of the van is a breeze with the camping/scene lights. Would I like to replace all of my lights with high end ones? Absolutely yes. There is no comparisson between a cheap autozone sylvania light and the KC hilites stuff or the Baja designs offerings. But I can't afford to spend KC money in lights having 2 kids and a wife to mantain. So that will have to wait and be replaced eventually, once lights start to go bad and have to be replaced.
As often as I use my aux lights there is no way its worth spending this much on them. I only end up doing a handful of night runs per year and the no-name Amazon lights have been using are just fine. Still working to this day.
Gonna be honest with you bro, this just sounds like an ad. Not everything requires that 10% extra performance. Just don't want them to die from rain and snow or be too weak to provide uh light.
I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for when it comes to tires. Only because cheap tires can be a danger to an extent! Some of those name brands are a bit expensive however, when they are on sale that is definitely a good time to scoop a set!
I would they that Rigid, Baja Design, Morimoto and other quality brands are worth being more expensive. However they really make them way too expensive. They add on the quality tax.
I really dig the content you guys provide! I'd like to see a video on different off-road light patterns and their appropriate applications! I'd also like to see a video on steel vs synthetic rope winches!
Unfortunately I can't get good but expensive lights...just installed cheapo 52 bucks 42 inch curved bar... 😅 but so far I'm pretty happy with it no idea hownlong will it last but I don't do alot of night off roading yet but who knows maybe down the road I will change
Not everyone is running the Baja 1000, needing to see into the next time zone going 110 mph. Lights should be so low on priority under most circumstances, buy what you can afford. The buy once, cry once isn’t applicable here. I have an eBay light bars that are still running strong since 2018, paying a fraction of the cost. I could buy 10 in comparison to most sticker prices. To each their own but no one should feel guilted about not buying $3000 in lighting.
Haha eff that I’ve been running cheap lights for years. My current lights are auxbeam and colight and all have lasted 3 years. No leaks, no fading, and bright. And even if they did fail I can replace them and still come under the cost of 1 of the high end companies lights.
A justification on what cheap lights are would be wise, aka super cheap vs harbor freight cheap is potentially two different worlds, Baja and kc make lights for trophy trucks and rally cross……
$2,000 for a light bar?? No thanks!! A $150 bar will get the job done just fine and it will last for few years. With some basic modification using RTV, I can seal them even better so they never rust, leak or get moisture inside of them.
Turns out you can spend an almost infinite amount of money on your car, or you can just do some research and find things that work for under $1000 😂 my jeep aint even worth two baja lightbars, and that money is so much better off going into the suspension instead
u cant tell me what to do and since those lights cant work in water i guess they r a waste of money and what im talking about is u didnt show nothing besides the color of them on a truck in a shop my cheap lights can work in a shop to
Just another commercial announcement (a cheap one) trying to convince us why we must spend a lot of money for a product that we don't use in the roads legally, such waste of time.
@@TrailBuilt i know but 1000 mate? 55w HIDs are way brighter than LEDs and cost significantly less. KC and the other ones are for the RU-vidrs or off road influencers, we normal guys prefer to spend less for something that we aint gonna use as much
