Diode Dynamic 42” stealth light bar questions?

Following along here, I'm also interested. Thanks!

 

Me too me too!!!

 

Out of curiosity, I see other threads mentioning less expensive versions of the 42" lightbar made with the same outer case, and I'm curious to look at them if anyone's got a link? $500's steep enough to warrant considering alternatives.

 

Sure there are alternatives but I've learned a while back. Buy once cry once

 

It depends on who makes the alternatives, which is why it's worth considering them. Let's say Rigid makes one for $300, same outside shell, you still think the $500 Diode Dynamics is the only reasonable option? =) Hence inquiring what others that've been spotted.

 

Following

 

I know what you are saying. I try to save money were I can. The problem with cheaper lights is that they seem like they have a problem with getting moisture inside the housing. I really don’t understand why it’s so had for these companies to make a water tight housing. The other big problem with cheaper lights is that they alway over exaggerate the Lumin output. They will list specs on their led chips with a lumin rating thats not even close to what a led can physically produce with out meltdown within a few seconds. I wish they would make these companies have some kind of certification to back up their claims. They don’t so they can just throw out any watt or lumin output they want on the description. If you watch some test reviews on YouTube you will see that most don’t even come close to what they claim. It’s just false advertising. I’ve been buying led hand held lights ever since they claim out and that is a big problem in the led light industry. If your just getting a light for the looks then cheap is the way to go as long as you take some extra precautions to seal it up yourself with some extra silicon. Some other things to consider is the coating used on the housing and the wiring. Cheaper lights don’t always come with the best coating and have very small gauge wiring or aluminum wiring that is just awful. The coatings don’t holdup as good to the elements and end up looking bad . I’ve bought cheap leds before and have had to deal with the thin cheap wiring. It’s a pain to splice and solder. Other problems that is not mentioned much about led is the quality of the driver that are running the lights. Driver are what controls the amount of power going to the leds and also stepping down light output for thermal protection. They are the heart of the lights. To me a $500 range Light bar is a cheap price for a reputable company that stands behind their product and has a good warranty considering the price of each LED chip, drivers, reflectors, housing, heat sinks, wiring harness, plugs, mounts, coating quality, assembly, lenses, and testing. If a light bar is only a couple of hundred then you know they are cutting a lot of corners somewhere and is probably just making up a lumin output to be able to sell it that cheap. A Nitecore TM28 4 led hand held flashlight that is 6,000 lumins (that has been measured in accordance to the international flashlight testing standards ANSI/NEMA FL1) cost $390. A Gehavin Tactical flashlight off Amazon that has 1 led chip that they claim will produce 150,000 lumin of output with no certification is $59. Light company can make any kind of claims they want to about their measurements because their is no law requiring them to have their claims back up by standardized test. I only go with company’s that test their products with recognized testing standard. There is a lot of ripoff company’s out there trying to get your money. I watched one YouTube video that tested lights of all kinds of brands and almost every cheap Chinese brand light only really produced about 1/10 of what they claimed their light would produced. All of the reputable companies that were higher in price were pretty much spot on with their claims. Warranty and customer service is also something to consider. If I have problem with a product I want to be able to talk to someone in the US that will stand behind their product. It’s also really nice that, if I have a problem with one of my lights, I can reach out to them right here on this forum. Can’t do that with those cheap lights. I’m not trying to talk you into buying more expensive light by any means just wanted to share my thoughts about cheap lights. I’ve already dealt with buying cheap lights.