[Brooksy]

Hey all, looking into getting a cree LED light bar for my sierra.
I've been eyeing some off on eBay for the last couple weeks to see the going price for a 20"(22.6"?) 126W 9000lumens, double row, cree LED light bar with two adjustable mounts. They seem to go for $130-$160. Does anyone know of any stores that do a good price on one of these? I'd like to support a local business, but they all seem to be $300+ or am I just looking in the wrong places? Any help would be appreciated!

[just_cruizin]

Have you tired the AZ business section. A quick search on here will find at least 3 people selling them

[Brooksy]

Oh yep, missed that, still new here sorry, as far as I can see they're more expensive than the eBay mob in Sydney

[atari4x4]

i'd PM bakerboy or shep before dealing with klutched.

[Brooksy]

Also, just realised you're the one selling those 2"BL kits on eBay! Small world haha been eyeing one off for a couple weeks now, I'll let you know when I've got the cash together for one

[Brooksy]

Awesome, thanks for that!

[atari4x4]

Brooksy wrote:

Also, just realised you're the one selling those 2"BL kits on eBay! Small world haha been eyeing one off for a couple weeks now, I'll let you know when I've got the cash together for one

all the goodgear is on AZ

[sideways]

atari4x4 wrote:

Brooksy wrote:

Also, just realised you're the one selling those 2"BL kits on eBay! Small world haha been eyeing one off for a couple weeks now, I'll let you know when I've got the cash together for one

all the goodgear is on AZ

I'd start with bakerboy or shep too.

[Blakey]

atari4x4 wrote:

Dont deal with klutched.

you can buy from someone who has bought an ebay light and resold sold at a huge markup and still be cheaper the him haha. i can also do those lights seems there is a lot of us who sell the light bars

mine are pretty cheap i dunno what bakerboy or shep do them for tho.

but mine range from $160 120W single row 10W leds Cree, $150 126W double row 3W leds Cree, or $95 double row 3w leds Epistar.

im unsure what i have in stock tho so i would be a wait for them possibly.

but if you can get the 126W CREE for $130 on ebay then go for it but i think you might want to check what is actually being sold as the cheapest on ebay i have seen that is actually the 126W Cree double bar is $160/$159

Or you can try and source them from china yourself and pay more. unle you're our lucky and find one who will sell you one at a cheap price.

[oohsam]

Don't mean to take away business from the AZ boys, but I found this the other day and was interestd. They seem to have good pricing and constant stock, melbourne based.

Surely they are just a cheap led bar from china, but ya get the local warranty etc.


http://www.stedi.com.au/vehicle-accesso ... t-bar.html

[Sookie]

I got a 42inch one from eBay for 220 posted eBay add say there in melb but was posted from China
Holes to mount light up where shit had to re tap and go a bigger bolt, got water and mud inside it (did say it was water prove)
It was junk really and when to leve bad feedback eBay seller was gone!
So at the end of the day you get what you pay for
I no longer run this light bar

I will be buying one from here next time and will happy to pay bit more

[tanshi]

buy a decent quality one. talk to Dank at KPD

[bakerboy]

I don't bother trying to price match ebay as they are different bars, nor the guys on here, the single row 10w aren't the same as what I sell either, the black face ones are cheaper than my single rows, they also run glass lens, I'm not a fan of glass lens as they seem to yellow over time.

Stedi is selling the ebay epistar bars and also the cheaper black faced single row bars like blakey.

Dank at KPD sells aurora bars, which are rigid industry bars, and they are very good quality, the price reflects this.

[fordem]

bakerboy wrote:

I'm not a fan of glass lens as they seem to yellow over time.

Really?!? Glass will stay clear for decades (if your's doesn't soap & water usually fixes it) it's the plastic lenses than discolor. I have 20+ year old glass headlamps in pristine condition.

[alien]

perhaps he means polycarb?

[fordem]

Polycarbonate is a plastic, it is not glass - if you want to know the difference ask anyone who has had kids - polycarbonate is (or used to be) the most commonly used plastic in babies feeding bottles, those of us who have had kids know what happens when a hungry 2 year old (usually a boy) tosses the empty bottle away in a fit of rage - polycarbonate bounces, glass shatters.

[just_cruizin]

Think alien may know that, think he was indicating that polycarbonate dis-colours under UV

[stockman]

fordem wrote:

bakerboy wrote:

I'm not a fan of glass lens as they seem to yellow over time.

Really?!? Glass will stay clear for decades (if your's doesn't soap & water usually fixes it) it's the plastic lenses than discolor. I have 20+ year old glass headlamps in pristine condition.

x2

I've had a load of cars from the 70's, 80's and 90's with glass headlights there were the originals and all like new, but my 6 year old XR6T headlights are discoloured and glazed to the point the light quality is poor.
Glass4lyf.

[Matthew]

Cheap glass lenses possibly have a poor quality anti-blue optical coating. I would suspect that if glass lenses are yellowing it would be from the optical coating breaking down over time.

[bakerboy]

Matthew wrote:

Cheap glass lenses possibly have a poor quality anti-blue optical coating. I would suspect that if glass lenses are yellowing it would be from the optical coating breaking down over time.

This ^^^ I too have glass lens on my head lights and they are fine, we are talking about the glass used in the cheaper light bars and this is my observation that they yellow over time, so yeah, hence why I don't like glass lens in the cheaper bars

[Brooksy]

Fair call by all, I'm only an apprentice fridgy, so I'm not exactly on the big bucks haha hence looking for a cheap-reasonably priced light bar

[Blakey]

bakerboy wrote:

Matthew wrote:

Cheap glass lenses possibly have a poor quality anti-blue optical coating. I would suspect that if glass lenses are yellowing it would be from the optical coating breaking down over time.

This ^^^ I too have glass lens on my head lights and they are fine, we are talking about the glass used in the cheaper light bars and this is my observation that they yellow over time, so yeah, hence why I don't like glass lens in the cheaper bars

Im quite curious as to what makes one china bar a cheaper light bar to another china bar.

what exactly makes them "cheaper" besides price.

as your saying the black face bars are "cheaper" to non blackface bars. why where is this "cheapness" coming in?

[Brooksy]

They're all from China anyway haha

[bakerboy]

Simple, if it's a glass lens or epistar it's cheap in price and build quality
The black face is cheap in price, has a glass lens and aesthetically not as nice as the silver ones IMO
Polycarbonate lens are better sealed and easier to rebuild and the Cree LEDs have more lumens per watt than epistar LEDs

[Blakey]

bakerboy wrote:

Simple, if it's a glass lens or epistar it's cheap in price and build quality
The black face is cheap in price, has a glass lens and aesthetically not as nice as the silver ones IMO
Polycarbonate lens are better sealed and easier to rebuild and the Cree LEDs have more lumens per watt than epistar LEDs

so your relating the price of something it being bad quality?

i can fine heaps of things that cost a lot and are really bad quality.

you are talking about these black face bars right??



if so then i must say you are a bit misinformed. as im guessing you have never actually seen one or looked at them.

They are Polycarbonate polymer, and they use deep cone reflectors to give spot rather then a lens like the rest of the china bars that mimic spot.

and that black face you speak of is actually aluminium so to be honest its a lot more protected then the ones without it.
They are waterproof to 1m ie IP67 there is no need for them to be any more as your putting them on a 4wd if your light is under 1 meter of water your in a hell of a lot more trouble to be worrying about your light bars water integrity.

as for aesthetics you not liking how it looks doesn't make something cheap.

They also do use Cree LED's not Epistar.

so out of everything you have said they are cheap yep they are cheaper in price but that's about as cheap as they get.

but price means squat in the way of "quality"

[bakerboy]

I was referring to the ad for the lights from stedi that look very similar to yours that state they are PMMA glass lens, I also have several suppliers offering me the same bar and lens combo which is why I assumed it would be glass too, incidentally the PMMA glass is the one that I have had issues with going a yellow tinge.

I am well aware that the single row bars are Cree led, I was referring to the dual row bars being epistar. I am also aware of their ip rating however in some instances of the dual row glass lens style this isn't the case.

As for reflector spot vs lens spot, well it's down to the individual really on what they prefer, ATM I prefer my single row with the lens that does the spot/spread


One of my previous single rows

[fordem]

PMMA - Poly methyl meth acrylate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(methyl_methacrylate)

[fordem]

Blakey wrote:

They are Polycarbonate polymer, and they use deep cone reflectors to give spot rather then a lens like the rest of the china bars that mimic spot.

bakerboy wrote:

As for reflector spot vs lens spot, well it's down to the individual really on what they prefer.

"Deep cone" reflectors, in fact reflectors in general, don't do much for LEDs, especially surface mount LED chips - the only way to focus an LED is with a lens.

So called conical reflectors as used on filament lamps are actually parabolic rather than conical and to be effective they need the light source to be an isotropic or spherical radiator (radiate evenly in all directions) and located at the focal point of the parabola - LEDs radiate at best in a "half sphere" meaning a 360 degree circle and "forwards only".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_reflector

[bakerboy]

I know that PMMA is not glass but an acrylic, however from what I have found they only coat the glass with it, it's not like a polycarbonate lens that is void of glass all together, when they reference PMMA it's just a type of glass with a coating, which can yellow, at least what I have experienced in the three years of bringing these in. It probably changes from company to company, but the lights that have had PMMA lens are the ones that I have found to yellow, they also seem to cop two lots of supposed lens types depending on what sales guff they send you.

[Matthew]

I doubt that glass lenses would be coated with PMMA.

bakerboy wrote:

It probably changes from company to company, but the lights that have had PMMA lens are the ones that I have found to yellow,

Doesn't this indicate that the lenses are more likely to be cheap PMMA without UV stabilization?

If you have any yellowed lenses around you should test them. A direct flame will cause PMMA to burn.