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1997 - 2003 Ford F150 General discussion on the Ford 1997 - 2003 F150 truck.

Offroad lighting showdown!

Old Sep 6, 2014 | 09:07 PM
  #21  
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Originally Posted by TLB4
You really have to watch when buying LED light bars these days. A lot of companies are only using low wattage LED's (1-3 watts per LED) which is what makes them super cheap, but have a really ****ty light output. You ideally want a 5 watt minimum wattage per LED, 10 watts is better. Those are the bars that will give you decent light output. A 150 watt light bar made of 30, 5 watt LED's is going to be better than 50, 3 watt LED's as the light will be brighter, and go further. Unless only seeing the first 20 feet in front of your truck is your jam, them low wattage LED's will be great.
its 180 watt and it's got 60 LEDs so if I'm right that comes out to be 3watts per led
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Old Sep 6, 2014 | 09:16 PM
  #22  
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Originally Posted by TLB4

You really have to watch when buying LED light bars these days. A lot of companies are only using low wattage LED's (1-3 watts per LED) which is what makes them super cheap, but have a really ****ty light output. You ideally want a 5 watt minimum wattage per LED, 10 watts is better. Those are the bars that will give you decent light output.
A 150 watt light bar made of 30, 5 watt LED's is going to be better than 50, 3 watt LED's as the light will be brighter, and go further.
Unless only seeing the first 20 feet in front of your truck is your jam, them low wattage LED's will be great.
I got an ebay bar and just hooked it up to a 9 volt battery so it only powered 4 leds and it blinded the hell out of me,so running all of them full power from a truck battery will be extremely bright
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Old Sep 6, 2014 | 10:49 PM
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Another thing to think about is lumens, which is how bright the light bars actually are. People always get caught up with "my lightbars running x amount of watts" when is really the lumens that matter. 3watt LEDs is about the standard for double row light bars, where as 5 watt LEDs are the standard for single row lightbars. More wattage usually means more light, yes, but then again you have to think of what type of led is benign usedz the two main types are OSHRAM and CREE. I think the only difference is the driver, but that also has a big difference in light quality.
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Old Sep 6, 2014 | 11:29 PM
  #24  
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Originally Posted by 02-wht-sc
Another thing to think about is lumens, which is how bright the light bars actually are. People always get caught up with "my lightbars running x amount of watts" when is really the lumens that matter. 3watt LEDs is about the standard for double row light bars, where as 5 watt LEDs are the standard for single row lightbars. More wattage usually means more light, yes, but then again you have to think of what type of led is benign usedz the two main types are OSHRAM and CREE. I think the only difference is the driver, but that also has a big difference in light quality.
the bar I'm looking at is 10,000 lumens
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Old Sep 7, 2014 | 01:30 AM
  #25  
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My 30" is putting out 14400 lumens and my 40 is putting out 19200 lumens, so yours will be a little dimmer than my 30
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Old Sep 7, 2014 | 01:40 AM
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Originally Posted by 02-wht-sc
My 30" is putting out 14400 lumens and my 40 is putting out 19200 lumens, so yours will be a little dimmer than my 30
well urs is pretty bright so for the price I think ima get it
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Old Sep 7, 2014 | 01:56 AM
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Originally Posted by biggreenf-150
well urs is pretty bright so for the price I think ima get it
most of my friends are running tuffstuff led bars and they seem to be pretty good quality for the price which is about the same as yours. I'm running totron myself just because there's a need to stand out haha
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Old Sep 7, 2014 | 01:58 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by 02-wht-sc
most of my friends are running tuffstuff led bars and they seem to be pretty good quality for the price which is about the same as yours. I'm running totron myself just because there's a need to stand out haha
yea man I'm always lookin on how ta save money on stuff for my truck tho
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Old Sep 7, 2014 | 02:07 AM
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Sometimes it's better to go for something with good quality if it's a slightly higher price. A lot of times there are good companies that are just as good as brand names. It all depends! Hope the light bar ends up good!
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Old Sep 7, 2014 | 02:06 PM
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Originally Posted by 02-wht-sc
Sometimes it's better to go for something with good quality if it's a slightly higher price. A lot of times there are good companies that are just as good as brand names. It all depends! Hope the light bar ends up good!
yea man me too I'll post up some pics when I get it
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