ARB Intensity Lights Compared? (1 Viewer)

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Markuson

Markuson

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LED lighting comes up...but it remains elusive to pin down the best alternatives to ARB Intensity lights.

Trouble is... The knockoffs come and go so quickly, it's nearly impossible to now which ones people have used, etc. Knock-offs have a tendency to change constantly, so super hard to know...

**Have any of you actually done a head-to-head comparison of less-expensive LED driving/spot/flood lights with the hyper-pricey ARB Intensity lights in the 9" (larger) size?

I've scoured and scoured. Old threads remain iffy because of the rapid turnover with cheaper alternatives...
 
Outside of Australia I haven't seen the big round driving lights catch on for some reason. I'm guessing terrain differences and avoiding 'roos in the bush is more of an issue over there. Seems like nearly every rig on Ronny Dahl's "Modified" videos have the big round lights.

Light bars seem to work nicely enough despite becoming a "bro truck" accessory.

If anything, I'd like to see some ditch light brackets come to the market for the 200. The ability to stick you mitts outside and angle the beam is quite nice. Maybe we can talk @reevesci into pumping out a batch before he gives up my 200, if there's enough interest.
 
They don't have to be round...but I want them at the bumper level.
I want my main lights lower than my eyes, and not above.

In my experience, light that is higher than the eyes means you lose some depth perception On my mountain bike, I've done extensive and aggressive night rides on dangerous trails with high end lighting on both my helmet and my handlebars, but I pump nearly twice the light from my handlebars vs. my helmet and the reason is depth perception. **Lights on my handlebars give much better depth perception than the one on my head, because the lower light position casts tiny shadows far behind rocks and other obstacles on the trail. These tiny outline shadows give the effect of easier perception of those objects' height. If I only use my also-super-bright head lamp...I lose those outlines, and it's much more difficult to judge obstacles.

Anyway... That's why I'm definitely sticking with bumper-mounted lighting for driving.

I know that light bars are popular, and they have their uses too. Just not my preference.
 
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Markuson said:
The reason I'm not interested in a light bar is placement limitations. I want my main lights lower than my eyes, and not above.
In my experience, light that is higher than the eyes means you lose some depth perception On my mountain bike, I've done extensive and aggressive night rides on dangerous trails with high end lighting.
**Lights on my handlebars give much better depth perception than the one on my head, because the lower light position casts tiny shadows far behind rocks and other obstacles on the trail. If I only use my also-super-bright head lamp...I lose those outlines, and it's much more difficult to judge obstacles.

Anyway... That's why I'm definitely sticking with bumper-mounted lighting for driving.

I know that light bars are popular, and they have their uses too. Just not my preference.
Click to expand...

I definitely agree. Bumper is the way to go for sure. I had a roof mounted bar on my 4Runner and didn't like it at all.
 
reevesci said:
I prefer a flood pattern on the roof and a pencil/spot at the grill level.

J
Click to expand...

Ya, I know lots of folks like that.
For me, I also want to avoid light being cast on my hood...even though it's dark grey.
 
TonyP said:
Outside of Australia I haven't seen the big round driving lights catch on for some reason. I'm guessing terrain differences and avoiding 'roos in the bush is more of an issue over there. Seems like nearly every rig on Ronny Dahl's "Modified" videos have the big round lights.

Light bars seem to work nicely enough despite becoming a "bro truck" accessory.

If anything, I'd like to see some ditch light brackets come to the market for the 200. The ability to stick you mitts outside and angle the beam is quite nice. Maybe we can talk @reevesci into pumping out a batch before he gives up my 200, if there's enough interest.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by ditch light brackets? Is it like the lights police cruisers have?
 
Markuson said:
Ya, I know lots of folks like that.
For me, I also want to avoid light being cast on my hood...even though it's dark grey.
Click to expand...

It bothers some folks. I pull my bars 4-6" back from the front edge and it limits the overcasting on the hood and with a flood its not as bad either way.

J
 
Reckless said:
What do you mean by ditch light brackets? Is it like the lights police cruisers have?
Click to expand...

Here is what it means to me...

DLMM-FJ80-10.jpg
 
Reckless said:
I'd be interested if there is a super bright LED one like that.
Click to expand...

Those are not intended for use as main driving lights.

When I think of ditch lights, I think of roof-mounted lights that point to your sides...to turn on when you need to see what's next to you while wheeling.
 
Markuson said:
Those are not intended for use as main driving lights.

When I think of ditch lights, I think of roof-mounted lights that point to your sides...to turn on when you need to see what's next to you while wheeling.
Click to expand...

Yeah, will come in handy for offroad situations. Over the weekend I dropped my wallet and went to three parking lots looking for it (it fell in my recliner). I just want the light to be super powerful. I run a local youth sports league on friday nights, the kids play soccer/football/capture the flag until after sunset. It would be cool to light up the field.
 
I had a set of ARB Intensity knock offs on my last rig that cost about $150 for the pair. They were very bright but very scattered. I now have the real deal Intensity lights, and they are much, much better - both brighter and more focused. The question is are they 10x better than the knockoffs for 10x the price? No. I'd say they are probably 2-3x better, and my *guess* is that you can find something similar for cheaper in a Rigid or Baja Designs setup. I have put a couple pairs of Rigid products on recently, and I'm really impressed with the quality/price ratio. I really like my ARB lights, but unless you have a ridiculously discerning eye I doubt you'd see the benefit for the cost over the alternatives.
 
mcgaskins said:
I had a set of ARB Intensity knock offs on my last rig that cost about $150 for the pair. They were very bright but very scattered. I now have the real deal Intensity lights, and they are much, much better - both brighter and more focused. The question is are they 10x better than the knockoffs for 10x the price? No. I'd say they are probably 2-3x better, and my *guess* is that you can find something similar for cheaper in a Rigid or Baja Designs setup. I have put a couple pairs of Rigid products on recently, and I'm really impressed with the quality/price ratio. I really like my ARB lights, but unless you have a ridiculously discerning eye I doubt you'd see the benefit for the cost over the alternatives.
Click to expand...

Rigid actually makes those for ARB, so I'm not surprised at the comparable quality. My trouble is that I really am picky about lighting at speed--mainly because of extensive mountain biking at night. 2-3x better lighting is actually info that makes me lean toward the ARB... If you had said they are nearly indistinguishable? I might jump on the cheapie. But 2-3x better with the ARBs is very significant. It's hard because once you get toward the higher end, the refinement part starts to REEEEALLY cost. It's the same with camera lenses...but if you're picky, it can be worth it. In the case of mountain biking lights, I consider it a significant safety factor.

Your post is helpful to me, because paying 6 times more for 2-3x the lighting quality is not all that ridiculous to me. Still...OUCH.
Thanks for your input.
 
Markuson said:
Rigid actually makes those for ARB, so I'm not surprised at the comparable quality. My trouble is that I really am picky about lighting at speed--mainly because of extensive mountain biking at night. 2-3x better lighting is actually info that makes me lean toward the ARB... If you had said they are nearly indistinguishable? I might jump on the cheapie. But 2-3x better with the ARBs is very significant. It's hard because once you get toward the higher end, the refinement part starts to REEEEALLY cost. It's the same with camera lenses...but if you're picky, it can be worth it. In the case of mountain biking lights, I consider it a significant safety factor.

Your post is helpful to me, because paying 6 times more for 2-3x the lighting quality is not all that ridiculous to me. Still...OUCH.
Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

No problem. To me a decent analogy is that of the 100 vs the 200. I have about 4x invested in my 200 than I did in my nicely built low mile 100. Is it 4x better? No, not really, but it's still "worth it" to me. People get really defensive and touchy over benign stuff and try to say anything that costs more than cheap Chinese knockoffs is a waste of money and frivolous, and some say exactly the opposite and think you should buy bespoke everything. I try to be a little objective, but I lean more towards paying more for quality even if the relationship isn't linear.
 
I can't comment on these too much as I don't have them, and probably won't have auxiliary lights for some time. I've done too much work at night in my life, and now I just want to relax and hang around camp when the sun goes down.

I digress, Stedi out of Australia make some pretty good lights. I have their replacement ARB led fog lights (it's in my build thread if you want to see picture) if their quality is any indication of other products, I would get these. Plus they got to me in 4 days from Australia with free shipping.

STEDI Type-X 8.5 LED Driving Lights (PAIR)
 
Taco2Cruiser said:
I can't comment on these too much as I don't have them, and probably won't have auxiliary lights for some time. I've done too much work at night in my life, and now I just want to relax and hang around camp when the sun goes down.

I digress, Stedi out of Australia make some pretty good lights. I have their replacement ARB led fog lights (it's in my build thread if you want to see picture) if their quality is any indication of other products, I would get these. Plus they got to me in 4 days from Australia with free shipping.

STEDI Type-X 8.5 LED Driving Lights (PAIR)
Click to expand...

Wow. Those do seem pretty sweet, and a much better price.

It says "Out of Stock" though... I'll try to contact them.
 
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