LightForce Striker 170s: UPDATE! Installed (pics!)

Anyone have experience with this company's lighting?



Amazon has them for $224
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KEZPCW/?tag=fordraptorforum-20

I like that they're 100w

And I really dig the interchangeable lenses (can swap in amber for dusty/foggy situations).
http://www.truckcustomizers.com/products/lightforce-driving-lights-filter-lenses.html

My bull bar affords appox 3" of depth from the mount point, 7.5" of height, and around a 4" radius of width (at the centerline of the light). I think these lights would fit in there quite nicely.

I would look for HID. You can get some good lights, I have 2 and Brian has 4 on his truck. They are cheap (same price as the lightforce but HID). I got mine on ebay for about 230 shipped. It will give you a lot more light.

Hmm ok something else to consider, thanks Chad.

Any idea why HID prices vary so widely? Seems they can go from $250 to $2k.

you can get the Lightforce in HID, 4wheel parts has them for $431 for the pair. Im not an expert on HID lights, but there has to be a quality difference. I know you can get a HID conversion kit for most cars from $75 to $300, depending on brand. All lights will produce a lot of light. The biggest thing to look at with HID is to make sure the are internally ballast (IMO) because it will be less to mount/wire up. I am happy with my "made in china" HID's. They look good, stay in place ( unlike my 2 KC's). Take a look at mine on RR4. We can take it out at night so you can see the difference from halogen, HID, and LED.

I am a huge fan of Light Force and they are the most popullar light I've seen in Alaska. They hold up well to rocks getting kicked up at them, are light weight, don't rattle loose as easily, look good and put out a great amount of light. I think their line is the best out. Other companies may make a broader line but all the lights of Light Force are of very high quality. I think their 240mm HID's are a little pricey but so are all the other manufacturers of similiar quality. However, a set of 240's with the HID upgrade is much more affordable and will get you very similiar or equal results. I agree with the above poster that prefers internal ballasts but mounting a P&P HID sytem is about as easy as it gets, they give you plenty of length in the leads and the performance is the same.

With that said, my brother has some 7 or 8 inch HID's on his Jeep and they work flawlessly. He picked'em up at Kragen for like $120. I don't have any experience with the LF HID's first hand but his cheap HID's are brighter than the 170's I have on my work truck. My LF 170's with the blue spot lense have more distance though. I'm not sure if his have a spot or driving light though. My 170's also put out as much light as my Dad's 8" KC's. Those KC's won't quit rattling loose either.

My buddy runs'em on his Duramax too. They are LF 240's with the light blue combo lense and he says his tires are the limiting factor in whiteout driving and not his vision. Pretty good reccommendation IMO. I have another buddy with 2 170's on his Superduty.

For a truck like the Raptor that is made for high speed driving, you need distance. That would pair you with a spot lense but you can get much more confidence with broader lighting so I think the hot setup is 4 LF HID 240's, 2 spot's and 2 combo lenses. This should give you all the light you need. I've read of other desert runners that run 4 big HID's over those LED lightbars too. They are great for width and eliminating darkspots but can't match HID's in distance.

I don't know of any other company that has so much flexibility in color and beam patter than LF and I think the lenses are only like $20.

I'd definantly do a P&P HID kit in you'r headlights before anything though.

After reading reviews like GL's above, I decided on LightForce. And after carefully measuring I came to the conclusion that the 170s are probably just a touch too big. So I ordered the 140s, but in HID.

I also ordered the Amber lenses to complement the included clears.

I'll definitely post up the results once their installed.

Thanks again for the thoughts guys.

combo, spot or wide lenses?

BigJ-

Where did you wind up getting them from? Looking forward to hearing your impressions and how you installed them.

GOODLIFE said:

combo, spot or wide lenses?

Click to expand...

The amber only come in spot. And the lights themselves come with spot (clear), so for now I'll be all about the distance. Might add a wide lens eventually.

KaiserM715 said:

BigJ-

Where did you wind up getting them from? Looking forward to hearing your impressions and how you installed them.

Click to expand...

I ended up buying from BJ' Off-Road: http://www.bjsoffroad.com/cartgenie/prodInfo.asp?pid=1064&cid=30

They had the best price by far, and came very highly recommended.

Ok forget that. BJ's called and they are out of stock.

So... after carefully remeasuring AND after figuring on using LightForce's optional low mount bracket (click here) I *think* the 170s will fit ok. I changed my order with BJ's to the 170 HIDs (only $10 more for the lights, but add an additional $19 for those brackets, for a total of $29 more). They're shipping today.

A side benefit to this is that I can now use their newer filters. I opted for their amber spot and wide (combo) filter, giving me the best of both worlds (I hope).

Another side benefit... I called and talked to LightForce directly and discovered the 170s throw light almost 30% further than the 140s throw.

I'm a little nervous on the fit, but we'll make the 170s work one way or another; either we get to use the preexisting holes in the Aries bull bar, or we're going to drill our own. Either way, these lights are going on

Stay tuned.