Am I missing something? Light price rant!

[t_j]

wonder what percentage of our trucks is china. you would think they could've forged the wheels in na.

75% if you believe this: What Percentage of Your Truck Is Made in America? - PickupTrucks.com News

 

[BramageDained]

You really have to match up to duty hours and just what they're used for.

And let's be honest about that too. There's a zero percent chance someone is going to run a light for 50,000 hours which is thrown out a lot as MTBF.

I'd be surprised if most light bars see even 1000-2000 hours of use. At most, I'd expect maybe a few hundred hours per year.

...the lightbar I made myself in the garage with hand tools might be kind of ugly, but, it works well and is waterproof enough to be submerged.

 

[daddycreswell]

Sure, but those of us looking for cheaper alternatives that take their trucks off road a few times a year really going to exceed the designed uses for these lights? (Totron rated life 30,000+hours - ~5 years on 24x7, Rigid 50,000 hours - ~8 years on 24x7).



Rigid cost (pair): $380

Totron cost (pair): $88

Ratios: Rigid:Totron

Cost ratio: 4.3:1

Life ratio: 1.6666:1



As for the lifetime warranty (this is the lifetime of the product not you), their are no details on expected lifetime of the enclosure. How long do the seals last especially the gortex breather?



Lets assume that the Totron warranty is extremely conservative, and that a unit lasts at least 80% of its LED rating (4 years) it is still cheaper for me to buy 2 pairs of Totron than one pair of Rigids.



Do the rigids have on hour counters in them? If not they can start denying your warranty clams after 8 years of ownership as that is the advertised lifetime.



Based on this data what is better for the average consumer? My thought is that most people will get away with the cheaper alternatives.







Ok so the power output is a little off, it would be great if rigid put all the specs for each product on the product page not just some of them. However it would seem most people are looking for additional driving lights for on road use in this location, not to blind anyone they come across on the road, 72W of additional driving lights should be sufficient for most needs.



As for looks, they reflectors are very similar between the 2, have you seen these products side by side or are you just going by pictures on the internet.







Not had a chance to really test mine as I installed it today, but from the limited test I did last night the output was superb.







Well aren't you incredibly grown up. For the record: What you are suggesting is that we buy products from inside the country, at what seem to be inflated prices, rather than purchase from the cheapest supplier. This my friend is one of the main characteristics of a communist economy.



Most of us here live in the US, and its economy is driven in a capitalist fashion, which means the person with the best price (comparative product quality must also be included see above) gets the business.

Well said on all accounts.

 

[skyscraper]

Not to be argumentative but I have seen plenty of those "off brand" lights. While they were somewhat cheaper (no way 75% cheaper more like 35%) and I can tell you they were no where near 90% quality or output of the brand lights. More like 50% at the most. Then wait a year or two and see how many are still working versus some of the name brands. Honest to goodness...........you get what you pay for. Plus your helping the country you live in to remain economically strong!!

Are you gauging this from personal experience? There are several threads here of guys that have both lights and they say the cheaper ones are very close

---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 PM ----------

Okay, let's try explaining it a different way, Baja designs, vision x, and rigid build their lights to trophy truck standards, the cheap china lights are built to recreational standards, will both work for most of us on this forum, generally yes, would both work for a trophy truck running the Baja 1000, most probably not. Should Baja designs, vision x, and rigid charge bottom dollar because you might never put your lights through the kind of torture that would destroy the china lights? no, period, their lights are still designed to take the kind of torture that would cause the china lights to fall apart and then their lights would beg for more, so they deserve to ask you to pay for what you get.

If you made the best of the best of a certain good on the market, how would you feel if someone said you have no right to charge more for your product than the company that made the worst iteration of that product on the market because cosmetically your products have no differences?

I don't think it's a matter of telling companies what they should charge, I just think some of us choose with our wallets. Then when certain guys rant here about 'merica, we point out the outrageous prices.

 

[matrix243]

Led's in the offroad market are relatively new, for large market sales, and the cheap prices will eventually drive the rest down.

 

[Cleave]

That explains why some peoples Rigids have been leaking within a couple of weeks. Must be their high quality control and durable design.

And there might be a reason rigid industries isn't the #1 light supplier of offroad racing, despite what a lot of people on this forum seem to believe, their light overall quality is better than the Chinese lights, does that mean they don't have problems, no, nothing is perfect, they have a very obvious problem, does that mean the Chinese lights problems aren't worse than rigids? The worst problems are the ones you never see, at least in my opinion.

I never said not to buy Chinese lights, just that you shouldn't complain about what the high end brands charge because you want a better quality light for the same cost as a light put together by 6 year olds in a rust and dust filled factory owned by a company that doesn't even care enough about it's reputation to brand it's own products

 

[t_j]

Plus your helping the country you live in to remain economically strong!!

Actually your not helping, ok at this stage of the money exchange, of course the money stays in the country, however lets look a little further down the supply chain.

What is the country of origin for:

- Device parts
* Paint
* Aluminum ore smelted to make the case
* Rubber used to make the seals
* Oil used to make the plastic for the optics
* Rare earth minerals used to manufacture the electronic components
* Steal and other metals used to make the bolts and other hardware
* Paper and plastic packaging materials
* Printing ink for manuals, labels etc
- Manufacturing equipment
* CNC mills
* Lathes
* blast furnace
* air compressors
* air tools
* industrial robots
* handling equipment
* Safety equipment
- Operational supplies
* Petroleum based products
+ Natural gas (heating facilities/water)
+ Petrol/Diesel (transportation)
* drill/mill/lathe bits
* Cutting fluids
* Computers

Now look at this at every stage in the supply chain and watch your money you paid for american made goods syphon out of the country.

Next thing is what percentage of the staff who work for rigid leave all of their money in the US. These people have to buy food, fuel and other items, these items more often than not originate from outside the US. Again more of your money leaving the country after the first stage of the supply chain.

Now lets think about the stuff working in the production facility they are not all high skill workers, ok some are but most will not be. What would be better your taxpayers dollars being spent on these units keeping people in work (probably making minimum wage working long shifts and living beyond their means), or using that money for education so that these low skill workers can get medium to high skill jobs? (You don't need to worry about the medium to high skill workers, their are plenty of jobs in those spaces)

---------- Post added at 05:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 PM ----------

And there might be a reason rigid industries isn't the #1 light supplier of offroad racing, despite what a lot of people on this forum seem to believe, their light overall quality is better than the Chinese lights, does that mean they don't have problems, no, nothing is perfect, they have a very obvious problem, does that mean the Chinese lights problems aren't worse than rigids? The worst problems are the ones you never see, at least in my opinion.

I never said not to buy Chinese lights, just that you shouldn't complain about what the high end brands charge because you want a better quality light for the same cost as a light put together by 6 year olds in a rust and dust filled factory owned by a company that doesn't even care enough about it's reputation to brand it's own products

This is all hearsay, I have yet to see any quantifiable proof that quality is different between the US make and none US made products.

 

[Cleave]

Are you gauging this from personal experience? There are several threads here of guys that have both lights and they say the cheaper ones are very close

---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 PM ----------



I don't think it's a matter of telling companies what they should charge, I just think some of us choose with our wallets. Then when certain guys rant here about 'merica, we point out the outrageous prices.

I'm saying choose with your wallet, but don't try to say that companies that go out of their way to bring the very best in innovation to the offroad lighting industry don't deserve to charge what they do for their products just because there are companies out there that can bring similar products to the market for less because they have no r&d costs and very little manufacturing costs

 

[justvettn]

I seen some Chinese cube lights advertised for $99 each with a 2 year warranty and members commenting wow what a great deal, when you can buy an american made dually with lifetime warranty and more Lumens for the same price. It makes no sense to me.

 

[Cleave]

If all the non-chinese light manufacturers didn't exist, the Chinese light manufacturers wouldn't either