LED differences

[Flatom]

What is the difference in the $200,$300 and 1k led light kits for the raptor? I don’t mind spending money for quality but I know A $15 rgb strip is as good as a$100 strip most of the time(ie superbright led). So please educate me. I want bright quality lights for my new Raptor.

 

[smurfslayer]

Are you talking about specific kinds of leds?

A $15 rgb strip is as good as a$100 strip most of the time(ie superbright led)

for forward facing lights, the cheap amazon lights have a hue that is very white, and a lot of lumens, but, they are woefully poor in reflector tech. They’re also limited lifespan, most leaking at about 1-2 years. That’s not to say they’re useless, they’re not. If you need to save a few pennies, get a really decent wiring harness no matter what, so you minimize the time you spend going back behind the job to replace them with better lights.

I know several of the lighting vendors here will be glad to help you out.
First things first: What are you going to use the lights for?
aesthetics / starbucks posing?
street use only?
street with some off roading.
Off roading, possibly at night, maybe some street usability

The lights typically put into the bumper slots where you see kits can and often do have SAE lights included, and that’s a good choice for additional street lighting that’s legal. I’m familiar with the Baja Design lights; wide corner, combo and spot. combo is half of wide corner and half spot.

Wide corner squadron pros are the bees knees for throwing light everywhere in front of your truck, but not very far. These were the last ones I added and the ones I ended up really liking the most. I’m currently running 2x spots, combos and SAE, but I’m probably going to go to 4x combo, 2x SAE. I don’t think the spots contribute much in the bumper position.

If you’re looking for more, the S8 behind the grille kit is pretty awesome, pushes past to midrange distance. For long range I added a set of xl80 spots with hood mounts.

Is there a noticeable difference? I’ve had both Amazon sourced LEDs and B/D lights I needed financing options for. The BD are just better, period. Reflectors are much higher quality, beam cohesion, water proofing... everything about them is just better.

You get what you pay for.
Others on here run Rigid, some KC, and a few others and I’ll defer to them on their quality. Most input I’ve seen has been positive.

Catch up with one of our lighting vendors and they’ll set you on a path to spending lots of money for lots of lumens...

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

Well that's really an open ended question. What particular lights were you looking at?

It all comes down to build quality, options and warranty.

So a cheap $200 light bar will light things up. It'll be nice and bright but that's about it. It's going to leak. It's going to have a poor warranty. The mounting hardware will rust.
Now let's look at a light bar from say Baja Designs. Not only do they offer a lifetime warranty but they also something called "U-Service" which allows you, the customer, to replace components. Don't like the pattern of the light? You can change it out with new lenses. Don't like the color, not a problem, change it out. Did moisture get inside the housing? No problems, Baja can replace the components for you instead of a full light bar replacement. So just lots more options. Plus the power is outstanding. They also have technology built in where if your having issues powering the light because maybe you didn't run thick enough wire OR maybe you're pulling a LOT of juice from an old battery... rather then the light bar flickering the light bar will just dim a bit and not pull as much power. Giving you less light out but no flickering.

You can also look at the smaller pod lights. You can get a $25 set of pods on amazon cheap that'll light things up, BUT no great patterns or quality. The housings will rust, hardware will rust, etc...

With something like a Baja Designs light you have lots of options as far as sizes go and lenses go. You also get a really nice wiring harness attached and included in the box.

I've seen Baja trucks flip and roll running Baja Desgins lights and the lights still worked after the truck stopped rolling.

It's just more quality and control. Also, brands like Baja Designs are made in America. They actually build them in CA and source a lot of components from CA. Brands like Rigid are awesome also, but they are just assembled here (so a lot of the components are imported). The cheap knock-off $50/$200 pods/bars are made to resemble what a Rigid bar looks like. Again a great warranty and great options with Rigid as well.

So you CAN throw a cheap light bar on your $75k truck OR you can buy quality lights designed to last as long as your truck. We drive NICEEEEEEEEE trucks so why put some cheap lights on your nice truck. Raptors deserve the best in quality.

HOPEFULLY that helps ya out? If you ever need help deciding what to install, shoot me a message/text/email/call. Happy to help. We sure know our way around Raptors AND LED lighting.

We offer a killer fog kit here btw if you're looking to add some lighting. We actually make our mounting brackets right here on Long Island: https://www.4x4truckleds.com/vehicl...2017-2018-f-150-raptor/triple-fog-light-kits/

And then we also have lots of other bolt on kits from Baja here: https://www.4x4truckleds.com/led-auxiliary-lights/baja-designs/raptor-2017-lighting-kits/

 

[Flatom]

Thanks for the reply’s. What I want is to light up the night on a rural deer infested stretch of road (little traffic don’t care if it is legal). My other goal is to have a backup/reverse light that I can actually see where I am backing. Cost is not the issue I just want to get what I pay for.

 

[Oldfart]

I have to say I'm a big fan of Baja Designs. Expensive, but you really are getting what you pay for, not just paying for a name. I used them for many years for my off-road race bikes. Solid company that stands behind their high quality, very durable kit, and they are super knowledgeable and helpful if you ever have issues.

 

[brianh87]

Cheap LED's have lower quality chips, drivers, and they have housings that leak. Quality products will last a long time. Rigid / Baja / KC. A buddy of mine went cheap on his Ram and year later he had multiple chips that burnt out and housings full of condensation.

 

[smurfslayer]

Thanks for the reply’s. What I want is to light up the night on a rural deer infested stretch of road (little traffic don’t care if it is legal). My other goal is to have a backup/reverse light that I can actually see where I am backing. Cost is not the issue I just want to get what I pay for.

I would go with one of the bumper kits; 2x B/D squadron pros per side, + 1x pair of squadron SAE.

Wire the SAE to its own up fitter, and you can safely leave them on once they’re aimed.
For the other 2 per side, I would have a wide corner and a combo lens respectively. Wide corner is fantastic at lighting up road side critters, at pretty good distance too and the combos will add a little few more yards forward projection.

If cost is an issue I’d get them in the order: Wide corner, SAE, combo.

I have a few roads like you describe close by and the local herds are the dreaded kamikaze whitetail.

 

[4x4TruckLEDs.com]

I have to say I'm a big fan of Baja Designs. Expensive, but you really are getting what you pay for, not just paying for a name. I used them for many years for my off-road race bikes. Solid company that stands behind their high quality, very durable kit, and they are super knowledgeable and helpful if you ever have issues.

What you want is very popular... I'd say go with one of the Baja Designs fog kits here: either the PRO or UNLIMITED kit for the fog lights here:

The PRO or UNLIMITED kit sounds like it'd be up your alley. The main difference between the 2 kits are the smaller S2 lights they give you. The PRO kit has S2 Sports and the UNLIMITED kit has S2 Pros (i know sounds odd, but the PRO kit uses sports for the S2).

I personally ran S2 Pros on my truck (shown above) and it worked great. I had the lights aimed down a bit not to blind others. Then there are 2 more pairs of lights. Squadron Pro Driving/Combo in each kit. Which is a Spot/Wide pattern in 1 lens. Then the 3rd pair is different between the kits. The PRO kit has Pro SPOTS. Great for distance. The Unlimited kit upgrades this to Racers. Same idea as spots only they go further, but not as big of a pattern. These are really only good if you do a lot of high-speed off-road racing.

Now you CAN build your own kit here: https://www.4x4truckleds.com/2017-f...ght-kit-w-baja-designs-lights-build-your-kit/

This would let you build the kit with S2 Pros, Squadron Pro Driving/Combo and Squadron Pro Spots. Another POPULAR option is:

Squadron SAE Wide Cornering
Squadron Pro Driving/Combo
Squadron Pro Spots

You get a pair of SAE lights which are street legal to use. And then the other 2 lights we talked about above.

Our CrystaLux kits include EVERYTHING you need from the brackets & lights down to the wiring harness. Plus our brackets are made right here on Long Island as I mentioned and offer the most adjustments out of any bracket on the market.

For reverse, can't beat the S2 Reverse Kit. Plug and play and with our optional upfitter connection kit, you can control the reverse lights from your upfitter if you wanted (otherwise out of the box they tap into the reverse lights so they come on automatically): https://www.4x4truckleds.com/baja-designs-ford-raptor-2017-s2-reverse-light-kit/

If you PM me we can talk about various options and what it would cost ya