Ridiculouser...

[MEXICOWANDERER]

As some of you know I have been keeping an off-and on lookout for the macabre in LED light bars and this is the latest patient...




At some time hopefully in the near future The People's Republic of California is going to put their foot...er going to assign a California Vehicle Code Violation for displaying this obscenity without it wearing a dress or teeshirt or whatever...

Can you imagine a freakin' light bar with the capability of bogging down a 3,000 watt inverter generator (of course it is the wrong voltage and is direct current - but STILL...)?

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Such theology violates common sense. Sorry. If I, meaning, solo, only, solitary, unique, deem my safety is enhanced while having no conceivable impact on anyone or anything else imaginable then I am going to take the intelligent route. Strong lighting must have extremely strict usage.

For example: High intensity lighting should never be enabled on a winding road where a possibility exists of an oncoming car rounding a corner may be blinded before lamps are extinguished. Same things for hills. If I overtook a vehicle my lights were dimmed A HALF MILE distant.

My eyes are nowhere as good as they were twenty years ago. Asphalt tinted cattle are very tough to make out. A 75-mile drive at 25 mph is ridiculous. Now living in the city I have LED headlights that glare LESS than the correctly aimed factory 9004 bulbs. Yet I can see better. And I do not need to travel now 190 miles to see a cardiologist whose office hours are from 1600 hours to 2200 hours. He moonlighted from the Federal Hospital.

So you see, it's a matter of INTELLIGENCE. Or rather USING IT TO BE BOTH SAFE AND CONSIDERATE.

I avoid driving at night now unless the stupid doctors in the USA force me to have a late afternoon appointment. The trip is cattle free. So is my toad of the light bar. It went bye-bye.

Intelligence! The Other Reality! 🙂

[pnichols]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
.... THINKING is mandatory. Perhaps beyond the ability of too many folks. But for anything but the most rural untraveled back roads laden with cattle, washouts, or deer having a potent light bar is silly.

We travel down the deer-laden (especially during Rutting Season) road to our digs using -

1. our vehicle's stock headlights set to LOW or HIGH, as our thinking dictates,

AND

2. our right foot to back off on ... you guessed it ... the vehicle's speed, as our thinking dictates.

We entirely missed my DW's 60th birthday party due to hitting a deer and totaling our sedan while enroute on this road. Watts of headlight power had nothing to due with it. Rutting Season, driving slightly below the speed limit instead of well below it, and having the stock headlights on LOW instead of HIGH ... had everything to do with it. (She was driving, BTW.)

There are no excuses for mounting high intensity visible light spectrum lazers, or whatever, on the front of testosterone powered vehicles in order to ignore the laws of weather, physics, and biology so as to be able to "safely pilot" a human controlled vehicle fast at night ... none whatsoever.

[MrWizard]

Most likey it's a lot closer to 300w or less, actual 12v power
It's just the same amount of light as 3000w of incandescent bulbs
And knowing the type the type usually use, that 3000w is probably closer to 1000w
And real use user about ??

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Told D'ja it is macabre. Meant to bring a smile. Being that I work intensively with LED's and power supplies, I can remark that a 300 watt version of this bar cannot be compared to an 18 watt lamp. Oh poor Mex. He actually MEASURES these devices.

The 18 watt versions of CREE lamps regardless of design draw 1.04 amperes at 12.00 vdc. My 300 watt light bar drew 15.65 amperes at 12.00 vdc.

If a genuine CREE chip 18 watt lamp is compared to a 6054 old style rectangular headlight bulb. A genuine shootout - the 18 watt CREE wins - by a landslide. Four mechanics and a dozen people watched. BUT WAIT! The power supply voltage was increased to 14.0 volts for the 6054 lamp. Still it was a laugh-off. 16 people were shaking their head. That 1.04 amp CREE (Other brand chips are a joke) lamp is a marvel. It has a voltage regulator inside 9.8 volts to 29.95 volts it puts out the same light EXACTLY. It's a pure E=I/R METER READING proofing.

So when you install your "X" watt advertised incandescent bulb replacements in your rig 1-2 watts is all the heat that can be squeezed onto a SMD PCB. Test latest CREE beta chips I tested STILL need heat sinks far in excess of what any lamp cutout cavity would provide.

My new 3rd brake light (8) 160,000 mcd red 10mm LEDs in the back window passing through a narrow plastic strip diffuser made all the difference in reducing tail gating drivers. Even though my CREE replacement headlight bulb replacements are considered by me to be another wonder of the world, I'm still looking forward to mounting a pair of NARROW BEAM 18-watt CREE lamps to shine 50' forward and down toward the curb/shoulder.

MORE CHATTER: My one thousand five hundred watt monster lamp has been lighting up the futbol pitch at home for almost a year. I balanced load to rectified transformer potential at 140 volts max. Wuuwuu a 10 watt 130 volt zener diode interrupts a relay coil. Wotta hoot.

I sold perhaps 30 CREE light bars. I refused orders in excess of 300 watts. These bars save lives in an extremely unusual circumstance where "going to town" means a 150 mile drive, and seeing perhaps ten cars, but a few dozen asphalt tinted cattle on the asphalt*. I will not sell bars here in the new place.

* Oops! Sorry. I sold the light bars in NORTH AMERICA. Proper use of a potentially hazardous product means THINKING is mandatory. Perhaps beyond the ability of too many folks. But for anything but the most rural untraveled back roads laden with cattle, washouts, or deer having a potent light bar is silly.

Just as silly as getting a five hundred dollar ticket for blinding someone. Strike silly, replace with two words stupidly-arrogant.

[pnichols]

JaxDad wrote:
I suspect there’s supposed to be an asterisk next to the 3,000 watt claim saying it’s the equivalent of 3k incandescent watts.

That's of course what/watt it means.

The vast majority of vehicle alternator systems along with their batteries can't handle 3000 12 volt watts worth of DC current. It's just another example of an over-the-top product not really needed in North America other than for Macho Bragging Rights/Lights. :S

[RLS7201]

Just to make sure the thread is RV related. GRIN
Maybe not as powerful as Mex's post but it gets the job done.



Richard

[MrWizard]

lots brighter than Rudolphs nose, but not as pretty

[newman_fulltime]

i need to order these for a runway light for santa

[2oldman]

As effective as a gun.

[DutchmenSport]

Put it on the roof of your camper and use for a scare light! Now wouldn't your neighbor camper love you for that!

[JaxDad]

I suspect there’s supposed to be an asterisk next to the 3,000 watt claim saying it’s the equivalent of 3k incandescent watts.

I’m looking at that wiring harness it comes with and wonder how many seconds it would last if that light was truly pulling 250 amps.

[wa8yxm]

Hey my Fog lights are 18 watts each of CREE knock off LED's

In terms of House lights. that is about 600 watts... EACH of light.

[jharrell]

Says it doesn't put out any radiation, must not actually work then.