Thread: Illuminator 42" LED Light Bar

Apologies, but I have no experience with this specific light bar, but! ....

You'd have to be extremely unlucky for it to not last at least a year!
At less than $100, it's definitely worth the punt.

The hardest part about fitting the light bar is the initial stage, that is first time fit!.
Replacing lights is far easier to do, so if it does break down(I think highly unlikely!) or you're not happy with it(also highly unlikely!!), the replacement light will be easier to fit.

I replaced a pair or 7" IPF spotties with a 'shot in the dark' small light bar(ie. of unknown quality!).
Because the wiring was already done, and even tho I still had to drill out two new holes in the bull bar to suit the new light bar, it still only took me about half an hour to do!

As far as I can work out, that mob are the old Tigerz11. I'm waiting on one of their winches with mixed expectations...

But, I have a couple of cheap ebay light bars, and they are still working after a few years, so I can't see why the Illuminators should be worse, given they have local stores and a warranty to honour. I'm going to try their driving lights.

Out of curiosity I emailed someone I dealt with at Truck-Lite when I had some warranty issues with my US bought headlamps, he was very helpful and sourced me some AU spec ones to replace the pair I had, so I wanted to get his opinion on the actual LED's in the cheap bar, this is part of his response.

We own Rigid Industries.
The quality is Truck-lite type product and is fairly pricey.
I have seen the light bar you reference.
The output is not there mate. It has good output for 50-60 meters but doesn't have the optics to do more.

Narva has a decent light bar at a pretty good cost.
To give you an idea of Rigid's quality / output.
We have a 10 inch, single row lamp that will,out perform the 42 inch bar!
The SR10 combo light bar is around $400 !

If you want me to track down the Narva bar info, let me know.

The cheap bar is still only $100 so may still be worth the punt, but I quite fancy the 10" bar to just replace my HID's, they are cheap ones also, well $400 about 5 yrs ago, the warm up on them does my head in and they have never been that great. So Maybe it is time I stop buying cheap lights and spend the extra on the rigid bar.

If I do go the rigid now I will be looking at the this one I think.

10" SR2 Series LED Bar Hyperspot Driving - Combo - Snake Racing

Still have to look at the Narva one.

In my view it really depends on the intended use. My cheap bars are fine for the rough track stuff I do in the D1. I don't use the car that much at night for that. For touring they are hopeless, and I wouldn't have dreamed of using them on the B Double, they simply don't throw far enough.

On the D2 I have some IPF things which I would like to replace. That car is far more likely to be needing decent driving lights, but all the big name LED lights are super expensive, so I'm game to try out the Illuminators .

One thing I really don't like about marketing rubbish with respect to LED lighting is the often quoted Lumen output!

It's basically meaningless for most of us.

Lux is a better way to compare apples with apples.

The way I look at LED lights, is:
For a given amount of 'quoted power' the more individual globes(chips) used, the worse will be the total throw of the lights.
Like johntins said, for short range(eg. 50m or so) .. fine, they light up like a large sports stadium at night, but hopeless on longer distance subjects.
The more power per individual chip, the more likely the longer the distance that the light will probably produce.
My light bar only has 12 chips, but each at 15w. 4 x 30degree spots and 4 60degree wider angled optics on each side of that.
On a typical dark street suburban street, they 'appear' brighter than the old(rusty) IPFs that came on the car(100x globes each).
But on a longer distance(eg. dark freeway), they're barely half as good as the IPFs. And the IPFs have a hybrid spot/spread lens type.

A green note a year every year for mediocre lighting... welcome to the disposable society!!!

Buy right, buy once. And have something decent..

Glare may look bright, but it's unusable...
CRI is very important...

And most Led gear on the market is quoting big fat *theoretical* lumens. Not the real output.

A recent 500w light bar which should draw around 40amps was found to be consuming less than 15a... so the LEDs were hardly producing the claimed output...

I have some of the 22in and 6in bars, i bought them for quads and my backhoe at the farm, ive only got around to installing one of the 22in bars on my Viking, they seem to be reasonably well made work decent enough, i was a little disappointed with the light output over a long distance but it lights up a big area close by which works well for my needs. Time will tell how they hold up....

Originally Posted by Tombie

A green note a year every year for mediocre lighting... welcome to the disposable society!!!

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Fascinating.. My light bars cost less than a Green note, still function as described, and are in no way mediocre. I suggest a little disposable income prejudice here.
If the product performs as per it's description, why the disparagement? I knew what I was getting in to, and thus far the lights have done everything they professed they would. Sure, a light of ten times the price would have been better, but would it have been ten times better? The light does all I ask of it.

I hear you on the disposable society thing. Bunnings have made it an art form. But I don't accept that a light bar that is over three years old, cost less than your 'green note' and is still functioning as described is 'disposable'.