Rigid Industries Edge LED light

| May 25, 2010 | 0 Comments

by Shannon Bushman – XXXOffroad

A while before taking off on the Borneo Equator Expedition 09 I wrote an article here on UTVWeekly about lighting.  Specifically about the right lighting.  Lighting is a tricky subject and while a lot of light is great too much in the wrong spot stinks, and too little in the right spot stinks too.  For more on this subject please read this article.

https://utvweekly.com/index.php/2009/09/let-there-be-the-right-light/

When getting the RZR-S ready to go to Borneo we knew we needed great light, we needed rugged light and we needed lots of it.  When it was time to plan the cage with luggage roof rack I knew exactly what I wanted: Rigid Industries Edge 40″ light bar.  We even built the cage just to fit this bar.

I stopped by Rigid Industries on my way to Borneo and picked up the light bar, put it in my luggage and mounted it in Borneo the night before the Expedition left.  It was a trivial install. The wiring is all there, the switch is easy to place and hooking it to the auxiliary battery only took a few minutes.  It even has its own fuse ready to go.  With the tabs already placed on the cage I slipped the bar into the slot and tightened two nuts, plugged it in and was ready light up the night in just about 15 minutes.

We did a lot of night driving in Borneo despite the “general plan” of stopping at 5pm to camp.  Hah!  We spent so much time winching building bridges and repairing vehicles the only time we made good mileage was at night.  Unfortunately this was almost always in a blinding rainstorm and I didn’t get a single night photo.  We were just in too much of a panic in the dark to get the job done to be taking pictures and dealing with cameras in the monsoon.  I would say of the 1500+ miles at least 600 was at night in the rain.   Its a good thing Rigid bars are waterproof, they certainly proved that on this trip.

I have to say that the absolute best part of the LED light bar is there is no tunnel effect.  If you have driven much at night you know that the tunnel effect can be deadly.  Things, apparitions, boogie men, just plain shadows lurk in the dark part of the light tunnel and when they jump out at you in your groggy tunnel numbed brain the results can be disastrous.  Many racers have crashed swearing something jumped out of the dark edges at them and they swerved to miss it, when in fact there was nothing but their imagination in the dark. The tunnel is a killer and if you have to lay down a lot of miles in the dark offroad you need to eliminate the tunnel.  LED = No Tunnel, thank God.

This light is so nice and evenly spread, there is no “hot spot”.  There is a giant sweet spot, everything in front of you is lit up like day light.   With the flood light reflectors on the outside  8 inches there is no hard edge and in fact plenty of light spills to the side so there is no tunnel effect at all.

The other thing is that there is no bouncy light spot.  With my HIDs, there was always a spot that bounced around in front of me, after a while this is nerve racking, and mind numbing.  The broad pattern of the LED makes this disappear.

If you haven’t seen the torture test videos Rigid has posted, they are worth a look.  They are nearly indestructible.  In Borneo they have vines, Rattan vines, the kind they make patio furniture from. A Rattan vine is almost unbreakable and they litter the jungle, if you wrap them around your axle they will trash your drive train.  In several areas Rattan vines hooked across the front of the RZR-S and at one point I found myself popping a wheelie on flat ground because the vines had hooked under the light bar across the front windshield and the RZR-S found it easier to go up than forward, at which point I was looking skyward hanging on the vines by the light bar they had grabbed onto.  After backing down and chopping the vines away with a machete I inspected the bar, not a scratch or dent.  Just try hanging your UTV by one of your HID lights and let me know how it works out.

All I can say is the Rigid LED light bar was a HUGE hit with the whole expedition.  I was asked many times to poke the nose of the RZR over a hill or into a river to light up the winching operations.  The five motorcycle riders would all gather in front of the RZR on these night drives to take advantage of the light.

Yup this is the right light.  And it makes my RZR-S look bad ass.

http://www.rigidindustries.com/

Here are some specs:

General Specs:
93% Optical Efficiency
Shockproof
No Vibration
Fully Dimmable
80 LED’s with 50,000+ Hour Life Span
Easy Two Wire Installation
12.67 Amps
152.04 watts
14,525 Lumens
Dimensions:
3.375″ High
3.625″ Deep
41 3/8″ Long

Patented Hybrid Technology runs lights at 90% efficiency which is unmatched in the industry.  8″ of flood reflectors on the outsides of the light and 32″ of spot reflectors on the inside half of the light.  This will optimize both functional light spread and light distance for increased visibility.

Did you get that? 14,525 Lumens.  Hey partner thats some serious light.  An HID light is about 3,000 lumens.

More on Shannon’s Adventure:  https://utvweekly.com/index.php/category/utv-weekly-exclusive/borneo-excursion/


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Category: Borneo Excursion, Featured, Product Reviews

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