Clone of ARB Intensity LED Driving Light/Light Force 250!

[CJustin7]

Obviously you don't. You loose money when people buy the copies instead of the real lights!:elkgrin:

Again, having a cheap light on the front of your rig is NOT THE SAME as having cheap important parts. If a light fails, you slow down, use your head lights and the one remaining light to KEEP MOVING.

Right !!!
A self proclaimed "gear pimp" is obviously going to pimp his stuff. It's like a car salesman. They don't care as long as you buy their product and they can make that money off you.
"Sure, you absolutely need this new Top of the line Corvette to get your children to school and to grab groceries" - Car Salesman X


I am the consumer ........ not the seller, supplier, or manufacturer. So I don't have to worry about any particular MULTI MILLION DOLLAR company going under. I'm looking out for me..... You know.... The consumer. I have the say so on what works best for my rig when it comes to lighting. Listening to a "gear pimp" talk about how poser I am for using knockoff lights (with great build quality and more than adequate lighting as pictured earlier) is laughable at best.
I'll go over everything again..... but jeez..... I feel like we are going in circles..... I can buy 5 sets of great (more than adequate) lights for the price of 1 set of better ARBs..... If one fails (not the end of the world right ?) I can replace it and STILL HAVE 3.5 Sets left ..... That's crazy talk though, right ? That's never putting my trip to "chance" or "gamble"..... I can just keep on moving with the rest of my lights. I've used plenty of Walmart specials in my teens ..... and you know what.... They never broke down and had pretty good lighting for what I used (abused) them for. The cheap knock offs have EVEN BETTER lighting and EVEN BETTER Build quality. So I doubt they'll just quit working while on the trail because any particular gear pimp says they suck and not to buy them.

When my jeep wears out China has a copy?
I don't think they do to be honest ..... but ummm.... OK, what's that got to do with anything ?
All car parts wear out eventually ..... and then need to be replaced. (which I don't usually get from China .... but we aren't talking about car parts are we)

Back to lighting ..... and why I won't be spending way to much money on ARBs lights.

 

[K2ZJ]

I watched the above video and one of the links at the end led me to Snake Racing's videos and they supply Rigid lights. They have, in my opinion, good reviews and side by side comparisons. Worth the watch.

Crusier, since you are so passionate about the real product, Why not loan a set to me to try for a few weeks. If I think they are up to snuff, I will buy them. If they can't get down the road like my HID's, I will package them back up, and return them at my expense. There is no place here that sell them. All we have is rigid which is poor performing at best.

Have you looked at the Rigid E2 Hyperspot light? I found it while watching more of the videos from above and it looks crazy bright. I have no extra lights on my rig and no affiliation with any of the above, I just saw the videos and liked them. I have not used either an led or hid light so I have no background to compare.

 

[proper4wd]

In my opinion ARB got caught in a bad position with this one.

As an innovator and brand leader you are expected to be the first to come out with cutting edge top shelf products. And they did.

What they didnt count on, was the rapidly decreasing production cost of good quality LED lights and the Alibaba revolution.

So, they are a bit of a victim of economics here. It happens! I dont feel that bad for them.

Also, lets keep in mind that this was never going to be a high volume item for them. They've had HID 4000's at this price point for about 15 years and how many of those have you ever seen in service? I've seen exactly zero outside of the Tropy Truck/Desert Race crowd.

 

[CJustin7]

I've seen allot of the side by side videos .... Some knock offs (like in that video) are really really really cheap. But you can find knocks offs (such as this thread was started on) with great build quality. You just have to do a little research.

Check out this torture test ..... I may go with one of their lights.....
A little on the steeper end of knock offs ..... but I'll be danged if that's not some quality looking lights and bright as heck too.

These guys drag their lights behind a car.... boat.... light it on fire.....freeze it.... Everything you can think of.
the music is pretty amusing too.

http://youtu.be/rp_5MFzc7Nc


Does anyone have any first hand experience with these ?

 

[kojackJKU]

I have personally seen Many rigid lights. My buddy's jeep is riddled with them. He has 4 hyper spots on his a pillars, a 50" across the roof, a 20" on the hood and 2 6" on his front bumper. He's a dealer for them. I am not impressed with any of them. Yep the 50" puts a **** ton of light for about 100 ft in front of the jeep, then.....nothing. My 2 hella 500s with 55w HID are a thousand times better than them. even in close, as they don't flood the foreground with so much light you can't see past it. THey just put out great light, wide, and far. Light that you can acutally use. Not just a blob of blue light in front of your rig so bright that you need shades on, then NOTHING. LED has to advance much further before I would use them as auxiliary lighting for my needs.

The arb lights claim a 700m light beam. If that is true, we have a winner.....regardless of cost. I will take a little hit in distance to have the never need to replace bulbs etc again. But I am very leery about those claims. Even more so now knowing they are just rigid lights with ARB on them. Which essentially they are. They are using the same LED drivers that rigid are using, but in a round array instead of bars.

 

[bat]

I think Rigid just sold out maybe a smart move

 

[BCobe]

In that video I posted the Rigid 20 inch seemed pretty impressive. If you could take a picture comparing the Rigid to your hellas

 

[Jurfie]

I think Rigid just sold out maybe a smart move

Yup; acquired by Truck-Lite, actually.

 

[grimbo]

I have personally seen Many rigid lights. My buddy's jeep is riddled with them. He has 4 hyper spots on his a pillars, a 50" across the roof, a 20" on the hood and 2 6" on his front bumper. He's a dealer for them. I am not impressed with any of them. Yep the 50" puts a **** ton of light for about 100 ft in front of the jeep, then.....nothing. My 2 hella 500s with 55w HID are a thousand times better than them. even in close, as they don't flood the foreground with so much light you can't see past it. THey just put out great light, wide, and far. Light that you can acutally use. Not just a blob of blue light in front of your rig so bright that you need shades on, then NOTHING. LED has to advance much further before I would use them as auxiliary lighting for my needs.

The arb lights claim a 700m light beam. If that is true, we have a winner.....regardless of cost. I will take a little hit in distance to have the never need to replace bulbs etc again. But I am very leery about those claims. Even more so now knowing they are just rigid lights with ARB on them. Which essentially they are. They are using the same LED drivers that rigid are using, but in a round array instead of bars.

They aren't rigid lights, they are ARB lights made to their specs, their design, their R&D and then made by Rigid. This cuts down tooling costs etc

 

[kojackJKU]

Where are their LED sourced from? What are the watt and color temp of their LED. I am willing to bet, exactly the same as rigid. Therefore their performance is no better than rigid. And then, NOT worth the money.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Obviously you don't. You loose money when people buy the copies instead of the real lights!:elkgrin:

...A self proclaimed "gear pimp" is obviously going to pimp his stuff. It's like a car salesman. They don't care as long as you buy their product and they can make that money off you

ARB LED's likely account for about .01% of our annual sales and I don't ever see them hitting .02%, i.e. I'm not going to lose sleep if they pulled them off the market tomorrow.

Crusier, since you are so passionate about the real product, Why not loan a set to me to try for a few weeks. If I think they are up to snuff, I will buy them. If they can't get down the road like my HID's, I will package them back up, and return them at my expense. There is no place here that sell them. All we have is rigid which is poor performing at best.

I don't care what lights you run nor what your opinion is on the quality of ARB, Rigid, Toyota or other...

I'm passionate about real products period. I've been vocal about the ethics of knock-offs whether it be a product I do distribute or a product I don't. When companies started knocking off AT Trailers (using AT's own product images) I was equally as vocal so while it's easy to marginalize in your mind as "a car salesman trying to make money off you", that simply isn't the case and my track record on this subject says enough.

...I am the consumer ........ not the seller, supplier, or manufacturer. So I don't have to worry about any particular MULTI MILLION DOLLAR company going under. I'm looking out for me..... You know.... The consumer. I have the say so on what works best for my rig when it comes to lighting. Listening to a "gear pimp" talk about how poser I am for using knockoff lights (with great build quality and more than adequate lighting as pictured earlier) is laughable at best.
I'll go over everything again..... but jeez..... I feel like we are going in circles..... I can buy 5 sets of great (more than adequate) lights for the price of 1 set of better ARBs..... If one fails (not the end of the world right ?) I can replace it and STILL HAVE 3.5 Sets left ..... That's crazy talk though, right ? That's never putting my trip to "chance" or "gamble"..... I can just keep on moving with the rest of my lights. I've used plenty of Walmart specials in my teens ..... and you know what.... They never broke down and had pretty good lighting for what I used (abused) them for. The cheap knock offs have EVEN BETTER lighting and EVEN BETTER Build quality. So I doubt they'll just quit working while on the trail because any particular gear pimp says they suck and not to buy them.

Alright, let me get the crayons out for you. I'm NOT and have NEVER said ARB's are the only LED you or anyone should buy, I've been quite vocal that there are some great China made LED products on the market from great sellers that have phenomenal customer support for their products. Don't confuse that with my disgust for CARBON-COPY knock-offs, right down to the logo. Chinese manufactures and their re-sellers in the US have ample opportunity to innovate and make their light different enough to merit it's own look and function and I'd applaud that. Get this, I have a Chinese light bar on my 100 Series. Yes a made in China light bar and for the dollar value it is has been great. But that manufacture is selling their product on their own merits, they didn't reverse engineer a Rigid or Baja Design and they didn't make their LED logo look like the logo of the exact product they were intellectually stealing... they innovated, came up with their own shape and mounting, their own unique plug, etc. Apples and oranges.

...So, they are a bit of a victim of economics here. It happens! I don't feel that bad for them.

The lack of intellectual property respect is now makes a company a simple victim of the economy now? Victim of ethics yes, victim of economy?

 

[proper4wd]

Its exactly the same as CVT, Tepui, and other roof tent resellers that all basically took after ARB's design. When you are the innovator/leader in the space, this is what happens. Similar to the way BMW or Mercedes releases a new car line, and then within 2 years Honda or Hyundai redesigns their line to look just like it. ARB's role in the space is to keep innovating. With the way LED technology is progressing they probably already have a new design in R&D that will put their current line to shame. They need to stay ahead of the imitators. It's the price to pay for being at the top of the game.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Its exactly the same as CVT, Tepui, and other roof tent resellers that all basically took after ARB's design. When you are the innovator/leader in the space, this is what happens. Similar to the way BMW or Mercedes releases a new car line, and then within 2 years Honda or Hyundai redesigns their line to look just like it. ARB's role in the space is to keep innovating. With the way LED technology is progressing they probably already have a new design in R&D that will put their current line to shame. They need to stay ahead of the imitators. It's the price to pay for being at the top of the game.

I think we can all agree there is a big difference between a 100% copy albeit logo (i.e. the tents and lights) and BMW and Honda no? Honda has engineers, the carbon-copy'ers have a tape measure. To me one is an ethical discrepancy, the other is in fact an economic. Car manufactures have to stay relevant, but they do it by innovating.

 

[BCobe]

Not really relevant to the discussion but these last couple of post reminded me of a Top Gear episode were Clarkson is in China standing in front of a knock off Starbucks, wearing a bunch of knock off clothes and "texting" on his knock off iPhone...

Also, if you do not mind me asking, what China brand LED bar are your running on your 100 series?

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Not really relevant to the discussion but these last couple of post reminded me of a Top Gear episode were Clarkson is in China standing in front of a knock off Starbucks, wearing a bunch of knock off clothes and "texting" on his knock off iPhone...

Also, if you do not mind me asking, what China brand LED bar are your running on your 100 series?

IronMoose. The US distributor of IronMoose went over to China and spent time with different manufactures coming up with what they wanted, still a great price point yet innovative. We are a global economy and I believe an ethical global economy can exist and will yield a healthy market.