prerunner1982

Blue Water LEDs has been making LED lights for boats and boat trailers for awhile, but they also make LED lights/lightbars for off road vehicles as well. Recently I had the opportunity to look at one of their Cyber Series 400S.

First thing I noticed was how large this light is... from the pictures online it looks like the other cube lights on the market, however it is twice as large measuring in at over 7.5" wide/tall. This light feels very stout as well.

The light features:
Waterproof chassis (What else would you expect from a company known for Boat LED kits?)
3440 Lumens (2-3 times as much as other cube lights)
Flood or spot beam
The light can also operate on 9-70 volts. (This would have worked really well on the military trucks (24 volt system) when I was in the military.)

You can see the rest of the specs and the other lights they offer on their website. www.bluewaterled.com

They also have small submersible square lights that work well as fender/rock lights.

Unfortunately I was not able to keep the light for myself, but think two of these big suckers on the A pillars would make all those other "cube" lights look sissy.

prerunner1982

low light pic is normal headlights, a little brighter is high beams, and bright light is obviously the LED.

thatXJguy

Looks about the same as my mirror' mounted LED pods, but the benefit of course being that they're waterproof instead of just water resistant.

macgyver35

They seem a bit pricey to me. Like every other LED light on the market, they will use either Cree or SMD LED's in them, regardless of the brand name of the light. Most of these lights have the same electronics inside. They are just put in different housings and private labeled by factories in China.
The 3400 lumens claim is likely grossly overrated, and again, like most lights, will probably actually be an 1/2 to 2/3 that bright. Not that they won't be bright, but LED products are overwhelmingly "pumped up" on the spec sheet to make them look good.

I have been following lED technology for about 10 years, and have purchased a TON of different lights over the years. I have dozens in my collection now. I'm still waiting on someone to come out with a good slightly warm or neutral tint off road LED light, instead of all the ones that fall in the 5500K to 6500K color temp range. 3800K to 4300K would be ideal.

thatXJguy

Not all LEDs are running CREE or SMD anymore. The new thing is OSRAM LEDs. They're relatively new as of a couple of months ago.

macgyver35

Osram/Sylvania has been around awhile. I actually have had some flashlights with Osram emitters for years.
One I bought about 8 years ago and uses a pretty rare "Golden Dragon" Osram emitter. The LED is about the size of a pinhead, yet puts out an amazing amount of light, and has a nice color temp.

The bottom line is that every major LED maker has a number of different LEDs at different price points. As you'd imagine, those that have a more pleasing color temp and higher CRI or also the same LEDs that are most desirable, and thus, the most expensive in most cases. I just wish that some of the off-road light companies would be willing to spend $3 more per LED (and I'd willingly pay $5 more per LED) to make a light with better CRI and color temp.

I mean, I'm a nobody, but I can jump online an buy Cree XP-G R2 warm white emitters that put out 350 lumens each for less than $4 apiece, or Cree XM-L T3 warm white that put out 650 lumens each for $7, and that includes shipping. Put 10 of those in a light bar with decent optics and you'd have one really nice light.
Just tired of everyone taking the cheapest route and using these "cool white" LEDs, which have a bluish cast and don't match the headlights on most cars and trucks.

Here's a thread that talks about the Golden Dragon flashlight I have:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...S-RUNTIMES-etc