Flashlights

Kevin B.

Big hippy
Moderator
Location
Vehicular limbo
Who wants to talk flashlights?

I've been using these for a couple years. They're bright enough for me, and the price is right considering I get about a year out of one. But they're just as durable as you'd expect a $12 flashlight to be and I'm nervous that one will crap out when I really need it. I'm going to try two new lights, a Boztac BTZ-20 for the pocket and an Anker LC90 two-cell for the truck.

I'd love to buy a more expensive light, but I lose lights just as often as I break them and I just can't drop $100+ on a light so I can drop it down a mine shaft or something.
 

jeeper

Currently without Jeep
Location
So Jo, Ut
I bought a couple VERY expensive lights like 8-10 years ago when they were first coming out with the good LED lights. They aren't anything more special than the Husky lights I now buy at home depot..

Husky Light

They used to come in a 2 pack for about the same price, but now it's a single light.
 

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
Whatever I get for free. I've gotten a surprising number of flashlights for free as swag over the years, most have been really good and now that they are LED, just replace the batteries and they keep trucking.
 

jeeper

Currently without Jeep
Location
So Jo, Ut
Also, I will only buy lights that take aaa batteries. Too many gadgets around the house to worry about different batteries. Everything is aaa.
 

TRD270

Emptying Pockets Again
Supporting Member
Location
SaSaSandy

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
This topic pisses me off. Well, that's not quite true. Wal-Mart pisses me off. Let me explain.

Wal-Mart used to carry these cheap little aluminum flashlights, branded Ozark Trail. They looked like this:

c11adf8f-fdab-44c1-896c-1a7712da7b80_1.d4ccf74a0eca5a5e35770566e8a92a11.jpeg


When I buy cheap flashlights, I study their specs very carefully. It honestly comes down to two things: output lumens, and how long the battery lasts. In all my looking at cheap flashlights, these Ozark Trail ones hit the sweet spot of decent output (150 or 200 lumens) combined with acceptable battery life (5 or 6 hours) on 3 AAA batteries. I put one in one car's glovebox, then later bought another for another car, and then again for another car. Everything was going just great...

... until Wal-Mart decided to "upgrade" the lights. Now they have three light modes, meaning you have to click the damn power button three times--every time--just to get to the mode you want. They also added a zoom feature, so every time you bump the light the focus shifts to what you don't need, forcing you to stop and re-focus it. They took a simple, perfect design and totally f*%ed it up IMO. This pisses me off.

Had I known in advance what they were going to do, I would have bought another dozen of the old style lights.
 

pELYgroso

'Merica
Location
LEHI, UT
I designed some pretty great tactical lights and had a friend who owns a large flashlight company (same company that @SAMI now works at) help me get them produced. They are every bit as nice as the big name tactical lights for half the price. They do take the CR123A batteries but I'm currently working on the next generation that will also take the 18650 batteries. My lights have 3 modes, high, low, strobe, but to change the mode you turn a dial that's around the head of the light. So the tail button is always on/off of whatever mode you leave it in on the dial. I hate having to switch through modes using the button. There are some other cool and unique features as well. You can check them out here:


I'm also working on a AAA battery EDC light right now that will be the best super-compact AAA light on the market, IMO.

If any of you are interested, let me know and I can make a discount code for you.

The big one is 900 lumens. :cool:
118523
 

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
How about headlamps? I bought one similar to this one for my Rubicon trip 2.5 years ago. It was $13 and it's RECHARGEABLE. I have been using it a ton for work since that trip. I freakin love this thing!

three trees Headlamp LED Flashilght - high Lumen,Brightest White Cree LED with RedLight,5 Modes for Walking,Waterproof,Rechargeable with USB Cable Directly,Adjustable Headband,Batteries Included https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XKVZG6N/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_24iCCbRWHS9E8
 

glockman

I hate Jeep trucks
Location
Pleasant Grove

Spork

Tin Foil Hat Equipped

TRD270

Emptying Pockets Again
Supporting Member
Location
SaSaSandy
Forgot to add if you buy the lights I posted at the devil named Skaggs they have a lifetime warranty. I had a switch start acting funny on the stinger, sent it in was repaired for free.
 

thefirstzukman

Finding Utah
Supporting Member
I would bet I have $2k plus in flashlights laying around the house. I have both my boys at home right now and we all share the love for high dollar Knives, high quality Flashlights and guns. One of my favorite cheap flashlights for making a lot of light and just playing around is the Emisar D4, they run $40 and will literally start stuff on fire, you can get different tubes for 18650, 18500 and cr123 batteries so you can have longer life or smaller size. I have a few different Emisar flashlights and they are pretty dang cool for a cheap flashlight that is very well built. Olight has some cool stuff like magnetic charging, i have a few of them and for around $70-$100 you can get a very nice high quality light, they have a sweet headlamp that is 2300 lumens for $89.00. I have about a dozen different fenix flashlights and for $65-$100 you can get a good light but I have grown to like the olights a little more. There is a really cheap light brand on Amazon called the Thorfire they have a few different lights but they are pretty decent for the money, I give them to my wife because she tends to loose them.

I think one of the most important thing for me is to have a good battery, I use mostly 18650 lights and use the Samsung 30Q and Ifest high drain batteries as primary and I have 30 or so others I use as glove box spares that I rotate out now and then and a good charger..

Here are some links of what I like, don't get me started on knives

https://www.amazon.com/Thorfire-Tho...=1550891316&sr=1-10&keywords=18650+flashlight

https://olightworld.com/led-flashlights/headlamps/olight-h2r

https://olightworld.com/led-flashlights/rechargeable/olight-s30r-baton-iii



http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=891&search=emisar

https://www.18650batterystore.com/P...yWkUBXEnNQHZE8nKtIl8MFU-S9p9T8W4aAhJ_EALw_wcB

https://www.amazon.com/Opus-BT-Inte...ywords=opus+charger&psc=1&smid=A3KVWN5RHWM0E2
 

jeeper

Currently without Jeep
Location
So Jo, Ut
I'm totally converted to 18650, the performance for the size/weight blows AAA out of the water.

We have got 4 headlamps that have a battery pack on the back with 2 18650 batteries in each.
They are super bright, and do an excellent job. However, they are the reason I only want aaa lamps now.
The car chargers I have don’t seem to charge the lamps well at all, so they have to be plugged in at home before every trip, which means unpack and repack them into the camper each trip. Also, they don’t hold a charge long enough for a kid to play all night for multiple nights... so they run dead by the end of the trip. We also have a few small watch battery lamps. They put out a tiny bit of light, just enough for kids to see around camp... but they have been going for years on the same stupid battery.

Edit: pretty sure these are our 18650 lamps.
118536
 
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